,.ii, 
 
 :ii»
 
 J>- 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. William B. Ilunro 
 
 SlVi 
 
 j>^
 
 rrt: 
 
 . . - 1 
 
 
 
 

 
 EDITED BY GEORGE fl. WRONG, M.A. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE INiVERSITY UP TORCNTO 
 
 THE EARLY 
 
 TRADING COMPANIES OF 
 
 NEW FRANCE
 
 Toronto : the librarian of the University of Toronto. 
 
 ^Toronto : William Briggs, 
 
 Wesley Buildings, Richmond St. W. 
 
 ILOIlDon : P. S. King & Son, 
 
 Orchard House, 2 and 4 Great Smith St., 
 Victoria St., Westminster, S. W. 
 
 JSOStOn : The Boston Book Company, 
 Freeman Place Chapel, 
 
 WARWICK BROS. & RUTTEB, 
 
 Printers and Bookbinders, 
 
 TORONTO.
 
 THE EARLY 
 
 TRADING COMPANIES OF 
 
 NEW FRANCE 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE AND 
 DISCOYERY IN NORTH AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 H. P. BIQGAR, B.A., B. LITT. (OXON.) 
 
 MACKENZIE FELLOW IN POLITICAL SCIENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 
 
 1901
 
 Edition limited 
 to 600 copies 
 
 No. /; f 
 
 Entered aooording to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the office of the Minister of Agriculture 
 
 by the Librarian of the University of Toronto in the year of our Lord 
 
 one thousand nine hundred and one.
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The substance of the following pages was presented to the 
 Board of Historical Studies of the University of Oxford in Hilary- 
 Term, 1899, in supplication for the degree of Bachelor of Letters. 
 Having successfully served this purpose, the thesis is now pre- 
 sented to the public in an enlarged and somewhat improved form 
 in the hope that the new results which it embodies may not be 
 without interest to those who desire to study the beginnings of 
 trade and commerce in New France. 
 
 I am by no means so sanguine as to hope that the conclusions 
 here set forth are necessarily final or indeed in every case valid. 
 Since, however, their correctness or incorrectness can only be 
 made clear by an examination of the foundations on which they 
 rest, I have taken pains to state in all cases what my authorities 
 are. The Appendix at the end of the work will be of use in 
 further making clear on what foundations particular statements 
 are based. 
 
 In preparing this essay I have had the kind assistance of 
 many persons. To the authorities of the Bihliotheque Nationale 
 at Paris my best thanks are due for the extreme courtesy with 
 which they have always received my numerous demands. M. G. 
 Servois and his able staff at the Archives Rationales, M. M. Chev- 
 rier of the French Foreign Office, and M. Victor Tantet of the 
 French Colonial Office have also afforded me every facility in 
 consulting their respective stores of documents. During my re- 
 
 '^o/ci.5
 
 VI PREFACE 
 
 searches at Rouen, M. Charles de Beaurepaire, the archivist of 
 the Department of the Seine-Inf^rieure most kindly placed his 
 great knowledge of Norman affairs continually at my disposition. 
 To M. le Vicomte de Came I am indebted for his generous com- 
 munication to me of the results of his researches on La Roche, 
 who is connected with his family, while several documents relat- 
 ing to Champlain were kindly brought to my notice by M. Th. 
 Courtaux of Paris. My best thanks are also due to my friend 
 Mr. E. G. Knoblauch of London for some tiring researches carried 
 out for me at the British Museum. 
 
 More particularly, however, I must thank Mr. H. A. L. Fisher 
 of New College, Oxford, for his continuous criticisms of my work, 
 and Professor W. J. Ashley of Harvard University for some valu- 
 able hints and suggestions. Mr. S. V. Blake of London has been 
 good enough to read a considerable portion ot my manuscript, 
 while Professor G. M. Wrong of the University of Toronto has 
 not only read the whole of it very carefully, but he and Mr. H. H. 
 Langton, the general editor of the University of Toronto Studies, 
 have been at the immense labour during my absence abroad of re- 
 vising the entire work for the press. If, indeed, the results of my 
 researches have been put before the public in anything like a 
 readable form, it is mainly due to the labours of these two 
 gentlemen. 
 
 To the Burrows Brothers Company of Cleveland, Ohio, my 
 thanks are due for permission to copy, with some slight altera- 
 tions and additions, the accompanying map from their edition of 
 "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents." 
 
 H. P. B. 
 Paris : 
 
 December, 1900.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Brief description of earlj'^ expeditions to the regions of the St. Lawrence . . 1 to 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Discovery and Occupation of the St. Lawrence Valley. 
 
 Cartier's first voyage, 1534 6 
 
 " second " 1535 7 
 
 Reports at Hochelaga of the Kingdom of Saguenay 8 
 
 Winter in Canada and return home . . 10 
 
 Interest in France at Cartier's discov^eries 10 
 
 Renewed efforts in 1540 after four j^ears' delay 11 
 
 Spies upon the designs of France ] 2 
 
 Cartier sets out on his third voyage, 1541 . . 13 
 
 His second winter on the banks of the St. Lawrence 13 
 
 Cartier disobeys Roberval and returns to France 13 
 
 Roberval spends the winter in New France 15 
 
 Failure of his expedition and return to France 16 
 
 Summary of results 17 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 The Birth and Growth of Trade and Commerce, 1497-1597. 
 
 Early voj'ages to the Newfoundland fishing-banks 18 
 
 Henry VII's grant of a monopoly to Bristol traders 19 
 
 Early French effort on the Banks .... 19 
 
 The extent of the French fishing industry . . . 19 
 
 Cartier and the fishing industry 20 
 
 Roberval and the fishing industry 22 
 
 Late arrival of Basque fishermen in the St. Lawrence 23 
 
 Early French fishing companies 23 
 
 Statistics of the industry at end of 16th century 24 
 
 The methods of the fishing industry 25 
 
 The fishing seasons 26 
 
 Whale fishing 26 
 
 Other varieties of fish 28 
 
 The fishing-trade prepared the way for the fur-trade 28 
 
 Early barter with the Indians for furs 29 
 
 Gradual extension of the fur-trade up the St. Lawrence 32 
 
 vii
 
 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Importance of the fur trade at the end of the 16th century 33 
 
 Cartier's nephews secure in 1588 a monopoh- of the trade 33 
 
 Revocation of this monopoly 34 
 
 , Absence of the colonizing spirit from France 35 
 
 Foreigners encroaching on French claims in the St. Lawrence 36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Two Attempts of La Roche and the First Fcr-Trade Monopoly. 
 
 The career of La Roche 38 
 
 His attempt to colonize Sable Island 40 
 
 His failure 41 
 
 Criticism of the attempt 41 
 
 Pierre Chauvin secures monopoh" of the fur-trade on condition of colonizing 42 
 
 Attempts by rivals to get the monopoly revoked 43 
 
 The monopolj', granted for ten years, withdrawn at end of three 44 
 
 Unauthorized traders on the coasts south of the St. La^v^ence ... 44 
 
 Union of St. Malo and Rouen traders under the monopolj- 45 
 
 Chauvin dying is succeeded b}' Chaste, who is aided b}" Champlain 46 
 
 Dupont-Grave and Champlain in New France 47 
 
 Death of Chaste 48 
 
 End of his monopoly 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Two Monopolies of Monts, 1604-1608. 
 
 Monts takes up Chaste's colonizing work 51 
 
 Opposition to his monopoly 52 
 
 Terms of the new articles of association 53 
 
 Settlement of Ste. Croix 54 
 
 Difficulty of enforcing the monopoly 54 
 
 Conditions at Ste. Croix . 55 
 
 Commercial difficulties 56 
 
 The winter at Ste. Croix ... 58 
 
 Removal from Ste. Croix to Port Royal 59 
 
 The summer's trade 60 
 
 Difficulties in securing fresh colonists 60 
 
 Poutrincourt at Port Roj'al 61 
 
 Interlopers in the fur-trade 62 
 
 Sudden withdrawal of the Co.'s monopoly 63 
 
 Retirement from Port Royal 64 
 
 The cod-fishing during this year 65 
 
 Monts transfers his interest to the St. Lawrence trade and secures uncon- 
 ditional monopoly for one jear 65 
 
 Champlain erects factory at Quebec, 1608 60 
 
 His plans in New France 67 
 
 End of the first period of monopoly C8
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Freedom of Trade, 1609-1613. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Conditions in the spring of 1609 69 
 
 Champlain promises to aid the Montagnais against the Iroquois .... 69 
 
 iSketch of relations of Indian tribes in New France 70 
 
 The French obliged by trade situation to take part with weaker tribes. ... 71 
 Champlain joins Hurons and Montagnais in successful expedition against 
 
 the Iroquois 72 
 
 Condition of trade of New France .... 7,3 
 
 Difficulty of continuing the factory at Quebec 74 
 
 Traders in the St. Lawrence uncontrolled 75 
 
 The new arrivals secure the advantage in trading with the Indians 76 
 
 Poutrincourt trading in Bay of Fundy 77 
 
 The Jesuits purchase shares in ves.sels and go out to Port Royal 78 
 
 Scarcity at Port Royal 79 
 
 Early arrival in 1612 of traders in the St. Lawrence 79 
 
 Unsatisfactory conditions of trade 80 
 
 New trading posts on the Bay of Fundy 82 
 
 Review of progress made during the three years of open trade 82 
 
 Champlain and his allies secure support at court 85 
 
 The Comte de Soissons becomes Viceroy and new monopoly secured 86 
 
 On Soisson's death Conde succeeds. His career 87 
 
 Champlain's Co. to have monopoh' of trade west of Quebec 88 
 
 Indians hold aloof from trade 88 
 
 Champlain goes far up the Ottawa, is imposed upon by guide, but opens up 
 
 trade 90 
 
 Disputes with Jesuits at Port Royal 91 
 
 The English attack Port Royal 91 
 
 Narrow district in which open trade permitted 93 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Champlain's Company, 1614-1620. 
 
 The lower St. Lawrence included in Conde's monopoly 94 
 
 The Co. includes only Rouen and St. Malo merchants 94 
 
 Factory at Quebec transferred to new Co 95 
 
 Activity of English and Dutch traders on Atlantic coast hampers French 
 
 trade 95 
 
 La Rochelle merchants in the St. Lawrence 96 
 
 Conde's quarrel with the Court 97 
 
 Champlain before the States-General of 1614 98 
 
 The trade outlook in New France in 1615 . 98 
 
 Champlain spends winter of 1615-16 among the Hurons and concludes 
 
 treaties 99 
 
 The summer of 1616 at Quebec 101 
 
 1*
 
 X TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The state of trade in the Bay of Fundy 101 
 
 Imprisonment of Conde in France 103 
 
 Disputes concerning the viceroyship of New France .... 103 
 
 First colonists (Hebert family) at Quebec in 1617 104 
 
 Extensive barter with the Indians in 1617 106 
 
 Themines succeeds Conde as Viceroy. Trade disputes 107 
 
 Champlain's vigilance for the Company's interests . 108 
 
 Domestic affairs in New France. Murder by Indians 109 
 
 Efforts to pi omote colonization. Narrow policy of the Company 112 
 
 Champlain's disputes with the directors of the Company 110 
 
 Conde reinstated as Viceroy, but soon retires in favor of Montmorency. ... 113 
 The Company's monopoly cancelled (1620) on Champlain's report of the 
 
 state of things at Quebec .. 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Caens Company and its Union with Champlain's, 1621-1627. 
 
