06/01/2026
413 years ago this week, Samuel de Champlain was awestruck by the shimmering curtain of the Rideau Falls as he travelled up the Ottawa River by canoe, in early June 1613.
“There is a river (the Rideau River) at the mouth of which is a marvelous fall... the Algonquins (amuse themselves) by passing under (the Rideau Falls) and not wetting themselves, except for the spray” observed Champlain on his first journey up the Ottawa.
Champlain described the then unrestrained Rideau Falls as descending “a height of twenty or twenty-five fathoms with such impetuosity that it makes an arch nearly four hundred paces abroad”.
Champlain wrote of the Rideau River cascading into the Ottawa River from the south as well as another splendid river converging on the Ottawa from the north — the Gatineau River.
Beyond the Rideau Falls, Champlain made note of high cliffs along the south side of the Ottawa (today’s Kìwekì/Nepean Point and Parliament Hill) and commented on the unmistakable roar of Chaudière Falls further upriver.
Champlain reported that the rushing noise from the Chaudière Falls could be heard a full “two leagues” away and observed that Indigenous people had aptly named the tumultuous waters the Asticou, which he learned meant boiling pot.
Champlain’s journals further report that his party had to portage around the Chaudière Falls — and then of seeing the rise of the Gatineau Hills to the north.
This was Champlain’s first journey up the Ottawa River — not the first European to ascend the iconic waterway, but the first such voyage to have been documented — May 27 to June 17, 1613.
As any of us today could have forewarned Champlain, it is the time of year when mosquitoes and black flies are at their most rampant.
Champlain wrote of “surviving” the assaults of the “mosquitoes which annoyed us greatly” whose “persistency” was beyond description.
Champlain had set out from Montréal at the end of May, being told the “great river” (translated from the Algonquin “Kichi Sibi”) would lead his expedition to the famous “north sea” (Hudson Bay).
His travelling party consisted of Nicolas de Vignau (the young interpreter who had lived among the Algonquin and had misleadingly convinced Champlain of easy access to Hudson Bay via the Ottawa River) plus an additional interpreter, two other Frenchmen and an Indigenous guide.
An additional Indigenous guide joined the group along the way.
The many rapids made for hard paddling, numerous portages and sometimes the need to drag their canoes through the turbulent waters.
At one point, Champlain fell between two rocks. “I cried aloud to God... and began to pull my canoe toward me, when it was sent back to me by an eddy as such occurs in these rapids... I nearly lost my life”.
Samuel de Champlain and his party did not make it past Alumette Island (near Pembroke) on this trip, and the famous explorer is said to have lost his trusty Astrolabe during a detour along the way.
Champlain’s three-week 600 kilometre journey was his first up the Ottawa River. He would return two years later and this time travel all the way to Georgian Bay. This route would be repeated by numerous explorers and fur traders in the years to come, the main “highway” to the west.
Today, with the traditional oral history of First Nations such as the Algonquin interrupted by the arrival of Europeans, observations recorded by Champlain, such as regarding the gatherings and to***co ceremonies at the Chaudiere Falls, have come to play an important role in Indigenous historians' efforts to reconstruct that history.
Champlain is remembered as the “Father of New France” and an ally to the Huron and Algonquin. Some consider Champlain’s enlightened vision for New France to be reflective of many of the best of the values we hold in Canada today.
Samuel de Champlain had grown up during the bitter and deadly Catholic-Protestant wars of late 1500s France and was determined to establish a New France where both religious groups could co-exist in harmony.
Champlain had also, as a young man, travelled to the West Indies and observed the brutal and inhumane treatment of the Spanish toward the Indigenous peoples there.
It is said that Champlain tried to treat Canada’s First Nations people with a level of respect absent in the approach of earlier explorers such as Jacques Cartier and Henry Hudson.
The Iroquois, against whom Champlain joined, may not have agreed with this assessment.
As well, if the Algonquin and Huron of the day had known what the establishment of a few small European settlements would lead to over time, they would undoubtedly have extended far less hospitality and been more wary of any such alliances.
An interesting book to explore Samuel de Champlain’s life and legacy is “Champlain’s Dream” written in 2008 by Pulitzer Prize winning author David Hackett Fischer.
For a fuller understanding of the long-ranging impact that European exploration and settlement would have on the Indigenous people of the Ottawa area, we recommend this link to Dr. Lynn Gehl's article "Akikodjiwan" with further links to additional resources:
https://www.historicalsocietyottawa.ca/resources/bytown-200/lynn-gehl-akikodjiwan
Image: Champlain on Georgian Bay
John David Kelly 1895-1900
McCord Museum, Montreal
M993.154.314
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Note: Margaret Ahearn, an early president of our Society (1903-1915), was instrumental in having the statue of Champlain erected at Nepean Point.
