“The Iroquois were much astonished that two men should have been killed so quickly”: Samuel de Champlain Introduces Firearms to Native Warfare, 1609

Background: Samuel de Champlain was a trader, soldier, explorer, diplomat, and author. He set up a small trading post at Quebec, the capital of the colony of New France, in 1608. In June 1609, Champlain and nine French soldiers joined a war party of Innus (Montagnais), Algonquians, and Wendats (Hurons) to fight their enemies, the Haudenosaunees. While in this instance only the white soldiers wielded firearms, Native Americans also traded with the French for their own guns, adding a deadly new dimension to Native conflicts. Over the next decades, Champlain chronicled his explorations and observations of New France in several volumes, providing important information on life and warfare in seventeenth-century North America.

. . . As soon as we landed, our Indians began to run some two hundred yards towards their enemies, who stood firm and had not yet noticed my white companions who went off into the woods with some Indians. Our Indians began to call to me with loud cries; and to make way for me they divided into two groups, and put me ahead some twenty yards, and I marched on until I was within some thirty yards of the enemy, who as soon as they caught sight of me halted and gazed at me and I at them. When I saw them make a move to draw their bows upon us, I took aim with my arquebus and shot straight at one of the three chiefs, and with this shot two fell to the ground and one of their companions was wounded who died thereof a little later. I had put four bullets into my arquebus. As soon as our people saw this shot so favourable for them, they began to shout so loudly that one could not have heard it thunder, and meanwhile the arrows flew thick on both sides. The Iroquois were much astonished that two men should have been killed so quickly, although they were provided with shields made of cotton thread woven together and wood, which were proof against their arrows. This frightened them greatly. As I was reloading my arquebus, one of my companions fired a shot from within the woods, which astonished them again so much that, seeing their chiefs dead, they lost courage and took to flight, abandoning the field and their fort, and fleeing into the depth of the forest, whither I pursued them and laid low still more of them. Our Indians also killed several and took ten or twelve prisoners. The re-mainder fled with the wounded. Of our Indians fifteen or sixteen were wounded with arrows, but these were quickly healed.

After we had gained the victory, our Indians wasted time in taking a large quantity of Indian corn and meal belonging to the enemy, as well as their shields, which they had left behind, the better to run. Having feasted, danced, and sung, we three hours later set off for home with the prisoners. The place where this attack took place is in 43° and some minutes of latitude, and was named Lake Champlain.

Source: Samuel de Champlain, The Works of Samuel de Champlain (Toronto, 1925), Vol 2, 89–101. For Champlain’s publications and maps see: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr009.html and http://www.sunysb.edu/libmap/img2cap.htm.