 Monopoly of the fur trade for eleven years granted to the Caens 115 
 
 Both the old Co. and the Caens send out vessels in 1621 116 
 
 Rivalries of the two Co.'s in New France 116 
 
 Decision that both Co.'s may trade for the season 1 17 
 
 Difficulties in the colony 118 
 
 The English in New England 119 
 
 Fusion of the two rival Co. 's 119 
 
 The trade of 1622 and 1623 120 
 
 Sir William Alexander and the founding of Nova Scotia 121 
 
 Treaty of peace with the Iroquois . 123 
 
 The RecoUets seek help from the Jesuits 124 
 
 The Due de Ventadour succeeds Montmorency as Viceroy . 125 
 
 Disputes between the Huguenots and Catholics 126 
 
 Stagnation at Quebec. Champlain's renewed zeal . 126 
 
 Dealings with the Indians 128 
 
 Trade on the Atlantic Coast 128 
 
 Rupture of the peace with the Iroquois 129 
 
 Dutch and English settlements interfere with French trade 130 
 
 Gloomy prospects at Quebec .... 130 
 
 Courage and energy of Champlain 131 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Company of New France, 1627-1629. 
 
 Richelieu's rise to power in France 133 
 
 Proposals for organizing the Company of New France 134 
 
 The Chevalier de Razilly the father of the undertaking 135 
 
 Revocation of monopoly of United Co. and suppression of office of Vicero}'. 135 
 
 Articles of the Company of New France 136
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The first fleet despatched in 1628 137 
 
 Causes of dispute between France and England 138 
 
 Jarvis Kirke prepares an expedition to the St. Lawrence in the service of 
 
 England 139 
 
 Champlain refuses to surrender Quebec to Kirke 140 
 
 Kirke captures the fleet of the Co. of New France 140 
 
 Establishment by Alexander of the Baronets of Nova Scotia 141 
 
 Union between Alexander's interests and Kirke's 143 
 
 The new Co. sends two fleets against New France 143 
 
 David Kirke before Quebec 144 
 
 Surrender of Quebec July 20, 1627 145 
 
 The Co. of New France causes heavy losses to the English 145 
 
 Champlain carried a prisoner to England 147 
 
 Decision of Charles I to restore New France to France 148 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 New France Under the Scottish and English Company, 1629-1632. 
 
 Dispute about furs seized by English at Quebec 150 
 
 French press for restoration of New France 150 
 
 The Co. of New France prepares for renewed operations 151 
 
 The French on the Bay of Fundy and in Cape Breton 153 
 
 The English and Scottish Co. trading in New France 153 
 
 Affairs in Newfoundland 154 
 
 Caen's claims for furs brought from Quebec 155 
 
 Negotiations for peace 155 
 
 The demands of Charles 1 156 
 
 Delay in the negotiations 156 
 
 The Scottish and English Co., through this delay, have another season in 
 
 New France 157 
 
 The Co. of New France able to carry on very little trade 158 
 
 Continued negotiations for peace 159 
 
 Repeated delays 159 
 
 Progress of the negotiations 161 
 
 Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, signed March 20th, 1632 162 
 
 Discontent in England at the terms of the treaty 163 
 
 The English evacuate Quebec 164 
 
 The Co. of New France take over the posts in Acadia 165 
 
 The entry of the Co. of New France into possession concludes the period of 
 
 the early trading companies of New France 165 
 
 APPENDIX : THE SOURCES. 
 Introduction 171-174 
 
 The Sources. Part I : Official. 
 
 Chronolo'Mcal list of the official sources from 1510 to 16.33 175-197
 
 XI 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 The Sources. Part II : Narrative. 
 
 PARE 
 
 Verrazano . 208 
 
 Carlis' Letter 209 
 
 John Rut 209 
 
 Cartier's Voyages 210 
 
 Pierre Crigiion 220 
 
 Roberval's Voyage 221 
 
 Jean Mallart 221 
 
 Jean Alfonse 222 
 
 Anthony Parkhurst's Letter 226 
 
 Carlyle's Discourse 227 
 
 Gilbert's Voyage 228 
 
 Jacques Noel 230 
 
 Andre Thevet 2.31 
 
 Richard Hakluyt 242 
 
 Richard Fisher 246 
 
 Silvester Wyet. 247 
 
 Charles Leigh 248 
 
 Bertrand's Letter -. 250 
 
 Marc Lescarbot 251 
 
 Ennemond Masse .... 260 
 
 Father Biard 261 
 
 Lallemant's Letters 270 
 
 Daniel and Malapart 271 
 
 Champlain 274 
 
 Gabriel Sagard 281 
 
 1/6 Jeune's Relation 286 
 
 P^re Le Tac 287 
 
 Le Clercq's History 290 
 
 The Sources. Part III : Anonymous. 
 
 The Factum 292 
 
 La Plainly de la Nouvdle France 294 
 
 Au Roy sur la NouveJU France 295 
 
 Index 297 
 
 Map cm New France at end of volume
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The object of this essay is to trace the birth and growth of 
 trade and commerce down to the year 1632 in that portion of 
 North America subsequently called New France. France was 
 associated so long and so intimately with the valley of the St. 
 Lawrence that the visits of Spanish, Portuguese and even 
 English explorers before Cartier are sometimes forgotten. A 
 brief account of attempts on the part of the other European 
 powers to occupy this region will form a fitting prelude to the 
 history of its first occupation by the French. 
 
 In considering the achievements and failures alike of these 
 early voyagers we must remember that they had in mind nothing 
 that corresponds to the modern map of North America. Between 
 Europe and Asia they expected to find only a few scattered 
 islands. Not only was America as a continent unknown, the 
 very possibility of its existence had not been dreamed of. 
 Columbus tried to reach China by a direct route across the 
 Atlantic, and when on the twelfth of October, 1492, he landed 
 on the island of Guanahani he entertained no suspicion of having 
 stumbled upon the threshold of a new and vast continent. 
 Presumino: that he had arrived at the outskirts of China, his 
 proposed goal, he referred the names learned from natives to 
 places in Cathay mentioned by Marco Polo. 
 
 Yet Columbus did not reach the mainland either on his first 
 voyage or on his second in the following year. The first 
 Europeans to do so, since the adventurous voyages of the 
 Northmen five centuries earlier, were the crew of an English 
 vessel from Bristol. John Cabot, a Venetian, was sent out by 
 Henry the Seventh in the summer of 1497 with orders to find 
 and discover "any islands or countries whether of Gentiles or 
 Infidels which before this time were unknown to all Christians." 
 Cabot made a landfall probably on the shores of Labrador or 
 
 [1]
 
 2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Newfoundland. After following the coast to the north, perhaps 
 as far as Cape Chudley, he is supposed to have turned and 
 proceeded south until he reached the latitude of Cape Race in 
 Newfoundland. Early in the following spring, before Columbus 
 left Spain on his third voyage, in the course of which he too at 
 last sighted the mainland, Cabot had again set sail from England. 
 Coasting the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador as far north 
 as on the preceding voyage, he is believed to have extended his 
 explorations to the south as far as the Carolinas. Cabot was 
 thus the first European since the Northmen to reach the mainland 
 of America, and he was also the first to pass, without suspicion 
 of its existence, before the mouth of the great waterway of the St 
 Lawrence. 
 
 Whether in deference to the protest of the Spanish ambassador 
 at the English Court, or on account of the saving proclivities of 
 the then occupant of the English throne, or for some other 
 reason, English exploration in these regions ceased for a quarter 
 of a century. It was the Portuguese who next hovered about 
 the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Two years after Cabot's last 
 voyage Caspar Corte-Real, under a commission from his 
 sovereign the King of Portugal, explored the eastern coast of 
 Newfoundland. In the following year he set sail again with 
 three vessels and passing north beyond Newfoundland examined 
 the coast of Labrador, At some unknown point he sent back 
 two of his vessels which safely reached Portugal in the autumn, 
 but the third vessel, in which he remained, was never seen again. 
 An expedition in search of him under his brother Miguel was 
 equally unfortunate, and two only of the three vessels which 
 composed it reached port, having accomplished nothing of 
 importance. Thus Portugal, like England, explored the region 
 about Newfoundland without lifting the veil which hung before 
 the portals of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 From 1502 until 1529 nothing was done to advance discovery 
 in the north. Spain indeed, from her centre in the Spanish 
 Main, steadily extended her influence and in 1520 a caravel from 
 Hayti made its way as far as the point afterwards called Cape 
 Charles, near the 37th parallel of latitude. While the Spaniards
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 were thus cominf^ northward, the Portuguese were once more astir. 
 In the year 1520 a fresh Portuguese expedition visited the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence. Alvares Fagundes of Vianna, after following 
 the Portuguese fishing fleet which yearly visited the Banks, 
 sailed into the Gulf by its southern entrance. After coasting 
 the western side of Newfoundland as far north as the Straits of 
 Belle Isle he turned westward along the northern or Labrador 
 shore of the Gulf. When the Gulf began to narrow he crossed 
 over to the southern side, and sailed out again by Gaspe and the 
 Acadian peninsula. On his return he received a grant of these 
 lands, yet he seems to have made no iurther attempt to explore 
 them. Thus the Portuguese, like the English before them, had 
 passed by the entrance of the great water-way of the St. Lawrence 
 without discovering it. 
 
 A second and third English and a first Spanish expe- 
 dition, which were sent out at this time, proved equally 
 uusuccessf ul. They had however a new aim in view. Gradually 
 in the course of these years, by reason of the numerous exploring 
 expeditions which visited its coasts, the outline of America was 
 becoming more definitely understood. Spanish and Portuguese 
 explorations had made known the eastern coast of South America 
 as far as the river La Plata, and since the voyages of Balboa, 
 Cordova, Grijalva, and Pineda had shown the continuity of this 
 southern land with the peninsula of Florida, people began to 
 suspect that from the Baccalaos or Cod-fish land in the north to 
 the river La Plata in the south there stretched, not an 
 archipelago, but one long unbroken line of coast. The return of 
 the expedition of Magellan in 1522 proved that this was the 
 coast-line, not of Asia, but of some hitherto unknown continent 
 extending across the ocean mid-way between Asia and Europe. 
 Magellan's expedition, which set out in the year 1519, not only 
 discovered the straits to which his name is given, but passing 
 through them crossed the southern Pacific Ocean and came home 
 by way of Java, India and the Cape of Good Hope. Then at 
 length some idea of the real significance of Columbus's discovery 
 began to dawn upon men's minds. The chief interest still centred 
 however not in this new world but in the gold and spices of the
 
 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 East. The Portuguese had discovered a route to the East round 
 Africa, and now the Spaniards had found another round South 
 America. It remained only to iind one shorter still, either to the 
 north of l^lurope or else to the north of this new continent called 
 America. The search for a north-eastern passage was not 
 attempted until some years later. That for a north-west passage 
 began in 1525 and during the succeeding decade one Spanish, 
 two English, and two French expeditions were equipped for the 
 purpose of finding it. The French attempts led to the discovery 
 of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The Spanish expedition was sent out in 1524, when Stephen 
 Gomez, who had sailed with Magellan, was directed by the 
 Emperor Charles the Fifth to find a passage in the north which 
 should serve better than the one discovered by Magellan in the 
 south. The northern passage would be nearer to Spain and it 
 would also enable vessels to avoid a double journey through the 
 tropics. Following the Spanish fishing fleet to the Banks, Gomez, 
 like Fagundes, passed on into the Gulf by the southern entrance, 
 but whether like the Portuguese he went no farther than the 
 island of Anticosti we do not know. In any case he seems to 
 have missed the river. On issuing from the Gulf Gomez coasted 
 the Atlantic shore southwards to a point somewhere near Cape 
 May. Thus he almost reached the latitude which had been 
 already attained by vessels coming north from the Spanish Main, 
 and in fact in the following year the intervening bit of coast was 
 explored by a Spanish vessel the crew of which set up crosses to 
 mark the Spanish claim. Explorers of this nationality had now 
 virtually visited the whole coast from Florida to Gasp6, but still 
 both the river St. Lawrence and the north-west passage remained 
 undiscovered. 
 
