Samuel de Champlaine

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Challenges of Discovery

Hail Brave Hearts

The never ending adventure to voyage and discovery to meet and greet the new people, to learn their ways.  Peace among us is a priority, gifts and exchange, routes of travel and a path to the new world.  Discover, trade and progress, learn the language, the customs, the society.  There are many peoples, many societies, many worlds to discover.  Come with this explorer into the heart of our land and meet the people, listen to their stories, share their passions, learn their wisdom.  This is New France, in 1615, with an exploration into the aboriginal territories of Ontario, as far as Georgian Bay and Lake Nippissing, in search of a route to the Orient.

The Orient.  That spell binding, alluring destination of dreams.  Silk, spices, riches.  The Orient!  Find the route through Canada, we know it’s there.  Yes, it is, but not this time.  Not in 1615, when the world was forested and filled with mighty, turbulent rivers, with rapids and waterfalls to portage.  Not in 1615 when every few hundred kilometers brought new nations of aboriginals to meet and negotiate with.  As skilled and brilliant as these explorers were, the land is too large, the peoples too many, the dangers too difficult and the demands too great.  Still, the path to the Orient exists, but the people need to know these explorers, before extending such a substantial gift as the whereabouts of this sought after trail.

Samuel de Champlain 1604-1616

Travel and travel and travel, is a must.  Explore the world around and before you.  Go to these uncharted lands.  Bring peace, negotiation and prosperity with you, if you can.  It’s a daunting mission, to be the explorer, to discover and collaborate with people of unknown character.  Meeting them in their own land, on their own terms.  Peace and skilled negotiation.  The intellect soars as the negotiations are successful and the peoples minds are set at ease, with this friend.  Gratitude for such necessary gifts, as some burdens are lifted and some work is eased.  Sharing and caring, the beginning of a new world.  The start of a new land.  This is now New France, being explored and documented and carefully mapped.  Each river that is traveled, each new tribe that is encountered, each new language that is spoken and the forest of trees, plants and animals to marvel at as well.  All carefully described, by this well educated person, who knew the land so well.

This is the life of a great explorer, Samuel de Champlain.  His mission of discovery was so successful that it formed peaceful and prosperous relations with several aboriginal tribes and the French people, who earnestly sought common bonds and  well intended relationships with the people of the new world.  The needs for these negotiations for the fur traders were high.  In the end Champlain died in Quebec city with only 150 settlers living in the colony.

With the explorer, came the missionaries.  Jesuit priests from France, intent on bringing Christianity to the people of Canada.  This seemed necessary for the aboriginals to understand the religion of the French people  so that they would have a common bond in humanity to share.  Peace among the people, brothers in Christ.  Although the aboriginals had their own religion, with their own after life, it was deemed essential to bring these people to Jesus.  Such was the quest of the Jesuits who pursued this mission to the ends of their lives.

https://routechamplain.ca/en/listings/carhagouha-1615-site-of-first-mass-in-ontario/

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

February 28, 2020

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The Renaissance

Hail Bravehearts

This journeys end is a new beginning.  This preparedness that painstakingly ensures success is finally our triumph.  Glory and praises, thankfulness and relief, the weary are welcomed.  Come, join us.  Into this fair land of sunshine and wild, of a place of unusual gold.  Riches and fortune, made for a king.

Praises, praises, we have a colony.  At the time of the founding of Quebec city, France was the most populated country in Europe,  yet they had difficulty finding willing settlers to inhabit this great land and to build this great country.  The awesome enticement of riches from the great wild, couldn’t even entice the impoverished slaves from the lower classes to leave the slums of France.  But what does it take to be a fortune hunter, a settler, a soldier and a daredevil?  What qualifications did they need? Perhaps a poor peasant wasn’t the best choice for the colonies.  Slaves might be too fearful and prisoners might be too dangerous.  Choose wisely, oh mighty ones, your day of reckoning will come.

