Читать книгу A Beginner's History - William H. Mace - Страница 20

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Cartier, 1534

31. The French in North America. France was the slowest of the great nations in the race for North America. Not until 1534 did Jacques Cartier, a French sea captain searching for a shorter route to India, sail into the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. He reached an Indian village where Montreal now stands and took possession of the country for his king.

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

From the portrait painting in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Champlain founded Quebec, 1608

One year after Jamestown was settled, and one year before the Half Moon sailed up the Hudson, Samuel de Champlain laid the foundations of Quebec (1608). Champlain was of noble birth, and had been a soldier in the French army. He had already helped found Port Royal in Nova Scotia.

Made friends and foes among the Indians

Wherever he went, Champlain made fast friends with the Algonquin Indians, who lived along the St. Lawrence. He gave them presents and bought their skins of beaver and of other animals. In the fur trade he saw a golden stream flowing into the king's treasury. Champlain certainly made a good beginning in winning over these Indians, but he also made one great blunder out of which grew many bitter enemies among other Indian tribes.

THE SITE OF QUEBEC

Here, 1608, on a narrow belt of land at the foot of the high bluff, Champlain laid out the city of Quebec

An Indian war party

32. Champlain and the Indians. The Algonquins were bitter foes of the Iroquois or Five Nations. One time they begged Champlain and his men, clad in steel and armed with the deadly musket, to join their war party (1609). This he did. They made their way up the St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Richelieu, and up that river to the falls. The Indians then carried the canoes and the baggage around the falls.

Discovery of Lake Champlain

What must have been Champlain's feelings when they glided out of the narrow river into the lake now bearing his name! A lake no white man had ever seen, and greater than any in his beloved France! On the left he saw the ridges of the Green Mountains, on the right the pine-clad slopes of the Adirondacks, the hunting grounds of the hated Iroquois.

One evening, near where the ruins of Ticonderoga now stand, they saw the war canoes of their enemies. That night the hostile tribes taunted each other and boasted of their bravery. On the shores of the lake the next day they drew up in battle array. The Iroquois chiefs wore tall plumes on their heads, and their warriors carried shields of wood or hide.

Why the Iroquois came to hate the French

All at once the Algonquins opened their ranks and Champlain, in full armor, walked forth. The Iroquois gazed in wonder on the first European soldier they had ever seen. Champlain leveled his musket and fired. Two chiefs fell. Then another report rang through the woods, and the boldest warriors in North America broke and fled in confusion. The Algonquins, yelling like demons, ran after them, killing and capturing as many as possible.

There was great rejoicing among the victors, and Champlain was their hero. But there must have been great sorrow and vows of revenge among the Iroquois.

THE ROUTES FOLLOWED BY CHAMPLAIN

Champlain and the Algonquins invade the Iroquois country

The next year Champlain joined another Algonquin war party, and helped win another victory from the Iroquois. Again, in 1615, he joined a party of more than five hundred fiercely painted warriors. They traveled to the shore of Lake Ontario and boldly crossed to the other side in their bark canoes. They hid their boats and then silently marched into the country of the Iroquois.

THE DEFEAT OF THE IROQUOIS AT LAKE CHAMPLAIN

After an engraving of Champlain's published in 1613

Some miles south of Oneida Lake they came upon a fortified Indian town. For several days Champlain and his Indians tried to break into or burn the fort, but had to give it up. These campaigns made the Iroquois hate the French almost as much as they did the Algonquins.

A FRENCH FUR TRADER ON SNOWSHOES

Iroquois make St. Lawrence unsafe for French

For this reason Frenchmen found it safer to go west by traveling up the Ottawa River and crossing over to Lake Huron than by paddling up the St. Lawrence and through lakes Ontario and Erie. The result was that the French discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Superior long before they ever saw Lake Erie. On the other hand, we are soon to see how the Dutch made friends with the Iroquois.

Champlain true to king and country

Champlain remained many years in Canada, always working for the good of New France, as the country was called. He helped on the work of the missionaries, made peace between hostile tribes of Indians, and encouraged the fur trade and the coming of new settlers. Worn out with toil and travel, far away from kindred and native land, Champlain died at Quebec on Christmas Day, 1635.