Sunday, March 24, 2013

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain (August 13, 1574 – December 25, 1635), "The Father of New France", was a French explorer, navigator, cartographer, soldier, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608 and is important because he made the first accurate map of the coast.


A Brief Sketch
 

by: Henry Higgins Hurlbut

Samuel de Champlain was the son of Antoine de Champlain (a captain in the French marine), and the maiden name of his mother was Marguerite Leroy; he was born in the village of Brouage, in the ancient Province of Saintonge, about the year 1567. Little is known of the boyhood days of Champlain; his home-village was a fortified town, and its harbor, available for large ships, was called one of the best in France. Not only was Brouage a post of some military importance, but it was the manufacturing centre and port of shipment of a large trade in salt; and these were the two great interests of the people in citadel and seaport of the busy Brouage.

During many years of Champlain's early life, Brouage was the occasion of frequent struggles of contending parties for its possession, during the civil wars of the time. While these vicissitudes must have been perplexing to close study in school, and while Champlain's school education was no doubt limited, there was yet a discipline in that misfortune, and his active habits and excellent common-sense led him to educate himself.

It was no slight good fortune for Champlain that he often came in contact with men of high character, connected with the military and commercial departments of Brouage. It is supposed that he paid considerable attention to the study and practice of drawing, as his after-efforts in that line were, and are still, of no little interest and value.


Early in the year 1599, he was in command of a large French ship, chartered by the Spanish government for a voyage to the West Indies. Just previously, however, he had been connected with the French army as quartermaster for several years, yet still before that he must have had practical experience in navigation; indeed he acknowledged the fact, for he has confessed the fascination which attracted his early life to that employment. In the Spanish voyage referred to, including not merely a view of various West-India Islands and important ports, but casting his anchor in the road stead of San Juan d'Ulloa (then as today the island castle and defense of Vera Cruz;, he visited not merely Porto Bello on the Isthmus, by a native sail-boat, but from Vera Cruz he passed into the interior, spending a month at the City of Mexico.

This voyage embraced a period of somewhat over two years, and in it Champlain carried out a purpose of his own, which was to make extended notes and drawings of whatever seemed worth his observation; not for his own gratification merely, but for use and aid to the French government. It was Champlain that made the first suggestion of the benefits to be derived from a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Panama.

It is understood that after an able communication by Champlain to his own government,* regarding matters and things coming within his notice in the Spanish possessions of America, he was honored not only with the gift of a pension from the French king, Henry IV, but it is believed that from the same source there was also conferred upon him a patent of nobility.

In March, 1603, Champlain first sailed for northern America, having joined the expedition under Pont Grave, which had been organized by Gov. Aymer de Chastes. The fleet consisted of two barques of small size, accompanied by one or more craft of still less burthen, and arrived in the St. Lawrence River at a place called Tadoussac, at the mouth of Saguenay River.




These Indians, we are to presume, were the inventors and from time immemorial have been the manufacturers of that famous and historic little craft, the birch-bark canoe. The first description which we have of this canoe appears identical with that manufactured by our northern Indians of today. Though no long distances very far from shore were often attempted, the ability of this canoe when well-managed, even in a pretty rough sea, is not slight.

The Indian canoes of the old fur-companies were usually large, of some four or five tons burthen. How many centuries previously they may have been in use we have no means of telling, yet two hundred and eighty-two years ago, in 1603, Champlain met them at the Saguenay, and which he afterward spoke of as "from eight to nine paces long, and about a pace or pace and a-half broad in the middle, growing narrower toward the two ends." "They are apt," said he, "to turn over, in case one does not understand managing them, and are made of birch bark, strengthened on the inside by little ribs of white cedar, very neatly arranged; they are so light that a man can easily carry one."

Said Gouverneur Morris:
Among the curiosities of -newly-discovered America was the Indian canoe. Its slender and elegant form, its rapid movement, its capacity to bear burdens and resist the rage of the billows and torrents, excited no small degree of admiration for the skill by which it was constructed.

The Chippewas call it che-maun, and it was this same sort of vessel in which Champlain passed into lakes Champlain, Huron, and Ontario; the same in which Joliet and Marquette voyaged down the Mississippi, the same in which, differing as I must from the opinion of our worthy secretary, they navigated the Chicago. The Society, it is noticed, has a small specimen of this canoe.