 The two attempts made by English vessels to find the north- 
 west passage had no results of importance. In 1527 two ships 
 were sent out, apparently with this object in view, but one 
 went down in a storm off Newfoundland and the other returned 
 home in October after having paid a visit to the coast of Cape 
 Breton. A fresh expedition some nine years later was equally 
 fruitless. After some time had been spent at Cape Breton and
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 Newfoundland, provisions ran so short that the ship's company 
 were on the point of eating one another when the arrival of a 
 French fishing vessel saved their lives. 
 
 Although the French fishing smacks had been voyaging 
 yearly to the Banks since the beginning of the century, the 
 sovereigns of France had been too much occupied in Italy to take 
 part in western discovery. But about the end of the first quarter 
 of the century there came a change. The expedition of Magellan 
 having made clear the extent of the new land, the ambition of 
 Francis the First was aroused. In the year when the Spaniard 
 Stephen Gomez followed the coast from Gaspe to Cape May, 
 Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine in the service of Francis the 
 First, coasted northward from the Carolinas to Cape Breton. He 
 was nearing the mouth of the St. Lawrence when his provisions 
 ran short, and he was obliged to sail for home. Francis was then 
 too fully occupied in his struggle with the Emperor Charles the 
 Fifth to turn his attention to the western continent, and the 
 battle of Pavia in the following year 1525 put an end for some 
 time to any hope of further French activity. Nothing was done 
 for a period of nine years. But in 1534 Francis was again 
 enabled by cessation of hostilities and by the funds left him by 
 his mother to despatch a fresh expedition in search of a north- 
 west passage. None indeed was discovered, but Jacques Cartier, 
 in the name of the King his master, took possession of the valley 
 of the St. Lawrence. Except for the brief space of three years, 
 from 1629 to 1632, this possession was henceforth undisputed 
 until 1759.
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE DISCOVERY AND OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWKENCE VALLEY. 
 
 Notwithstanding that English, Portuguese and Spanish ex- 
 plorers had frequently passed before the mouth of the St. 
 Lawrence, the existence of the river remained unsuspected by 
 Europeans until the third decade of the sixteenth century. The 
 energy and boldness of a Breton sailor of St. Malo drew back at 
 length the veil. Jacques Cartier, who probably had already 
 made numerous fishing expeditions to Newfoundland, set sail 
 from St. Malo in the spring of 1534 with two vessels manned by 
 crews drawn from the fishing boats which yearly visited the 
 Banks. His orders were to refit in Newfoundland and then to 
 sail on westward with the object of discovering a north-west 
 passage to the East.i After an uneventful voyage of three 
 weeks across the Atlantic they made for the fishing harbour of 
 St. Catherine in Newfoundland, where during ten days of bad 
 weather they remained to refit. With fairer weather, they sailed 
 to the harbour of Brest in the Straits of Belle Isle and took on 
 board wood and fresh water. On Monday the fifteenth of June 
 the two little vessels set out for the unknown west. Curiously 
 enough they followed the southern instead of the northern shore 
 of the Straits, and instead of being led towards Anticosti and the 
 Saguenay they continued along the western coast of Newfound- 
 land as far as Cape Ray. Crossing from here to the Magdalen 
 group, they sailed thence to Prince Edward Island. Ignorant 
 that it was an island they followed its coast northward and 
 entered the Bale de Chaleur which they took to be the north- 
 west passage they were in search of.2 Examination of this bay 
 
 1 Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Jaques Cartier au Canada en 1534, 2® 
 partie : Documents Inedits, pp. 3-5. Paris, 1865. 
 
 2 Michelant et Ram^, Relation Originale du Voyage de Jacques Cartier au 
 Canada en 1534 (Paris 1867), pp. 27 et seq.: " Le Cap de ladite terredu Su nomm^ 
 Cap d'Esperance, pour I'espoir que abuions d'y trouues passaige.". 
 
 k laquelle heure eusraes congnoissance du font de ladite baye, dont fusmes dollans 
 et masriz." 
 
 [6]
 
 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 7 
 
 proved that they were wrong and they continued their route 
 round the peninsula of Gaspe. The river now lay directly in 
 front of them. Unfortunately, as soon as they caught sight of 
 the northern shore of the Gulf, they sailed thither, and on reach- 
 in.o' it turned eastwards, so missing the river and bein^ led back 
 to the Straits of Belle Isle whence they had set out. To them, 
 therefore, the Gulf appeared to be a great land-locked bay ; this 
 indeed must also have been the impression of the Portuguese 
 Fagundes who, some fourteen years before, had made a similar 
 circuit, though from the southern entrance and in the contrary 
 direction. Cartier however had not only set up crosses to mark 
 the French claims but also brought home twoIndians,who were soon 
 able to learn sufficient French to be of service in explaining to some 
 extent the principal geographical features of these new regions. 
 Of the reception met with by Cartier and his company on 
 their return to France we know nothing. His report, however, 
 and the statements of the savages seem to have made a favour- 
 able impression, for in the spring of 1535 he was again under 
 way, and this time with three vessels, of which the largest was 
 the Grand Hermine of one hundred and twenty tons. The 
 ships were separated on the voyage out, and it was not until the 
 twenty-sixth of June that they came together again, at the Baie 
 des Chateaux in Newfoundland, which had been agreed upon as 
 the place of meeting. When the vessels had been overhauled 
 and wood and water were taken on board, they made their way 
 through the Straits of Belle Isle towards the most westerly point 
 reached in their former expedition. Opposite the island of Anti- 
 costi their two Indian guides informed them that they were now 
 approaching the mouth of a great river, " which became narrower 
 the further it went even unto Canada and continued so far west- 
 wards that they had never heard of any man who had reached 
 the head of it."l After carefully examining the wdiole of the 
 
 1 D'Avezac, Bref Ricit et Succincte Narration de la Navigation faite par le Capi- 
 taine Jacques Cartier aux lies de Canada, etc., (Paris, 1863), p. 9 b: " Et nous 
 ont lesdictz Sauuaiges certifEe estre le chemin et commencement du grant Silenne 
 de Hochelaga et chemin de Canada : lequel alloit tousiours en estroissent iusques 
 k Canada, puis que 1' on trouve I'aue doulce qui va si loing que iamais homrae 
 n'auroit est^ iusques au bout qu'ilz eussent ouy."
 
 8 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 
 
 northern shore of the Gulf to make sure that there was no pas- 
 sage, they headed the vessels into the river " to go towards 
 Canada."! On reaching the river Saguenay, where they made a 
 short stay, they were informed by their guides that it led to a 
 country and kingdom of the same name. Continuing their 
 journey westwards, they arrived at the Island of Orleans near 
 which was situated the Indian village of Stadacona. In a small 
 harbour up the river St. Charles, which enters the St. Lawrence 
 at this point, Cartier laid up the two larger vessels for the winter, 
 while with fifty sailors in the Hemerillon he set off up stream to 
 see what possibility there was of reaching the Southern Sea. 
 Half way to the rapids of Lachine the channel they had chosen 
 became too shallow for the sailing ship. In two of their boats 
 however they safely reached the Indian village of Hochelaga 
 where the rapids of Lachine checked further progress westward. 
 The natives of the place informed them that " after passing three 
 more such falls of water, a man might sail for the space of three 
 months along that river and yet not reach the end."^ It seemed 
 therefore that for the present at least they must abandon all 
 thought of reaching the Southern Sea by this route. 
 
 However, Cartier, before he left Hochelaga,unexpectedly receiv- 
 ed information of another nature, to which he was by no means 
 indifferent. Although the principal object of both his expeditions 
 was to find a north-west passage to the East, yet the hope of 
 finding gold had never been wholly absent.^ Nothing of the 
 kind had been met with on the first voyage, but now at Hoche- 
 laga he was told of the existence in these regions of a country 
 as rich as the Mexico discovered by the Spaniards to the south. 
 When he and his companions had gone to the top of Mount Royal 
 
 1 Ihid. p. 11 : "Nous appareillasmes du diet liable le pi'eniier iour de septembre 
 pour aller vers Canada." 
 
 " Ibid. p. 27 : " Et nous fut diet et monstre par signes par nosdictz trois hom- 
 mes du pais qu'il y avoit trois telz saulx d'aue audict fleuve .... puis nous 
 monstroient par signes que lesdiz saulx passez Ton pouuoit nauiguer plus de trois 
 lunes par ledict fleuve." 
 
 3 Biblioth. Nat. Ms. Fr. 15628 fol. 213 verso no. 618 : " Et par la conduite de 
 Jacques Cartier faire le voyage de ce royaume es terres neufues pour descouvrir 
 certaines ysles et pays ou Ton dit qu'il se doibt trouver grant quantity d'or et 
 autres riches choses," etc.
 
 OCCUPATIOX OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 9 
 
 to see as far as possible over the land to the west, and were in 
 despair at the evident impossibility of reaching the Southern Sea 
 on this voyage, their Indian guides pointed towards the river 
 Ottawa which enters the St. Lawrence a short distance off. "We 
 thought it to be the river," says the narrator, " which flows past 
 the Kingdom of Saguenay, and without any sign being made or 
 question asked of them, they seized the chain of the Captain's 
 whistle, which was of silver, and the dagger-handle of one of our 
 sailors, of a yellow copper-gilt like gold, and gave us to under- 
 stand that such objects came from up the said river."i The 
 inhabitants of this country, of which they had heard the name 
 when at the mouth of the Saguenay, were, it appeared, a very 
 savage people who waged continual war against their neighbours. 
 This was all the information that could be obtained at Hoche- 
 laga. When the boats had returned to Stadacona where the 
 winter was passed, Cartier at once began to question the lord of 
 the village, Donacona, about this rich kingdom of Saguenay. As 
 far as Cartier could understand, Donacona had been there him- 
 self and knew the place well. In that land were to be found, 
 said Donacona, not only great quantities of gold and silver, but 
 also rubies and other precious jewels. The people were not 
 savages, but were white like the French and wore woollen 
 clothes, and the towns were large and very populous. Although 
 it was possible to go there by the river Saguenay which, as they 
 had been informed, flowed past the country, the better way was 
 by the river St. Lawrence as far as Hochelaga and then by the 
 Ottawa river, as the Indians of Hochelaga had explained. To 
 the south indeed was another country where no ice or snow ever 
 came and where grew in abundance oranges, almonds, dates, and 
 other choice fruits. Here also the people went about clothed like 
 the French, but the southern country contained, as far as Dona- 
 cona knew, no gold. Cartier, therefore, like a true son of the 
 sixteenth century, directed all his attention to the rich northern 
 kingdom of Saguenay, for it seemed that the good fortune of a 
 Cortez was to be repeated in his own case.2 
 
 1 D' Avezac, o-p. cit. , p. 27 b. 
 Ibid. pp. 33 b et seq.
 
 10 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 
 
 After a severe winter, during which many of his company 
 died of scurvy, Cartier, in the spring of 1536, was at length able 
 to fit out two of his vessels in preparation for the return voyage. 
 The better to convince King Francis of the truth about the 
 kingdom of Saguenay he seized Donacona and eleven of his 
 people, that they might personally repeat to the King what they 
 had already told Cartier himself. On Saturday, the sixth of May, 
 the two vessels set sail from Stadacona and passing down the 
 river and through the Gulf entered the Atlantic by the passage 
 to the south of Newfoundland, the existence of which Cartier 
 had suspected on the first voyage. After refitting and taking in 
 water at the island of St. Pierre, they continued their voyage 
 across the Atlantic and reached St. Malo in safety on the six- 
 teenth of July, just two months and ten days after leaving 
 Stadacona. 1 
 
 The news of the discovery of the great river must have 
 created considerable interest in France, and though there seemed 
 now slight hope of reaching the Southern Sea by this route, except 
 perhaps after a long and tedious journey in small boats, yet the 
 discovery of a rich country similar to that found by the Span- 
 iards in the south was of a nature to remove any serious disap- 
 pointment. Francis the First however was now too fully occupied 
 in wars at home to send an armed expedition abroad, even with 
 good prospects of gain. So, for a period of four years, the project- 
 ed conquest of the kingdom of Saguenay remained in abeyance- 
 During this time interest in the new world was not allowed to 
 flag. To add to the excitement created in Europe by the news 
 of the discovery and conquest of another rich country in the 
 south called Peru, the savages brought home by Cartier continued 
 to tell of lands in the north where people lived only on water, of 
 others where the inhabitants had but one leg, of the land of the 
 Picquemyans, whoever they might be, and of other countries 
 besides the kingdom of Saguenay where gold was to be found in 
 abundance.'-^ But the years passed and nothing: was done. Car- 
 tier began to find the maintenance of his twelve Indian guides 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 41 b e< seq. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 40 b et seq.
 
