Samuel de Champlain: Explorer and Colonizer

Exploration

When Champlain returned to New France in 1608, he and his crew began building the habitation at Stadacona. This would one day become Quebec City. The next spring, Champlain started exploring the territory of the Iroquois Nation.

In July 1609, Champlain and his allies (the Algonquin, Huron and Montagnais Nations) had a battle with the Iroquois. Champlain's forces won. This started a war that lasted 90 years.

Prepare to Battle!
In the battle between the Huron and the Iroquois, Champlain wrote, "The whole night, was spent in dancing and singing, in both camps, with many insults being profferred. Our men told the Iroquois they would see a kind of warfare they had never seen before."

And they did.

Champlain's sketch of himself engaged in a battle Copyright/Source

"Champlain stood behind his own warriors with his musket. His two French companions were in the woods, waiting for the signal. The strategy was simple: 'Our men told me that the men with big head-dresses were chiefs and there were only three of them. We recognized them by their feathers that were much larger than those of their companions. They told me to do what I could in order to kill them.' "

Gillmor, Don and Pierre Turgeon. Canada: A People's History. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, ©2000, p. 65.

Champlain shot two chiefs and one of the other Frenchmen shot the third. The Iroquois took to the woods.

	With those three shots, Champlain had made France the Iroquois' enemy. This would have consequences for years to come.

Preparing the Groundwork
During his three-year stay in the settlement, Champlain became an explorer and geographer. Much of what we know about this time comes from his writings that were published later.

Champlain went between France and New France many times in the next few years. In May of 1613, he became the first European to travel the Ottawa River.