No longer the grandeur of 17th century France.  The life of the  impressive French Renaissance.  Brilliant change and brilliant invention.  Who would leave this awesome place?  Look around yourselves, your good fortune lies here.  Here in the homeland of brilliant France, where the arts are thriving and life is good.  Who would leave this wonderful place, this wonderful life, and venture into the hardship and conflict of life in a colony?  Who dares to be first?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Renaissance

The appeal of colonial life and of making a new country, was not at the top of the list of dreams for the French.  Only those brave few, would dare the Atlantic crossing and venture into the unknown.  Stalwarts and bravehearts, skilled and courageous, colonial life was too daunting an adventure for the polished, sophisticated, countrymen of France.

A backbreaking adventure, a risk of life and limb, a intolerable climate and connections to a people of unknown character.  Life in a fort, in crowded conditions, with bare necessities and humble accommodation.  The freemen of France looked upon the life in a colony suspiciously.  Stumble and fall, stumble and fall, but rise and shine and pursue the adventure once more.

For those who finally ventured forth, into the new, into the unknown, the challenges of life abroad would change the face of North America.  As small as the tiny fort was, it still made a mark in the land, a change in the landscape, a place of accommodation, an establishment and a secure dwelling for those who dared.  Now over 400 years old, the city of Quebec is a thriving city of old and new, of charm and charisma.  A beautiful old place of French pride.

Connect to the people, connect to the countryside.  Learn and teach, the life in the colony will be hard, but finally the adventure is won.

Written by Dr. Louise Hayes

May 15, 2016

Oh Most Divine
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Oh Most Divine

Hail all you brave ones.

 

Oh glory and honour to this majestic king.  We worship you, we praise you, oh blessed immortal being.  Salvation and glory to this oh risen Lord.  We hail thee and praise thee, with prayers and adoration, oh deity divine and humanity saved.

Blessed Lord of centuries past, generations of followers still believing, still pursuing, still curious and understanding, still searching and seeking, the devout persisting, what are these holy ways?  Powers immense, of magnificent proportions, intervention and instilling the knowledge of these mysterious ways.  Providence and grandeur, might and mightiness, still the stable, with the lowly, still the path of righteous living.  Oh greatest of Lords, oh highest of beings, oh teacher of wisdom, we praise thee, with song, with prayer, with labour, with love, with gold, with skills and with honour.  Teach us, oh wise one, teach us to be human.  Oh deity of the great divine, hold us mercifully in you hands.

So duty calls you, oh awesome human, come to the colony, do your duty, come to the colony and be praised.  The wondrous one, of heavens keeping, the glorious, will guide your way.  Come and be magnificent, join the grandeur, mighty and noble and courageous to this day.  Come and worship, come and be guided, oh you most daring, you fortunate, you awesome, you lucky ones, to be the fortitude of France and to seek your fortunes in this most auspicious place.

Lucky are we, to be the chosen ones, the one who will survive and sing glories to our King.  Praises!  Praises!  To overcome the shadows of hardship and poverty, to overcome the cruelty of harsh judgement and misunderstanding, to overcome the elements and live once more.  Hail to you, oh awesome almighty ones, to be first.  First in a game of daunting obstacles, first in a challenge of courage and fortitude, first in a roll of the dice as to who will survive.  Lucky you, to be the chosen ones, come to the colony, take up the dare.

http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/population/immigration/  come to Canada

A fort, a sweet road, Cap Diamond, a church, the Victorious,  government dwellings, low ground and high ground, lower echelons and higher dignitaries, merchants and sailors, government and leadership, all finally together in one place, the colony of New France.  Oh sweet Quebec, you finally survive, oh sweet Quebec, you finally exist.  A colony, one sweet place, a colony, for France.

Over a span of several decades, the colony grew.  From its roots in human sorrow, to a place of quaint ingenuity and charm.  Boldly go where no one has dared to go before, oh brave colonialists of bygone era.  The seat of the country lies in your hands.  Negotiate and trade, bargain and develop.  Oh brave new world of French imperialism, of French might and fortitude.  Oh brave new world.  The king of kings holds you dear and in his arms, his strength shall hold you.  Oh wondrous love, to live so greatly.  Power and praises to our king.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 27, 2016

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We Are Here

Good Day you brilliant ones

A landing.  A safe harbour.   A good place to live.  A place to survive, to beat the elements, to meet the challenge, to conquer the storm.  A place, a safe harbour, a secure place.  Home?  Could this be home?  Could this remote and daunting place finally be home?

