Champlain's Dream

by David Hackett Fischer

This book is a very impressive piece of scholarship on a pivotal figure in Canadian history. Fischer reconstructs the details of Samuel de Champlain's life into an engaging and complete biography.

Beginning with his virtually undocumented early days in Brouages, Fischer follows Champlain into the religious wars that almost tore France apart in the late 1500s, through his first major voyage to the Spanish New World, and then into his time in Canada.

Fischer portrays Champlain as a man with a great vision for Canada, and details the travails of both the man and the blossoming colony which he is the recognized 'father' of.

Most importantly, Fischer examines the relationship that Champlain had with Canada's native peoples. It is clear that Champlain had a deep respect for the culture and lifestyle of the various groups he encountered, and he worked tirelessly to promote peace between all nations, French and Aboriginal alike. It was always part of his great plan that the Aboriginal nations would inter-marry and combine with the French; he did not view one group as superior over another.

This book is exhaustively documented and foot-noted. Where Fischer's interpretation differs from other historians, he explains his reasoning, and always backs up his arguments with documented evidence. The book is supplemented with many appendices, explaining everything from weights and measures to the historical debate over the exact location of Champlain's first battle with the Iroquois.

It is tempting to read into Champlain the beginning of modern Canada's multi-culturalism. Fischer, being an American perhaps, does not explicitly state this conclusion, but it is in evidence throughout this important, yet emminently readable, work.