Samuel Champlain returned home from New Spain and reported to his king, Henri IV, in the winter of 1602. The king, impressed with the detailed maps, drawings and writings, awarded Samuel a pension and job as one of his royal geographers. At this point in his young life, Champlain was comfortable. He owned property and had an annual income, compliments of the king. If he wished, Sam could settle down in a seaport town on the coast of France, marry, raise a family, dabble in trade and commerce.
Instead, Champlain shared a dream with Henri IV . . . to establish a French colony in the New World. Many years earlier, Francois I had financed three explorations by Jacques Cartier. The quest was to discover a watery passage to China. Cartier penetrated the St Lawrence river as far as Ile d'Orleans and beyond. Because of Cartier's voyages, France claimed the Atlantic coast of North America and the interior to the fortieth parallel as "Nova Francia". This claim was respected by several European nations. By 1504, dozens of Breton and Normand fishing boats were catching cod off the Grand Banks each summer. Some boat crews were also trading European products for valuable furs. It was time to further explore, experiment and eventually establish a permanent settlement.
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