Champlain 400 – 12th Installment On July 20, 2013 we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s “sleepover” at Olmstead Jeffrey Lake. This is the twelfth installment in a series by which we will learn about this remarkable man who has been described as the founder of this country that we call “Canada.” Our story follows the writings of David Hackett Fischer in his book, “Champlain’s Dream.” While Champlain was working to establish Quebec, his friend, Isaac de Razilly, championed the cause of Acadia. Champlain’s knowledge of the harbours, natural resources and fisheries influenced Razilly’s selection of La Hève (today’s La Have) and Port Royal for settlement. Razilly’s careful selection of 300 settlers from west-centre France arrived in 1632 in the beautiful harbour of La Hève in today’s Nova Scotia. To the settlers Acadia seemed a place of teeming abundance in natural resources: forests, berries, lobster, salmon, deer and moose. A few Scottish freebooters acted as though they would stay in Port Royal but when their leader, Andrew Forrester, crossed the line between freebooting and piracy, Razilly wisely and tactfully offered them transportation to Britain if they surrendered, leaving the fort intact. Most were quick to agree and the few who chose to remain were made welcome. Mixing with the French families they formed a hybrid culture that still exists, to a degree, in Nova Scotia. Their legacy gave Nova Scotia its name (New Scotland.) Razilly, working with the Indians, developed a timber operation, fishing operation and trading post. Like Champlain in Quebec, Razilly had reclaimed the heartland of Acadia for France. Following Razilly’s sudden death in November 1635, the habitants of La Hève largely moved to Port Royal. Port Royal thus became the cradle of the Acadian population that had begun with the migration to La Hève in 1632. Along the coast and around the head of The Bay of Fundy French-speaking families branched out to find other settlements. Specialists in ditching and dyking in the tidal marshes of France, they now won the land from the sea in the same manner, harvesting salt from the marshes and crops from the land. A distinctive French dialect took root in Acadia and still exists today. It is stubbornly archaic in some ways and strongly inventive in others. Speakers of standard French today find it difficult to understand. Acadia also had a unique political system of local self-government. In the new environment, it was a blend of economic development and community building mixed with the tradition of local governments in southwestern France. Control of Acadia changed many times from French to British and British to French until, in 1755, a British governor in Nova Scotia, Colonel Charles Lawrence, expelled about 6,000 Acadians who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown. Most went to colonies in the British Empire. Others went to France, Louisiana and other nations. Many Acadians disappeared into the woods and came back later. To this day French continues to be spoken along the south west coast of Nova Scotia. Going back to the founding of Port Royal in 1605, a strong relationship of mutual tolerance and support developed between the French Acadians and the Mi’kmag. It was sustained by French humanists, including Champlain, de Mons, Poutricourt and Razilly. The Acadians and their cousins in Quebec shared a common spirit in the way that they co-operated with the native populations. In the summer of 1634 Champlain launched another project in the St. Lawrence Valley. Furthering his plans to control the flow of traffic on the river he began building a fort at Trois-Rivières, seventy-three miles upstream from Quebec. Trois-Rivières rapidly became an important site for trade with the Indians of many nations. Here they exchanged fur and pelts for European goods. Young men and women, French and Indian together, created a new culture at Trois-Rivières. Again, Champlain played a pivotal role. He had earlier set this cultural process in motion when he sent French youth to live among the Indians at the same time that he and Indian leaders sent their youth to France. They were known as “trunchements” or interpreters. Later Champlain recruited an entire corps of interpreters which proved vitally important to his grand design. They went back and forth between Indian and French communities and all contributed to the hybrid culture that was part European, part Indian, and entirely American. This was the new world that found its first home in Trois-Rivières. Unfortunately there were a few “bad actors” among the interpreters. One of these was Etiénne Brûlé . Champlain had arranged for 18 year old Etiénne Brûlé to spend some time among the Hurons. He was expected to learn the language, explore the country and establish good relations with the Indian nations. Although he learned and language quickly and travelled extensively, he behaved badly among the Hurons. Beyond issues of morality he may have betrayed the Huron to the Iroquois. Brûlé sailed back and forth between Canada and France from 1622 