1609 - Champlain

Primary Source

Map of Lake Champlain, from Fort de Chambly up to Fort St-Fréderic in New France.

Account by Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635) of his travels and adventures. Champlain was a tireless explorer and although not a noble, he became the de facto governor of New France. He is remembered by historians as “one of the most trustworthy writers of his time”.

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I set out from St. Croix on the 3rd of June with all the savages. We passed the Trois Rivieres, a very beautiful country, covered with a growth of fine trees. From this place to St. Croix is a distance of fifteen leagues [45 miles]. At the mouth of the above-named river there are six islands, three of which are very small, the others from fifteen to sixteen hundred paces long, very pleasant in appearance. Near Lake St. Peter, some two leagues up the river, there is a little fall not very difficult to pass. This place is in latitude 46°, lacking some minutes. The savages of the country gave us to understand that some days’ journey up this river there is a lake, through which the river flows. The length of the lake is ten days’ journey, when some falls are passed, and afterwards three or four other lakes of five or six days’ journey in length. Having reached the end of these, they go four or five leagues by land, and enter still another lake, where the Sacqué has its principal source. From this lake the savages go to Tadoussac. The Trois Rivieres extends forty days journey of the savages. They say that at the end of this river there is a people who are great hunters without a fixed abode and who are less than six days’ journey from the North Sea. What little of the country I have seen is sandy, very high, with hills covered with large quantities of pine and fir on the river border. But some quarter of a league inland the woods are very fine and open and the country level.

Thence we continued our course to the entrance of Lake St. Peter where the country is exceedingly pleasant and level, and crossed the lake, in two, three, and four fathoms [a fathom is six feet] of water, which is some eight leagues long and four wide. On the north side we saw a very pleasant river extending some twenty leagues into the interior, which I named St. Suzanne. On the south side there are two, one called Riviere du Pont, the other Riviere de Gennes, which are very pretty and in a fine and fertile country. The water is almost still in the lake, which is full of fish. On the north bank there are seen some slight elevations at a distance of some twelve or fifteen leagues from the lake. After crossing the lake, we passed a large number of islands of various sizes containing many nut-trees and vines and fine meadows, with quantities of game and wild animals which go over from the mainland to these islands. Fish are here more abundant than in any other part of the river that we have seen. From these islands, we went to the mouth of the River of the Iroquois where we stayed two days, refreshing ourselves with good venison, birds, and fish which the savages gave us. Here there sprang up among them some difference of opinion on the subject of the war, so that a portion only determined to go with me while the others returned to their country with their wives and the merchandise which they had obtained by barter.

We set out the next day, continuing our course in the river as far as the entrance of the lake. There are many pretty islands here, low and containing very fine woods and meadows with abundance of fowl and such animals of the chase as stags, fallow-deer, fawns, roe-bucks, bears, and others which go from the mainland to these islands. We captured a large number of these animals. There are also many beavers, not only in this river but also in numerous other little ones that flow into it. These regions, although they are pleasant, are not inhabited by any savages on account of their wars. But they withdraw as far as possible from the rivers into the interior, in order not to be suddenly surprised.

When it was evening, we embarked in our canoes to continue our course and, as we advanced very quietly and without making any noise, we met on the 29th of the month the Iroquois about ten o’clock at evening, at the extremity of a cape which extends into the lake on the western bank. They had come to fight. We both began to utter loud cries, all getting their arms in readiness. We withdrew out on the water and the Iroquois went on shore, where they drew up all their canoes close to each other and began to fell trees with poor axes which they acquire in war sometimes, using also others of stone. Thus they barricaded themselves very well.

Our forces also passed the entire night, their canoes being drawn up close to each other and fastened to poles so that they might not get separated and that they might be all in readiness to fight, if occasion required. After arming ourselves with light armor, we each took an arquebuse and went on shore. I saw the enemy go out of their barricade, nearly two hundred in number, stout and rugged in appearance. They came at a slow pace towards us with a dignity and assurance which greatly amused me, having three chiefs at their head. Our men also advanced in the same order, telling me that those who had three large plumes were the chiefs and that they had only these three and that they could be distinguished by these plumes, which were much larger than those of their companions, and that I should do what I could to kill them. I promised to do all in my power and said that I was very sorry they could not understand me, so that I might give order and shape to their mode of attacking their enemies and then we should without doubt defeat them all.

As soon as we had landed, they began to run for some two hundred paces towards their enemies who stood firmly, not having as yet noticed my companions, who went into the woods with some savages. Our men began to call me with loud cries and in order to give me a passageway, they opened in two parts and put me at their head where I marched some twenty paces in advance of the rest until I was within about thirty paces of the enemy, who at once noticed me and, halting, gazed at me as I did also at them. When I saw them making a move to fire at us, I rested my musket against my cheek and aimed directly at one of the three chiefs. With the same shot two fell to the ground, and one of their men was so wounded that he died some time after. I had loaded my musket with four balls. When our side saw this shot so favorable for them, they began to raise such loud cries that one could not have heard it thunder. Meanwhile the arrows flew on both sides. The Iroquois were greatly astonished that two men had been so quickly killed, although they were equipped with armor woven from cotton thread and with wood which was a proof against their arrows. This caused great alarm among them. As I was loading again, one of my companions fired a shot from the woods, which astonished them anew to such a degree that seeing their chiefs dead, they lost courage and took to flight, abandoning their camp and fort and fleeing into the woods. Whither I pursued them, killing still more of them. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The remainder escaped with the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen were wounded on our side with arrow-shots but they were soon healed.

Engraving based on a drawing by Champlain of the 1609 battle between Iroquois and Algonquian tribes near Lake Champlain

After gaining the victory, our men amused themselves by taking a great quantity of Indian corn and some meal from their enemies. Also their armor, which they had left behind that they might run better. After feasting sumptuously, dancing and singing, we returned three hours after with the prisoners. The spot where this attack took place is in latitude 43 degrees and some minutes, and the lake was called Lake Champlain.

After going some eight leagues, towards evening they took one of the prisoners, to whom they made a harangue, enumerating the cruelties which he and his men had already practiced towards them without any mercy and that, in like manner, he ought to make up his mind to receive as much. They commanded him to sing if he had courage, which he did but it was a very sad song.

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Source: Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (Prince Society Publications, II, Boston, 1878), 204-224, in Hart, American History Told by Contemporaries, 125-6.