Jean-François Champollion

“ The election was held in Paris at the house of the intendant, Jean de Lauzon, king's councillor, master of requests and president of the Grand Council. Cardinal Richelieu and the Duke d'Effiat headed the list of the Hundred Associates. We find also the name of Samuel Champlain, captain of the king's marine, of Isaac de Razilly, chevalier de St. Jean de Jérusalem,171 Sébastien Cramoisy, the famous printer; François de Ré, Sieur Gand, and many important merchants of Paris, Rouen, Calais, Dieppe, Bordeaux, Lyons, Bayonne, and Havre de Grâce. ”

“ It is impossible to praise [Pg 9] Young too highly for his early work on the Rosetta Stone.
At the same time that Young was wrestling with hieroglyphics in England, François Champollion was trying to solve the puzzle in France. Champollion’s interest in hieroglyphics did not spring up in a night; it was of slow growth, starting in his childhood when Egypt bulked large in the imaginations of most French boys owing to the stirring deeds of Napoleon against the Mamelukes. ”

“ The period spent in Paris had a still more decisive influence upon him than that at Göttingen. During this time the youth matured into a settled man; his scientific inclination received a new bias, and its objects became plainly defined.
Champollion had said, in his introductory lecture, that the science of archaeology was a beautiful maiden without a dower. This aphorism was at that time entirely appropriate, yet not only the young scholar himself, but his father also, knew the wonderful charms of the bride, and every possible exertion was made by{53} both, to win her for the ardent wooer. ”

“ The latter must be acknowledged as the real founder of the system of interpretation which has held its own against all opposition, and has opened the way to inquiries into the history of the past undreamt of when the century was young. Chateaubriand nobly said of him, "Ses admirables travaux auront la durée des monuments qu'il nous a fait connaître."
The germ of Champollion's discovery consisted in the bringing together of two sets of characters enclosed in cartouches. One of them is in the Rosetta inscription itself; the other, on the plinth of an obelisk in the island of Philæ. ”

“ Perhaps in his later years the heretic might like him more had the Jesuit liked him less. The adventurous explorer of Lake Huron, the bold invader of the Iroquois, befits but indifferently the monastic sobrieties of the fort of Quebec and his sombre environment of priests. Yet Champlain was no formalist, nor was his an empty zeal. A soldier from his youth, in an age of unbridled license, his life had answered to his maxims; and when a generation had passed after his visit to the Hurons, their elders remembered with astonishment the continence of the great French war-chief. ”

“ God, who in His providence disposes of the lives of men according to His divine wisdom, directed the steps of Champlain towards the shores of the future New France. If the mother country had not completely forgotten this land of ours, discovered by one of her greatest captains, she had, at least, neglected it. The honour of bringing the king's attention to this vast country, which was French by the right of discovery, was reserved for the modest son of Brouage. ”

“ Naturalist, mariner, geographer, such was Samuel Champlain, and to a degree remarkable for the age in which he lived. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to dwell upon the morality of the virtuous founder. The testimony of the Hurons, who, twenty years after his death, still pointed to the life of Champlain as a model of all Christian virtues, is sufficient, and it is certain that no governor under the old régime presented a more brilliant example of faith, piety, uprightness, or soundness of judgment. ”

“ Every one will admire Champlain's disinterested actions, his courage, his loyalty, his charity, and all those noble and magnificent qualities which are rarely found united in one individual in so prominent a degree. ”

“ The brothers were François Charton and Gilbert Burel. Father Lalemant, formerly director of the college of Clermont, was appointed director of the mission. Champlain speaks of him as a very devoted and zealous man. Father Massé had been previously in Acadia, where he proved his devotedness to the Indians. Father de Brébeuf, the youngest of the three, was distinguished by reason of his mature judgment and great prudence. The number of the Récollets was increased by the arrival of Father Joseph de la Roche d'Aillon, a man of noble and exalted character. ”

“ So far as I know, I am the only man in New York, if not in the United States, who has ever made a pilgrimage to Champlain’s birthplace. And no man in America is more grateful to France for his own birthplace. It is not permitted me to speak my devotion to Champlain and my gratitude to France. I will let this silent stone speak for me—this fragment of rock from the coast of France, which was once a keystone in the arch over the doorway of the home in Brouage in which, by tradition, Champlain was born. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are all more or less influenced by the achievements of the past, and through the energy and the daring of such men as Champlain, there probably does not now remain on the earth any such unexplored wildernesses as was this valley when Champlain first saw it; even the poles have been discovered and located. It remains for us of the present and the future to make the best possible use of the advantages which we have thus gained. ”

“ Champlain was as much at home in the brilliant court of France as in a wigwam on a Canadian lake, as patient and politic with a wild band of savages on Lake Huron as with a crowd of grasping traders in St. Malo or Dieppe. Always calm, always unselfish, always depending on God, in whom he believed and trusted, and thinking of France, which he loved, this single-hearted man resolutely followed the path of his duty under all circumstances ”

“ Christmas day, 1635, was a dark day in the annals of New France. In a chamber of the fort, breathless and cold, lay the hardy frame which war, the wilderness, and the sea had buffeted so long in vain. After two months and a half of illness, Champlain, at the age of sixty-eight, was dead. His last cares were for his colony and the succor of its suffering families. Jesuits, officers, soldiers, traders, and the few settlers of Quebec followed his remains to the church; Le Jeune pronounced his eulogy, and the feeble community built a tomb to his honor. ”

