Champlain returned to France in March, 1601, having been absent on his first voyage for a period of two years and two months, during which time he collected much valuable information.  He also published a small volume containing plans, maps and engravings, fairly well executed for the time, and now exceedingly scarce.  The manuscript of this volume is still preserved; it covers one hundred and fifteen pages with sixty-two drawings, coloured and surrounded with blue and yellow lines.  It appears to have been written between the years 1601 and 1603.[2]

The first voyage of Champlain across the Atlantic, though important from a military standpoint, did not suffice to satisfy the ambition of a man whose thoughts were bent upon discovery and colonization.  Champlain was a navigator by instinct, and in his writings he gave to nautical science the first place.

“Of all the most useful and excellent arts,” he writes, “that of navigation has always seemed to me to occupy the first place.  For the more hazardous it is, the greater the perils and losses by which it is attended, so much the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being wholly unsuited to the timid and irresolute.  By this art we obtain a knowledge of different countries, regions and realms.  By it we attract and bring to our own land all kinds of riches; by it the idolatry of Paganism is overthrown and Christianity proclaimed throughout all the regions of the earth.  This is the art which won my love in my early years and induced me to expose myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me to explore the coasts of a portion of America, especially those of New France, where I have always desired to see the lily flourish, together with the only religion, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman.”

After his return to France in the year 1601, Champlain received a pension, together with the appointment of geographer to the king.  Pierre de Chauvin, Sieur de Tontuit, who had unsuccessfully endeavoured to establish a settlement at Tadousac, died at this time, while Champlain was residing in Paris.  Here he had the good fortune to meet Aymar de Chastes, governor of the town and chateau of Dieppe, under whose orders he had served during the latter years of the war with the League.

De Chastes, who had resolved to undertake the colonization of Canada, obtained a commission from the king, and formed a company, composed of several gentlemen and the principal merchants of Rouen.  Francois Grave, Sieur du Pont, who had already accompanied Chauvin to Tadousac, was chosen to return there and to examine the Sault St. Louis and the country beyond.