rose above the level of the marshland and on it there settled 

 a colony of salters, fishermen and sailors. This was the origin 

 of Brouage, later made by Richelieu one of the naval strong- 

 holds of the west and then depopulated by deadly exhalations 

 from the marshes till now grass grows in the courts of its 

 abandoned houses and trees rise among their ruins, spread- 

 ing over them branches twisted by the ocean gales." 



In 1568 — the year after Champlain was born — Brouage 

 was seized and held for the Sire de Pons, who took the side of 

 the Catholic party in the Civil War, although Saintonge itself 

 was strongly Huguenot. Two years later — when Champlain 

 was three years old — it was besieged and taken by the 

 Huguenots, who held it then for half a dozen years, when it 

 was again besieged by the Catholics, under the duke of May- 

 enne, and taken after months of resolute defence — the 

 Huguenots, exhausted by privation, capitulating but marching 

 out with arms and baggage, with drums beating and flags flying. 



Such were the times and scenes amongst which Champlain 

 grew up, and such, with the sea, the influences which took part 

 in shaping him, but the influence of the sea was strongest ; of 

 that he writes, in the dedication of his book to the Queen- 

 mother in 1 61 3; "Among all most excellent and useful arts, 

 that of navigating has always seemed to me to hold first place. 

 For so much the more that it is hazardous, and accompanied 

 by a thousand wrecks and perils, so much the more is it es- 

 teemed beyond others, being in no way suited to those who 

 lack courage or self-confidence. This art it is that from my 

 earliest youth has drawn me to itself, and led me to expose 

 myself during nearly my whole life to the impetuous waves 

 of the ocean." 



Sailing from de Monts' first colony at the mouth of the St. 

 Croix — our present national boundary — to explore the 

 westward coast, Champlain made his first landing within this 

 country's limits on Mount Desert Island, close to Bar Harbor 

 probably, on its seaward side — wherever he first found safe 

 beaching or good mooring for his damaged boat,, stove on a 

 hidden rock, he says, on entering Frenchman's Bay. 



17 



