ortify his soul against fear,
but religion imposed upon him a degree of self-restraint which was
not common among explorers of the seventeenth century. It is far from
fanciful to see in this one of the chief causes of his hold upon the
Indians. To them he was more than a useful ally in war time. They
respected his sense of honour, and long after his death remembered the
temperance which marked his conduct when he lived in their villages.

As a writer, Champlain enjoyed the advantage of possessing a fresh,
unhackneyed subject. The only exception to this statement is furnished
by his early book on the West Indies and Mexico, where he was going over
ground already trodden by the Spaniards. His other writings relate to a
sphere of exploration and settlement which he made his own, and of which
he well merited to be the chronicler.

Running through the Voyages is the double interest of discovery and
colonization, constantly blending and reacting upon each other, but
still remaining matters of separate concern. It is obvious that in
the mind of the narrator discovery is always the more engaging theme.
Champlain is indeed the historian of St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec,
but only incidentally or from chance. By temper he was the explorer,
that is, the man of action, willing to record the broad results, but
without the instinct which led Lescarbot to set down the minutiae of
life in a small, rough settlement. There is one side of Champlain's
activity as a colonizer which we must lament that he has not
described--namely, his efforts to interest the nobles and prelates of
the French court in the upbuilding of Canada. A diary of his life at
Paris and Fontainebleau would be among the choicest documents of the
early colonial era. But Champlain was too blunt and loyal to set down
the story of his relations with the great, and for this portion of his
life we must rely upon letters, reports, and memoranda, which are so
formal as to lack the atmosphere of that painful but valiant experience.

Excluding the brief notices of life at St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec,
Champlain's Voyages present a story of discovery by sea and discovery
by land. In other words, the four years of Acadian adventure relate to
discoveries made along the seaboard, while the remaining narratives,
including the Des Sauvages of 1604, relate to the basin of the St
Lawrence. Mariner though he was by early training, Champlain achieved
his chief success as an explore