in the foreground. At no point can his
narrative be thought dull, compact as it is and always in touch with
energetic action. But the details of fur trading at Tadoussac and the
Sault St Louis, or even of voyaging along the Acadian seaboard, are far
less absorbing than the tale of the canoe and the war party. Amid the
depths of the interior Champlain reaped his richest experiences as an
explorer. With the Indians for his allies and enemies he reached his
fullest stature as a leader.

It is not important to dwell upon the minor excursions which Champlain
made from his headquarters at Quebec into the country of the Montagnais.
[Footnote: An Algonquin tribe dwelling to the north of the St Lawrence,
for the most part between the Saguenay and the St Maurice.] He saw
little of the rocky northland which, with its myriad lakes and splendid
streams, sweeps from the St Lawrence to Hudson Bay. Southward and
westward lay his course to the cantons of the Iroquois south of Lake
Ontario and the villages of the Hurons north of Lake Simcoe. Above all,
the expeditions of 1609, 1613, and 1615 are the central episodes of his
work as an explorer, each marked by a distinct motive and abounding with
adventures. In 1609 he discovered Lake Champlain and fought his first
battle with the Iroquois. In 1613 he was decoyed by a lying guide into a
fruitless search for the North-West Passage by the route of the Ottawa.
In 1615 he discovered Lake Huron, traversed what is now Central Ontario,
and attacked the Iroquois in the heart of their own country. These three
journeys make the sum of Champlain's achievements as a pioneer of the
interior. For all three, likewise, we have his own story, upon which all
other versions are based and from which they draw their most striking
details.

The discovery of Lake Champlain had its root in Champlain's promise to
the Algonquins that he would aid them in their strife with the Iroquois.
In turn this promise was based upon the policy of conciliating those
savage tribes from whom the French derived their supply of furs, and
with whom throughout the St Lawrence basin they most constantly came in
contact.

It was the year which followed the founding of Quebec. Of the
twenty-eight who entered upon the first winter eight only had survived,
and half of these were ailing. On June 5 relief came in the person of
Des Marais, who announced that his father-in-law, Pontgrave, was already
at Tadoussac. Champlain at once set ou