uits, a vanguard of the missionary band which
was to convert the savages. 'We cast anchor,' says Le Jeune, 'in front
of the fort which the English held; we saw at the foot of this fort the
poor settlement of Quebec all in ashes. The English, who came to this
country to plunder and not to build up, not only burned a greater part
of the detached buildings which Father Charles Lalemant had {130}
erected, but also all of that poor settlement of which nothing is now
to be seen but the ruins of its stone walls.'

The season of 1632 thus belonged to De Caen, whose function was merely
to tie up loose ends and prepare for the establishment of the new
regime. The central incident of the recession was the return of
Champlain himself--an old man who had said a last farewell to France
and now came, as the king's lieutenant, to end his days in the land of
his labours and his hopes. If ever the oft-quoted last lines of
Tennyson's _Ulysses_ could fitly be claimed by a writer on behalf of
his hero, they apply to Champlain as he sailed from the harbour of
Dieppe on March 23, 1633.

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars until I die.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

It was Champlain's reward that he saw {131} Quebec once more under the
fleur-de-lis, and was welcomed by the Indians with genuine emotion.
The rhetorical gifts of the red man were among his chief endowments,
and all that eloquence could lavish was poured forth in honour of
Champlain at the council of the Hurons, who had come to Quebec for
barter at the moment of his return. The description of this council is
one of the most graphic passages in Le Jeune's _Relations_. A captain
of the Hurons first arose and explained the purpose of the gathering.
'When this speech was finished all the Savages, as a sign of their
approval, drew from the depths of their stomachs this aspiration, _ho,
ho, ho_, raising the last syllable very high.' Thereupon the captain
began another speech of friendship, alliance, and welcome to Champlain,
follow