After looking a few miles up the Saguenay, Grave and Champlain, in a light boat, ascended the St. Lawrence as far as the Falls of St. Louis, now called the Lachine Rapids, and by the way going a short distance on what they called the River of the Iroquois, now known as the Sorel or Richelieu. Unable to pass the rapids in their boat, they returned to their vessels at the outlet of the Saguenay.

Upon this first visit of Champlain to the St. Lawrence, he questioned the Indians about the river and waters above and beyond what he had seen; in a manner, imperfectly however, they told of the Rapids of the upper St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, the Falls of Niagara, Lake Erie, and the Strait of Detroit. Of anything beyond they professed no knowledge. In the month of September of that year, 1603, Grave and Champlain reached France. Champlain now learned that his friend de Chastes had died in his absence; he exhibited to his sovereign, however, a map which he had drawn of the region he had visited, together with an account of what he had learned.


In 1604, two vessels left France, having Champlain on board one of them; a new expedition for colonial settlement in America, north of latitude 40°, N., having been organized by Sieur de Monts. Arriving in America, and passing a severe winter at a temporary station, Champlain after thoroughly exploring the coasts of New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and after three years absence, reached France in 1607, where he spent the succeeding winter.

Champlain is distinguished for his survey of the New England coast, extending also to the northern limits of Nova Scotia. While other explorers made but slight examinations, imperfectly described, his account is thorough, and, furthermore, is illustrated by drawings of the seashore, rivers, harbors, etc.

Again Champlain had reached the St. Lawrence, in June,. 1608, and while a barque was being constructed, he explored the Saguenay and also the St. Lawrence, and where at the site of a future city, then called Quebec—an Algonkin word, meaning a narrowing—he was impressed with its peculiar attractions, and decided to commence a settlement there at once. The decision was followed directly by the felling of trees and the erection of buildings. Fortunately, a few days after their arrival there, it was revealed to Champlain that a plan was about perfected among a number of the men to assassinate not only him but others also, and then conduct matters as they might choose. By a cautious and prompt movement, however, four of the ringleaders were placed in irons, and, after a trial, one was hanged and the others sent to France for further treatment.

Painting showing the arrival of Samuel de Champlain on the future site of Quebec City, 1608

One of the vessels sailed for France in September, but Champlain remained to spend the winter with the little colony at Quebec. That winter, however, was one of sickness and death; from an exclusively salt diet they were attacked with the scurvy, and twenty out of the twenty-eight had died before winter had disappeared. Of the Indians in the neighborhood also, many died from starvation, for Champlain could only, from his limited supplies, afford slight relief. But spring at length succeeded that winter of death, and in June, Grave again appeared with a vessel in the St. Lawrence.

Champlain now prepared to carry out his plans for exploring the interior. A fierce war was then existing between the Algonkin tribes of the north and the great Iroquois confederacy of the region now called New York. It was proposed to Champlain by the Indians, in consideration of services to be rendered him in his travels as guides, interpreters, and canoe-men, that he should aid them in their battles with their enemies, the Iroquois. To this he consented.

Whether or not it was wise for Champlain to conclude such a treaty with his newly-found red friends may at least be questioned. I do not, however, believe with Mr. George Geddes that 
but for the mistake of Champlain, and the unwise treatment of the Five Nations that followed, the government of the continent would have fallen to the French rather than to the English.
Yet the consequences resulting from the acceptance and ratification of the agreement referred to, for more than a century and a half involved a multitude of gory witnesses; it was a most unfortunate precedent, too readily copied. Torture, human blood, and human scalps were the seals of the cruel strife, of which instances by the hundred might be quoted. The governments of France and Great Britain in their contests for dominion helped onward the red-handed crime.

America, after breaking loose from the crown of Great Britain, fell heir to the miseries of the system referred to. In the words of DeWitt Clinton,
The whole confederacy, except a little more than half of the Oneidas, hung like the scythe of death upon the rear of our settlements, and their deeds are inscribed with the scalping-knife and the tomahawk in characters of blood on the fields of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, and on the banks of the Mohawk.

