features of much interest, lacks the arduous and
constructive quality which was to mark his greater explorations. In
1603 the two boats equipped by De Chastes were under the command of
Pontgrave[4] and Prevert, both mariners from St Malo. Champlain sailed
in Pontgrave's ship and was, in fact, a superior type of supercargo.
De Chastes desired that his expedition should be self-supporting, and
the purchase of furs was never left out of sight. At the same time,
his purpose was undoubtedly wider than profit, and Champlain
represented the extra-commercial motive. While Pontgrave was trading
with the Indians, Champlain, as the geographer, was collecting
information about their character, their customs, and their country.
Their religious ideas interested him much, and also their statements
regarding the interior of the continent. Such data as he could collect
between the end of May and the middle of August he embodied in a book
called _Des Sauvages_, which, true to its title, deals {21} chiefly
with Indian life and is a valuable record, although in many regards
superseded by the more detailed writings of the Jesuits.

The voyage of 1603 added nothing material to what had been made known
by Jacques Cartier and the fur traders about Canada. Champlain
ascended the St Lawrence to the Sault St Louis[5] and made two side
excursions--one taking him rather less than forty miles up the Saguenay
and the other up the Richelieu to the rapid at St Ours. He also
visited Gaspe, passed the Isle Percee, had his first glimpse of the
Baie des Chaleurs, and returned to Havre with a good cargo of furs. On
the whole, it was a profitable and satisfactory voyage. Though it
added little to geographical knowledge, it confirmed the belief that
money could be made in the fur trade, and the word brought back
concerning the Great Lakes of the interior was more distinct than had
before been reported. The one misfortune of the expedition was that
its author, De Chastes, did not live to see its success. He had died
less than a month before his ships reached Havre.

[1] It is hard to define Champlain's social status in a single word.
Parkman, besides styling him 'a Catholic gentleman,' speaks of him
elsewhere as being 'within the pale of the noblesse.' On the other
hand, the _Biographie Saintongeoise_ says that he came from a family of
fishermen. The most important facts would seem to be these. In
Champlain's own marriage contract his father