Bill Bennet, One of Your Brighter Guys, Has Another Book Out!

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"America, The Last Best Hope"

Here is an extract dealing with the explorations of the North American Continent by the French Jesuits, including the Saint and Martyr, Isaac Jogues and the Voyageurs:

Under the leadership of the courageous Samuel de Champlain, French objectives were the rich fur trade and the conversion of the Indians. Champlain made the hazardous passage across the Atlantic no less than twenty times between 1603 and 1633. He founded Quebec City in 1608. From this outpost, trappers and traders—known as coureurs de bois (forest runners)—ranged deep into the interior of the continent. These adventurous French Canadians traveled as far as the Dakotas before the English had advanced to the crest of the Appalachians.

Far ahead of his time, Champlain saw Canada as an ideal location for New France, for the building up of a distinct society in the New World. But the royal government at Versailles was unwilling to send political or religious dissidents, or even criminals, to populate New France. Thus, French colonization never achieved the impact that massive English emigration did in the Atlantic colonies. This fact also contributed to the generally more favorable relations the French enjoyed with the Indian tribes. Their settlements, largely trading posts, intruded less on the Indian way of life. Unlike the English, where the marriage of John Rolfe and Pocahontas was an exception, the French coureurs were more likely to take Indian wives. [snip] Read More