he _Relations_ of the Jesuits.
The Fathers, by reason of their long residence among the Indians,
undoubtedly came to possess a more intimate knowledge of their
character and customs than it was possible for Champlain to acquire
during the time he spent among them. On the other hand, the Jesuits
were so preoccupied with the progress of the mission that they tended
to view the life of the savages too exclusively from one angle.
Furthermore, the volume of their description is so great as to
overwhelm all readers who are not specially interested in the mission
or the details of Indian custom. Champlain wrote with sufficient
knowledge to bring out salient traits in high relief, while his
descriptive passages are sufficiently terse to come within the range of
those who are not specialists. When we remember the perpetual interest
which, for more than three hundred years, Europe has felt in the North
American Indian, the _Voyages_ of Champlain are seen in their true
perspective. For he, with fresh eyes, saw the red man in his wigwam,
at his council, and on {150} the war-path; watched his stoic courage
under torture and his inhuman cruelty in the hour of vengeance. Tales
of the wilderness, the canoe, the portage, and the ambush have never
ceased to fascinate the imagination of Europe. Champlain's narrative
may be plain and unadorned, but, with such a groundwork, the
imagination of every reader could supply details at will.

In all essential respects Champlain seems to have been a good observer
and an accurate chronicler. It is true that his writings are not free
from error involving facts of distance, altitude, and chronology. But
such slips as have crept into his text do not constitute a serious
blemish or tend to impugn the good faith of his statements on matters
where there is no other source of information. Everything considered,
his substantial accuracy is much more striking than his partial
inaccuracy. In fact, no one of his high character and disinterested
zeal could write with any other purpose than to describe truly what he
had seen and done. The seal of probity is set upon Champlain's
writings no less than upon the record of his dealings with his
employers and the king. Unselfish as to money or fame, he sought to
create New France.

{151}

In national progress much depends on the auspices under which the
nation was founded and the tradition which it represents. Thus
England, and all the English world,