Champlain's Quebec Built on Wendat Power Part 1

(upbeat music) - Hi and welcome back to Maple History. I'm your host, Christina Austin. If you are enjoying the show, please consider joining the Patreon so that I can keep doing this until we get all the way to the FLQ crisis at least. And if you just like listening to the show and that's how you wanna show your support, I truly appreciate that as well. So today my guest is Simon. - And I'm here again. - I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. - Yeah, 'cause it's 10 o'clock on Friday night before we head away to a cottage for this weekend. So it's hard to get a guest at that time of night. Okay, today we are diving headlong into the colonial era of New France with the founding of Quebec. So Champlain is going to be the narrative focus here, but at the same time, he is really a player in the more complicated trade relationships, kinship networks, and the ongoing mourning wars between the well-matched Wendat and their allies and the Haudenosaunee. So Champlain's colonial success in establishing the permanent settlement of Quebec is an important touchstone in the creation of Champlain's image here as the power behind the trade alliances he had with the indigenous people. But this does ignore the major determining factor in how the alliances in early New France were directed by the most powerful among those nations, the Wendat Confederacy. - Oh, I'd heard the Iroquois Confederacy. - Mm-hmm. - I hadn't heard the Wendat Confederacy. I just always heard of them as the Huron or the Wendat. Were they were a group though? - Yeah, they were four nations and maybe five towards their end. - Oh, interesting. - Yeah, so we're gonna talk only about the, I'm gonna try to say it correctly, Arendah Honon today. - Okay. - There are other ones that are way harder. - Fair enough. - That's the easy one. So that's the only one we're really talking about today. But then we get into a couple others in the next episode. 'Cause originally this was going to be one big episode from 1608 until 1616. - Okay. - And I was like, no, no, this is gonna be fine. And then I wrote 3,000 words. - Eight pages or so. - And I got to the second topic that I'd wanted to cover. - Oh, second of-- - Of six. - Okay. (laughs) It might even be a three-parter. - I don't know, we'll see. The other ones are definitely shorter. But we'll see, I mean, we'll find out. - Yeah, never know. - I wanna say write it 'cause yeah, this is enough for today. All right, so the last time we saw Champlain, he had just had to head back to France in 1607 because the Acadian colony had to close up shop, leaving their friend, the Mi'kmaq chief, member two in charge of what they had built at the settlement of Port Royal. So Champlain didn't stay down long and Dumont stayed in France. By June 1608, he was back in Tatasak. There was a whole bunch of getting funding and whatnot. They needed a new monopoly. Like it'll last and then it won't last. - Okay, appease your funding people and your king. - Yeah, so that's what they had to do. So by June 1608, he was back in Tatasak, as I said. So he and Dumont still believed in creating a French colony in Canada and Champlain wanted to try in the St. Lawrence Valley this time. So Grave DuPont is our old friend. That's the jolly fellow. - Okay, yeah, yeah. - The big drinker. - Yes. - He'd been in a ship that left like a little bit ahead. So he was already at Tatasak. That's where they usually, they start at Tatasak and then they go down. - Okay. - And he had gotten himself into a mess with a Basque whaling ship that had been in the harbor when he got there. - Okay. - Grave DuPont was a bit pompous and said that the whaling ship was there illegally and attacked them. - Oh, fun, okay. - And the Basque were armed to the teeth. - Yeah, well, they also had even things like-- - Or poons. - Yeah, like whale or poons, I'm sure. - They had cannon too 'cause they had to fight each other. Anyways, they defeated the French soundly and took a badly wounded Grave DuPont prisoner. - Oh, fun. - Yeah. - So when Champlain arrived, not long after, this had taken place, he was supremely pissed off with Grave DuPont for pulling the-- - Yeah, you dumbass. (laughing) - So he negotiated his release from the Basque captain and the Basque, they went on their way. They did not wanna pick a fight with three ships 'cause the other two had come, so. - Yeah, no, that's fair. - And they're like, whatever, we're just gonna go. So not a great start so far. - Do they lose the ship? - No. - Okay. - So Champlain made his way up to what will be Quebec and chose that high cliff top overlooking the St. Lawrence as the place he was gonna make