Planting the French flag
Samuel de Champlain was a man of colossal scope — soldier, explorer, cartographer, writer and tireless promoter of the colony of New France.
As part of the early wave of Europeans who encountered Canada's First Peoples, he charted coasts and waterways unknown in Europe.
Through his work as a writer and mapmaker, Champlain shed new light on the geography of the North America. He ventured by canoe into the wilderness,
met and negotiated alliances with Aboriginal peoples, fought in their wars, and traded for furs. By founding a permanent settlement at Quebec City, he spearheaded
the expansion of France into the New World.
It is this art (navigation) that drew me to love the sea at a very young age and that compelled me to challenge its treacherous waters all of my life and that made me navigate and follow the coast of parts of America . . .
Samuel de Champlain, 1613
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