CHARADE (shcierad'). The charade is a close rela tive to the riddle. It is a syllable-puzzle game. The answer is guessed by putting into one word a number of short words described independently by acting.
In the game of charades the company is divided into two sides, each in turn presenting such a word to its opponents. The word is first described by giving its part of speech, the number of syllables it contains, and the number of scenes necessary to present it. The description may be in words, as in the following: " My first is everything, so is my second, my whole is also." The answer is "also." Charades are more frequently acted out as little pantomimes or dialogues of one or more scenes.
Syrup could be represented by a man on a chair ("sir-up") ; metaphysician, by two people meeting, one saying, " Good morning, Doctor." Such words as benefit ("Benny fit"), ingratiate (" in gray she ate"), character (" care actor"), are good puzzlers.
A good charade, requiring both acting and dialogue, is such a word as innkeeper. It would be announced as, "A noun, common, singular, three syllables, two scenes." In the first scene the word in should be both acted and spoken, making use of such remarks as : "Keep this in your hand" ; " What have you in your pocket?" ; " May I look in your purse?" ; " You a canal across the Isthmus of Panama "would shorten the route to the Indies by 1,500 leagues." His next voyages took him to the St. Lawrence, 1603, the Bay of Fundy, where he founded Port Royal, 1605, and down the coast as far as Marthas Vineyard.
Then in 1608 he came again to America, this time as lieutenant-governor to found a colony on the St. Lawrence. He selected the site at Quebec, where he founded the first white settlement and gave it its present name.
For 27 years thereafter, except for a brief period when he was a prisoner in England, Champlain nursed the infant colony. He left the fur trade to the traders and set himself the task of exploring the interior and firmly establishing his country's claims in North America. He discovered Lake Champlain in 1609, and traversed the wilderness as far as Lake Superior; and he worked hard in the Old World to interest influential people in the vast possibilities of New France. This called him to France frequently, sometimes as often as once a year, and a journey to Europe in those days was a serious undertaking.
One mistake, as was later seen, Champlain made— he did not rightly estimate the power of the Iroquois Indians. Perhaps he was unable to preserve neu trality between them and their enemies, the Hurons and Algonquins. At any rate he allied himself with the latter in 1610, and helped them to defeat the Iroquois in a battle on the shores of the lake which has since borne his name. This was a victory dearly bought, for it exposed the little colony to a hundred !years of desperate conflict with the Iroquois, who ithenceforth united with the English, and in 1759 aided them in their successful attack on Quebec.
With the other Indian tribes, however, this first and greatest lieutenant-governor of New France was good terms. During his last years especially, one of his great desires was to bring the heathen tribes the fold of the Catholic church. It was said of m that "while he cared little for their bodies, his solicitude for their souls knew no bounds."