I need not recite particulars of Champlain's tour of that year, 1609, accompanying his Indian friends upon a war excursion against their enemies, the Iroquois, farther than to say that he then discovered the lake since called after him; and if, as he seems to have acknowledged, he then introduced to the acquaintance of the Indians of the great Iroquois league the fatal effects of firearms, by killing three of their chiefs, it was not the most unfortunate first salutation of a deadly agent which came to the red men. That same year of 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river which received his name. On that occasion, the renowned yet baneful firewater was pressed upon the notice of the savages. Of the two satanic inventions, gunpowder and whiskey, the last, with its numerously-named congeners, is reasonably believed to have been the most destructive.

Returning to Quebec, Champlain sailed with Grave for France, arriving out in October. Again in April of the following year, 1610, he reached the mouth of the Saguenay. He found his Indian allies had in view another expedition against the Iroquois, and they again desired his assistance. I may say that they accordingly attacked a party of the enemy, who were located near the mouth of the Sorel; and, as in the previously-named battle, came off victors.



Hearing of the assassination of King Henry IV., with other unwelcome news from over the sea, Champlain left for France, arriving there in September, 1610. During this visit a contract was made by Champlain with the parents of Helene Boule, for his marriage with their daughter; the nuptials, however, were not to take place under two years. They were afterward married, and she accompanied him to Quebec some years later.

In the year 1611, he visited the St. Lawrence, but returned in the autumn of that year. In March, 1613, he again sailed from France, and arrived at Tadoussac in April. A tour up the Ottawa River was soon undertaken by Champlain. The purpose of this expedition was, in great part, to ascertain if there might be found a channel and shorter way to the Pacific and the famed Cathay. Some reports which had been told to Champlain led to strengthen his belief in and to look for such a passage. Champlain, after a journey of •some two hundred miles from the St. Lawrence, up the channel and over the portages around the numerous falls of the Ottawa, reached Allumette Island in that river. Here Champlain raised a cross of cedar, to which he attached the arms of France; not succeeding, however, in the main purpose of his journey. Returning, he embarked for France the same year, and where he remained through the year 1614, making plans for the success of his colony.

He was particularly impressed with the importance of establishing "the Christian faith in the wilds of America." By his efforts, four Franciscan friars were secured for such a mission, who embarked with himself for America in the spring of 1615. One of them, Joseph LeCaron, was appointed to the distant Wyandotte or Huron tribe of Indians, and set out with great bravery, knowing nothing as he did of those Indians or of the country where they dwelt. Champlain also soon left for the westward, for an expedition had been already planned by the Indians to invade the country of the Iroquois, and the power of Champlain and the deadly arquebus was needed to accompany them to their enemy's stronghold south of Lake Ontario.

Going up the Ottawa, Champlain took a roundabout way to reach Central New York, but he was piloted by the Indians, who doubtless had an axe or rather a tomahawk of some kind to grind, and so they led him to their place of abode. A part of the route up the Ottawa Champlain had traveled before; now, still farther, he passed via Lake Nepissing and French River into the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. This course by the Ottawa was the old canoe-route of after years, the route of the fur-trader's goods from Montreal to Mackinac and the upper lakes. But if it was the shortest channel to the Northwest, it was yet a hard, back-breaking road to travel; its numerous uprising portages and rough paths, which none but the famed and hardy Canadian voyageurs, those toiling, yet uncomplaining and merry courier des bois, would endure, each carrying the ninety pounds of pack, box, or cask, whenever the vessel and cargo must take to the land.

When the canoe of Champlain pushed into Lake Huron it was the farthest point westward yet visited by any white man within the basin of the Great Lakes. The statement in several historical works of Michigan, that Champlain or any other European visited the site of Detroit before that date, July, 1615, is certainly an error. The priest Le Caron was a few days earlier than Champlain in the neighborhood of Lake Huron, at a large Indian village, but that was not by the lake, and we are not advised that he came within sight of it. From the vicinity of the north-east shore of Lake Huron, with only a portion of the force of savages expected to comprise the invading army, Champlain now passed by way of Lake Simcoe and various small lakes, the River Trent, and Bay of Quinte; and whether he went out above or below the Isle of Tonti, the name of which has been stupidly changed to Amherst Island, he, the first of white men, now glided over the waters of Lake Ontario.