 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 11 
 
 a severe drain upon his modest resources. On applying to the 
 Court for some relief, the King, in September 1538, sent him fifty 
 crowns, with doubtless a word of encouragement. i In the 
 following March three of the Indians were baptized, and it 
 appears that about this time or shortly afterwards several of them 
 died.'-^ During the period of waiting Cartier enjoyed considerable 
 honour in his native town of St. Malo and in 1540, twelve 
 months before he again set forth, we hear of him entertaining 
 a distinguished visitor from Ireland, who was on his way to 
 Paris.3 
 
 In consequence of the armistice at Nice in 1538 and of the 
 meeting of the sovereigns at Aigues Mortes shortly afterwards, 
 Francis the First was once more at leisure to pay some attention to 
 Cartier and his surviving Indians. After considerable deliberation it 
 was decided to send out a large armed expedition to penetrate to 
 the kingdom of Saguenay and, if possible, to effect its conquest as 
 Cortez and Pizarro had effected that of Mexico and Peru. On 
 the seventeenth of October 1540 the first step was taken when 
 Cartier was appointed master-pilot of the fleet which was to 
 convey the expedition. He had full control of the ships, the 
 crews, and the navigation generally.^ The command of the 
 soldiers, who were to form the principal part of the expedition, 
 was in the following January given to Jean Fran9ois de la 
 Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, who had gained experience serving 
 under La Marck during the late wars in France and Italy.5 By 
 the efibrts of these two leaders, Cartier and Roberval, and with 
 the aid of funds supplied by the King,6 a fleet of five ships was 
 
 1 Paris, Biblioth. Nat. Ms. Latin, vol. 17059, no. 202. 
 
 2 Archives Municipales de St. Malo, Serie GG. 6 ; printed in Collection de 
 Manuscrits Belatifs a la Nouvelle France i 29-30. Quebec 1883. 
 
 3 Gairdner and Brodie, Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII, xv 
 246 and 328. London 1896. 
 
 * Lescarbot, Histoire de laXouvelle France, pp. 411-416. Paris 1612. 
 
 5 Harrisse, Notes pour servir a V Histoire, a la Bibliographie et a la Carto- 
 graphie de la Nouvelle France, pp. 243-253. Paris 1872. Biblioth. Nat.. Pieces 
 Originales, voL 2523 No. 56459 nos. 11-13 ; Ibid. Collect. Clairambault, vol. 134 
 fol. 1891 no. 5. 
 
 6 Lescarbot, op. cit. p. 410 ; Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Jaqties Cartier 
 (1865) 2« partie, p. 25.
 
 12 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 
 
 got ready in the spring of 1541 though deficiencies in the ranks 
 had to be made up by taking out convicts. l As severe penalties 
 were then imposed for light offences, these recruits were not 
 necessarily of very bad character. All haste was being made 
 with the preparations, with a view to setting sail about the 
 middle of April.2 
 
 When reports of the expedition got abroad, the Spanish Gov- 
 ernment sent a spy to France to learn for what region the force 
 was intended. He reported that the vessels were being sent to 
 people a land called Canada where a fort was to be built. The 
 Cardinal Archbishop of Seville however in a letter to a member 
 of the Council of the Indies stated the true aim of the French. 
 " Their motive is," said he, " that they think that land to be rich 
 in gold and silver and they hope to do as we have done. But in 
 my opinion they are mistaken, for the whole coast down as far 
 as Florida offers no riches except the fishing. Consequently they 
 will waste their efforts and return with the loss of most of their 
 people and nearly all they have taken with them."^ According 
 to an English report the ships and men were being sent " to seek 
 the trade of spicerey by a shorter way than the Portingalles use." ^ 
 Unfortunately the forecast of the Archbishop proved only too 
 correct. 
 
 The necessary preparations had been almost completed, the 
 levies of prisoners, the small droves of cattle, the goats and the 
 pigs had been already taken on board, when Roberval, after bid- 
 
 1 Archives Nationales, U 754, vol. 53 verso et seq. ; Ibid. K 1232 ; Archives de 
 la Gironde, B 31 fol. 101 ; in Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 258 et seq : Archives de la 
 Seine Inferieure, S^rie G, No. 961 ; Joiion des Longrais, Jacques Cartier, pp. 
 27-36. Paris 1888. 
 
 2 Buckingham Smith, Coleccion de Varios Documentos para la Historia de la 
 Florida y Tierras Adyacentes, i 107 et seq. Londres 1857. 
 
 3 Find. p. 111. Translations of both documents vf'iW be found in a paper by 
 I'Abb^ Verreau entitled Jacques Cartier : Questions de Calendrier Civil et EccUsi- 
 astique, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. viii, pp. 143 et seq. 
 Montreal, 1891. 
 
 4 Gairdner and Brodie, op. cit. xvi 234 (London 1898; : " Francis sends ships 
 and 500 or 600 footmen to seek the trade of spicerey by a shorter way than the 
 Portingalles use, i.e. by the Mare Glasearum. Their pilot Jacques Cartier thinks 
 it will be navigable for three months in the year."
 
 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 13 
 
 ding adieu to his sovereign, at length reached St. Malo. He 
 found the ships in the roadstead ready to weigh anchor. 
 Unfortunately he had ordered some artillery which had not yet 
 arrived, and unwilling to leave without it, he determined to fit 
 out a fresh vessel at Honfleur, whither he believed it to have 
 been sent. Cartier however was to sail at once in charge of the 
 fleet now ready. Indeed orders to this effect arrived from the 
 King and no further delay was possible. When therefore 
 Roberval had taken muster and view of the gentlemen, soldiers 
 and mariners chosen for the voyage, he gave orders to Cartier to 
 " depart and goe before and to governe all things as if he had bene 
 there in person. And these things thus dispatched, the winde 
 comming faire, the foresayd five ships set sayle together well 
 furnished and victualled for two yeere, the 23rd of May 154)l."l 
 After a stormy passage of three months, during the latter part 
 of which they were obliged to feed the animals on cider, they 
 reached Newfoundland. Here they refitted the ships and took 
 on board wood and fresh water. As there was no sign of 
 Roberval, Cartier ordered the fleet to get under way once more, 
 and piloting it safely up the St. Lawrence he landed his large 
 company at a spot a few miles above Stadacona, the point where 
 he himself had spent the winter some six years before. 
 
 The situation now chosen w^as a pleasant one and at this 
 season the climate was agreeable. Nor were signs wanting of 
 mineral wealth. Close at hand they discovered a mine of iron 
 ore, while near the water's edge they came across " leaves of fine 
 gold as thicke as a man's nayle." Further on they picked up 
 " Diamants the most faire pollished and excellently cut that it 
 is possible for a man to see : when the Sunne shineth upon 
 them, they glister as it were sparkles of fire."2 In order that 
 the King might know of this discovery and of the good prospects 
 for the success of the expedition, Cartier in September sent back 
 his nephew and his brother-in-law to show his Majesty what 
 they had found and to inform him that Roberval had not yet 
 arrived. After their departure, it was deemed advisable to make 
 
 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 233. London, 1600. 
 Ihid. p. 234.
 
 14 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 
 
 an examination of the rapids above Hochelaga, so that during 
 the winter preparations might be made for transporting the 
 expedition past them in the spring. For this purpose Cartier 
 and several others made their way up the St. Lawrence in two 
 small boats. No mention is now made of Hochelaga, which 
 seems shortly before to have been burned by a hostile tribe of 
 Indians, the Iroquois. From the Indians close at hand however 
 the French learned that though there were only two more such 
 rapids to pass, yet the river was not navigable all the way to 
 Saguenay. Evidently an overland march must be counted upon. 
 With this intelligence Cartier and his men again returned to 
 their fort where they received the ominous information that the 
 neighbouring savages had ceased all intercourse with the French. 
 It appeared that they were concerting measures against the new- 
 comers. Alarmed at this intelligence, Cartier at once gave 
 directions for everything to be put in order to resist attack.^ 
 What troubles did arise or what attacks were made we do not 
 know, for at this point the story of Cartier's second winter on 
 the banks of the St. Lawrence comes suddenly to an end. We 
 do not hear of him again until after a lapse of six months. He 
 vas then on his way back to France whence Roberval had just 
 set forth. 
 
 We left Roberval at St. Malo watching the departure of 
 Oartier's fleet. He seems to have proceeded at once to Honfleur 
 as he intended, but owing to shortness of funds and difficulties 
 with owners of vessels it was the end of August before suitable 
 ships had been secured and the artillery placed on board. He 
 then deemed it too late in the season to set sail and passed the 
 autumn and winter at various Breton ports, occasionally darting 
 out to rob English merchantmen on their way home from Spain.2 
 It ^as indeed not until the middle of April 1542 that he finally 
 set sail from LaRochelle with two hundred persons, mostly male- 
 factors, on board his three ships. After a voyage of two months, 
 they reached the harbour of St. John's in Newfoundland. One 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 235-236. 
 
 2 J. Kaiilek, Correspondance Politique de MM. de Castillon et de Marillac, 
 1537-1542, p. 390. Paris, 1885.
 
 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 15 
 
 morning, while refitting here, they were greatly surprised to see 
 Cartier's fleet enter the harbour. It appears that after prepara- 
 tions had been made to resist the savages the difficulties with 
 them came to a head. Since Cartier did not deem his company 
 strong enough to oppose them, he had decided to set sail for 
 France. Now that he had unexpectedly run across Roberval, he 
 made haste to show him some of the supposed diamonds and also 
 a quantity of the supposed gold quartz. On the following Sun- 
 day the quartz was tried in a furnace and pronounced good. 
 Highly delighted with this result, Roberval ordered the two fleets 
 to return to the St. Lawrence. This Cartier and his people 
 refused to do, and like Pinzon, in the first voyage of Columbus, 
 " mooved as it seemeth with ambition because they would have 
 all the glory of the discoverie of those partes themselves, stole 
 privily away the next night and departed home for Bretaigne."! 
 Roberval, greatly put out at this breach of discipline, against 
 which under the circumstances no remedy was possible, towards 
 the end of June set sail up the St. Lawrence and at a point four 
 leagues beyond the Island of Orleans landed his company and 
 their effects, as Cartier had landed his in the previous year. 
 Whether he occupied the buildings left vacant by Cartier cannot 
 be made out with certainty from the meagre details preserved 
 to us. 
 
 August and September were busy months, spent in discharg- 
 ing the vessels and making preparations for the winter. Two of 
 the ships were sent home to report to King Francis what had 
 been done and to bring out fresh stores in the followino- summer. 
 Sanneterre, one of the commanders, was enjoined to inquire 
 how his Majesty liked the diamonds which, as Roberval expressed 
 it, he had ordered Cartier to carry back with him to Franca^ 
 During the long winter the company suffered much from cold, 
 famine, and their twin-brother, scurvy. By the ravages of this 
 disease fifty persons were carried off and doubtless more were 
 invalided. With men taken from the gaols and fed on scanty 
 fare, it could not be expected that matters would always go 
 
 1 Hakluyt, op. cit. iii 240. 
 
 2 lUd. p. 241 .
 
