A lavishly illustrated book on life and adventures of the father of New France.

Traces the story of Quebec's founder while explaining his influential perspectives about peaceful colonialism, in a profile that also evaluates his contributions as a soldier, mariner, and cultural diplomat.

The French explorer, surveyor, cartographer, and diplomat Samuel de Champlain (c. 1575-1635) is often called the Father of New France for founding the settlement that became Quebec City, governing New France, and mapping much of the St. Lawrence and eastern Great Lakes region. Champlain was also a prolific writer who documented his experiences in the Americas, including his travels, impressions of the New World, and encounters and alliances with native peoples.

A navigator and cartographer, Samuel de Champlain’s passion was for America, which he struggled to explore and have recognized. He still dreamed of reaching India, with its spices and its many riches, by continuing further to the West. But the land called New France – a harsh land from India – was his greatest love. He defended it fiercely to those in power in France and was responsible for its development. Champlain thus ensured the birth of the country that today is Canada. He is undisputedly the Father of New France.

Presents a biographical sketch of French explorer Samuel de Champlain (c.1567-1635), compiled by Peter Landry. Notes that Champlain headed the group that founded Quebec, Canada.

“One July day four hundred years ago, Samuel de Champlain stepped out of a small boat at Quebec and began a great adventure.” So begins Christopher Moore’s riveting account of the life of the extraordinary, daring “father of New France.” Samuel de Champlain helped found the first permanent French settlement in the New World; he established the village that eventually became the great city of Quebec; he was a skilled cartographer who gave us many of our first accurate maps of North America; he forged alliances with Native nations that laid the foundations for vast trading networks; and as governor, he set New France on the road to becoming a productive, self-sufficient, thriving colony. But Champlain was also a man who suffered his share of defeats and disappointments. That first permanent settlement was abandoned after a disastrous winter claimed the lives of half the colonists. His marriage to a child bride was unhappy and marked by long separations. Eventually Quebec had to be surrendered temporarily to the English in 1629. In this remarkable book, illustrated entirely with paintings, archival maps, and original artifacts, Christopher Moore brings to life this complex man and, through him, creates a portrait of Canada in its earliest days. Champlain is illustrated with archival maps and paintings. Additional artwork has been provided by Francis Back.

Jacques Cartier's voyages of 1534, 1535, and 1541constitute the first record of European impressions of the St Lawrence region of northeastern North American and its peoples. The Voyages are rich in details about almost every aspect of the region's environment and the people who inhabited it. As Ramsay Cook points out in his introduction, Cartier was more than an explorer; he was also Canada's first ethnographer. His accounts provide a wealth of information about the native people of the region and their relations with each other. Indirectly, he also reveals much about himself and about sixteenth-century European attitudes and beliefs. These memoirs recount not only the French experience with the Iroquois, but alo the Iroquois' discovery of the French. In addition to Cartier's Voyages, a slightly amended version of H.P. Biggar's 1924 text, the volume includes a series of letters relating to Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval, who was in command of cartier on the last voyage. Many of these letters appear for the first time in English. Ramsay Cook's introduction, 'Donnacona Discovers Europe,' rereads the documents in the light of recent scholarship as well as from contemporary perspectives in order to understand better the viewpoints of Cartier and the native people with whom he came into contact.