his settlement. So there's a couple days and whatever that happened at Tada Sac, but that, whatever, it's fine. So we mark the founding of Quebec City as July 3rd, 1608. And he has a good trading relationship with the Inu, also known as the Montagnier. - So there was no indigenous settlement there? - No, there is, the Inu. - Oh, so they had a permanent settlement? - No, not really 'cause they were not the Inu and the Algonquin were not farming people. - Gotcha. - Gotcha. - So it is their territory? - Yes. - But the concept of ownership is more complicated. - My point is more, they didn't have like a palisaded village at that location 'cause I guess they really wouldn't need to 'cause they wouldn't need to have this high cliff defensible 'cause that sort of warfare didn't exist really. - Yeah, the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee, they had palisaded villages. - Yeah. - So it's a little off top, but it doesn't matter. But the Inu and particularly the Algonquin, they would often go and stay with the Wendat. - Okay, yeah. - Different families in different groups because in the winter you'd separate. - Yes. - They would disperse into their hunting family groups and they'd come back in the summer to trade and fish and all that good stuff and do all their things. But some of the Algonquin and Inu families had relationships with other Wendat families. - Yeah, it makes sense. - And chiefs and things like that. So they would go and hang out with them all winter. When some of the Wendat would wanna go in the winter, they would take off and go hunting 'cause they'd go with their hunting buddies. - Yeah, of course they weren't like totally isolated. It'd be like, today, like you'd meet some friends, you'd be like, get to know each other. - Hell yeah, I know that guy that lives in Oakville. - Yeah. - Like, you know, that kind of, you just did. That's just people. - Yeah, that makes sense. - They had a lot more formalized situations as well. Like, these were structured societies. So anyways, so he had a good relationship with Inu the French did because they'd been trading at Tedesack and Tedesack is the Tedesack St. Lawrence area is where the Inu people had taken over after the St. Lawrence Iroquois had dispersed and gone probably with some of the Inu and the Wendat and whatever when we covered in the St. Lawrence Iroquois episode. - And Inu, not Inu it. Very different groups. - Oh, I know it's so confusing. - It's an easy one to include the correct name because it's Inu. It's not like I'm trying to say like the Mohawk or the Kenyang-kaha, Kenyang-kaha, I've practiced. I watched a video and I practiced, I'm still getting it wrong. So it's hard to say. And then each Mohawk nation has obviously their own name and not the English name. So they started building right away 'cause they're short on time. - Winter's coming. - It's July. - Winter's always coming. - Yeah, if you got to build some shelter. - Yeah, July are like, oh God, summer's almost over. - Yep. - So there were about 30 artisans and laborers building the habitation. With three interconnected buildings, there was a workshop and a forge, a house for Champlain, of course, that was on the south side, the nicest outlook and living space, house, whatever, for the artisans. Stack 'em up, I guess, a rooming house. And Champlain had everyone start a garden. - Okay. - Including himself. - Champlain worked them hard. I don't know if he got calluses on his hands at all though. All I know is that he puttered in his garden. So whether he did any sawing, I don't know. - Yeah, he might've just been more like the foreman or whatever it is, walk 'cause I aren't supervising. - Yep. So whatever was happening there, some men were not happy at all. One man, Jean Duvall, who was a locksmith and locksmith, they could also repair guns. - Oh, yeah, that makes sense. - So it's based like a locksmith would be like a metal worker, but not a blacksmith. - Yeah, like a fine working with gears and all that stuff, yeah. - Yeah, so he hatched a conspiracy with three others to kill Champlain. - Wow. - So Duvall was not new to the colonial game here. He was a veteran of the Acadian Voyages and he was a real piece of work then too. So do you remember the group of guys who disobeyed Putrenkor, one of the leaders, when they went down the coast in the States? - Yes, he was one of the guys who went to the shore and he's like, screw you, I'm just gonna stay here. He's one of them. - Yeah, and everybody else got killed but him. - Okay. (laughing) - He was the only one that made it back alive. - That's funny. - Yeah, so who knows why he was trying to join the colony again? Perhaps his job prospects were