Where was he born? Was he Roman Catholic or Protestant? What did he look like? Four hundred years after French explorer Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City, he remains an enigma.
   
Champlain founded a fur trading outpost on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, on July 3, 1608 that would become the first permanent French settlement in North America.
   
He published more than 20 maps of the regions and four accounts of his adventures on this continent, including descriptions of the natives, but little is known about the man himself.
   
"Champlain is a mystery, an enigma," said historian Denis Vaugeois. "The more I research him, the more questions are raised about this larger than life character."
   
Historians estimate Champlain was born between 1570 and 1580 in Brouage, France. His father was likely a naval officer. Otherwise, there are few details known about him before he set out to explore North America.
   
When Champlain founded Quebec City in 1608, he was working under the direction of Pierre Dugua de Mons, who was granted a fur trade monopoly in Canada by France's King Henry IV.
   
The assassination of the king in 1610 cost Champlain his protector. The same year he was arranged to marry Helene Boulle, aged 12, possibly to bolster his clout in Paris power circles, Vaugeois says.
   
Champlain had no children and his spouse lived only four years in Quebec City, from 1620 to 1624.
   
Recent publications suggests the explorer contracted syphilis in South America or the Caribbean.
   
Champlain died on Christmas Day in 1635 in Quebec City and bequeathed his fortune to the Virgin Mary, but his tomb has never been found, despite decades of searching.
   
In most illustrations, Champlain is invariably depicted wearing a hat, with long, curly brown hair and a moustache -- looking like a sort of musketeer.
   
But these images are "either fiction ... or outright fraud that was perpetrated in the 19th century," said US historian David Fischer, who laments the neglect of Champlain's contribution to history.
   
"He was truly global figure, and I think, a major presence in modern history," Fischer said.
   
He describes Champlain in his upcoming biography of the explorer as a French humanist who wove profound ties with North American Indians -- "unique in the history of colonization."