DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN.
On Monday, the fifth of July, 1632, Emery de Caen anchored before Quebec. He was commissioned by the French Crown to reclaim1 the place from the English; to hold for one year a monopoly of the fur-trade, as an indemnity2 for his losses in the war; and, when this time had expired, to give place to the Hundred Associates of New France.
By the convention of Suza, New France was to be restored to the French Crown; yet it had been matter of debate whether a fulfillment of this engagement was worth the demanding. That wilderness3 of woods and savages4 had been ruinous to nearly all connected with it. The Caens, successful at first, had suffered heavily in the end. The Associates were on the verge6 of bankruptcy7. These deserts were useless unless peopled; and to people them would depopulate France. Thus argued the inexperienced reasoners of the time, judging from the wretched precedents8 of Spanish and Portuguese9 colonization10. The world had not as yet the example of an island kingdom, which, vitalized by a stable and regulated liberty, has peopled a continent and spread colonies over all the earth, gaining constantly new vigor11 with the matchless growth of its offspring.
On the other hand, honor, it was urged, demanded that France should be reinstated in the land which she had discovered and explored. Should she, the centre of civilization, remain cooped up within her own narrow limits, while rivals and enemies were sharing the vast regions of the West? The commerce and fisheries of New France would in time become a school for French sailors. Mines even now might be discovered; arid12 the fur-trade, well conducted, could not but be a source of wealth. Disbanded soldiers and women from the streets might be shipped to Canada. Thus New France would be peopled and old France purified. A power more potent13 than reason reinforced such arguments. Richelieu seems to have regarded it as an act of personal encroachment14 that the subjects of a foreign crown should seize on the domain15 of a company of which he was the head; and it could not be supposed, that, with power to eject them, the arrogant16 minister would suffer them to remain in undisturbed possession.
A spirit far purer and more generous was active in the same behalf. The character of Champlain belonged rather to the Middle Age than to the seventeenth century. Long toil17 and endurance had calmed the adventurous18 enthusiasm of his youth into a steadfast19 earnestness of purpose; and he gave himself with a loyal zeal20 and devotedness21 to the profoundly mistaken principles which he had espoused23. In his mind, patriotism24 and religion were inseparably linked. France was the champion of Christianity, and her honor, her greatness, were involved in her fidelity25 to this high function. Should she abandon to perdition the darkened nations among whom she had cast the first faint rays of hope? Among the members of the Company were those who shared his zeal; and though its capital was exhausted26, and many of the merchants were withdrawing in despair, these enthusiasts27 formed a subordinate association, raised a new fund, and embarked28 on the venture afresh.
England, then, resigned her prize, and Caen was despatched to reclaim Quebec from the reluctant hands of Thomas Kirke. The latter, obedient to an order from the King of England, struck his flag, embarked his followers29, and abandoned the scene of his conquest. Caen landed with the Jesuits, Paul le Jeune and Anne de la Noue. They climbed the steep stairway which led up the rock, and, as they reached the top, the dilapidated fort lay on their left, while farther on was the stone cottage of the Heberts, surrounded with its vegetable gardens,—the only thrifty30 spot amid a scene of neglect. But few Indians could be seen. True to their native instincts, they had, at first, left the defeated French and welcomed the conquerors31. Their English partialities were, however, but short-lived. Their intrusion into houses and store-rooms, the stench of their tobacco, and their importunate32 begging, though before borne patiently, were rewarded by the newcomers with oaths and sometimes with blows. The Indians soon shunned33 Quebec, seldom approaching it except when drawn34 by necessity or a craving35 for brandy. This was now the case; and several Algonquin families, maddened with drink, were howling, screeching36, and fighting within their bark lodges37. The women were frenzied38 like the men, it was dangerous to approach the place unarmed.
