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It is the biographer's task to brush the dust from a famous name and revive the sharp excitement of half-forgotten deeds. This is what Ronald Syme has here undertaken and brilliantly accomplished.
When young Samuel de Champlain first left France in the year 1582 to sail across the North Atlantic in a small, ill-provisioned schooner, he hoped he might see the newly discovered great river beyond the Newfoundland fishing banks, but it was not till 1603 that he got the chance. The broad, majestic St. Lawrence, gateway to a new continent, was Champlain's road to adventure. Along its shores he met and mingled with the strange but friendly Montagnais Indians, fought their enemies, and founded Quebec. It was only after long years of struggle against the brutal northern winter, the savage Iroquois, and the inertia of his own countrymen that Champlain really established New France and opened up the vast interior of North America to Europeans.
Mr. Stobbs' fine illustrations do full justice to this warmly written record of high accomplishment.
—from the book
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