SIRE,

Your most humble, most obedient,
and most faithful servant and subject,

CHAMPLAIN_.




TO THE QUEEN REGENT,

MOTHER OF THE KING.

MADAME,

Of all the most useful and excellent arts, that of navigation has always
seemed to me to occupy the first place. For the more hazardous it is, and
the more numerous the perils and losses by which it is attended, so much
the more is it esteemed and exalted above all others, being wholly unsuited
to the timid and irresolute. By this art we obtain knowledge of different
countries, regions, and realms. By it we attract and bring to our own land
all kinds of riches, by it the idolatry of paganism is overthrown and
Christianity proclaimed throughout all the regions of the earth. This is
the art which from my early age has won my love, and induced me to expose
myself almost all my life to the impetuous waves of the ocean, and led me
to explore the coasts of a part of America, especially of New France, where
I have always desired to see the Lily flourish, and also the only religion,
catholic, apostolic, and Roman. This I trust now to accomplish with the