so many novel sights and
whose soul was tested, year after year, by the ever-varying perils of
the wilderness. No life, it is true, can be fitly sketched in a
chronological {3} abridgment, but history abounds with lives which,
while important, do not exact from a biographer the kind of detail that
for the actions of Champlain becomes priceless. Kant and Hegel were
both great forces in human thought, yet throughout eighty years Kant
was tethered to the little town of Koenigsberg, and Hegel did not know
what the French were doing in Jena the day after there had been fought
just outside a battle which smote Prussia to her knees. The deeds of
such men are their thoughts, their books, and these do not make a
story. The life of Champlain is all story. The part of it which
belongs to the Wars of the League is lost to us from want of records.
But fortunately we possess in his _Voyages_ the plain, direct narrative
of his exploits in America--a source from which all must draw who would
know him well.

The method to be pursued in this book is not that of the critical
essay. Nor will these pages give an account of Champlain's times with
reference to ordinances regulating the fur trade, or to the policy of
French kings and their ministers towards emigration. Such subjects
must be touched on, but here it will be only incidentally. What may be
taken to concern us is the spirited action of {4} Champlain's middle
life--the period which lies between his first voyage to the St Lawrence
and his return from the land of the Onondagas. Not that he had ended
his work in 1616. The unflagging efforts which he continued to put
forth on behalf of the starving colony at Quebec demand all praise.
But the years during which he was incessantly engaged in exploration
show him at the height of his powers, with health still unimpaired by
exposure and with a soul that courted the unknown. Moreover, this is
the period for which we have his own narrative in fullest detail.

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF CHAMPLAIN ASCRIBED TO MONCORNET
(See Bibliographical Note, P. 154)
From Laverdiere's _Champlain_ in M'Gill University Library]

Even were we seeking to set down every known fact regarding Champlain's
early life, the task would not be long. Parkman, in referring to his
origin, styles him 'a Catholic gentleman,' with not even a footnote
regarding his parentage.[1] Dionne, in a biography {5} of nearly three
hundred pages, does indeed mention the