Coasting along the east shore in part and partly on foot upon the sandy beach of the lake, and after secreting their canoes in the woods near the shore, the invaders struck into the forest, and went southward from some point in the present county of Oswego, N.Y. Whether the fortress sought was at Onondaga Lake, as believed by the late Hon. O. H. Marshall, or upon a pond in the county of Madison, as confidentially urged by Gen. Clark, the post of the enemy was reached in due time, and the siege of a rather uncommonly strong Indian stockade began. After considerable time spent in the investment, and some hours of fierce contest, the attacking Indians lost their patience, and concluded to abandon the enterprise. Champlain had endeavored to direct and guide them in the attack, but the thing was impossible; they were an unmanageable, boisterous crowd of ruffians, with no purpose, it would seem, beyond the gratification of cruelty and revenge.

However interesting this marauding adventure may be considered as a matter of history, and though the invading Indians, with Champlain's assistance, had suffered much less than the besieged, it was a bootless expedition. The fortress was not taken, and Champlain was wounded in the leg.

The retreating army now returned to the outlet of Lake Ontario; but the Indians were unwilling to give Champlain an escort down the St. Lawrence, and the result was he was obliged to follow them to the interior and pass a winter in their wigwams. It was summer in the following year, 1616, before Champlain, who was accompanied by the missionary LeCaron, reached Quebec, where they found Grave from over the sea, and with whom they embarked for France in the month of July. In 1617, and also in 1618, Champlain visited New France, but returned to the fatherland each of those years. He desired something more for his country than a mere trading-post on the St. Lawrence. 
To quote the words of Rev. Edmund F. Slafter: "He was anxious to elevate the meagre factory at Quebec into the dignity of a colonial plantation." Without doubt he had to struggle with the avarice of a company which cared little for New France beyond its own profits in furs. But Champlain enlisted official aid, and by government appointment was made lieutenant of the viceroy of New France, which last-named dignitary was the Duke de Montmorenci, high admiral of France.

Champlain sailed for America, accompanied by his wife, in. 1620. His time was now occupied at Quebec during the four ensuing years, energetically attending to the building of various structures and other duties; yet we learn that he had to endure not a few annoyances and discouragements.

In 1624, with his wife he sailed for France, arriving there in October. In April, 1626, he again left France for the St. Lawrence. This was his eleventh voyage across the Atlantic to this river, besides one to the coast of New England.

A new association in place of the former company was organized by the Cardinal Richelieu, the able prime-minister of France, a friend of Champlain. The prospect to Champlain seemed now more promising for his great purpose of French colonization. Hitherto as a colony his settlement had not prospered. We are told that at no time had its numbers exceeded fifty persons; and what seems strange, so unlike our own prairie pioneers, that for a period of twenty years but one family of the colony attempted to gain a living by cultivating the soil.

I do not agree with Mr. DeCosta, that 
"but for a headwind when off Cape Cod, sailing southward in 1605, Champlain might have reached the Hudson, and instead of planting Port Royal in Nova Scotia, he might have established its foundations on Manhattan Island, and that this would have made the greatest city in America a French city."
But I will here take the occasion, parenthetically, to make the query, it was that French colonization in America has been comparatively a failure? May the answer be given that it is a national characteristic to be averse to becoming agricultural pioneers? Or may it have been occasioned by the restrictive laws and feudal tenure which came with them from the fatherland? Else was it, as some claim, the result of superstitious and bigoted religious teaching, hampering the freedom of mind and person?



Quebec was founded in 1608, and New France had the opportunity of more than one hundred and fifty years before it finally resigned in favor of Great Britain. A hundred and fifty years from the settlement of New Plymouth had fitted the descendants of those settlers for self-government and the opening drama of the Revolution.

We believe that Champlain and other French explorers were men of broad, practical views, and their plans, embracing the settlement of the vast and fertile basin of the great Lakes and valleys of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, may certainly be termed grand; yet the genius of the French nation, indeed of any Latin nation, was not fitted to the task. Sterile New England was peopled by another race.

The remaining few years in the life of Champlain may be briefly alluded to: War had broken out between France and Great Britain, and a British fleet appeared in the St. Lawrence in 1628; but it was not until July of the following year that serious demonstration was made against the post of Quebec, which was then obliged to surrender to a British force. Champlain was taken to England, but as a peace had been arranged even before Quebec had been taken, he was allowed to go to France, and Quebec was restored to French rule.

