and the great plains of the West.  As it was, he did his immediate duty and restored the peace of Huron and Algonquin.  In partial compensation for the alluring journey he relinquished, he had a better opportunity to study the Hurons in their settlements and to investigate their relations with their neighbours—­the Tobacco Nation, the Neutral Nation, les Cheveux Releves, and the Race of Fire.  Hence the Voyage of 1615 not only describes the physical aspects of Huronia, but contains intimate details regarding the life of its people—­their wigwams, their food, their manner of cooking, their dress, their decorations, their marriage customs, their medicine-men, their burials, their assemblies, their agriculture, their amusements, and their mode of fishing.  It is Champlain’s most ambitious piece of description, far less detailed than the subsequent narratives of the Jesuits, but in comparison with them gaining impact from being less diffuse.

It was on May 20, 1616, that Champlain left the Huron country, never again to journey thither or to explore the recesses of the forest.  Forty days later he reached the Sault St Louis, and saw once more his old friend Pontgrave.  Thenceforward his life belongs not to the wilderness, but to Quebec.

CHAPTER V

CHAMPLAIN’S LAST YEARS

When Champlain reached the Sault St Louis on July 1, 1616, his career as an explorer had ended.  The nineteen years of life that still remained he gave to Quebec and the duties of his lieutenancy.

By this time he had won the central position in his own domain.  Question might arise as to the terms upon which a monopoly of trade should be granted, or as to the persons who should be its recipients.  But whatever company might control the trade, Champlain was the king’s representative in New France.  When Boyer affronted him, the council had required that a public apology should be offered.  When Montmorency instituted the investigation of 1620, it was Champlain’s report which determined the issue.  Five years later, when the Duc de Ventadour became viceroy in place of Montmorency, Champlain still remained lieutenant-general of New France.  Such were his character, services, and knowledge that his tenure could not be questioned.

Notwithstanding this source of satisfaction, the post was difficult in the extreme.  The government continued to leave colonizing in the hands of the traders, and the traders continued to shirk their obligations.  The Company of the De Caens did a large business, but suffered more severely than any of its predecessors from the strife of Catholic and Huguenot.  Those of the reformed religion even held their services in the presence of the Indians, thus anticipating the scandals of Kikuyu.  Though the Duc de Ventadour gave orders that there should be no psalm-singing after the outbound ships passed Newfoundland, this provision seems not to have been effective.  It was a difficult problem for one like Champlain, who, while a loyal Catholic, had been working all his life with Huguenot associates.