stering the public affairs of the colony and lending its
religious impulses the strength of his support and example. Always a
man of serious mind, his piety was confirmed by the reflections of
advancing age and his daily contact with the missionaries. In his
household there was a service of prayer three times daily, together
with reading at supper from the lives of the saints. In pursuance of a
vow, he built a chapel named Notre Dame de la {134} Recouvrance, which
records the gratitude he felt for the restoration of Quebec to France.
He was, in short, the ideal layman--serving his king loyally in all
business of state, and demeaning himself as a pilgrim who is about to
set forth for the City of God.

It is not to be inferred from the prominence of Champlain's religious
interests that he neglected his public duties, which continued to be
many and exacting. One of his problems was to prevent the English from
trading in the St Lawrence contrary to treaty; another was to
discourage the Hurons from selling their furs to the Dutch on the
Hudson. The success of the mission, which he had deeply at heart,
implied the maintenance of peace among the Indians who were friendly to
the French. He sought also to police the region of the Great Lakes by
a band of French soldiers, and his last letter to Richelieu (dated
August 15, 1635) contains an earnest appeal for a hundred and twenty
men, to whom should be assigned the duty of marshalling the Indian
allies against the English and Dutch, as well as of preserving order
throughout the forest. The erection of a fort at Three Rivers in 1634
was due to his desire that the annual barter should take place at {135}
a point above Quebec. A commission which he issued in the same year to
Jean Nicolet to explore the country of the Wisconsins, shows that his
consuming zeal for exploration remained with him to the end.

It was permitted Champlain to die in harness. He remained to the last
lieutenant of the king in Canada. At the beginning of October 1635 he
was stricken with paralysis, and passed away on Christmas Day of the
same year. We do not possess the oration which Father Paul Le Jeune
delivered at his funeral, but there remains from Le Jeune's pen an
appreciation of his character in terms which to Champlain himself would
have seemed the highest praise.

On the twenty-fifth of December, the day of the birth of our Saviour
upon earth, Monsieur de Champlain, our Governor, was rebo