Weary and doubting, but necessity calls.  With prayers and hopes and dreams of survival, could this at last, be home?  A secure place to build a colony, a secure place for a settlement.   Set in the St. Lawrence River on a bluff of land, overlooking the river and tucked behind an island.  The thrilling prospect of yet another settlement attempt.  Success!  Success!  Give us success! Finally, let us be saved!

Oh joyous you, oh sweet Quebec.  Oh happy founding, oh life immortal.  A resting place, a  secure and safe place.  A home and shelter in the storms of the eastern coast.  Oh happy rest for weary souls, the founding of a great country, a great city, a colony, a settlement.  Oh happy success.  A refuge in a storm.  Oh great and brilliant, you sweet Quebec.

Poised and strong, fortified and armed.  For France!  Finally, the nation has accomplished it’s goal.  Finally a settlement!  Relieved and thankful, the city endures.  In 1608, mission accomplished!  Finally, a colony.  Praises and gratitude, thank you, oh thank you.    Finally our salvation, oh sweet Quebec.

A beautiful little place of old country charm.  Peace and prosperity, goodwill and protection.  The small but mighty ones of old world courage, who erected those dwellings, secured their fortress, fought the storms and cleared the land.  Negotiate, barter, trade and exchange.  A thriving place of  prosperity in the challenging land of the new world.

For France!  Oh sweet Quebec.  Our sanctuary, our resting place, our lovely, quaint and dreamy home.  It’s thrilling.  We have a colony.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/champlain-and-the-founding-of-quebec-feature/

The habitation was secure, but the usual winter hardship wreaked havoc among the men again.  Scurvy, as usual.  Many died, but the dream was secure.  A fort, a fur trading post, a destiny wrought from the forest.  Now there is security.  Now there is a place to live.  Shelter, negotiation, prospects of trade.  The adventure of their lives has culminated in this great place.  A strong  and fortified habitation, small but secure, with cannons, guns and ammunition.

Finally, they will come.  Come to Canada, you mighty adventurous ones.  Come to great Quebec, to our island in the storm.  Come to share in the wealth of the fur trade, in the prosperity of a new life, in the duty to meet this awesome challenge and to be first, in a great line of pioneers.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

April 9, 2016

The Uncommon Common Man
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The Uncommon Common Man

Hail Bravehearts!

Look to the great planet and the adventure that it offers you, for this great new day.  Look to the wild and the remote places, the vast unknown land, the pristine  sparkling lakes, the forest and the glade.  Look to the tumbling rivers, the majestic water falls, the open prairie and the grand mountain.  This great land, is the land of plenty.  Test your skills and entice your courage, quell your fears and boldly stride onto that path.  The land provides an adventure for you and you, oh brave and daring one, can walk a route that made this country great.  A route of homesteaders, of pioneers, of fur traders, merchants, courier de bois, negotiators, ministry and leaders.  A group of brave hearts.  The uncommon, common man.  For in this time of colonization, the fabulous almighty man, decreed the settling of a land of ice and snow and the common man was chosen to attempt this feat of danger and peril.

The commoner, the common man, who takes his direction from his great lord and master.  The common man, a mere mortal, a human cast in clay and dust, who obeys the decree of the king.  Who is this common man, so roughly hewn that he is merely a servant to the demands of greater minds and greater powers?  So common, so plain, so uneducated, so lowly.  The common mind, from the birth of poor genetics, cast to fulfill great tasks of high achievement and immense dignity and power for the mighty.

Hail to you, for who you are, soldiers and skilled craftsmen, your duty is your worth and your lords will must be done.