 16 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 
 
 smoothly. One Michael Gaillon was hanged for theft ; John of 
 Nantes was placed in irons for some slight misdemeanour, while 
 for other offences not a few were whipped, women as well as men. 
 As the weather grew warmer and spring appeared the return of 
 Sanneterre was eagerly expected. In January the King had 
 given orders for the two vessels to return to the St. Lawrence 
 with provisions,! but at the beginning of June they had not 
 arrived. Roberval decided that he could wait no longer. The 
 summer was the only period for action and too much of it must 
 not be wasted in idleness. On the fifth of June therefore seventy 
 men were embarked in eight small boats to make their way to 
 the kingdom of Saguenay. This was all of the force available, 
 for in consequence of the departure of the two vessels for home 
 in the previous autumn and the ravages of the scurvy during the 
 winter only thirty persons besides were left under Royeze to 
 guard the fort, and some of these were women. The amount of 
 provisions at the fort was small, owing both to the non-arrival 
 of fresh stores and also to the heavy draft on the provisions for 
 supplying the boats. Royeze accordingly was ordered to sail for 
 home at the end of three weeks in case no help came before 
 that date.2 
 
 In the meantime the eight boats set oflf up the St. Lawrence 
 in the direction of the rapids above Hochelaga. Before reaching 
 that point one upset and the whole of the crew were drowned. 
 The boat which brought the news of this catastrophe to the fort 
 carried back a small supply of corn and fresh orders from Rober- 
 val to delay their departure for three weeks longer. At this 
 point, unfortunately, as in the case of Cartier's second winter on 
 the St. Lawrence, our sources of information break off suddenly, 
 and the adventures of Roberval and his men in their search for 
 the kingdom of Saguenay remain a mystery. It should seem 
 however that after proceeding for a considerable distance and 
 finding their efforts unsuccessful, they returned to the fort, where 
 they found the much-needed provisions which Sanneterre and 
 
 1 Harrisse, op, cit. pp. 272-3. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, op. cit. iii 24L
 
 OCCUPATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE VALLEY 17 
 
 Cartier l had after loDg delay succeeded in bringing into the 
 St. Lawrence. Roberval, whose services were required in the 
 wars at home, at once set sail, and in the course of the autumn 
 the remainder of the ill-fated expedition returned to France. 
 Sanneterre, who brought Roberval home, was sent to meet the 
 others on their arnval with orders to pay off the soldiers and 
 after selling tbe vessels, artillery and war material to divide the 
 proceeds among those whom he thought entitled to some recom- 
 pense. 2 
 
 Such was the result of the first attempt on the part of the 
 Trench to establish a foothold in the valley of the St. Lawrence. 
 Armed expeditions, as the Archbishop of Seville had foretold, 
 were doomed to failure in the north. The semi- civilized gold- 
 producing countries of the south were a rich prey to bands of 
 conquering adventurers, but it was the fortune or misfortune of 
 the French to enter upon a region of very different character. 
 Commerce, trade and manual labour were necessary before the 
 riches of the St. Lawrence valley could be developed. The mines 
 of i\Iexico and Peru have long ceased to yield remuneratively 
 their precious metals, but the fisheries of the Banks of New- 
 foundland still oiler profitable returns. In the following chapter 
 we shall trace the birth and growth of this great fishing industry 
 which in turn became the mother of the fur- trade, itself the 
 foundation and corner-stone of all attempts made by the mother 
 country to colonize New France. 
 
 1 Michelant et Kame, op. <:it. 2*^ partie, p. 29: " Et pour huict mois qu'il a 
 este a retourner querir le diet Robertval au diet Canada," etc. 
 
 2 Harrisse, op. cit. pp. ilQ^ll.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597. 
 
 Before the discovery of America, Europe received its cod, as 
 to some extent it still does, from the fishing-grounds about Ice- 
 land. To this region fleets of considerable size went every spring 
 from the principal ports of England, France and Spain. Columbus 
 himself is reported to have made a voyage thither before his 
 famous one across the Atlantic.''^ It was not Columbus, however 
 but John Cabot and the Corte-Reals who first made known to 
 Europe the existence of rich fishing-grounds in the west. On 
 the return of Cabot from his first voyage in the year 1497 an 
 Italian envoy in England wrote home to Milan that the sea in 
 those parts had been found so full of fish that the sailors caught 
 them by merely lowering a basket with a stone in it and hauling 
 it up again. It was afiirmed indeed that so many fish could be 
 brought from this new fishing-ground that henceforth no more 
 fleets would go to Iceland.2 The Corte-Reals also, by their 
 voyages m 1500,1501 and 1502, contributed intelligence of the 
 riches of these waters, and in 1506 a tax was laid on the cod 
 brought thence to Portuofal.s 
 
 1 For this trade to Iceland, vid. Prowse, History of Newfoundland, chapter 
 ii, appendix 1, pp. 24-28. London, 1895. Cf. also Loti, Pecheur d'Islande. 
 Paris 1886. 
 
 2 Despatch of Raimondo di Soncino to the Duke of Milan dated 18th of 
 December, 1497, in Markham, Journal of Christopher Columlm-s, etc. (London, 
 Hakluyt Society, 1893) p. 204: "They affirm that the sea is full of fish, 
 which are not onlj' taken with a net but also with a basket, a stone being fastened 
 to it to keep it in the water . . , they say they took so man}' fish tliat this 
 kingdom will no longer have need of Iceland, from which country there is an 
 immense trade in the fish they call stock-fish." It was Sebastian Cabot who said 
 the " fyshes somtymes stayed his sh3'ppes." Ibid. p. 210. 
 
 3 Letter of Pasqualigo in Paesi Novamenti Retrovati, (Vicentia 1507) cap. 
 cxxvi : "Hanno grandissima copia de salmoni : Arenge: Stochafis e simil pessi "; 
 Ramusio, Navigationi et Viaggi, vol. iii, fol. 417, Venetia 1556 ; Kunstmann, 
 Die Entdeckung Americas, p. 69, Munich 1859. According to Peschel, Geschichte 
 des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen (Stuttgart 1877), p. 262, note 3, a company was 
 formed at this time in Portugal for colonizing Newfoundland. 
 
 18
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 19 
 
 In the spring of 1501 Henry the Seventh granted Letters 
 patent to some merchants of Bristol and to three Portuguese for 
 trade in the new land. They were given a monopoly for ten 
 years with permission to enter one vessel duty free for the space 
 of four years.i It is not clear what products they expected to 
 import, but it would appear that cod-fish formed part of the 
 cargo.2 In the following year fresh Letters patent were issued, 
 but whether the object in view was fish or even furs is no clearer 
 than in the former case.^ 
 
 In 1506 we hear of some French fishermen on the Banks, and 
 two years later one Thomas Aubert brought thither for the first 
 time the fishermen of Dieppe."* They gave glowing accounts of 
 the riches of the new grounds and doubtless many others were 
 soon induced to imitate their example. Thus in the year 151 0, 
 in which some vessels from Dahouet in Brittany were also on 
 the Banks.s fishermen from England, Portugal and France were 
 engaged in this trade. Though notices are scanty and only occur 
 at rare intervals, it appears on the whole clfear that from the 
 principal western ports of these countries fleets of considerable 
 size made their way thither each spring. In 1527 as many as 
 fifty Portuguese, French and English vessels were on the Banks.^ 
 
 Nor was cod the only fish sought. Cabot's tale about the 
 basket evidently referred to this fish, but in course of time other 
 fish such as turbot and sturgeon were taken, and some vessels 
 
 1 Biddle, Memoir of Sebastian Cahot, appendix D. Philadelphia 1831. 
 
 2 Excerpta Historica, pp. 126 et seq. London 1831. 
 
 Rymer, Foedera, vol. xiii, pp. 37 et seq. London, 1712. Cf. Harrisse, John 
 Cahot the Discoverer of North America and Sebastien his son, 8yllabus no. xix, 
 pp. 397-398. London 1896. 
 
 4 Ramusio, op. cif. iii 424 ; Estancelin, Rechervhes sur les Navigateurs JVor- 
 mands, p. 43. Rouen 1832 ; cf. also fSagard, Histoire du Canada, i 90-91. Paris 
 1865. 
 
 5 La Borderie, Mdanges d'Histoire et d' Archeologie Bretonnes, ii 153-156. 
 Rennes, 1858. Also printed in Annates de Bretagne, ix 435, Rennes 1893. Cf. 
 ibid, p. 175, et seq which may or may not refer to an earlier trade. In 1511 
 Juan de Agramonte was to get his two pilots in Brittany. Navarrete, Coleccion 
 de los Viages y Descubrimientos, iii 122 et seq. Madrid 1829. 
 
 Herrera, Historia, General de los Hechos, etc., Dec. ii, Lib. v, Cap. iii, 
 p. 145, Madrid 1601. Cf. Coleccion de Documntos Ineditos de Ultramar, tomo iv 
 (Madrid 1888) pp. 57-60.
 
 20 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 began to devote themselves to hunting walrus on the islands at 
 the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while others caught 
 whales which were then plentiful in those waters. Fagundes 
 after his exploration of the Gulf in 1521 appears to have engaged 
 in the cod-ii«hing.l Two years later a Captain Coo managed 
 after a lively struggle to get possession of a French vessel of 
 Rouen which turned out to be on her way home from Newfound- 
 land laden with fish.2 In the same year there were five vessels 
 from the single town of La Rochelle on the Banks.^ Not only 
 had the French fleet reached a considerable size* but the amount 
 of English capital also invested in these fisheries was now so large 
 that in the summer of 1522 Fitz- William, the Vice-Admiral, 
 deemed it advisable to send several men-of-war to the mouth of 
 the English Channel to protect the returning fleet from French 
 privateers.^ When John Rut of Bristol entered the harbour of St. 
 John's in Newfoundland one day in August 1527, he found 
 " eleven sail of Normans and one Brittaine and two Portugal 
 barques and all a-fishing."6 Four years later the Barbara of 
 St. Brieuc in Brittany was plundered at Ramsgate of her cargo 
 of " fysshe of the New-founde Island. "7 
 
 Cartier was much hampered in the preparations for his first 
 voyage, in 1534, by several owners of fishing vessels at St. Male 
 
 1 Harrisse, The Discovert/ of North America, p. 184. London 1892, 
 
 2 Brewer, Letters and Papers of the reign of Henry VIII, iv, Part i, no. 83. 
 The difficulty in taking her is made clear by a bill for £6 18s. for healing sixteen 
 men "burnt at the taking of the Newfoundland ship." 
 
 3 G. Musset, Les Rochelais a Terre Neuve 1500-1550, in the Bulletin de 
 Geographic Historique et Descriptive, Paris, 1892, p. 254. 
 
 4 Cf. T. Malvezin, Histoire du Commerce de Bordeaux, ii 165 (Bordeaux 1892) : 
 " Le mouvement de la peche a Terre-Neuve .... occupait de 1520 a 1530 
 le nombre de soixante k quatre-vingts navires fran^ais principalement de Nor- 
 mandie et de Bretagne." 
 
 5 Brewer, op. cit. iii Part ii no. 2459: — " It would be too great a loss that the 
 ships ordered westward should not be sent before the coming home of the New 
 found Island's fleet." Cf. also no. 2458. 
 
 6 Purchas His Pilgrimes, The Third Part, p. 809. London 1625. Also printed 
 in Brewer, op. cit. iv Part ii Appendix no. 113. Cf. also Herrera, op. cit., Dec. 
 iii, Lib. x, cap. 9, p. 369. 
 
