er like Champlain. Every one of these dangers is brought
before us by his own narrative in a manner which does credit to his
modesty no less than to his fortitude. Without embellishment or
self-glorification, he recites in a few lines hairbreadth escapes which
a writer of less steadfast soul would have amplified into a thrilling
tale of heroism. None the less, to the discriminating reader
Champlain's _Voyages_ are an Odyssey.

Bound up with habitual fortitude is the motive from which it springs.
In Champlain's case patriotism and piety were the groundwork of a
conspicuous and long-tested courage. The patriotism which exacted such
sacrifices was not one which sought to define itself even in the form
of a justifiable digression from the recital of events. But we may be
sure that Champlain at the time he left Port Royal had made up his mind
that the Spaniards, the English, and the Dutch were not to parcel out
the seaboard of North America to the exclusion of the French. As for
the religious {146} basis of his fortitude, we do not need Le Jeune's
story of his death-bed or the record of his friendship with men of
religion. His narrative abounds throughout with simple and natural
expressions of piety, not the less impressive because they are free
from trace of the theological intolerance which envenomed French life
in his age. And not only did Champlain's trust in the Lord fortify his
soul against fear, but religion imposed upon him a degree of
self-restraint which was not common among explorers of the seventeenth
century. It is far from fanciful to see in this one of the chief
causes of his hold upon the Indians. To them he was more than a useful
ally in war time. They respected his sense of honour, and long after
his death remembered the temperance which marked his conduct when he
lived in their villages.

As a writer, Champlain enjoyed the advantage of possessing a fresh,
unhackneyed subject. The only exception to this statement is furnished
by his early book on the West Indies and Mexico, where he was going
over ground already trodden by the Spaniards. His other writings
relate to a sphere of exploration and settlement which he made his own,
and of which he well merited to be the chronicler.

{147}

Running through the _Voyages_ is the double interest of discovery and
colonization, constantly blending and reacting upon each other, but
still remaining matters of separate concern. It is obvious that in the