The season of 1632 thus belonged to De Caen, whose function was merely to tie up loose ends and prepare for the establishment of the new regime.  The central incident of the recession was the return of Champlain himself—­an old man who had said a last farewell to France and now came, as the king’s lieutenant, to end his days in the land of his labours and his hopes.  If ever the oft-quoted last lines of Tennyson’s Ulysses could fitly be claimed by a writer on behalf of his hero, they apply to Champlain as he sailed from the harbour of Dieppe on March 23, 1633.

   Come, my friends,

   ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world. 
   Push off, and sitting well in order smite
   The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
   To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
   Of all the western stars until I die.

   Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
   We are not now that strength which in old days
   Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
   One equal temper of heroic hearts,
   Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
   To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

It was Champlain’s reward that he saw Quebec once more under the fleur-de-lis, and was welcomed by the Indians with genuine emotion.  The rhetorical gifts of the red man were among his chief endowments, and all that eloquence could lavish was poured forth in honour of Champlain at the council of the Hurons, who had come to Quebec for barter at the moment of his return.  The description of this council is one of the most graphic passages in Le Jeune’s Relations.  A captain of the Hurons first arose and explained the purpose of the gathering.  ’When this speech was finished all the Savages, as a sign of their approval, drew from the depths of their stomachs this aspiration, Ho, Ho, Ho, raising the last syllable very high.’  Thereupon the captain began another speech of friendship, alliance, and welcome to Champlain, followed by gifts.  Then the same captain made a third speech, which was followed by Champlain’s reply—­a harangue well adapted to the occasion.  But the climax was reached in the concluding orations of two more Huron chiefs.  ’They vied with each other in trying to honour Sieur de Champlain and the French, and in testifying their affection for us.  One of them said that when the French were absent the earth was no longer the earth, the river was no longer the river, the sky was no longer the sky; but upon the return of Sieur de Champlain everything was as before:  the earth was again the earth, the river was again the river, and the sky was again the sky.’

Thus welcomed by the savages, Champlain resumed his arduous task.  He was establishing Quebec anew and under conditions quite unlike those which had existed in 1608.  The most notable difference was that the Jesuits were now at hand to aid in the upbuilding of Canada.  The Quebec of De Monts and De Caen had been a trading-post, despite the efforts of the Recollets and Jesuits to render it the headquarters of a mission.  Undoubtedly there existed from the outset a desire to convert the Indians, but as a source of strength to the colony this disposition effected little until the return of the Jesuits in 1632.