Although he was not as well known as the infamous Christopher Columbus, Samuel de Champlain was not very different. He was a cartographer, explorer and the governor of New France. Known as the man who was considered to be the founder of New France, he helped map much of northeastern North America and started a settlement in Quebec, as well as laying the base for a great trading empire. Without the contributions of Samuel de Champlain, New France and Quebec would not have survived the beginning

In his first few expeditions across the Atlantic, he commanded a Spanish fleet sailing to the West Indies, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama. But in 1603 he made his first voyage to New France as a member of a fur-trading expedition. He explored the St. Lawrence River as far as the rapids at Lachine and described his voyage in Des Sauvages (1603).

De Monts sent one ship ‘Le Don de Dieu’, commanded by Champlain and sent it to establish a post at Quebec. Le Don de Dieu sailed from Honfleur on April 13, 1608, raised Cape St Mary’s, Nfld, on May 26 and reached Tadoussac on June 3. There, Gravé du Pont was a virtual prisoner of the tough Basques who ridiculed his claim to a monopoly on trade. Champlain, the consummate diplomat, made peace with the Basques and resumed his course up the St Lawrence, arriving off Cap Diamant on July 3.

Champlain set the men to work felling the butternut trees. They dug sawpits and sawed the logs into planks. Their “habitation” was an ambitious structure of three stories, a kind of miniature Bastille. It had a gallery running around the outside and was embellished with a dovecote, which only nobles were allowed to set up in France. The whole structure had a moat around it and a drawbridge before the main entrance. Most of the materials were prepared on the spot but the handsome glazed windows were brought from France.

Before the work was done, Champlain had to put down a mutiny. Several of his men, angered that they were not to share in the profits of the fur trade, planned to murder him and sell out to the Basques. One of the conspirators lost his nerve and told Champlain, who arrested the gang of five. A hasti

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