MEMOIR OF SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN.


CHAPTER I.

PARENTAGE--BIRTH--HOME AT BROUAGE--ITS SITUATION--A MILITARY STATION--ITS
SALT WORKS--HIS EDUCATION--EARLY LOVE OF THE SEA--QUARTER-MASTER IN
BRITTANY--CATHOLICS AND HUGUENOTS--CATHERINE DE MEDICIS--THE LEAGUE--DUKE
DE MERCOEUR--MARSHAL D'AUMONT--DE SAINT LUC--MARSHAL DE BRISSAC--PEACE OF
VERVINS


Champlain was descended from an ancestry whose names are not recorded among
the renowned families of France. He was the son of Antoine de Champlain, a
captain in the marine, and his wife Marguerite LeRoy. They lived in the
little village of Brouage, in the ancient province of Saintonge. Of their
son Samuel, no contemporaneous record is known to exist indicating either
the day or year of his birth. The period at which we find him engaged in
active and responsible duties, such as are usually assigned to mature
manhood, leads to the conjecture that he was born about the year 1567. Of
his youth little is known. The forces that contributed to the formation of
his character are mostly to be inferred from the abode of his early years,
the occupations of those by whom he was surrounded, and the temper and
spirit of the times in which he lived.

Brouage is situated in a low, marshy region, on the southern bank of an
inlet or arm of the sea, on the southwestern shores of France, opposite to