Samuel de Champlain

Born to a family of mariners, Champlain began exploring North America in 1603 under François Gravé Du Pont's guidance. He helped establish Port Royal in Acadia from 1604 to 1607, the first permanent European settlement north of Florida, then founded Quebec on 3 July 1608 — the anchor of sustained French colonization in the St. Lawrence valley. He forged alliances with the Innu, Algonquin, and Wendat peoples, fought alongside them against the Iroquois, and lived among Indigenous communities long enough to produce detailed ethnographic records. In 1620 Louis XIII ordered him to stop exploring an…