In the following spring, 1633, on the twenty-third of May, Champlain, commissioned anew by Richelieu, resumed command at Quebec in behalf of the Company. Father le Jeune, Superior of the mission, was wakened from his morning sleep by the boom of the saluting39 cannon40. Before he could sally forth41, the convent door was darkened by the stately form of his brother Jesuit, Brebeuf, newly arrived; and the Indians who stood by uttered ejaculations of astonishment42 at the raptures43 of their greeting. The father hastened to the fort, and arrived in time to see a file of musketeers and pikemen mounting the pathway of the cliff below, and the heretic Caen resigning the keys of the citadel44 into the Catholic hands of Champlain. Le Jeune's delight exudes45 in praises of one not always a theme of Jesuit eulogy46, but on whom, in the hope of a continuance of his favors, no praise could now be ill bestowed47. "I sometimes think that this great man [Richelieu], who by his admirable wisdom and matchless conduct of affairs is so renowned48 on earth, is preparing for himself a dazzling crown of glory in heaven by the care he evinces for the conversion49 of so many lost infidel souls in this savage5 land. I pray affectionately for him every day," etc.
For Champlain, too, he has praises which, if more measured, are at least as sincere. Indeed, the Father Superior had the best reason to be pleased with the temporal head of the colony. In his youth, Champlain had fought on the side of that; more liberal and national form of Romanism of which the Jesuits were the most emphatic50 antagonists51. Now, as Le Jeune tells us, with evident contentment, he chose him, the Jesuit, as director of his conscience. In truth, there were none but Jesuits to confess and absolve52 him; for the Recollets, prevented, to their deep chagrin53, from returning to the missions they had founded, were seen no more in Canada, and the followers of Loyola were sole masters of the field. The manly54 heart of the commandant, earnest, zealous55, and direct, was seldom chary56 of its confidence, or apt to stand too warily57 on its guard in presence of a profound art mingled58 with a no less profound sincerity59.
A stranger visiting the fort of Quebec would have been astonished at its air of conventual decorum. Black Jesuits and scarfed officers mingled at Champlain's table. There was little conversation, but, in its place, histories and the lives of saints were read aloud, as in a monastic refectory. Prayers, masses, and confessions60 followed one another with an edifying61 regularity62, and the bell of the adjacent chapel63, built by Champlain, rang morning, noon, and night. Godless soldiers caught the infection, and whipped themselves in penance64 for their sins. Debauched artisans outdid each other in the fury of their contrition65. Quebec was become a mission. Indians gathered thither66 as of old, not from the baneful67 lure68 of brandy, for the traffic in it was no longer tolerated, but from the less pernicious attractions of gifts, kind words, and politic69 blandishments. To the vital principle of propagandism both the commercial and the military character were subordinated; or, to speak more justly, trade, policy, and military power leaned on the missions as their main support, the grand instrument of their extension. The missions were to explore the interior; the missions were to win over the savage hordes70 at once to Heaven and to France. Peaceful, benign71, beneficent, were the weapons of this conquest. France aimed to subdue72, not by the sword, but by the cross; not to overwhelm and crush the nations she invaded, but to convert, civilize73, and embrace them among her children.
And who were the instruments and the promoters of this proselytism, at once so devout74 and so politic? Who can answer? Who can trace out the crossing and mingling75 currents of wisdom and folly76, ignorance and knowledge, truth and falsehood, weakness and force, the noble and the base, can analyze77 a systematized contradiction, and follow through its secret wheels, springs, and levers a phenomenon of moral mechanism78? Who can define the Jesuits? The story of their missions is marvellous as a tale of chivalry79, or legends of the lives of saints. For many years, it was the history of New France and of the wild communities of her desert empire.
Two years passed. The mission of the Hurons was established, and here the indomitable Breheuf, with a band worthy80 of him, toiled81 amid miseries82 and perils83 as fearful as ever shook the constancy of man; while Champlain at Quebec, in a life uneventful, yet harassing84 and laborious85, was busied in the round of cares which his post involved.
