greater part of the
detached buildings which Father Charles Lalemant had 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 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, followed by gifts. Then
the same captain made a third speech, which was followed by Champlain's
reply--a harangue well adapted to the occasion. But the climax was
reached in the concluding orations of two more Huron chiefs. 'They vied
with each other in trying to honour Sieur de Champlain and the French,
and in testifying their affection for us