This was none other than Samuel de Champlain, whose name is to be connected this very year of 1603 with Montreal and more lastingly in 1611. He is to become entitled to be called the founder of La Nouvelle France. De Champlain had been living at Dieppe after his return from a visit of two years to the West Indies and New Spain, for which he had started early in 1599 in command of a French ship chartered by the Spanish authorities and in which he had sailed under his uncle, a man of distinction, in the previous year. During this period he had the opportunity of observing and studying a European colony before trying to found one himself. His "_Brief discours des choses plus remarquables que Samuel Champlain de Brouage a reconnues aux Indes Occidentales, au voyage qu' il y a fait_," was the result of this experience.
Champlain was now thirty-six years of age, having been born about the year 1567 at Brouage, a small seaport town in the old province of Saintonge, southeast of Rochefort and opposite the island of Oléron. Champlain's father was a sailor, being a captain of the marine; his uncle's position we have seen. Hence we do not wonder, when he tells us of himself: "From my earliest years the art of navigation attracted me, made me love the sea and drove me to expose myself nearly all my life to the wild waves of the ocean. It has made me explore the coasts of a part of the lands of America, and principally those of 'La Nouvelle France,' where I have always had the desire to cause the lily to flourish with the only Catholic religion, Apostolic and Roman." But Champlain was also a soldier, for, having taken up the cause of Henry IV in the troublous times of the League, he had served in Brittany under Maréchals de Daumont de St. Luc and de Brissac and held during several years the rank of Maréchal de Logis in the royal army. He held this position till May 2, 1598, when peace between France and Spain was established by the treaty of Vervins. Then again he turned to the sea and went with his uncle to Spain, and afterward to Spanish America as we have said. On his return he seems to be in favour with, and in the service of, the King. He is in receipt of a pension, either for his services in the army, or, as it has been supposed, because the King, having been shown the notes and topographical sketches taken by Champlain in his late voyage, had given him the title of Royal Geographer; but when Commander de Chastes, who doubtless also had seen the manuscripts, offered him a post in his new expedition, Champlain told him he must obtain the king's permission for him to embark as indeed de Chastes did. Moreover, the king commissioned Champlain to report faithfully on his discoveries.