Samuel de Champlain (c. 1570-1635)
Born in Brouage, France, the explorer, mapmaker and geographer Samuel de Champlain visited Canada for the first time in 1603, accompanied by François Gravé du Pont. In March 1604, he embarked again for Canada, this time with Pierre Dugua de Mons, who had been granted the fur trade monopoly in New France, by King Henri IV of France. As mapmaker for the expedition, Champlain drew maps of the coasts of present-day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and named many of the places he visited, such as Port-au-Mouton and Port-Royal, where the little colony settled in 1605. During the first winter in Port-Royal, Champlain founded the Order of Good Cheer, a society composed of the elite of the colony in which each member in turn had to supply the wild game served at meals. Champlain returned to France the following year, but came back to the New World in 1608 and founded Quebec.