to 1628. On a crossing to Canada he was captured by the British and taken to London where he agreed to join the Kirkes in 1628 against his compatriots in the St. Lawrence. Sometime later, when the Kirkes were returning to England, they left Etiénne behind. Being regarded as a traitor by the French and with nowhere to go, he ventured back into Huron territory where he met his demise. It is believed that he is the only French man that the Huron ever killed. Another interpreter, Nicolas Marsolet, recruited from Rouen, France by Champlain met a different fate. Like Brûlé he learned Indian languages, working in the Saguenay Valley as a trader at Tadoussac. Marsolet was given positions of responsibility in Indian nations and travelled back the forth across the Atlantic. But when the Kirke Brothers conquered Quebec in 1629, Marsolet switched sides and began working for British employers in Quebec. Unlike Brule, Marsolet was able to regain respectability as a citizen of New France, working as an agent among the Montagnais. He acquired a seigneury from the company of The Hundred Associates, married a French woman, had ten children and died at the age of ninety. Champlain carefully recruited the next generation of interpreters and two, in particular, were outstanding in sharing Champlain’s larger purpose for New France. Olivier Le Tardif and Jean Nicollet de Belleborne both began their careers as assistant clerks for commercial companies in Quebec. Le Tardif came to Canada around 1621. He lived, traded with, and learned the languages of the Montagnais, Algonquin and Huron. After the English conquest, Le Tardif left New France with Champlain and returned in 1633. He worked closely with Champlain as an interpreter and, after Champlain’s death, Le Tardif became a leading figure in New France. He married Louise Couillard, connecting him to the first family (Hébert) in New France. Champlain’s greatest interpreter, Jean Nicollet de Belleborne came to New France around 1619. He stayed two years as the only French man with the Algonquin Indians on Allumette Island on the Ottawa River. From there he fished and traded, returning to Quebec each year with his furs. During the British conquest of New France, Nicollet lived among the Hurons and, when Champlain reached Quebec in 1633, he and Nicollet met at Saint-Croix Island to plan the exploration of the country that lay west of New France. Nicollet, with an escort of seven warriors, explored Lake Huron, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, finally reaching the Fox and Illinois Rivers in the Mississippi Valley. He was the first European to see much of the American mid-west. Back in Quebec in 1634 Nicollet set himself up as a trader at Trois-Rivières, married the daughter of Guilmette Hébert and Guillaume Couillard, thus becoming the brother-in-law of his close friend, Olivier Le Tardif. In the spirit of his selfless humanity he drowned at the age of forty-four when his boat capsized as he rushed to the assistance of an Indian who was being tortured. Altogether, Champlain sent several dozen of these bright, young interpreters to live among Indian nations. Champlain’s dozens were later followed by hundreds of free spirits who left the settlements of New France and went to trade among the Indians. Many tended to be disruptive in the Indian communities and did not meet the approval of French officials. They came to be known as “coureurs de bois,” always in pursuit of furs and skins. Their small camps and trading posts grew into towns and cities throughout mid-North America. They were living examples of the mixing and merging of people in the spirit of Champlain’s dream, although he did not share their ideas of liberty and freedom. French merchants organized the trade of the coureurs de bois. A merchant who had substantial capital to invest in trading goods and supplies was called a “bourgeois” and he in turn, hired workers who were called “voyageurs.” The culture of the fur trade was dominated by these voyageurs. They drew upon European and Indian ways to create new cultures in America. The intermixing of French and Indians populations resulted in new vocabularies, new languages and cultures. Champlain’s interpreters, the coureurs de bois and the voyageurs formed families of French and Indian ancestry. Within Champlain’s lifetime the children of these mixed unions came to be called “Métis” and are the only ethnic group indigenous to the continent. They created new societies and political systems, displaying a strong sense of liberty and freedom. In 1970 a Canadian biologist estimated that 40 percent of Canadian families had both Indian and European in their family tree. In the beginning were Etiénne Brûlé, Nicolas Marsolet, Olivier Le Tardif and Jean Nicolet. Before them was the dream of Samuel de Champlain. Be it Quebecois, Acadian or Métis, Champlain played a vital role in their founding. In that special sense, Champlain can truly be called the “Father of New France.” Submitted by the Champlain 400 Committee
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:07:08 +0000