Quebec 1608

We finally arrived at the spot Monsieur Samuel de Champlain has chosen for our settlement, a lovely area on cliffs overlooking the St Lawrence River. Champlain has named this area “Quebec”. Upon our arrival we immediately started to make our fort. Workers houses were built. Soon we will start sending the beaver furs back to France where they will be made into hats. Champlain has formed an alliance with the Montagnais, Algonkians and Hurons, we will give them iron goods and help them in their wars and they will give us furs. They bid us to help them with their wars against the Iroquois. In the spring of 1609 we made war against the Iroquois, they Iroquois were astonished by our arquebuses. We killed their chiefs and suffered no injury but for Champlain’s ear. A young coureurs de bois, named Ettiene Brûlée, Champlain and I made way for Huronia, the home of the Hurons. We had to make sure that the Hurons would continue bringing their furs to Quebec and not the English settlements. Sadly Champlain lost his monopoly on the fur trade and a new company backed by Cardinal Richelieu called the Company of a Hundred Associates has taken over. After the English Kirke Brother took over our colony of Quebec, I along with Champlain and many others were forced to return to France. I returned to Quebec and helped rebuild the colony with Champlain before he died on December 25th 1653.

The settlement of Quebec 1608

The fort of Quebec

Samuel de Champlain the founder of Quebec and New France

 

Quebec on the St Lawrence river