S’allier aux Indiens pour fonder la Nouvelle-France Du droit au pragmatisme

This article studies Franco-Indian alliances as alternative forms of contact by comparing two texts : L’Histoire de la Nouvelle-France by Marc Lescarbot and the Voyages by Samuel de Champlain. The first text places a good deal of emphasis on French authority and the submission of natives, while the second switches perspectives and underlines the extent to which the balance of power is in fact more favourable to the native population engaged in the fur trade on which a small French element depends.