Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
PRE- AND EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE
Ochateguins with some of the prisoners. They were well pleased with what had
taken place in the war, and that I had gone with them readily. So we separated with
great protestations of friendship, and they asked me if I did not wish to go into
their country to aid them always as a brother. I promised that I would do so, and I
returned with the Montagnais.
After informing myself, through the prisoners, about their country, and
about how large it might be, we packed up the baggage to return; which we did
with such speed that every day we made 25 or 30 leagues in their canoes, which
is the ordinary rate. When we were at the mouth of the River Iroquois, there
were some of the savages who dreamed that their enemies were pursuing them.
This dream at once led them to move the camp, although the night was very bad
on account of winds and rain; and they went to pass the night among some high
reeds, which are in Lake St. Peter, until the next day. Two days afterward we
reached our settlement, where I had them given bread, peas and beads, which
they asked me for to ornament the heads of their enemies, in order to make
merry on their arrival. The next day I went with them in their canoes to Tadoussac,
to see their ceremonies. As they approached the shore each one took a
stick with the heads of their enemies hung on the ends, with these beads on
them, singing one and all. When they were near the shore the women undressed
entirely naked and threw themselves into the water, going in front of the canoes,
to take the heads to hang afterward to their necks, like a precious chain. Some
days afterward they made me a present of one of these heads and of two sets of
their enemies’ weapons, to preserve, in order to show them to the King; which I
promised to do, to give them pleasure.
1.7.2 Reading and Review Questions
1. According to what criteria does Champlain value/evaluate New France?
How do his criteria compare with those of John Smith?
2. Why, and to what eect, does Champlain allude to Old World/European
examples of successful colonization of places that at rst seemed to
promise little success ie Venice, Genoa, Marseilles?
3. What cultural adaptations, if any, does Champlain foresee for Frenchmen
who cultivate/colonize New France?
4. Why do you think Champlain extolls converting Canadian Indians to
Christianity as the true virtue of kings?
5. What attitude does Champlain take to the Canadian Indians’ culture(s)?
Why? How do you know? How does his attitude compare with that of
de Vaca or Smith? Why and to what eect does Champlain detail the
torturing of a Mohawk Iroquois prisoner of war by the Montagnais (with
whom Champlain fought)?
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