slim back in France due to some noted behavioral issues? - Yeah. - Shortly before the planned murder or the date they'd picked, a ship came in from Tarusak, captain by Guillaume Latestu who was very well liked and had a loyal crew. And another locksmith named Natale found a moment to speak with Latestu and told him of the plot. - Okay. - So Latestu got right on it and went to Champlain and together they devised a plan to foil the conspiracy after scaring the living shit at a poor Natale into giving him all the names of the conspirators. Poor guy was shaking in his boots. - Oh, jeez. - So one of Latestu's loyal men invited the conspirators to enjoy some booze back on his ship that night. I mean, that's an easy mark. - I like this counter trap that they have going on. - Yeah. So they fell for it, of course. So as soon as they were on the ship for the planned piss up, Champlain had them arrested. So Champlain was there for the arrest. So I'm sure as soon as they saw them their heart just went to their toes. So they brought them back into the Quebec settlement and they had all the other colonists come out and Champlain threatened death to everyone who didn't come forward with everything they knew about the conspiracy. Everyone fessed up immediately about what they knew. - Yeah. - And it was only those four that were brought over to Tatasak for a tribunal headed by Champlain Latestu and the surgeon named Bonairm. - Okay, I imagine 'cause he's a learned man. - Yeah. - Okay. - There's leadership, right? - Yeah, education and all that. - Yeah. And maybe some connections and whatnot. So they were all found guilty. Duvall was executed and his head was put on a pike outside Quebec. - I was gonna say, I'm sure they would have executed. - Yeah. The other three were sent back to France to be executed there. - I'm surprised they bothered. - I don't know why. I don't know what they're doing. The Justice, the King's Justice is being met already the fourth commuted their sentence 'cause he liked to do that. - I was gonna ask you, maybe they just like threw him over the side of the ship on the way, on the way there and just kind of forgot about them. - That I guess not. - No. - He commuted their sentence, okay. - Yeah, I'm sure they didn't have a good life after that. I don't know who the other three were. I only know who Duvall was. - Okay. - So as to why Duvall decided to try and take Champlain out, Bruce Trigger, or my old buddy, believed that he may have been promised something by the Basque in an effort to keep their trading connections open in the shadow of the French monopoly that was coming. But it doesn't seem likely that it would have worked out even if he had succeeded in killing Champlain. It was just a terrible plan. Even if they got him, like, grabby Duvall is still down the road. The test dude, like there's other ships coming, and a captain of a ship would never have abided that. - No. - They would have hunted them down and got rid of them. You do not take out your captain. So anyways, Champlain and the gang got the buildings up, but it was already, again, a pretty crappy start. So we had the Basque fight and assassination attempt, and things were going to get much, much worse over winter. - There's a common theme here with people spending winters in Canada and not going well. - I know I was thinking that maybe we need to get like a sound effect of like the Canadian winters coming and like, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. Or get a clip of Sean Bean saying winter is coming. - Yeah. - And that Yorkshire accent, a gravely voice. So this was not like the order of good cheer winter in the last year of the Acadian settlement. This was a, oh dear God, everyone is dying of scurvy and dysentery kind of winter. - Again, still, yeah. - Dysentery is a nice touch. That was new. - Oh yeah, that's new, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. There were 28 colonists and only eight survived, and four of those survivors were barely alive. (laughs) - Is that, that's including Champlain? - Yeah. And among the survivors, there's a young Etienne Brûlée. - Oh, it's in Brûlée! Oh, okay. Nice. - Yeah. It's in there. - I know. - We've had conversations about Etienne Brûlée. - Yeah, so these-- - The listeners don't know about yet, but yes. - Well, you might, like that might be one name you remember from history class in grade seven. - Okay. - So he's gonna come up a lot. He's gonna get his own episode. - Of course. - So that's all we hear about him today. Next episode, we're talking about a little more. So the Inew had an equally terrible time as the French, so they couldn't help each other much at all. They did try as best