Our first century . g up all these colonies within what is now the United States, the French wereestablishing themselves north of the English colonies,and their settlements there were destined later to influ-ence in important ways the development of English poweron this continent, and ultimately the upbuilding of theseUnited States of ours. As early as i6o3^four years before the landing atJamestown—the French explorer Champlain, sailed upthe St. Lawrence to what is now the site of Montreal,and explored the country north and south of that the year 1608—a year after Jamestown was colon
Our first century . g up all these colonies within what is now the United States, the French wereestablishing themselves north of the English colonies,and their settlements there were destined later to influ-ence in important ways the development of English poweron this continent, and ultimately the upbuilding of theseUnited States of ours. As early as i6o3^four years before the landing atJamestown—the French explorer Champlain, sailed upthe St. Lawrence to what is now the site of Montreal,and explored the country north and south of that the year 1608—a year after Jamestown was colonized—he founded a settlement at Quebec which proved ul-timately to be the beginning of the French power inAmerica and the beginning of a long series of eventswhich involved the American colonies in wars and troublesof every kind. For twenty-seven years after the founding of Quebec,Champlain continued to be the governor of the Frenchin America. The French who came over with him and 160 THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 161. those who followed him into that region were in the mainnot settlers or farmers, or colonizers, but traders andpriests. The traders came out to buy furs from theIndians in exchange for trinkets, and the priests cameout with the religious purpose of converting the Indiansto Christianity. Wherever the trader went the priestwent also, and often the priest wentwhere the trader dared not go. The French traders were an ac-commodating sort of people whodwelt among the Indians withoutobjecting in any way to their dirtor their uncomfortable ways of liv-ing. They made friends with theIndians from the beginning. Thepriests were even more accommodating. They were abrave company of devoted men who were ready, in pur-suit of their religious purpose, to endure any hardship,encounter any danger, and put aside all thoughts of thedisagreeable, in order that they might rescue the soulsof the Indians from such damnation as heathenism, intheir belief, implied. Many of them lived among
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