 7 Gairdner, Letters and Papers of the lieign of Henry VIII, vol. v, no. 627 (1) 
 p. 285.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 21 
 
 who, evidently in fear of losing the season's trade, either hid 
 their men or used intimidation to prevent them from offering 
 him their services.^ When during this first voyage the ships' 
 boats were exploring the Straits of Belle Isle they came upon a 
 large fishing vessel from La Rochelle which was looking for the 
 harbour of Brest on the Labrador side of the Straits where 
 Cartier's own vessels then lay.2 Cartier himself before taking 
 charge of such an important expedition had no doubt already 
 visited Newfoundland many times as a fishing captain, and his 
 crews were certainly old Banks fishermen. ^ He notes with satis- 
 faction that the good fishing continues even as far as the regions 
 which he explored in 1534. * One day near Cape Royal they took 
 more than one hundred cod in the space of an hour. ^ When pass- 
 ing along the north shore of the Gulf on the way home they saw 
 smoke rising from a headland, upon which were a number of 
 savages. Some of these at once put off to the ship and " came as 
 freely on board as if they had been Frenchmen." They said they 
 were on their way home from the Straits of Belle Isle whence a 
 number of ships, well laden with fish, had just sailed for Europe. ^ 
 Cartier, when on his way home from his second voyage in the 
 
 1 Michelant et Rame, op. cit., 2^ partie, p. 4. The statement here made 
 before they left home that they were to "passer le destroict de la baye des 
 Chasteaulx " certainlj' shows that these places were already familiar to the fisher- 
 men of St. Malo. Cartier was similarly hampered in 1535 and in 1541 : Ibid. p. 
 17 e.t seq. ; Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. p. 22. 
 
 Michelant et Rame, Relation Originale, etc., p. 11. 
 
 Michelant et Rame, oj). cit., p. 47: " Et nous arrivez audit navire, assem- 
 blasmes tous les cappitaines, pillottes, mestres et compagnons pour avoyi- I'oppinion 
 et aduys de ce qu'il estoit bon de faire ; et apr^s avoir I'ung apres I'aultre dit que 
 conscidere les grans ventz . . . . et aussi que les tormentes commenroyent en 
 icelluy temps en la Terre neufve," etc. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 9 : "et 1^ se faict grant pescherie," etc. 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 15 : "A deux lieux de cap Royal y a . . . la plus grande 
 pescherie de grosses molues qui soit possible ; desquelles mollues en prynmes plus 
 d'un cent en moins d'un heure." 
 
 6 Ibid. pp. 48-49 : " auquel lieu vismes des f unices que les gens de ladite terre 
 faisoient sur ledit cap . . . et eulx voyans que n'y aprochions, viendrent avec 
 deux barques enuyron douze homes, lesquels vindrent aussi franchement k bort 
 de noz nauyres comme s'ilz eussent este Fran9oys. Ilz nous firent entendre qu'ilz 
 venoyent de la grant baye . . . et que les navyres estoient appareillez de la 
 
 dite baye, tous chargez de poisson."
 
 22 TRADE ATSTD COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 summer of 1536, after wintering in the St. Lawrence, met several 
 French fishing vessels near the island of St. Pierre, where he 
 stopped to take on board wood and fresh water, i In the same 
 year a French vessel was seized on the eastern coast of Newfound- 
 land by two English ships which had run short of stores. 2 From 
 the town of La Rochelle alone eight vessels went to the Banks in 
 1537, while in 1541 the number had increased to thirteen. 3 The 
 fleet of five vessels which Cartier piloted up the St. Lawrence in 
 that year was composed entirely of fishing vessels engaged in the 
 Newfoundland trade, and doubtless many of those which the 
 Spanish spy found in the harbours of St. Malo, Morlaix, Quimper, 
 Harfleur, Honfleur and Dieppe, getting ready to sail the same 
 spring, were also destined for the Banks. ^ 
 
 When Roberval reached St. John's, Newfoundland, in June 
 of the following year he found seventeen vessels in the harbour, 
 three more than Rut had found on an August day fifteen years 
 before. Roberval was detained there until the end of the month 
 in settling a dispute between his own countrymen and some 
 Portuguese fishermen.^ It has been stated that at this time the 
 French Newfoundland fleet amounted in all to nearly sixty sail 
 and we know that in January and February of the years 1543, 
 1544 and 1545 ships left almost every day for the Banks from 
 Kouen, Havre, Dieppe and Honfleur.6 It was apparently in the 
 
 1 D'Avezac, op. cit., p. 46: "Nous feusmes esdictes ysles sainct Pierre ou 
 trouuasmes plusieurs nauires tant de France que de Bretaigne," etc. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, op. cit. iii 131. 
 
 3 Musset, op. cit., pp. 256 et seq. 
 
 4 Buckingham Smith, op. cit., p. 107, et seq. The spy found two vessels at 
 Croisie, thirteen at St. Malo, two at Morlaix, two at Quimper, two at Honfleur, 
 two at Harfleur, while from Dieppe fourteen had already set sail and four more 
 were preparing. 
 
 5 Hakluyt, op. cit., iii 241; P. Garcie, in Le Grand Routtier (Poictiers 
 1542), 10 pages from the end : "II est tout certain et notoire que mariniers vont 
 
 es terres neufves," etc. 
 
 6 Gosselin, Documents A^ithentiques et Inedits stir la Marine Normande, p. 13, 
 Rouen 1876. Cf. also Harrisse, Notes pour servir, etc., p. 273, where in a docu- 
 ment dated January 1543 we read : " Nous commandons et enjoignons .... 
 k tous maistres, pillottes et mariniers nos subjects tirans et faisans le routte des 
 terres neufves quilz ayent k vous accompaigner et assister," etc.; and Biblioth. 
 Nat. Ms. fr. 676 fol. 183 verso : " Le Cap de Chinchete est aupres de la pescherie 
 St. Christofle.'^
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE ] 497-1597 23 
 
 autumn of 1544 that, according to Thevet, Roberval's niece was 
 rescued from her desert island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence by a 
 Breton fishing vessel, i In 1545 Newfoundland cod is put down 
 as one of the regular articles of export from France into Eng- 
 land.2 
 
 Although we find one reference to Spaniards as early as the 
 year 1527, the Basques, who made a specialty of whale fishing, 
 did not begin to frequent the St. Lawrence until the close of the 
 first half of the century. The first Basque seems to have gone 
 out in a French vessel and upon his favourable report numbers 
 of his countrymen flocked thither direct from the Bay of Biscay. 
 This founder of the Basque fishing visited the St. Lawrence 
 twenty-eight times during the thirty-four years between 1545 
 and 1579.3 
 
 At St. Malo in the spring of 1560 there were twenty-five 
 ships about to sail for Newfoundland and at Cancale five more 
 were ready to join them.* The next year, from the little towns 
 of Jumieges and Vatteville and from La Bouille, a small place on 
 
 1 Thevet, Cosmographie Universelle, Tome ii, Livre xxiii, chap, v, fol. 1020, 
 Paris 1575. Cf, Biblioth. Nat. MS. fr. 1382 (dated 1545), fol. 40 : 
 
 " En terre neufve a de bons portz et hables, 
 Meilleurs deurope et fort belles rivieres 
 Grant pescherie," etc. 
 This MS. is really only a rhyming version of the Voyages Avantureux of 
 Jean Alfonse, cf. appendix : Jean Alfonse. 
 
 2^Biblioth. Nat. MS. fr. 3881, fol. 18 verso et seq., printed by Funck-Brentano 
 in his edition of the Traictede VQ^conomie Politique de Montchritien, annex p. 379, 
 Paris, 1889. For the year 1548 vid. Lefevre-Pontalis, Correspoiulance Politique 
 d'Odet de Sdve (1546-1549) Nos. 419, 434, 479, 481, and 491, Paris, 1888. Cf. also 
 La Revue de Bretagne et de VendAe for November 1880, pp. 376-379. 
 
 3 C. Fernandez Duro, Area de Noe (Madrid 1881), pp. 313 et seq., cited by 
 Prowse, Hist, of Newfoundland, p. 44. Stevenson, Calendar of Foreign State 
 Papers, 1561-62 (London 1866), p. 336 : " Chamberlain alleged another reason to 
 prove that the country (Spain) was not destitute of shipping that the}' have 
 found a trade unto the New Found land for fish which they did not previously 
 occupy so much." Cf. also Francisque-Michel, Histoire du Commerce et de la 
 Navigation a Bordeaux ii 337 et seq. Bordeaux, 1871. An English Statute of 
 1548 in regard to the trade will be found in Hakluyt, op. cit., iii 131. 
 
 4 Stevenson, Calendar of Foreign State Papers 1560-61, p. 76. London, 1865.
 
 24 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 the Seine below Rouen, thirty ships sailed to the Banks.l Haw- 
 kins, when on his way from the Spanish Main in 1565, met a couple 
 of French ships on the Banks and had of them enough fish to 
 keep him plentifully supplied during the rest of the voyage. 2 
 Two years later in 1567 the Portuguese attempted to found a 
 colony or a fishing settlement on Sable Island.^ A large com- 
 pany was formed at Rouen in 1570 for sending out vessels to the 
 Banks.* 
 
 We have exceptionally definite information regarding 
 the number of fishing vessels on the Banks in 1578. 
 Anthony Parkhurst, who pointed out that accurate statistics 
 were difiicult to obtain since the number of vessels varied 
 from year to year, reported that in the four years during 
 which he had made voyages thither the English fleet had only 
 increased from thirty to fifty sail because many still went to 
 Iceland. About one hundred Spanish vessels arrived every year 
 besides the twenty or thirty from Biscay. The latter went on 
 into the Gulf for the whale fishing.^ The Portuguese numbered 
 about as many as the English, but of French and Bretons the 
 number was one hundred and fifty sail although as a rule their 
 vessels were smaller than those of the other nations.^ In 1586 
 Thevet put the whole number of vessels, Spanish, French, English 
 and Dutch, at about three hundred sail.7 Five and twenty years 
 later Montchretien stated that the French alone then amounted 
 
 1 Gosselin, op. cit., p. 13. Breard, Documents Rdatifs a la Marine Nor- 
 mande,Tp. 50. Rouen 1889. Cf also Stevenson, Calendar of Foreign State Papers 
 1563, pp. 234, 236 and 427. London 1867. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, op. cit., iii 521. 
 
 3 Jean Alfonce, Voyages Avuntureux, p. 28. Poictiers 1559. Hakluyt, 
 op. cit., iii 155 : "when the Portugals (about thirty yeeres past) did put into the 
 same Island of Sablon both Meat and Swine to breede." Cf. also R. Lemon, 
 Calendar of Domestic State Papers 15S1-1590, no. 36 p. 38, London 1865. 
 
 4 Breard, op. cit. , pp. 50 et seq. 
 
 5 Cf. Hakluyt, Discourse on Westeme Planting, in Collections of the Maine 
 Historical Society, 2nd Series, vol. ii (Cambridge, Mass., 1877), p. 48 : "one or 
 twoo hundreth Spanishe and Portingale shipps" etc. 
 
 6 Letter of Anthony Parkhurst in Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 132 
 et seq Cf. R. Lemon, Calendar of Domestic State Papers 1547-SO, p. 554 no. 20. 
 London 1856. 
 
 7 Biblioth. Nat., MS. fr. 15452 fol. 145.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 25 
 
 to double that number 1. Thus at the close of the sixteenth 
 century the fishing trade of Newfoundland had reached very- 
 considerable proportions, and though in some years, that of the 
 Spanish Armada for instance, the number declined somewhat, yet 
 on the whole a large fleet of fishing vessels sailed yearly to the 
 Banks from the principal countries of Europe. 
 
