Winnebago County, Wisconsin - Chapter 7, 1880

Eventful Changes - Reverses - Famine - Defenseless Condition of Quebec - Piratical Attack by Three English Ships - Surrender of Quebec to the English P'lag - England Compelled to Relinquish the Prize - Restoration to the French Flag - Champlain Returns from France to Quebec as Commandant of the Post - Administers the Affairs of the Colony for Ten Years Longer - His Death in 1635 - Quebec becomes the Commercial Emporium of the Great Interior of the Continent - Its Trade through the Labyrinth of Water Arteries Branching from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi.

SfiiANY eventful changes took place in the fortunes of these intrepid pioneers, in western settlement, in the space of time which intervened between the discovery of Lake Huron, and that of the Mississippi, and the commencement of settlement in the extreme Northwest, by the establishment of Missions at Michillimackinac and Green Bay. In 1627, atrading company, called the Company of New France, was organized and sovereign power confered upon them, with a grant of all the territorial domain of New France, from Florida to the undefined regions of Labrador.

The colony at Quebec, twenty years from the time it was founded, numbered less than one hundred and twenty persons. The chief business was barter with the Indians, and they depended largely forthcirsupplies of the necessaries of life from France. The little colony was now suffering from many reverses; but Champlain was still its life and hope. It was on the verge of starvation, and vessels with expected succor and reinforcements from France failed to arrive. At last less than a hundred men, women and children, living in the fort, were reduced to a meagre supply of peas and sagamite. The distress was so great that Champlain entertained the project of attacking one of the Iroquois villages to obtain a supply of food. The wretched inhabitants had to have recourse to the woods to obtain acorns and nutritious roots. While in this emergency three English ships appeared before Quebec, and its surrender to the British flag was demanded. Sixteen starving men was all that Champlain had in the garrison to hold it. He was forced to capitulate, and the flag of St. George took the place of the Flcur dc lis. This occured in July,

ClKimplain crossed the Atlantic, and went to London; where, through the instrumentality of the French Embassador, " he obtained a promise from the King that in pursuance of a treaty concluded the previous April, that New- France should be restored to the French Crown. "

From thence he went to France. The scheme of colonizing America was becoming unpopular. The wilderness empire had only been a source of loss. It was of no use unless it could be peopled, and France had but small migratory force. The Huguenots, who were the enemies of Absolutism, and frequently in revolt against the Government, were excluded from the domain of France, in the New World. Although this was in keeping with the spirit of the age, it proved to be a shortsighted policy, for they settled in large numbers in the English colonies, and proved a great element in their strength and prosperity, and a powerful aid in the future conflict between the French and English colonies.

But there were more sagacious reasoners who would not gi\'e up New France; and among them Cardinal Richelieu , the great champion of Absolutism, and the guiding genius of France. This great diplomatist, with far reaching political sagacity, comprehended the commercial importance to France of her American possessions. So by the convention of Suza, it was covenanted that New' France should be restored to its former possessors, and England was compelled to relinquish the prize she had piratically obtained.

Champlain, too, would not abandon his beloved New France, and his hopes of converting its barbarous tribes to Christianity, and its desert wilds into the abode of civilization. His aim was far nobler than the accomplishment of the mere endsof commercial profit. His aspirations were high and generous; and he made the ends of commerce subservient to the nobler purpose of redeeming the savage continent from the wretchedness of barbarism, and enlarging the field t>f human knowledge, happiness and usefulness; and he j*ave himself up to the task with a spirit of devotion and heroism, that has made his name imperishable.

In the spring of 1633, he received from Richelieu a commission, as commandant of the posts of New France, and set out once more for Quebec, where he duly arrived, and assumed command, the English having the year previous struck their flag, and surrendered

There was great rejoicing among the Indians at the return of their old friends, and especially over Champlain, whom they regarded as something more than human.

For ten years after this, he administered the affairs of New France with that executive aliility and integrity of purpose that had ever characterized his conduct, and now the career of the great explorer and the father of New P'rance, the benefactor of the Indians, the enterprising and industrious pioneer was to draw to a close. For twenty-seven years he had guided with a master hand that s-ast enterprise which had mapped out the greater part of a continentfor a newempire, whose majestic proportions were to rival the grandest in the Old World. It was he who first learned its geography and made its first maps; first penetrated its remote wilds; organized its barbarous multitudes, and taught them their first lessons in cizilization. With ail this force of character and directing genius was united a kind, generous and self-sacrificing nature, guided by the highest moral impulses and a devotion to truth. His whole life attests his valor, nobleness of character and usefulness; and when he died, in 1635, it seemed as if the light of New France was extinguished.

The little colony, thus bereft of its great leader, and seeming like a waif lost in the wilderness, was the feeble beginning of that French-Indian empire, which eventually embraced in its territorial domain the whole valley of the St. Lawrence, the basin of the Great Lakes, and the immense valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi; absorbing its Indian tribes, and organizing them into a semi-civilization, which held in its control all that vast territory for over a century. From its starting or initial point on the St. Lawrence - the outlet of that labyrinth of water courses, branching out to the far-off land of the Dacotahs on the west, and to the tropical shores of the Gulf of Mexico on the south, it gradually extended its lines of communication, establishing its forts, missions and trading posts, which, at long intcr\'als apart, were mere specks of civilization in the immensity of the wilderness. But we shall see how this little hamlet on the wild banks of the St. Lawrence soon became the metropolis of the vast regions with which it was connected by its trading posts and water courses, and where fleets of canoes numbering hundreds were arriving and departing, bringing tribes from Green Baj\ Michillimackinac and the Mississippi, to mingle in this common center, with those from the Ohio and the dis- trict of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence - the canoes frequently covering the broad stream for miles, while myriads of wigwams lined the shores of the river. Here the various Indian dialects were heard mingling in discordant jargon on the busy marts of Indian barter; and here the fragile bark canoe that came a thousand miles from the distant interior, and that had run the hazardous rapids of the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, met the stately ships that had breasted the waves of the Atlantic. Barbarism and civilization here met face to face, and mingled their incongruous elements; the one to recede, the other to advance, until its mighty forces held in its undisputed possession the once savasje continent.