ry for the French crown, the
enlargement of the trade zone, the discovery of a route to Cathay, the
prospect of Arcadian joys and exciting adventures--beside such
promptings hardship and danger became negligible. And when exploring
the wilderness Champlain was in full command. {85} Off the coast of
Norumbega his wishes, as geographer, had been subject to the special
projects of De Monts and Poutrincourt. At Fontainebleau he waited for
weeks and months in the antechambers of prelates or nobles. But when
conducting an expedition through the forest he was lord and master, a
chieftain from whose arquebus flew winged death.

The story of Champlain's expeditions along these great secluded
waterways, and across the portages of the forest, makes the most
agreeable page of his life both for writer and reader, since it is here
that he himself is most clearly 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 {86}
Montagnais.[1] 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
ve