Champlain and the Settlement of Acadia 1604-1607

The land was offered and the spring sunshine helped to ease the anxiety of the unknown.  Trust the leadership and their knowledge, their superiority, their greater strength and education.  Trust that the Lord will shine his light upon you and will save your mortal souls.

So it was, in the spring of 1604, that a site was chosen for a colony in the brave new world.  Brave souls, worthy of such an immense attempt.  Skilled craftsmen and intellectuals, seeking peace and prosperity in a land of harsh winters and short growing season.

Basking in the sunshine of the clear, blue Atlantic was small St. Croix Island.  The fishing was good, the dwellings were erected, the security of the settlement was established and hope for the future of a successful colony stirred in their hearts and their minds.  Praises!  Praises to their lord and to the Lord most high.  Praises to the negotiation and to the success of this challenge.  Praises to their accomplishments, to the peace of their living.  Praises!  Praises!

Praises to the foresight of their leaders, to choosing this safe place, to knowledge and security, to peace among us.  Hail great minds and great leadership.  We are successful in the spring, the summer is warm and fills our lives with hope, we are successful in the autumn, while supplies still last, but then?  The long, harsh winter bears down upon us, longer this year and in the spring of 1605 the snow is still piled high and spirits fall as the doomed colonialists count the numbers of those who perished.  Thirty five strong, robust people, die of scurvy this past winter and leave the rest with too much work and too much sorrow.

Brave adventurers, this was not the best place, we move now, to a new plot of land, a new attempt at survival, a new beginning for us.  Fear not!  We are your leaders, you will survive.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

June 2, 2015

To be the First
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To be the First

Hail Bravehearts!

The daring adventure has begun! In trepidation of a world unknown, the human is compelled to respond to the call of the awesome land. Adventure! So exciting. Marvelous. A colony. What an idea. To venture into the unknown and leave this country behind. To be the first. The first in 500 years. The first to set foot on the land, make claim to it and to win the prize of rights to colonize.
The others do not dare. Look at them, casting their nets, fishing and trawling, feeding the hungry and making their fortunes. Look there at those other nations, so easily distracted to their everyday fare. Not noticing the wealth and the grandeur of these lands. Not noticing the potential and the purpose of our journey. Not recognizing the value of this land and the value of nation building. Look at them, just feeding the hungry, not caring to add to their cargo.
The sailors of other nationalities still fished the Grand Banks, watching the French in their pursuit of glory on the soil of a land still unconquered. Will their own monarchs rise to the challenge of colonization as well? The answer evaded them. Although their reports were answered with nods and acceptance, no one else was instructed to land.
The daring and brave of the other nations, lie in wait. Wait, watch and listen. When the time is right and when the world calls their name, they will answer to it. Stand down and let the French try. Later, later, we will look to this land ourselves.
So the mighty strength of the French forces, led a group of hopeful colonialist to enter into a contract of great and awesome proportions. Be first! First to set sail, to set your foot down on the soil, to be heroes to your nation and heroes to the world. To be admired and inspired and to dwell in a land of bountiful plenty. Cheer and wave and be happy with your lot. You are cast in iron and your blood is warm. Seek the adventure of this great voyage. Your names are inscribed in history and you will be made famous.
The joy of discovery is apparent. A new home, a new world, a new life, new beginnings, new friends, new everything. How enticing.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/z16champ2.htm Champlain 1604

While the other nations fished the waters, the new migrants landed on the wild land of Canada. The forest creaked and swayed its welcome, the forest animals chattered and called. Invaders!
Newcomers. The landing was successful.
Now to begin the toil and trouble of clearing the forest, for homes and for crops. Farming was the calling of the day and the wild forest fell to the axe. The timbers came down, crashing to the ground and a dwelling sprang up for shelter. The task was immense and the work was constant. Day after day of constant hard work. The forest standing resolute and unbending. Tree after tree came down and finally a clearing and seeds were sown. Work and work, work and work. Still the weary cannot rest.
Hail to you, for great beginnings. A milestone in history. The challenge of a colony in the new world.
The daunting task lay with the skills and intellect of France.
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
April 6, 2015