XXXII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



vant eye, a versatile mind, a power of practical adaptation, of utilizing eveiything 

 which comes to hand, these are qualities of his race, and it was his preeminent 

 possession of these qualities which made him the leader of that race. Conjoined 

 with these were moral qualities no less important. A rare humanity which linked him 

 in sympathy with red man and white man alike; the lighter joyous view of life which 

 did not forget amusement of his men in the first desparate battles with disease and frost ; 

 honour and honesty in all his deahngs in the wilds of Canada as well as in the Courts 

 of France. A fine enthusiasm which held him true to the end which he had set 

 before him, to the cause which he had made his own, and above all a profound and 

 reverential reUgious faith which ruade him zealous that this new continent should 

 everywhere be governed by the fear and love of God. And is it too much to say 

 that, after ten generations, these high qualities still mark the people whom he planted 

 here? that, as he made the life of the first little hamlet industrious, frugal, keenly 

 inventive, honest, honourable, kindly, cheerful, neighbourly and devoutly religious, 

 so through these three hundred years the noble example has perpetuated itself, 

 until hundreds of villages and hundreds of thousands of homes are to-day in this land 

 such as Champlain made his first little settlement? 



But our portrait of this founder of our country would be incomplete if we did 

 not introduce two of the common dreams of his age which kindled all the fervour 

 of his ardent spirit. Since the days of Alexander, nay of Solomon, and perhaps 

 even beyond, the Mediterranean lands had found in the trade of the far East a 

 source of boundless wealth. But now for centuries the Saracens had barred the 

 way, until, with new conceptions of the sphere, men were learning to turn their eyes 

 to the setting, instead of the rising sun, hoping to find there the highway to the desired 

 riches of India. Into this dream Champlain entered with versatile imagination. 

 In his first voyage it led him to project a canal across the Panama. And now the 

 broad St. Lawrence penetrating far into the interior of the continent and the great 

 inland seas which he discovered still beyond kept alive this hope, that here the path- 

 way might yet be found which would lead him to this golden land. Twelve days 

 travel would, he was told by Vignau, take him to the great salt sea where he hoped 

 to launch his vessel for the East. To-day, from the same Hochelaga, four days' 

 travel carries his children to the greater salt sea, and the wealth of the Indies is 

 within their grasp. In the transcontinental railway and the Empress line of ships 

 the dream of Champlain is fulfilled. 



His other dream has a far more important significance. It was that the dusky 

 tribes of Canada might know the living and true God. No stronger motive moved 

 and sustained him in his bold and perilous enterprises than this devout desire. 

 To-day how largely has this pious ambition also been accomplished. The little 

 remnant of his old friends the Hurons dwell near us at this very hour under the shadow 

 of the village spire and cross. His old enemies, the Iroquois, worship to-day before 

 the cross at Oka and Caughnawaga, St. Régis, Tyendinaga and Onandaga. But 

 more than that, for three thousand miles beyond, the Crées, the Sioux, the Blackfeet 

 and the Stoneys, the Flatheads and the Tshimpsheans, the Esquimaux and all the 

 tribes to the Pacific coast and the Arctic Sea have been reached by the missionary 

 of the Cross. Only a few small scattered bands yet lie beyond the saving influence 

 of the Christian Church. In a short time we shall remember, Catholic and Protest- 

 ant alike, with becoming reverence and honour, the anniversary of our first Canadian 

 martyrs Bréboeuf and Lalemand; and when their names are enrolled, as we beUeve 

 they should be and will be, in the calendar of the Saints of the Church universal, 

 could a more fitting tribute to their memory be paid than that Catholic and Protest- 

 ant shquld with common zeal unite their efforts to the end that, before their anni- 

 versary day arrives, the most cherished dream of Champlain should be fulfilled, 



