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Authors
Samuel De Champlain (c. 1570-1635)
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Born into a seafaring family on the Atlantic coast of France, Champlain crossed the Atlantic over twenty times. His voyages took him up the St. Lawrence River to the future site of Montreal; to Quebec City, which he founded in 1608; to the coasts of what would become New England and Canada's Maritime provinces; and inland to Georgian Bay. These extensive coastal and interior explorations enabled France to make solid claims to much of North America at a time when the English were just beginning to settle Virginia. Champlain also cultivated strong friendships with many Native Americans, including the Montagnais, the Algonkians, and the Hurons, with whom he joined forces to fight their enemy, the Iroquois. He recorded his explorations in such works as Des Sauvages (1603), Les Voyages (1613), Voyages et Descouvertures (1619), and Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France (1632), his final and largest publication.
Questions for Discussion and Writing
Even by Americans who have never read his words, Smith is remembered as a soldier, an adventurer, an action hero. Unlike Champlain, Smith did not write his account from meticulous and extensive notes and journals, but years after from his recollections, and perhaps also from his sense of theater. Compared to that of Harriot, Smith's literary style is lush, self-conscious, even florid at times.
1. What kind of audience does The General History of Virginia (1624) seem intended for? What social standing and literary tastes would this account appeal to? In The General History, why does Smith write of himself in the third person? Do you know of any classical authors, especially adventurers and military figures, who used a similar strategy? What is the effect?
2. When Smith writes glowingly of "New England" (1616), what kind of England does he imagine as possible on the American continent? What are its pleasures going to be? What values will it have? Contrast this dream with the aspirations of William Bradford, John Winthrop, and the Massachusetts Bay colonists.