“ From Marco Polo to Scott's Journal the literature of geographical discovery abounds with classics, and standards of comparison suggest themselves in abundance to the critic of Champlain's Voyages. Most naturally, of course, one turns to the records of American exploration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—to Ramusio, Oviedo, Peter Martyr, Hakluyt, and Purchas. No age can show a more wonderful galaxy of pioneers than that which extends from Columbus to La Salle, and among the great explorers of this era Champlain takes his place by virtue alike of his deeds and writings. ”

“ It will be seen from the recital of Duval's conspiracy that Champlain was fortunate to escape the fate of Hudson and La Salle. While this cause celebre was running its course to a tragic end, the still more famous habitation grew day by day under the hands of busy workmen. As fruits of a crowded and exciting summer Champlain could point to a group of three two-storeyed buildings. 'Each one,' he says, 'was three fathoms long and two and a half wide. The storehouse was six fathoms long and three wide, with a fine cellar six feet deep. ”

“ There are old graveyards, where rest the pioneers who prayed, and hoped, and starved with Champlain. All the stories can never be written, all the monuments that speak of glory do not tell of the sufferings. Yet there were happy lives, and happy loves, as well. The storms die out, the light and sunshine dry up the tears, and courage is given to go on.
The old French days have left their impress. Champlain will always be a living memory, as the founder of one of the marvellous cities of the world. ”

“ It is seldom that the deeds of the great men of past ages have been more fittingly remembered. Champlain, as we have previously remarked, possessed in an eminent degree all the qualities necessary for a founder, and his character is therefore exceptional, for over and above all the heroism he displayed, all his perseverance, his devotion to his country, we behold the working of a Christian mind, and the desire to propagate the faith of his fathers. ”

“ Champlain is indeed the historian of St Croix, Port Royal, and Quebec, but only incidentally or from chance. By temper he was the explorer, that is, the man of action, willing to record the broad results, but without the instinct which led Lescarbot to set down the minutiae of life in a small, rough settlement. There is one side of Champlain's activity as a colonizer which we must lament that he has not described—namely, his efforts to interest the nobles and prelates of the French court in the upbuilding of Canada. ”

“ From pre-historic times the Champlain valley has been one of the thoroughfares of successive nations occupying the region, inviting alike to discoverer, trader, pioneer, warrior and traveler. It was but natural that its circumjacent shores and beautiful islands should become the homes of sturdy men, breathing the ozone of the mountain air wafted down into the valley, and possessing an independence and resolution found in such men as the Allens, the Warrens, the Bakers, and the Chittendens. ”

“ The Vermont Commission in order to do honor to that distinguished son, Samuel Champlain, united with the New York Commission in erecting this stately joint memorial to commemorate his memory, which is revered by the people of both states. We count it the greatest privilege that can fall to the lot of any man to be born along the shores of this beautiful lake, which Champlain considered worthy to bear his name. ”

“ In the mighty structure of American civilization there is something of France—allow us to believe gentlemen that you will not forget it—and on the monument you are erecting this image will remain forever sealed to recall and symbolize that fact. This image we give to you as Champlain, our fellow-countryman, gave the best of his life to this land of yours. We give it to the United States, we give it to the States of New York and Vermont, the builders of the lighthouse rising upon the shores of the lake which bears Champlain’s name ”

“ Here was a vast country, capable of producing great wealth, and struggling for its possession was a body of avaricious men, while valiantly guarding its infancy, we find a single champion, the heroic Champlain. Champlain watched over the new settlement with the tender solicitude of a parent carefully protecting his offspring from danger, and ready to sacrifice his life to save it from disaster. In small vessels of sixty or eighty tons, Champlain had repeatedly exposed his life to danger in crossing the ocean. ”

“ It is not from a biographical dictionary that one can gain true knowledge of Champlain, into whose experience were crowded so many novel sights and whose soul was tested, year after year, by the ever-varying perils of the wilderness. No life, it is true, can be fitly sketched in a chronological {3} abridgment, but history abounds with lives which, while important, do not exact from a biographer the kind of detail that for the actions of Champlain becomes priceless. ”

“ It is better to try and fail than not to endeavor. Champlain never felt that he was called—he just went. He never worried about prosperity. He framed his opinions without asking himself whether he was in the majority or not. ”

“ To single out Champlain's chief literary triumph, it was he who introduced the Algonquin, the Huron, and the Iroquois to the delighted attention of France. Ever since the days of Cartier the French had known that savages inhabited the banks of the St Lawrence, but Champlain is the pioneer in that great body of literature on the North American Indian, which thenceforth continued without interruption in France to the Rene and Atala of Chateaubriand. Above all other subjects, the Indians are Champlain's chief theme. ”

“ Champlain's influence has expanded throughout the country wherever the French language is spoken, from the Huron peninsula, along the Algonquins' river, from Sault St. Louis, Tadousac and Quebec, and every one has recognized that Champlain alone, among the men of his day, had sufficient patriotism and confidence in the future of the colony to maintain and hold aloft under great difficulties, the lily banner of France on our Canadian shores. ”

“ The savage warriors, however, unwilling to wait for him, set out for their villages, taking with them an adventurous friar named Le Caron. But Champlain was not to be baulked by this circumstance. He immediately started on the track of the larger party, with ten Indians and two Frenchmen, one of whom was his interpreter, Etienne Brulé. He went up the Ottawa River, made a portage through the woods, and launched his canoes on the waters of Lake Nipissing, passing through the country of a tribe so sunk in degrading superstitions, that the Jesuits afterward called them "the Sorcerers." ”