This map set focuses on a map of Plymouth, Massachusetts made by Samuel de Champlain during his exploration of New England in 1605, 15 years before the arrival of the Pilgrims. The map is useful for gaining insight into the geography, habitation, and resources of this area before European colonization as well as analyzing the perspective of Champlain and other European explorers who created these early maps.

Included in this map set is a link to a lesson plan for grades 2nd and 3rd that has students analyze the Samuel de Champlain map to consider early interactions between Europeans and the Wampanoags. This lesson also includes a comprehensive, annotated bibliography of books for young people about Native peoples, the 17th century and the Pilgrims.

In addition to the lesson plan and the questions in this map set, we recommend the Library of Congress map analysis tool to guide student inquiry.

While Champlain's book with his accounts of exploration is in the collections of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, it has not been digitized for use on our collections site. Another version of the map with an excerpt is available from the Pilgrim Hall Museum.



This map set and lesson plan were created by 2017 Carolyn A. Lynch Teacher Fellow:

Theresa Garcia de Quevedo
ESL and Special Education Teacher
Mildred Avenue K-8 School
Boston Public Schools

Author: Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635)

Date: 1613

Title: Voyages of Samuel de Champlain 1604-1618 (translated from original French)
Editor: W. L. Grant (1907) for Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

Reprinted: 2005 by Adamant Media Corporation

This is an English translation of Champlain's work where he summarized his travels in North America, including an excursion into Plymouth Bay (known as Port St. Louis to Champlain) in 1605.

Excerpt from Chapter 8: Continuation of the discoveries along the coast of the Almouchiquois*, and what we observed in detail:
"...I also made an examination of the river, but saw only an arm of water extending a short distance inland, where the land is only in part cleared up. Running into this is merely a brook not deep enough for boats except at full tide. The circuit of the bay is about a league. On one side of the entrance to this bay there is a point which is almost an island, covered with wood, principally pines, and adjoins sand-banks, which are very extensive. On the other side, the land is high. There are two islets in this bay, which are not seen until one has entered, and around which it is almost entirely dry at low tide. This place is very conspicuous from the sea, or the coast is very low, excepting the cape at the entrance to the bay. We named it the Port du Cap St. Louis, distant two leagues from the above cape, and ten from the Island Cape."

*Almouchiquois is a term used by the French explorers of the early 17th century to refer to the coastal peoples of New England such as the Massachusett.

Examining the Champlain Map:
- Find the "point which is almost an island, covered with wood... adjoins sand- banks." 
- Find on the other side of the bay, where "the land is high."
- Find the two islands that Champlain refers to. 
- What features of Plymouth Bay make it a good place to settle, both for the Wampanoag people who were there previously and the Pilgrims when they arrived?