In March, 1633, Champlain made his last departure from France, being again appointed governor; and he arrived at Quebec in May. He was greeted with demonstrations of great affection, for he was much beloved by his people. In the fort at Quebec, December 25, 1635, after an illness of several months, Champlain died. Somewhere within what is now the court-yard of Quebec post-office his remains lie buried; this much has been satisfactorily proven, yet the exact spot is unknown. It does not appear that Champlain had children. His widow entered a convent, and afterward founded a religious institution in which she herself subsequently entered as a nun. She died in 1654.

We will close this meagre sketch by quoting the following from the Rev. Mr. Slafter, regarding the eminent explorer:
"He was wise, modest, and judicious in council; prompt, vigorous, and practical in administration; simple and frugal in his mode of life; persistent and unyielding in the execution of his plans; brave and valient in danger; unselfish, honest, and conscientious in the discharge of duty."


CHAMPLAIN, Samuel de, French navigator, born in Brouage, Saintonge, on the Bay of Biscay, in 1567; died in Quebec, 25 December, 1635. His father was a ship-captain, and the son received a careful education as a navigator. Early in life he entered the army and became quartermaster of cavalry. His uncle, acting as pilot-general of the Spanish fleets, conducted back to their own country the Spanish soldiers who had served in France, and was accompanied by his nephew, who took command of the "St. Julien." In January, 1599, he sailed in command of this vessel for the West Indies, and during two years and a half visited many of the islands, landed at Vera Cruz, proceeded inland as far as the city of Mexico, and returned by way of Panama, where he conceived the plan of a ship-canal across the isthmus, reaching Spain in March, 1601. A record of this voyage, with views and charts, was written by him, and was first printed under the title of "Bref discours" (Quebec, 1870), though a translation had been previously printed in the publications of the Hakluyt society. 

On his return to France he received a pension from Henry IV., and, upon being urged by Commander De Chaste, governor of Dieppe, to explore territory granted to him in North America by the king, with a view to founding a colony, he sailed, on 15 March, 1603, in the ship of Pontgrave. On 24 May they anchored at Tadoussac, where the Saguenay joins the St. Lawrence; and soon afterward he, Pontgrave, and a few men, proceeded up the river in a boat, until stopped by the rapids of St. Louis above Montreal, which was the limit of Cartier's discoveries in 1535. Returning to Tadoussac, Champlain examined both sides of the river, and subsequently explored the St. Lawrence down to Gasp& He sailed for France in August, and published the same year his first volume, "Des sau-rages," giving an account of his explorations and discoveries. 

The commander, De Chaste, having died in the meantime, his privileges were transferred to Du Guay, Sieur de Monts, who made an engagement with Champlain, with the intention of founding a settlement in Acadia, and they sailed together, arriving at Sable island 1 May, 1604. Coasting along Nova Scotia, they finally determined to form a settlement on the island of St. Croix, so named by De Monts, in the river of the same name, which divides New Brunswick from the United States. Not finding the place suitable, after passing a winter there they removed to Port Royal, adjacent to the present Annapolis. During 1604-'6 Champlain explored the coast as far as Cape Cod, making careful surveys and maps as he progressed. 

He returned to France in 1607, and, having suggested to De Monts the importance of establishing a trading-post on the St. Lawrence, he and Pontgrave were sent out in 1608, and, after reaching Tadoussac, they continued up the St. Lawrence to a place called by the Algonquins Quebec, or the Narrows. Champlain decided upon forming a settlement here, but had scarcely begun to clear the ground for the erection of buildings when a plot to assassinate him was discovered. At Quebec he erected houses, sowed grain, and did all he could to develop the fur trade, and in a short time the settlement began to grow. Having become friendly with the Montagnais, an Indian tribe on the St. Lawrence, in 1609 he joined them in an expedition against the Iroquois. While in pursuance of this project, they were met by a party of Algonquins and Hurons, and, accompanied by them, ascended Sorel river until they arrived at the Chambly rapids. Having at this point sent back his boat and crew, Champlain proceeded in a canoe, and entering a lake, gave it his own name. 

The Defeat of The Iroquois on Lake Champlain drawn by Champlain  

Champlain and his Indians meeting a large force of the Iroquois on the lake, both parties landed and threw up barricades of trees. On the following day they engaged in battle, which resulted in the defeat of the hostile Indians. This result was largely due to Champlain, who killed two Iroquois chiefs with his arquebus, and mortally wounded another. The war, thus begun by the French and their allies against the Iroquois, continued with occasional intermissions until the French supremacy in Canada was ended. 