Christmas day, 1635, was a dark day in the annals of New France. In a chamber86 of the fort, breathless and cold, lay the hardy87 frame which war, the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted88 so long in vain. After two months and a half of illness, Champlain, stricken with paralysis89, at the age of sixty-eight, was dead. His last cares were for his colony and the succor90 of its suffering families. Jesuits, officers, soldiers, traders, and the few settlers of Quebec followed his remains91 to the church; Le Jeune pronounced his eulogy, and the feeble community built a tomb to his honor.
The colony could ill spare him. For twenty-seven years he had labored92 hard and ceaselessly for its welfare, sacrificing fortune, repose93, and domestic peace to a cause embraced with enthusiasm and pursued with intrepid94 persistency95. His character belonged partly to the past, partly to the present. The preux chevalier, the crusader, the romance-loving explorer, the curious, knowledge-seeking traveler, the practical navigator, all claimed their share in him. His views, though far beyond those of the mean spirits around him, belonged to his age and his creed96. He was less statesman than soldier. He leaned to the most direct and boldest policy, and one of his last acts was to petition Richelieu for men and munitions97 for repressing that standing98 menace to the colony, the Iroquois. His dauntless courage was matched by an unwearied patience, proved by life-long vexations, and not wholly subdued99 even by the saintly follies100 of his wife. He is charged with credulity, from which few of his age were free, and which in all ages has been the foible of earnest and generous natures, too ardent101 to criticise102, and too honorable to doubt the honor of others. Perhaps the heretic might have liked him more if the Jesuit had liked him less. The adventurous explorer of Lake Huron, the bold invader103 of the Iroquois, befits but indifferently the monastic sobrieties of the fort of Quebec, and his sombre environment of priests. Yet Champlain was no formalist, nor was his an empty zeal. A soldier from his youth, in an age of unbridled license104, his life had answered to his maxims105; and when a generation had passed after his visit to the Hurons, their elders remembered with astonishment the continence of the great French war-chief.
His books mark the man,—all for his theme and his purpose, nothing for himself. Crude in style, full of the superficial errors of carelessness and haste, rarely diffuse106, often brief to a fault, they bear on every page the palpable impress of truth.
With the life of the faithful soldier closes the opening period of New France. Heroes of another stamp succeed; and it remains to tell the story of their devoted22 lives, their faults, follies, and virtues107.
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1
reclaim
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| v.要求归还，收回；开垦 | |
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indemnity
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| n.赔偿，赔款，补偿金 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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bankruptcy
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| n.破产；无偿付能力 | |
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precedents
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| 引用单元； 范例( precedent的名词复数 )； 先前出现的事例； 前例； 先例 | |
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Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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encroachment
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| n.侵入，蚕食 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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devotedness
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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conquerors
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| 征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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importunate
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| adj.强求的；纠缠不休的 | |
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shunned
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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craving
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| n.渴望,热望 | |
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screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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lodges
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| v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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raptures
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| 极度欢喜( rapture的名词复数 ) | |
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citadel
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| n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 | |
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exudes
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的第三人称单数 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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46
eulogy
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| n.颂词；颂扬 | |
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47
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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50
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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antagonists
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| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
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52
absolve
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| v.赦免，解除（责任等） | |
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chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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chary
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| adj.谨慎的，细心的 | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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edifying
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| adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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penance
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| n.（赎罪的）惩罪 | |
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contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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baneful
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| adj.有害的 | |
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lure
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| n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引 | |
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politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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civilize
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| vt.使文明，使开化 (=civilise) | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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harassing
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| v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人） | |
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laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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87
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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88
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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89
paralysis
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| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
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90
succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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91
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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92
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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93
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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95
persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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96
creed
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| n.信条；信念，纲领 | |
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97
munitions
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| n.军火，弹药；v.供应…军需品 | |
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98
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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99
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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100
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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101
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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102
criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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103
invader
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| n.侵略者，侵犯者，入侵者 | |
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104
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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105
maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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106
diffuse
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| v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的 | |
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107
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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