Summary

This essay examines Champlain’s actions in settling New France. Champlain is an intrepid explorer, a great cartographer and record keeper, and a man of imagination. The French king gives him the monopoly of the fur trade for three years so he can found New France in what is now Quebec. Basque traders want a part of the fur trade – and Champlain, instead of killing them, makes a deal with them. When later a plot to murder Champlain is uncovered, he sends the guilty men two bottles of wine and invites them to dinner in order to learn their motives.

Analysis

This essay is told from the first person point of view and is conversational in tone. It compares the French to the English in their outlooks on colonization. In contrast to the Puritans, Champlain is the embodiment of French character...