In September, Champlain returned to France, and in March, 1610, sailed again for America, taking with him a number of mechanics. Soon after his arrival he and his Montagnais allies made war again upon the Iroquois, but, while attacking and demolishing their fort on the Sorel, he was severely wounded by an arrow. Leaving Du Pare in his place, he returned to France in 1611, and while there married Helen Boulle, a Protestant, who, after his death, became an Ursuline Nun. De Monts having lost his influence in consequence of the death of Henry IV., and the merchants who had previously interested themselves in the colonization scheme having concluded to spend no more money on it, Champlain induced the Count de Soissons to take an interest in the project. That nobleman obtained, 8 Oct., 1612, a commission appointing him governor and lieutenant-general of New France, and Champlain was appointed his lieutenant, which office he retained, when the Prince de Conde succeeded shortly afterward to the rights of De Soissons. 

A short time after his appointment he sent several vessels to Canada, and in 1613 sailed himself, principally with the intention of exploring the Ottawa, which a sailor named Vignaud had claimed to have ascended to a lake and thence reached the North sea. On 27 May, 1613, he left St. Helen's island near Montreal, and, upon entering the Ottawa, discovered that Vignaud's statements were false. After arranging more favorable terms for the fur trade, he returned to France, formed a trading company, and returned to the colony in 1615, taking with him Pere Denis Jamay and two other Recollect priests, together with a lay brother. Pere Caron, one of these ecclesiastics, soon after his arrival, proceeded to the country of the Hurons on the Georgian Bay. Champlain the same year ascended the Ottawa for some distance, and, leaving the river, went partly overland and partly by canoe to the eastern shore of Lake Huron, where, embarking, he sailed to its southern extremity; then going overland to the western extremity of Lake Ontario, he explored that lake and the St. Lawrence until he arrived at the Sorel. Soon afterward, on territory now included in the state of New York, he attacked a town held by a tribe belonging to the Iroquois League; but, through the insubordination of the Hurons, was repelled and received two severe wounds. 



He was carried back to a town of the Hurons, and after his recovery visited several tribes of Indians, and returned to France in the spring. Notwithstanding the endeavors of Champlain, both in Canada and in France, the colony did not flourish, and the indifference of the authorities at home threatened it with ultimate extinction. At this critical period (1620) the Duke de Montmorency succeeded Condo, and Champlain, becoming more hopeful, brought over his wife, who remained with him until 1624, though often forced to submit to great hardships. The trade had now been acquired by the merchants, and Quebec was fortified, began to enlarge its boundaries, and increased in population, entering upon a career of prosperity. In 1625 the Duke de Ventadour became viceroy, and at once set to work to develop the country, and sent over the first Jesuit missionaries to aid in converting the natives. In July, 1628, a British fleet under Sir David Kirk and his two brothers appeared before Quebec and summoned Champlain to surrender.

His answer was defiance, and the British retired, after committing some depredations. The Canada Company, which had been organized by Cardinal Richelieu, sent out provisions and settlers at this time" but the fleet conveying them was captured by Kirk, and, as Champlain had depended upon the intercepted vessels for his supplies, he, after passing the winter in great distress in Quebec, surrendered to Louis and David Kirk on 19 July, 1629. Champlain was conveyed to England as a prisoner, and was not set at liberty until 1632. By the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, concluded in that year, between Great Britain and France, Canada, together with Acadia and Cape Breton, was restored to France, and Champlain, being at once reinstated as governor, in 1633 sailed with three well-equipped vessels from Dieppe. On his arrival he was warmly welcomed by the settlers and Indians, and, the Jesuit missionaries having resumed their labors among the natives, he did all in his power to strengthen and develop the colony, and erected a fort at Richelieu Island and founded Three Rivers. He also established a college at Quebec, in which the children of the Indians were trained and taught the use of the French language. 

