CHAMPS-ELYSEES
366
CHANNEL ISLANDS
of French Canada, laid the foundation of the present City of Quebec in the month of June, 1608, or three years after the removal of the little Acadian colony from St. Croix Island to the Basin of the Annapolis. For 27 years Champlain struggled against accumulating difficulties to establish a colony on the St. Lawrence. He won the confidence of the Algonquin and Huron tribes of Canada who then lived on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers and in the vicinity of Georgian Bay. He recognized the necessity of an alliance with the Canadian Indians who controlled all the principal avenues to the great fur-bearing regions ... It was during Champlain's administration of affairs that the Company of the Hundred Associates was formed under the auspices of Cardinal Richelieu, with the express object of colonizing Canada and developing the fur-trade and other commercial enterprises on as large a scale as possible. The company had ill-fortune at the outset . . . When Champlain died on Christmas Day, 1635, the French population of Canada did not exceed 150 souls, all dependent on the fur-trade. Canada so far showed none of the elements of prosperity; it was not a colony of settlers but of fur-traders. Still, Champlain by his indomitable will, gave to France a footing in America which she was to retain for a century and a quarter after his death. He stands foremost amongst the pioneers of European civilization in America.'*
Dr. Dawson, in his volume on the St. Lawrence Basin, gives the following interesting sketch of Champlain: "Cham-plain was a many-sided man, strong in body as in mind. He was as much at home in the brilliant court of France as in a wigwam on a Canadian lake, as patient and politic with a wild band of savages on Lake Huron as with a crowd of grasping traders in St. Malo or Dieppe. Always calm, always unselfish, always depending on God, in whom he believed and trusted, and thinking of France which he loved, this simple-hearted man resolutely followed the path of his duty under all circumstances; never looking for ease or asking for profit, loved by the wild people of the forest, respected by the courtiers of the king and trusted by the close-fisted merchants of the maritime cities of France."
Champs=Ely sees (shonr za-le-zdf) (meaning elysian fields), celebrated gardens and an avenue-promenade in Paris, between the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe. It came into the possession of the city in 1828, and is extensively used as a public resort.
Chan'cellorsville, a village in Virginia, south of the Rappahannock River, where a series of battles were fought May 2-4, 1863, between the Army of the Potomac under General Hooker and the Confederate
army under General Lee. The Union army, though superior in numbers, after three days' terrible fighting was defeated and retreated across the Rappahannock, with a loss of 18,000 men. The Confederate loss was 13,000, including the brave and able Stonewall Jackson, who was accidentally shot by his own men and died eight days later.
Chandler, Zachariah, United States senator from Michigan (1857-75 an(^ again in 1879) and secretary of the interior (1875-77), was born at Bedford, N. H., Dec. 10, 1813, and died suddenly at Chicago, 111., Nov. i, 1879. He was for a time in the dry-goods business in Detroit, Michigan, where as an active anti-slavery Whig, he took interest in the "underground railroad," by which slaves found their way to freedom in Canada. In 1857 he was elected to the United States senate, and continued a member of that body till his death, with the intermission of the years 1875 to 1879. In 1875 he was secretary of the interior in the Grant administration. During the Civil War he was loyal to the Union, and rigidly defended it against the slave-states. He also opposed, for the time, the admission of Kansas.
Chang=Choo=Fou, a large city of China, in the province of Fokien, 35 miles from Amoy, its port on the coast, It is well built, and has a large Buddhist temple. Population, estimated at 1,000,000.
Channel, The English, is the narrow sea between England and France. It joins the North Sea at the Strait of Dover, where it is only 21 miles wide. From here to its junction with the Atlantic, where it is 100 miles wide, its length is 280 miles It contains the Channel Islands, the Isle of Wight and others.
Channel Islands, a group of small islands off the coast of France, subject to Great Britain. Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Guernsey are the largest. The whole group covers 75 square miles, with a population of 95,618. The islands contain much fine scenery. They belonged to Normandy when William the Conqueror invaded England, and have belonged to England ever since. The people still speak Norman-French; while modern French is the official language used in courts and the legislature. Politically, the islands are administered by their own laws and customs, each by a lieutenant-governor with judicial and other functionaries, and a states' assembly, partly elective. Jersey has a separate legal existence. Guernsey, Al-derney^ and Sark have a lieutenant-governor in common, but otherwise their governments are separate. In these respects, the islands may well be called the Land of Home-Rule. The islanders are mainly farmers, and fertilize their lands with the rich seaweed gathered on the coasts. The