they could, and their friendship remained strong. The winter had come early, but it didn't bring a lot of snow. And that made it difficult for hunting. I don't understand why, but maybe it was too marshy. Anyways, that's what the book said. Some Inew had tried to cross the mostly frozen river to get over to Quebec, the habitation, but they died in the effort. Champlain saw them coming and saw them die, and it was a terribly tragic winter, and Champlain wrote of his sadness of what he saw that Inew and Jure. Some got there. - Were they crossing the St. Lawrence? - Yeah, and their canoes, and they got all smashed up on the ice flows. Some did get to them, and they shared what they had, but they were starving. So the horrible winter was over, and by June, the ships had begun to arrive, as well as other indigenous allies. Not everybody had a terrible winter, like it depends on where you are, right? And maybe the wind out were fine, right? 'Cause they're over in Simcoe County, and they had corn and squash. - Stores to rely on, yeah. - And just a slightly different climate. - Well, I mean, the climate could change pretty dramatically. - Yeah, from Berry to Quebec City. - Oh, it's massive difference. - Yeah. - Berry to Ottawa. - Yeah. - Huge difference. - So the previous year, Champlain had begun talks with the Algonquin Chief of the Petite Nation. - You're okay, not Iroquois, but he's an Algonquin. - Yes. (laughing) - Sure. So they were in discussion with Iroquois and other Inu chiefs for Champlain to assist them in their wars with the Haudenosaunee, 'cause the Mohawk were coming over and raiding in Montagnier, Inu territory. They were fighting them off. - So were the Mohawk a part of the Iroquois Confederacy? - Yeah. - Slash Haudenosaunee? - Yeah. Yeah, which is it, Five Nations. So it's Mohawk, Onida, Onondaga, Kayuga. It's gonna bug me. I forget, sorry. - Okay, that's right. - Anyways, there's five. And the Mohawk were tough as nails. They were among the fiercest fighters. Not that they weren't all, but they were known for their brutality, I guess. - Okay. - Effectiveness is maybe another word, depends on who would side you're on. The Mohawk were like, "We're hella good." - Yeah, we like waiting. - Yeah, and we're really good at it. - Yeah. - Oh, let me show you this Haudenosaunee fire-tempered war club. I'm gonna show you the picture. - Oh, that looks mean. - Okay, describe it. - Wow, it looks like it's all made of wood, but it's almost like the shape of a machete, except it to kind of end the machete. It's got a ball with a spike, like a single spike coming out of it. So I'm guessing that-- - Well, it's that it's fire-hardened. - Oh, and in the little description says, the French call it a cast-het, a skull-smasher. Yeah, that would do it. (laughs) That'll do it. And I'm guessing the ball on the end is to give it mass, like so, like it adds all that swinging power. And then the little spike that's protruding out of it. - That'll do it. - It goes into the head. Wow, that's it. - I mean, it'll crush, the ball will crush it, too. - Oh, yeah. - But, yeah. It is, I mean, as a weapon, it's stunning. It's a very beautiful weapon. - It's creatively brutal. - Yeah, it's got a shine to it because it's polished. Anyways, it's nice. And that, if you are interested, is in Champlain's dream, David Hackett Fisher's book. But yeah, that was a, I was like, I saw that picture and I'm like, oh God. Yeah, that'll work. - Yeah. - So, Ira Cat was the main chief who was working to get Champlain to help them against the Haudenosaunee. And he had spent the winter with the Arendor Honon of the Wendat Confederacy. Apparently, it's like, it's like, that's where his family goes in the winter. So, this is a long-standing relationship. - Yeah, it's like some people today, some are in the Hamptons, like they winter with the-- - Yeah. - Yeah, okay. - I mean, hey, this is, this is, this is some, this cottage country, baby. - Yeah, yeah, it's nice. - Yeah, Barretwell, Barretwell. Barret is Barret, um. (laughing) For you, sure, some people think it's nice. Anyways, I am from Barret, I need to say that. (laughing) Anyways, sometimes it's nice. So, when Ira Cat was staying with the Arendor Honon, they would have discussed the French that they were coming. The Wendat hadn't met them yet, but the Inu and the Algonquin, they had seen them many times 'cause that they're in that territory all the time and they had been coming to Tarasak for years now. - Yep. - So, this is not new to them. This is part of a plan. So, it is in this relationship between Irocat and the Wendat Chief of Shostaguen that the plan to lock the French to a trading relationship with them and to keep