nts and partly Roman Catholics, began to
squabble about the immaculate conception, or something else, equally
stupid and unimportant, until Champlain himself got into trouble and
nearly lost his Deputy Governorship, and the expedition was delayed. In
1620, Champlain, however, set sail, and on his arrival at his capital,
in July, was agreeably surprised to find that a missionary, named
Duplessis, had got so far into the good graces of the Hurons, at Trois
Rivieres, that he had discovered and frustrated a plan for the massacre
of the French colonists. At Tadousac affairs were not at all
flattering. The colonists had neglected cultivation. Only sixty white
people remained, ten of whom were religiously engaged in keeping
school, or were engaged in keeping a religious school. At this period
of time it is difficult to say which. Worse than this scurvily
decimated condition of the people, was the intrusion of some
unprincipled and unprivileged adventurers from Rochelle, who had been
bartering fire-arms with the Indians for the Company's furs. Champlain
was very wroth, but moderated his anger somewhat on ascertaining that
an _enfant du sol_--a real French-Canadian baby was in the land of the
living. Who was the father of the child or who the mother, is neither
mentioned by Hennepin nor Charlevoix, and the office of Prothonotary,
or Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths had not been instituted.
It is not even in the chronicles that Champlain was at the christening,
nor is the ceremony alluded to at all. This great, and most interesting
event happened on some hour of some unmentioned day in the year 1621.
It is possible the mother was of a distinguished Huron family. It is
certain that the Hurons were about that time in close alliance with the
French, for the Iroquois began to be jealous of the alliance between
the Hurons, Algonquins, and the French, and declared war with the view
of destroying the settlements. The Iroquois succeeded in burning some
Huron villages, but were repulsed by the French both at the Sault St.
Louis and at Quebec. Quebec was now a fortified town. There were
wooden, but not very extensive, walls around the barracks and the huts.
Champlain had, on the whole, great reason to be thankful. His power and
authority seemed to be undisputed. He had seen the first of a new world
generation, and the means of wealth were seemingly at his feet. But he
met with disappointment. The association of merchants who had fi