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When Champlain took part in a 1609 Huron expedition against the Iroquois, he began a contest between two ways of warfare that lasted centuries. The combination of armour and firearms was rapidly understood and used to advantage by early French soldiers in Canada. By contrast, the Amerindians evolved furtive tactics and rapid movements which eventually proved to be the best in a wilderness environment.

These French soldiers wear a style of clothing common through much of Western Europe in the early seventeenth century. Note the musket rest carried by the man at left, and the pike carried by the man in the background. Mid-19th century engraving after a drawing by Alfred de Marbot.

The crewmen of this 16th century galleon are using several devices to discover their position. Tools like the arbalete and nocturlabe were used at night to measure the position of the stars in the sky. Based on these measurements, navigators could determine where they were on the globe. (National Library of Canada 18025)

St. Croix Island, site of Samuel de Champlain and Pierre de Mont’s first settlement in the summer of 1604.

In June 1604, the French expedition under the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain started building a trade post and settlement on an island they named Sainte-Croix, the choice being dictated by security concerns. It turned out to be an unfortunate choice, some 35 out the 79 men there perishing from scurvy in the winter of 1604-1605. There were also tense relations with Indians further south so that, in the late summer, Sainte-Croix was abandoned and the French went to built a fortified ‘Habitation’ at Port-Royal (now Annapolis-Royal, Nova Scotia).

This reconstruction of Champlain's 1605 Habitation was opened in 1941. It is now a National Historic Site run by Parks Canada.

This fortified dwelling was built by Samuel de Champlain and his men in 1605. This was a replacement for an earlier structure at Saint-Croix, and was intended to take advantage of a slightly milder climate after a winter that had seen 35 of the 80 colonists die of scurvy. The building was destroyed in 1613 by English colonists from Virginia. (Library and Archives Canada, NL8760).