the French from the Haudenosaunee formed, in my opinion. - Okay. - So, Gavey DuPont had gone home for the winter and was back now. I'm sure he'd gone home 'cause he had been wounded by his foolish past escapade and needed to go back. - And hit with a harpoon. - No, not really. (laughing) - So, he and Champlain decided that Champlain would go with Irocat in the Inu to raid the Haudenosaunee. On June 12th, Champlain and his allies went up the river, past Quebec, where they met 200 to 300 warriors from the Petite Nation, that's Irocat's group, and the Arendor Honan led by Ashostaguen. Champlain showed off the archbooses that he'd brought with him at the insistence of the warriors and the chiefs there 'cause yeah, sure fire that bad boy off. - Yeah, those are like the Blunderbuss type, like muskets. - Yeah, so there, I looked it up with a different sort. So the Blunderbusses have like the flared, like the bell end, like the flared mouth and archboos are kind of like super long muskets. - Okay. - They have very heavy muskets. - Yeah. - So muskets replace the archboos. - And so an early version of a musket is like the best way to think about it, okay. - Yeah, it apparently has a short barrel, but like a long, like it's like three to four feet. - Okay, but with a short barrel. - With a short barrel, yeah. So I guess a longer barrel is better. So anyways, that's what they had. So everyone was thrilled with them firing off the guns. That would be very exciting. - Yeah. - And then Champlain invited everybody back to Quebec for a little feast, which is very traditional, like that he is familiar with the relationship of like the feasting and the sharing and all that. 'Cause he had done that in Acadia. He had done it when he's gone to Tatasak. Like he's been around, but that's what you do. Hospitality, of course. I mean, hospitality is important for the French too. You bring people back, you share a meal and this is normal human behavior. - Oh, I just thought of why it would be better to have long barrels even with a musket. Like a non-rifled barrel, 'cause it has a longer period of time for the explosion to impart force on the musket as it travels through. Like it continually accelerates it with the barrel. - There you go. - So this was the very first meeting of any Europeans with the Wendat. They party it up for about five days and then they set off to attack the Mohawk in their territory. I don't think it was a bender, but it was like it was feasting and dancing and all the things that they do. So they went down the St. Lawrence and on to the Richelieu River beginning in June 28th, 1609. Champlain called it the Rivier du Iroquois at the time, but we'll use the modern term, even though they named it after Cardinal Richelieu, who won't be a player in the story for like 15 years. - Okay. - But it's the Richelieu River. - Okay. - If anybody looks at a map, they'll be able to see where we're talking about. - Yeah. So Champlain was pissy about the difficulty of traveling down the river in his shalap. That's kind of like a little yacht. - Okay. - But you could row it a bit too. Not him, but everybody. (both laughing) And when they reach the rapids, there's rapids from the Richelieu River. And it drops into, there's like this Chamblay Bay or something like that. - Okay. - That when you drop into Lake Champlain. - Yeah. - And I saw the map. Lake Champlain is a narrow lake. - Okay. - Like it's, it looks like a big river. - Okay. - From a distance and then obviously it's a lake. So when they reach the rapids, Champlain had to leave the shalap and continue by canoe with his companions, but only two Frenchmen were willing to join him in the canoes. - Oh, really? - Yeah, they're like, this is terrifying. I gotta go. (both laughing) - So do they walk or do they just-- - No, they took the shalap 'cause the shalap, shalup, couldn't take just-- - Oh, they're too wet back. - Yeah. - They didn't take the rapids. - Oh yeah, no, not in a big ship like that. - No, so-- - But yeah, if you're not familiar with what a canoe is, they are-- - Terrifying. - They're way tipier than-- - A little sailboat. - And a sailboat? - Yeah. - So yeah, he sent them home. - Yeah. - He was like, he's fine. Godspeed, go. - Yeah. - The no-harve feelings. So Champlain and his two buddies, actually weren't buddies, their soldiers, they hopped in the canoes. They gotta say Champlain has immense physical bravery. - Yeah. - You really, really does, like ballsy. So Champlain noted his allies' methods for warfare. I'm fair amount of detail, here's a little bit of it. So they would split their group into three. Scouts went ahead, the main body of warriors, and then the hunters stayed behind and