Des Sauvages, ou, Voyage de Samuel Champlain

Des Sauvages, ou, Voyage de Samuel Champlain

Des Sauvages, ou, Voyage de Samuel Champlain (1603) records Champlain's first voyage to Canada as François Gravé du Pont's guest aboard La Bonne Renommée searching for the Northwest Passage. The 1603 summer voyage took them up the St Lawrence to the present location of Montréal; Champlain describes the Gaspé coast, the Saguenay River and the Lachine Rapids. Cast as a diary, his first book of travels relates conversations with Mi'kmaq and Montagnais, and includes useful impressions of the climate and topography. Gravé du Pont took a Mi'kmaq family back to France, and Champlain contributed to the European fascination with the Indigenous people by recounting Indigenous legends and customs and telling of his attempt to convert Indigenous people to Christianity. Des Sauvages is included in the first Canadian edition of Champlain's complete works (Oeuvres de Champlain, 6 vols, 1870) and in the standard Champlain Society edition (1922-35). A facsimile of Des Sauvages appeared in 1978.