The story of Champlain's life is the story of the foundation of French empire in America. Champlain himself had all the qualities of a successful colonist, but, as the events of his life show, there was some fatal weakness in France which did not suffer her to found enduring colonies. In order fully to comprehend the causes of her ultimate failure, we should have to study the history of France in the sixteenth century, with its civil and religious wars; and as that, in its turn, is explained by the great struggle between Latin and Teutonic civilizations, of which the chief expression was the Reformation, we should wander far afield. As Bacon says, it were infinite to seek the cause of causes, and so throughout the story we must remember that the failure of the colony at Port Royal, and the weakness of the little settlements along the St. Lawrence, were not due to the men on the spot, but to remote causes across the Atlantic.