they were staying in the back in the rear. - Okay. - 'Cause the hunters, they had to feed the-- - Oh, okay, logistics, yeah. - It's like taking your wagon trains behind you, right? Like they're slower, you have your marching troops, just like any typical European Western formation. - Oh yeah. - You would have your mounted force, you'd have your scouts who would ride ahead to report back on horseback, you'd have your infantry, and then you'd have the wagon trains in behind. - Yeah, supply chain. - Same thing. But this is just on the river, and then in the forest. - And I'm sure they were bringing some food with them, but they were also, they knew they could get it from the forest. - Yeah, they definitely brought food with them. So in the evening, they would build temporary bark cabins, and they'd fell some trees to create a barrier, like they'd fortify themselves. - Okay. - To as much as you could. And the scouts would search several miles around the camp to see if it was all clear, and then the whole party would go to sleep for the night. - No watching. - Champlain was not impressed with this at all. - Yeah, wow. - That there was no night watch. - Wow. - Well, we got a lot to do tomorrow. We need rest. - Yeah. - But anyways, I'm like, ugh. - Wow. - I don't know how well that goes all the time. - Yeah. - Anyhow, Champlain also went on tirades about all the ceremonies, the shamans that were with them were doing. - Okay. - Just great. Luckily, none of the indigenous peoples spoke much French, so it didn't really bother them. (laughs) - Like they're wasting so much time. You've yammering on. Well, it was more about witchcraft and stuff like that, right, as a religious basis, not about, they would do it when they're at camp. - Yes, okay. - But he's just being European. - You'd be in European, yeah, it's a good way to describe it. - So as they got closer to the enemy, they stopped hunting and relied on cornmeal soaked in water as their meals. And they only traveled at night, making hidden camps in the woods during the day. And they also meticulously drilled their battle plan. They would use sticks to design the attack, and then they would rehearse it over and over again. - Okay. - And discuss, like, and everyone was involved in the discussion of what the plan will be. They've been out for a few weeks now. - Yeah. - So eventually they were deep in Mohawk, Kenyakaha territory. And they made their way to Lake Champlain and then down to Ticonderoga. - Okay. - Ticonderoga is, it means the meeting of two waters. So Lake Champlain and just below that is Lake George, and it's a sacred place for the Haudenosaunee. - All right. - And there's another, there's a battle of Ticonderoga in War of 1812. There's a lot. It's like central, like New York, right? Anyways, Champlain noted the utter silence. His companions were able to navigate the waters with their fast birch bark canoes. It was on the night of July 29th, that the Mohawk warriors and their larger heavier canoes made of a single elm tree. - Those would be massively heavier. - It is certain that the Mohawk spotted them too. They had really slowed down when the moon was full. They changed their pace according to the moon. - Okay. - So the Mohawk landed their vessels and they made fortifications for themselves inland. - Yeah. - Just a bit inland. 'Cause they need to keep an eye on them in the canoes. The Inyo and Gonquin and Wendat all lashed their canoes together and waited until morning. And then both sides were shouting insults at each other all night, as you would. - Yeah. - People never change. - No. (laughs) - So before dawn, they paddled silently to shore. They got themselves in their predetermined formations with three Frenchmen remaining hidden until just the right moment. After dawn, a Mohawk scout came out from behind their barrier and was dropped silently by an a new arrow. But this brought out the rest of the warriors in their wooden armor and shields in a tight phalanx. They had their own formations too. Champlain had been told to watch for the warriors with large feathers as those are the chiefs and it was his job to take them out. So the Gonquin, the Inyo and the Wendat warriors lined up about 200 yards away from the Mohawk. They had about 60 warriors versus the Mohawk 200. - Oh wow. - Yeah. - I thought earlier you said there were 300. - No, that was in that meeting before that was outside of Quebec that they met and then they went and then only 60 because I joined the war party. Champlain's allies advanced and then called him with their loud war cries out from his hidden location as they advanced. They have divided abruptly in two parts so that Champlain could be revealed in