 In process of time the fishing trade had undergone division 
 into several sections, of each of which it will be well to give a 
 description. In the first place the cod fishing was divided into 
 the green and the dry fishing. " The green," says Lescarbot, "are 
 fished at sea on the Banks. Fifteen or twenty sailors have each 
 a line of from forty to fifty yards in length, at the end of which 
 is a large baited hook and a sinker three pounds in weight to 
 carry it down. By means of this they fish for the cod, which 
 are so greedy that no sooner is the bait down than they are 
 caught, any where at least where the fishing is good. When the 
 cod have been hauled on board they are prepared on benches in 
 the form of narrow tables which run along the sides of the vessels. 
 One man cuts off the heads and throws them overboard ; another 
 cuts the fish open and takes out its entrails, passing it on to the 
 next who removes the greater part of the bones. This done, they 
 put it in the salting barrel for four and twenty hours when at 
 length it is pressed ; and in this way they work continuously 
 (not even stopping on Sunday) for the space of about three 
 months, with sails down until the cargo is complete 2." Such 
 was, and is still, the deep-sea fishing as carried on over the whole 
 of the Banks from the coast of New England up as far as New- 
 foundland itself. For the dry fishing, which, as we shall see, 
 was probably the connecting link between the fishing trade and 
 the earliest fur-trade, the process was diff'erent. " For the dry 
 cod," says the same author, " the fishermen go ashore. There are 
 
 1 Moiitchretien, Traicte de VCEconomie Politique, edition of Funck-Brentano, 
 pp. 231 et seq. Paris, 1889. Cf. also Joiion des Longrais, op. cit., pp. 188 et seq.; 
 Breard, op. cit. pp. 59 et seq. and pp. 73 et seq.; Green, Calendar of Domestic State 
 Papers 1591-94, pp. 36, 231, 248, 265 and 451, London 1867. 
 
 2 Lescarbot op. cit. (ed. of 1609) pp. 823 et seq. Cf. Kipling, Captains Coura- 
 geous {hondon 1897), a work of fiction with some descriptions true to life.
 
 26 TRADE AXD COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 harbours in great numbers both in Newfoundland and at 
 Cape Breton where the ships remain at anchor for three 
 months, At daybreak the sailors row out to sea and fill their boat 
 with cod, which takes until about one or two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 They then return to the harbour and throw the fish on a plat- 
 form built at the water's edge. Here on a large table they are 
 prepared as by the deep-sea fishermen. When the fish has been 
 salted they are dried on rocks exposed to the wind or on the 
 pebbles of the beach. At the end of six hours they are turned, 
 and this is done several times until they are quite dry. They 
 are then pressed. To dry them well, however, the weather must 
 not be fogijy or they will rot, nor too hot or they will perspire, 
 but the temperature must be moderate with plenty of wind." ^ 
 
 From the liver of the cod a valuable oil was and still is 
 obtained. In the old days this was secured merely by tossing 
 that portion of the fish into barrels which stood exposed in the 
 sun. There was no fishing at night nor, according to Lescarbot, 
 during the winter, but an English writer asserts that at the close 
 of the sixteenth century the French fishermen made a winter 
 voyage as well as a summer one and that when the Englishmen 
 were going out in April they often met Frenchmen on their way 
 home.2 As a rule however all the fleets went out in April and 
 came back in August. The profit varied from thirty to as high 
 as fifty per cent. The vessels rarely exceeded one hundred and 
 fifty tons although there was one, the Jehan from La Rochelle, 
 of two hundred tons.3 
 
 The whale fishing was principally in the hands of the Basques 
 who had gained their experience in the Bay of Biscay before the 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 832 et seq. Cf. also Thevet, op. cit. Tome ii, iv. xxiii, Chap. v. 
 R. Whitbourne, A Discoume and Discovery of Xewfo%indland (London 1622), 
 p. 11 : " the Banke, where the French use to fish Winter and Summer, usually 
 making two voj'ages every year thither," Cf. also Ihid. p. 97 ; Hakluyt, Dis- 
 course on West erne Planting, p. 83 : "the Frenchemen, whoe, settinge furthe in 
 Janiiar}', broughte their banke fishe to Roan in greate quantitie by the ende of May 
 and afterwarde returned .... againe to the fisshinge and are looked for at 
 home towardes the fifte of November." 
 
 3 Br^ard, op. cit, pp. 52 et seq. Musset, op. cit. p. 261. Cf. also Btdletin et 
 Mimoires de la Sociiti Archiologique d^Ille-et-Vilaine, Tome iv, pp. 298 et seq. 
 Rennes 1866. Malvezin, op. cit., ii 167.
 
 TRADE AXD COMMERCE 1497-1597 27 
 
 whaling grounds of the St. Lawrence were known.l The 
 centre of the trade was a harbour formed by a small river which 
 enters the St. Lawrence just below the Saguenay, though some 
 of the vessels also used the port of Tadoussac.2 As soon as an 
 anchorage had been found in one of these ports, the boats were 
 sent off with a skilled harpooner in charge of each. If no whale 
 were sighted a man was landed upon some neighbouring pro- 
 montory from which he could announce the appearance of the 
 expected prey. When an arrival had been signalled to the boats, 
 these at once made chase, but on coming to close quarters 
 approached cautiously. One of the boats advanced as close as 
 possible until the harpooner, who stood ready in the bow, threw 
 his weapon with great force. The animal feeling himself thus 
 rudely pierced sank at once. If either his tail struck the boat 
 or he started away rapidly the danger to its occupants was great. 
 The line attached to the harpoon was paid out as fast as possible 
 but in case of a tangle or if the progress of the animal was too 
 rapid, it was necessary to cut it quickly with an axe. After the 
 whale had reached the bottom he usually returned slowly to the 
 surface where he was generally attacked in such lively fashion 
 that he again made his way below, this time much weakened 
 from loss of blood. When, some minutes after, he once more re- 
 appeared,he was soon killed outright. If many whales were about, 
 the dead animal was simply anchored and left where he had been 
 killed ; otherwise he was towed ashore, cut up into pieces and 
 the blubber boiled into oil in huge caldrons. Often as many as 
 four hundred barrels were obtained from one whale but the 
 quantity of oil of course varied according to the size of the 
 animal.'^ Walruses were at this time also plentiful in the Gulf, 
 especially at the southern entrance to the Atlantic near Brion's 
 
 2 A. Navagero, Voyage en France en 1528, in the Relations des Ambassadetirs 
 V^nitienn, par N. Tommaseo (Paris, 1838), Tome i p. 13 : "A Bayonne et k Saint 
 Jean-de-Luz on peche tous les ans quelque baleine," etc. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, (Euvres de Champlain, Tome ii (Quebec 1870), p. 55 : " Un pen 
 plus haut il y a une riviere qui va quelque peu dans les terres ; c'est le lieu oil les 
 Basques font la pesche des ballaines." Cf. also Ibid, iii 140. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op, cit. iii 226-228. Lescarbot, op. cit. (edition of 1866) iii 
 800-802. Cf. also the engraving in Thevet, op. cit. ii 1017.
 
 28 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 Island. Towards the close of the sixteenth century many Eng- 
 lish vessels engaged in this trade.l Besides the fat and the skin 
 of the walrus other parts were then thought valuable, and a 
 physician of Bristol, who prescribed for his patients the teeth of 
 this animal ground fine, found it " as soveraigne against poyson 
 as any Unicornes liorne."^ 
 
 Cod, walrus and whale formed the bulk of the fishing industry; 
 but other fish were also taken in smaller quantity. One man for 
 instance saw a shoal of mackerel which covered a space " three 
 times as large as the Markets at Paris."^ With such riches to tempt 
 them, it is not surprising that the fishermen of Europe continued 
 to flock to the Banks in ever increasing numbers. "In fact," says 
 Lescarbot at the close of the century, " such a quantity go there 
 every year that one cannot imagine whence comes such a host "■* 
 
 The connecting link between this great fishing industry and 
 the fur-trade with the savages is not easy to discover. It ap- 
 pears however that the fishermen who brought home the dry cod 
 were the first to barter with the savages. On account of the 
 necessities of this trade most of the vessels spent the whole three 
 months during which it was carried on in one or other of the 
 numerous bays and harbours of the coasts of Newfoundland and 
 Cape Breton. Vessels having their own platforms were led 
 naturally to return year after year to the same spot, especially 
 if the fishing in the neighbourhood was good. Friendly inter- 
 course with the natives must soon have followed and in time 
 also an exchange of European goods for furs, — the only article of 
 any value that the savages possessed. At first no doubt the 
 barter was carried on in a haphazard way by a few masters or 
 sailors desirous of improving the season's returns.^ As the fisher- 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 189-201. 
 
 Ibid. p. 191. 
 3 Lescarbot, op. cit. (edition of 1866) iii 803 : "Car en plusieurs endroits j'en ay 
 veu des troupes serr(3es qui occupoient trois fois plus de place que les Halles de 
 Paris." 
 
 Ibid. p. 796 : " Car tant de gens et en si grand nombre en vont qiierir de 
 toute I'Europc tons les ans, que je ne S9ay d'oii peut venir cette fourmiliere." 
 
 Cf. Hakluyt, Discour-se, etc., p. 88 : " Which imposition of [i.e. on] twoo or 
 three hundred shippes laden yerel}' with sondry sortes of fishe, trane oyle, and 
 many kyndes of furres and hides," etc.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 29 
 
 men and whalers pushed further into the St. Lawrence, and when 
 experience had shown that the furs thus to be secured obtained 
 high prices in Europe, this intermittent barter grew into an or- 
 ganized fur-trade. Jean Alfonse tells us in 1544 that the fishing 
 near Anticosti and along the shore of the Gaspe peninsula was 
 better than at Newfoundland,! and we know that about this time 
 the Basques began to hunt the whale near Tadoussac. Lescarbot 
 at the beginning of the seventeenth century notes that before 
 the regular fur-trading companies were formed, the fishermen 
 were in the habit of bartering with the savages in the lower 
 parts of the river.2 Notices of this fur-trade are found scattered 
 through the records of almost the whole of the sixteenth century. 
 When John Cabot set out on his first voyage in the spring of 
 1497 " divers marchants of London " ventured small stocks in his 
 ship, and according to the same authority " in the companie of 
 the saide shippe sayled also out of Bristowe three or foure small 
 ships fraught with sleight and grosse merchandizes, as course 
 cloth, Caps, laces, points and other trifles." ^ Verrazano in sailing 
 along the Atlantic coast from Florida to Cape Breton found the 
 savage tribes for the most part friendly, and although his princi- 
 pal object seems to have been gold, he often exchanged goods 
 with them. 4 He also made other voyages, ostensibly for spices. ^ 
 
 1 Biblioth. Nat., MS. fr. 676, fol. 179 et seq. : " En ceste coste et k I'isle de 
 1' Ascension y a grand pescherie de molue et de plusieures aultres poissons beau- 
 coup plus que k la terre neufve et est les poisson bien meilleur que celluy de ladite 
 terre neufve," etc. 
 
 - Lescarbot, op. cit. (edition of 1617), p. 637 : " Car avant les entreprises du 
 sieur de Monts a peine avait-on oui parler de Tadoussac, ains les Sauvages par 
 maniere d' acquit, voire seulement ceux des premieres terres, venoient ti'ouver les 
 pecheurs des Morues vers Bacaillos, et \k troquoient ce qu'ils avoient, preque 
 pour neant." For Charlevoix's opinion vid. his Histoire de la NouveUe France, 
 Tome i, p. 166. Paris 1744. 
 
 3 R. ilarkham, The Journal of Christopher Columbus, etc., p. 200. 
 
 4 Hakluyt, Divers Voyages (reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, London, 1850) 
 pp. 55 et seq. Cf. also Jacques Savary, Le Parfait N6gociant, Tome i (Paris 
 1675), Liv. ii, p. 114 : " En I'annee 1520 trois freres appellez les Parmentiers 
 decouvrirent vers le Cap Breton I'lsle de Fernanbourg, ou its chargerent leurs 
 vaisseaux de riches marchandises.'' 
 
