1601

• Champlain returns to France and publishes his Brief Discours.

1602

• Employed as geographer to King Henri IV.

1603

• Aymar de Chaste granted monopoly of fur trade. Funds a reconnaissance voyage to Tadoussac at mouth of St. Lawrence River. Champlain joins voyage as geographer, explorer, cartographer and observer for the king.
• Returns to France and publishes Des Sauvages, ou Voyage de Samuel de Champlain, De Brouage.
• With death of Aymar de Chaste, Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de Monts, granted monopoly of fur trade and authority to found permanent settlement.

1604-05

• Champlain travels from France to Acadia aboard Don-de-Dieu.
• Explores coasts of Acadia and Maine.
• Establishes unsuccessful settlement at Sainte-Croix Island with Sieur de Monts.

1605-07

• Successful settlement established at Port Royal, near present-day Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
• Champlain explores coast of New England to Cape Cod.
• Sieur de Monts’s fur trade monopoly revoked; settlers forced to abandon Acadia and return to France.
• Sieur de Monts’s monopoly reinstated for one-year period.

1608

• Champlain completes manuscript map of New France.
• Returns to New France and establishes a colony, Quebec.

1609

• Explores River of the Iroquois (Richelieu River); names Lake Champlain.
• With Aboriginal allies, engages in battle against Mohawk near Ticonderoga, New York. Surprises Mohawks with the French gun, or arquebus.

1610

• Champlain sends Étienne Brûlé to live with Aboriginal allies to learn their languages and gather information about interior of the continent.
• King Henri IV assassinated.
• King Louis XIII crowned boy king. His mother, Marie de Medici, assumes duties as queen regent.
• Champlain and Aboriginal allies engage in battle with Mohawk near mouth of Richelieu River.
• Champlain marries Hélène Boullé in Paris.