IRST VOYAGE TO AMERICA

Samuel Champlain, the issue of the marriage of Antoine Champlain and
Marguerite Le Roy, was born at Brouage, now Hiers Brouage, a small
village in the province of Saintonge, France, in the year 1570, or
according to the _Biographie Saintongeoise_ in 1567. His parents
belonged to the Catholic religion, as their first names would seem to
indicate.

When quite young Samuel Champlain was entrusted to the care of the
parish priest, who imparted to him the elements of education and
instilled his mind with religious principles. His youth appears to have
glided quietly away, spent for the most part with his family, and in
assisting his father, who was a mariner, in his wanderings upon the sea.
The knowledge thus obtained was of great service to him, for after a
while he became not only conversant with the life of a mariner, but also
with the science of geography and of astronomy. When Samuel Champlain
was about twenty years of age, he tendered his services to Marshal
d'Aumont, one of the chief commanders of the Catholic army in its
expedition against the Huguenots.

When the League had done its work and the army was disbanded in 1598,
Champlain returned to Brouage, and sought a favourable opportunity to
advance his fortune in a manner more agreeable, if possible, to his
tastes, and more compatible with his abilities. In the meantime
Champlain did not remain idle, for he resolved to find the means of
making a voyage to Spain in order "to acquire and cultivate
acquaintance, and make a true report to His Majesty (Henry IV) of the
particularities which could not be known to any Frenchmen, for the
reason that they have not free access there." He left Blavet at the
beginning of the month of August, and ten days after he arrived near
Cape Finisterre. Having remained for six days at the Isle of Bayona, in
Galicia, he proceeded towards San Lucar de Barameda, which is at the
mouth of the river Seville, where he remained for three months. During
this time he went to Seville and made surveys of the place. While
Champlain was at Seville, a _patache_, or advice boat, arrived from
Porto Rico bearing a communication addressed to the king of Spain,
informing him that a portion of the English army had put out to sea with
the intention of attacking Porto Rico.

The king fitted out twenty ships to oppose the English, one of which,
the _Saint Julien_, was commanded by Provencal, Champlain's uncle.
Champlain proposed t