his shining armored magnificence. - Oh, nice. - Was he wearing like plate? - Yeah. - With a helmet and everything. - Yep. - Or at least a big breastplate or something like that, yeah. Champlain went forward alone to within 30 yards of the enemy who had stopped in their tracks at the site of Champlain. - Wow. - He had loaded his archbus with four shots which was a big risk as I could explode it near his head. - Yeah. Oh, that's probably another reason why they were so long with a short barrel. The actual firing mechanism being far away from you. - Oh, that's true. - I haven't seen a picture of them. I'm just guessing. - Yeah, it would be. - Yeah, that makes sense. So he raised his archbus at the chiefs near the center and fired. Two were killed immediately and another warrior was mortally wounded. The Mohawk were understandably shocked but that wore off quickly and the battle commenced in earnest. There was heavy fighting in clouds of arrows back and forth but when one of Champlain's soldiers fired into a group of Mohawk and dropped another chief dead, the Mohawk broke their formation and fled. Champlain and his allies gave chase, killed many and took others captive. And after all that had settled down, they looted the Mohawk camp and had a feast. - Wow, all right. - They did not stay long at this as they needed to get out of Mohawk territory. - Yeah. - Last another group of warriors attacked. So they piled everyone into canoes including the prisoners and went north about 16 miles. So this is early in the morning still, right? - Okay. - The battle is not long. I'm sure they bugged out by noon. - You'd be able to cover 16 miles pretty fast. - Yeah. So they made camp as night fell and that is when the torture began. Champlain found the torture truly horrific. He was clearly a man willing to commit violence and capital punishment when he felt it was needed but the torture of captives was deeply offensive to him. Culturally, of course, there were many instances in Europe when monstrously creative torture was used by the state against subjects of the kingdoms who enforce control or make examples of religious dissidents. But perhaps Champlain hated that too. - Yeah. - Champlain described the torture of one man in disgusting detail and buckle up because I'm sharing the whole passage that David Hackett Fisher included in his book Champlain's Dream. You may want to skip ahead a minute if you don't want to hear this. - Is it in Champlain's words? - Yes. - Okay. - And if you do listen, maybe grit your teeth to help you keep from throwing up in your mouth. - Oh, wow. Okay. - Ow. - I'm gonna get a drink. Here we go. This wine is not strong enough for this. Okay. He wrote, "Each took a brand "and burned this poor wretch a little at a time "so as to make him suffer more torment. "They stopped from time to time "and threw water on his back. "Then they tore out his nails and applied fire "to the tips of his fingers and penis. "After that, they scalped him. "Slowly poured very hot gum on the crown of his head." - Oof. - It's getting worse. - Like pine gum, okay. - Buckle up. "It pierced his arms near his wrists with sticks "that they tried to pull out his sinews with brute force." - Oh. - Yeah, I gagged when I read that. - Yeah. - "When they could not get them out, they cut them off. "This poor wretch uttered such strange cries "and I felt pity to see him treated this way. "Still he bore it so firmly "that sometimes one would have said "that he felt scarcely any pain." - Wow, okay. - Yeah. His allies tried to get him to join, but he refused and he offered to shoot the poor bugger to put him out of his misery. - Yeah. - The allies didn't want that, but they saw that Champlain was so disgusted and angry about it that they said he could shoot him, so he did. Even in death, they didn't leave him alone. And they cut him to pieces, but they made the other prisoners eat his heart. They wouldn't swallow it though, and the Algonquin warriors made them spit it out into the water. - Ugh. - Yeah. They headed back the next day and moved with great speed. Champlain believed it was due to fear of reprisal from the Mohawk and because the torturers were tormented by nightmares of their deeds. They were back in Quebec in two days and continued down to Tatasak where the innu were. When the women saw their arrival, they stripped nude and swam out to meet them and take the scalps that they had won in battle and were hanging off sticks in the canoes. - Okay. - I mean, it's a nice touch. - Yes, that's. (laughing) - They brought them to shore and they wore them around their neck while dancing. - Okay, so nude except for that? - They might have gotten dressed again. I don't