In addition to the volume "Des sauvages" (1603) and his "Voyages" (1613 and 1619), he published a volume containing an indifferently executed abridgment of his previous voyages, which included a continuation from 1619 to 1632. Interesting features of this volume were prayers and a catechism in two of the languages of the aborigines. Some copies bear the date of 1640. In 1830 it was reprinted in Paris. The Abbes Laverdier and Casgrain, of Quebec, have published the whole series of his works, including his Mexican voyage, with notes and fat-similes of all the maps and illustrations (4 vols., 4to, 1870). The "Mercure Francais," vol. xix., contains also what is apparently an account of the voyage of 1633. -- Edited Appleton's American Biography Copyright© 2000 by Historic.us
The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America 

For students and teachers of U.S. history, this video features Stanley and Christopher Klos presenting America's Four United Republics Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Filmed in December 2015, this video is an informal recording by an audience member capturing a presentation attended by approximately 200 students, professors, and guests. To explore the full curriculum, [download it here]. 


Continental Congress of the United Colonies Presidents 
Sept. 5, 1774 to July 1, 1776


September 5, 1774
October 22, 1774
October 22, 1774
October 26, 1774
May 20, 1775
May 24, 1775
May 25, 1775
July 1, 1776

Commander-in-Chief United Colonies & States of America
George Washington: June 15, 1775 - December 23, 1783

Continental Congress of the United States Presidents 
July 2, 1776 to February 28, 1781

July 2, 1776
October 29, 1777
November 1, 1777
December 9, 1778
December 10, 1778
September 28, 1779
September 29, 1779
February 28, 1781



Presidents of the United States in Congress Assembled
March 1, 1781 to March 3, 1789

March 1, 1781
July 6, 1781
July 10, 1781
Declined Office
July 10, 1781
November 4, 1781
November 5, 1781
November 3, 1782
November 4, 1782
November 2, 1783
November 3, 1783
June 3, 1784
November 30, 1784
November 22, 1785
November 23, 1785
June 5, 1786
June 6, 1786
February 1, 1787
February 2, 1787
January 21, 1788
January 22, 1788
January 21, 1789

Articles of Confederation Congress
United States in Congress Assembled (USCA) Sessions

USCA
Session Dates
USCA Convene Date
President(s)
First
03-01-1781 to 11-04-1781*
03-02-1781
Second
11-05-1781 to 11-03-1782
11-05-1781
Third
11-04-1782 to 11-02-1783
11-04-1782
Fourth
11-03-1783 to 10-31-1784
11-03-1783
Fifth
11-01-1784 to 11-06-1785
11-29-1784
Sixth
11-07-1785 to 11-05-1786
11-23-1785
Seventh
11-06-1786 to 11-04-1787
02-02-1787
Eighth
11-05-1787 to 11-02-1788
01-21-1788
Ninth
11-03-1788 to 03-03-1789**
None
None

* The Articles of Confederation was ratified by the mandated 13th State on February 2, 1781, and the dated adopted by the Continental Congress to commence the new  United States in Congress Assembled government was March 1, 1781.  The USCA convened under the Articles of Confederation Constitution on March 2, 1781.  

** On September 14, 1788, the Eighth United States in Congress Assembled resolved that March 4th, 1789, would be commencement date of the Constitution of 1787's federal government thus dissolving the USCA on March 3rd, 1789.


Presidents of the United States of America
1789 - Present

POTUS - CLICK HERE

United Colonies and States First Ladies
1774 - Present

FLOTUS - CLICK HERE



Capitals of the United Colonies and States of America

Philadelphia
Sept. 5, 1774 to Oct. 24, 1774
Philadelphia
May 10, 1775 to Dec. 12, 1776
Baltimore
Dec. 20, 1776 to Feb. 27, 1777
Philadelphia
March 4, 1777 to Sept. 18, 1777
Lancaster
September 27, 1777
York
Sept. 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778
Philadelphia
July 2, 1778 to June 21, 1783
Princeton
June 30, 1783 to Nov. 4, 1783
Annapolis
Nov. 26, 1783 to Aug. 19, 1784
Trenton
Nov. 1, 1784 to Dec. 24, 1784
New York City
Jan. 11, 1785 to Nov. 13, 1788
New York City
October 6, 1788 to March 3,1789
New York City
March 3,1789 to August 12, 1790
Philadelphia
Dec. 6,1790 to May 14, 1800       
Washington DC
November 17,1800 to Present

Chart Comparing Presidential Powers Click Here


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Naomi@Historic.us
Stan@Historic.us
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