know. - Okay. - I mean, they go all out. So other Algonquin people showed up after a few days and there was many ceremonies and celebrations and that of their victory. And the other Algonquin people brought gifts for Champlain for his assistance in the battle 'cause it's a mutual enemy, right? - Yeah. - Of the Mo. Champlain reciprocated with other gifts to solidify the relationship with other northern nations. And yeah, that's the battle of Lake Champlain and that is Champlain's baptism of grisliness. - Wow, yeah. - But, I think I'll show you the battle of Lake Champlain is it's quite famous 'cause this is the first battle of like the Europeans. - Yeah, I've heard of it. - Or at least about the, this is one, if you know anything about the Huron, you know that Champlain entered the fray here. And this is where the older historians have said that this is where Champlain basically started the war that would end the Huron. But that's just not true. It's not accurate. They changed it, yes. - Sure. - But they had been enemies for a long time. - Yeah, he won a battle. - Yeah, and they, but also introduced European weaponry to the Iroquois, to the Haudenosaunee, and introduced European weaponry to the Wendat. So the Mi'gma and the Inu, they would have seen these weapons long ago. - Yeah. - Because they had been trading with the Europeans for a long time. This isn't new to them, but this is the first that the huge nations of the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee had seen it. - Mm-hmm. - And then I'm sure words spread like wildfire amongst the Haudenosaunee. - Oh yeah. - 'Cause that would have been, they don't, they'd know each other, right? - Yeah. - So that's, they would have their meetings. - This weapon that sounds like thunder. - Yeah. - Could kill two men in one shot. - Yeah. - So there's a famous drawing of the Battle of Lake Champlain. So July 30th, 1609 is the Battle of Lake Champlain. And it is from Champlain's voyages of 1613, what he wrote, so he wrote a lot. And I'll have, you can take a look. And there he is, standing in the middle with the indigenous people on either side. - Yep. - And he looks like, he's in the picture, it looks like he's about two feet from the Mohawk group. This is also, - Oh, that's huge. - He looks huge too, yeah. I've seen this picture before. I recognize this one, surprisingly enough, even though I'm on a history podcast, the audience probably knows. I don't know a lot about history, you're the expert, of course, but I recognize that picture. - But you'll also note, I think that the palm trees detract from the verisimilitude of the event. - I never saw that before. (laughing) - The palm trees in the back. - Not an accurate imitation of what happened there, of the landscape. - Could they? - No, they're palm trees. They probably took them from images of, like South America. - Yeah, you're right. - Yeah, they're very much palm trees. 'Cause you see the bark, the way the bark was on. - Oh yeah, yeah, that's-- - That's a palm tree. - That's a palm tree. - Yeah, it was like, could it be like a willow? - No. - Yeah, that's palm tree. - So with O'Shasta Guin and of the Arendor Honan, at the Battle of Lake Champlain, the seeds were sown for the Wendat to take over dominance of the trade relationship from the Inu and the Algonquin who lived near Quebec. They already had strong trading ties with those nations. The Wendat grew surplus corn, beans and squash that they used to trade for the furs the Northern people had access to. This would be the foundation of the nascent fur trade, and it was the Wendat that had that network already in place. They now wanted the French to join that network with the European goods coveted by all the indigenous people. So we will see in the next episode how the Wendat maneuvered themselves to take over the direct access to this trade and to be the middlemen for the whole region. This will also pit them into an even deeper level of belligerence between the Wendat and the Haudenosaunee, which will play out with horrific consequences over the next 40 years. - Yeah. - So join us next time when we will discuss a couple more battles, some pettiness from Champlain, a wedding, a power move from a Wendat chief, and we'll start to get to know Etienne Brûlée. - Looking forward to it. - And I thought all of that would fit in one episode. Anyways, that's gonna be part two of this. And hopefully we get it out sooner rather than later. And very soon I'm gonna get that book review of Isola. - All right. - But Margarita and LaRoc de rubber Val out on the Patreon for anyone who wants to join. - All right, please join. Help support the show. - Okay, thanks. Bye. (upbeat music)