 5 Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, p. 11 : " Master John Verazaims, which had been 
 thrise on that coast," etc. Freville, Memoire sur le Commerce Maritime de Rouen, 
 ii 432-434. Rouen et Paris 1857.
 
 30 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 Gomez, who visited the Gulf in the year 1524, brought back with 
 him a certain quantity of furs as well as a number of Indians. 
 He reported that the country was exceedingly rich in marten, 
 beaver and other furs, i Cartier's first contact with the savages 
 of the mainland in 1534 certainly indicates that they had already 
 traded in furs with Europeans. The ships had reached the Bale 
 de Chaleur which Cartier hoped was the passage to the East, 
 and a boat had been sent ahead to examine the coast. On round- 
 ing a headland it came suddenly upon about fifty canoes 
 manned by savages who were paddling towards the shore. At 
 the sight of the boat the Indians at once made signs that the 
 French should also land, and even held up furs to them on their 
 clubs. As the boat was alone it was decided to return to the 
 ships, whereupon the savages sprang again into their canoes and 
 paddled after her. Although they made friendly signs the French 
 did not understand and fired a few shots over the heads of those 
 in the leading canoe. The Indians at once turned back and made 
 for their camp. On the morrow however nine canoes came to 
 the point of land at the entrance to the bay where the ships were 
 lying, and when two boats had been sent ashore to meet them, 
 the savages bartered away their furs to such an extent that 
 most of them were left stark naked. On the tollowing day 
 they came with more furs of deer, otter, and other animals, 
 which they also bartered until the supply was exhausted. 2 
 On his second voyage the next year when the St. Lawrence was 
 visited for the first time, Cartier everywhere found the Indians 
 as familiar and as friendly as if they had known the French all 
 their lives. They came freely on board with fish and other pro- 
 visions and showed great joy at the sight of the strangers. ^ In 
 an agreement drawn up between Roberval and two ship-masters 
 six years later, it was stipulated that after landing Roberval and 
 his company in the St. Lawrence the masters should be allowed 
 
 1 Ramusio, op. cit. iii 52 : " Sono in questa terra eccellenti martori et zibellini 
 et altre ricche fodere, delle qiiali ne porto alcune pelle il detto Pilotto." 
 
 2 Michelant et Rame, op. cit., pp. 28 et neq. Thevet, Les Singularitez de la 
 France Anarctique, p. 401, edition of GafFarel, Paris 1878. 
 
 3 D'Avezac, op. cit., p, 21.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 31 
 
 to retain one- third of all that was obtained by barter from the 
 savages. ^ In 1545 Jean Alfonse tells us that the Indians of 
 Norumbega on the New England coast possessed large quantities 
 of furs, and he mentions especially marten, a fur then so rare in 
 Europe that only princes and great lords could wear it. 2 In 
 1558 Thevet incidentally records that the boat of a fur-trader 
 was upset in the St. Lawrence by a whale. ^ Twenty years later 
 when seeking to refute the assertion that there was gold in the 
 region of the St. Lawrence, this same writer enumerated the 
 riches of the country as consisting solely in fish and furs. Since 
 the skins used by the savages for clothing and coverings were 
 those of the otter, bear, marten, fox, rabbit and elk, it is probable 
 that these formed their principal articles of exchange. ^ In the 
 year 1569 David Ingram and two companions, who had made 
 their way overland all the way from the Gulf of Mexico, were 
 picked up near Cape Breton by a French vessel from Havre 
 which " had a trade with the people there of divers sortes of fine 
 furres." ^ Eleven years later one Richard Whitbourne tells us 
 that he brought home furs from Newfoundland. On setting out 
 he had intended to go to that portion of the Gulf which lies near 
 the Straits of Belle Isle in order to trade with the savages, but 
 went instead to Trinity Harbour in Newfoundland where he 
 
 1 Abbe E. Morel, Jean-Frangois de la Roque, Seigneur de Jtoberval, in Btdletin 
 deGiographie Historique et Descriptive, 1892, p. 285 : " qu'ilz auront le tiers de 
 tout ce qu'ilz pourront conquester par traphique de marchandizes avec les 
 sauvages de la dicte terre," etc, 
 
 ■2 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 676 fol, 185 et seq. : "Et y a entre eulx force pelleterie 
 de toutes bestes . . . . y a une ville qui s'appelle Norombegue et y a en 
 elle .... force pelleteries de toutes bestes : les gens de la ville sont vestuz de 
 pelleterie portant manteaulx de martres." Also his Voyages Avantureux, p. 29. 
 Thevet, Singidaritez, etc., p. 415, edition of 1878. 
 
 3 Thevet, Singidaritez, etc., p. 440. 
 
 4 Thevet, Cosmographie Universelle, Tome ii (Paris, 1575), fols. 1010 recto and 
 verso, 1011 and 1013. 
 
 5 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), -p. 561: "This Monsieur Campaigne 
 was brought up into the Countrie by the said Examinate and his two Companions, 
 by whose meanes he had a trade with the people of divers sortes of fine furres and 
 leaves of trees for dying," etc.
 
 32 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 obtained not only fish but also a good supply of deer, bears, 
 beavers, otters and seals, which were sold at Southampton, i 
 
 During the first three-quarters of the century it was princi- 
 pally those engaged in the dry cod fishing who bartered with 
 the savages. The Basques about Tadoussac doubtless also car- 
 ried on some trade with the natives of that region but further 
 than this point boats did not care to venture. It appears indeed 
 that on account of the seizure of Donacona and of the troubles 
 which arose on Cartier's return in 1541 and during the winter of 
 1542-3 which Roberval passed on the St. Lawrence, trade could 
 not with safety be carried on beyond Tadoussac. In 1581 how- 
 ever some merchants of St. Malo pushed once more into the upper 
 St. Lawrence. In process of time the remembrance of old wrongs 
 had faded away, so that the new generation, induced by gifts 
 and other attentions, finally consented to re-open trading rela- 
 tions. In that year a barque of only thirty tons was sent, but 
 so profitable was the return that a vessel of eighty tons was des- 
 patched in the following summer. To keep the matter secret 
 however the vessel was hired in Jersey while the crew were 
 engaged elsewhere. So great were the profits of the second ven- 
 ture that in the year 1583 the same merchants sent out three 
 ships. 2 In the following j'^ear the number was increased to five 
 and in 1585 ten ships were despatched. In 1584 two savages 
 were brought home in order to facilitate trade and intercourse. 3 
 
 1 Whitbourne, op. cit., Preface: "My first Voyage thither, was about 40 
 j'eeres since, in a worthy Ship of the burthen of 300 Tunne .... wee were bound 
 to the grand Ba}-, purposing there to trade witli tlie Savage people (for whom we 
 carried sundry commodities) and to kill Whales and to make Trayne oj^le, as the 
 Biscaines doe there yeerly in great abundance. But we bare with Trinity Harbor 
 where we killed great store of Fish, Deere, Beares, Beavers, Seales, Otters and 
 such like with abundance of Sea-fowle : and so returning for England, we 
 arrived safe at Southampton." 
 
 2 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 176 and 187. N. Sainsbury, Calendar of 
 Colonial State Papers, Addenda 1574-1674, p. 20 no. 23. London 1893. 
 
 3 Hakluyt, Discourse on Westerne Planting, p. 101 : "And nowe our neigh- 
 boures, the men of St. Malue in Brj'taine, in the begynnynge of Auguste laste 
 paste, of this yere 1584 are come home with five shippes from Canada and the 
 contries upp the Bay of St. Lawrence, and have broughte twoo of the people of 
 the contrie home, and have founde suche swete in that newe trade that they are 
 prepariuge tenne shippes to leturne thither in Janurar3' nexte," etc.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 33 
 
 A traveller who went to Newfoundland in the summer of 
 1583 stated that the country was noted for the export of the furs 
 of martens, beavers, and foxes, and that the fur of the fox was 
 then of great value.i In one cottage a sailor saw two hundred 
 and forty elk hides which were afterwards sold in France for 
 forty shillings a hide.2 Hakluyt, writing about this time from 
 Paris, announced that in one man's house he had seen, besides a 
 considerable quantity of hides, the furs of beavers and otters 
 which had been brought from the St. Lawrence to the value of 
 five thousand crowns. He was then expecting fresh intelligence 
 about this country from the towns of Rouen, Dieppe and St. 
 Malo, whence the traders to these parts had set sail.^ So splendid 
 were the returns that the French admiral, the Due de Joyeuse^ 
 with the Cardinal de Bourbon and several others, thought of 
 sending out a colony, and it was possibly in connection with this 
 project that The vet put forward the advantages of Prince 
 Edward Island as the site for a settlement. Not only was the 
 fishing good (over two hundred vessels coming there every 
 summer) but at this point there was carried on, according to his 
 statement, a considerable barter in furs.* Stephen Bellinger of 
 Rouen, who was sent out that year to explore the coast, " broughte 
 home . . . divers beastes skynnes, as bevers, otters, mar- 
 ternes, lucernes, seales, buflfs, dere skynnes, all dressed and painted 
 on the innerside with divers excellent colours."^ 
 
 In view of the dimensions which the fur-trade had assumed 
 it is not diflBcult to understand why those who sought a mono- 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Narigations iii 153. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 175, 
 
 3 Sainsbury, op. cit., p. 24 no. 31. Hakluyt does uot mention the St. Law- 
 rence by name but says ' ' all these commodities and others of no less value are 
 brought out of the most nether parts of those countries whereunto our voyage of 
 inhabiting is intended." It was then his intention to sail with Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert. Cf. Principall Navigations iii 161 : " Putabas te superiore iam Junio 
 nos subsecuturum." 
 
 4 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 15452 fol. 150 verso.; Ms. fr. 15454 fol. 149 verso 
 et seq. 
 
 5 Hakluyt, Discourse Concerning Westerns Planting, p. 26 ; cf. also p. 34 : 
 " and upp within the Graunde Baye, exceding quantitie of all kynde of precious 
 furres," etc, and p. 84. 
 
 3
 
 34 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 poly of it should have met with considerable opposition. In 1588 
 an attempt of the kind was made. In that year two nephews of 
 Cartier, Stephen Chaton, Sieur de la Jannaye, and Jacques 
 Nouel, both captains in the navy, petitioned King Henry the 
 Third for a monopoly of the fur-trade. They pointed out that 
 there was still due to their uncle Cartier one thousand six 
 hundred livres. the sum verified as correct by the commissioners 
 appointed to regulate his accounts with Roberval in 1544. As 
 compensation for the non-payment of this sum, and for the 
 arrears of pay due to one of them as captain in the navy, they 
 asked for a monopoly of the fur-trade of Canada for the space of 
 twelve years. They had already, they explained, engaged in it 
 for some years and had contracted very friendly relations with 
 the savages of the country, several of whom had been brought 
 home to France in order to facilitate future intercourse. Besides 
 the trade in the furs of the buffalo, marten, sable, otter and other 
 animals, they had discovered certain copper mines. If in addi- 
 tion to the monopoly they were given permission to take out 
 sixty convicts a year they would be able both to work these 
 mines and also to colonize the country. In January 1588 their 
 request was granted.! 
 
 The French fishermen and the merchants who had begun to 
 make a specialty of the fur-trade at once made an outcry against 
 the danger which threatened their interests. In an assembly of 
 the Estates of Brittany held in March deputies were appointed 
 to petition for the abolition of the new monopoly.^ These 
 remonstrances proved effective and in May the grant was revoked. 
 According to the order in council setting forth the revocation, 
 the King had never intended to put a stop to the freedom of 
 trade with the island of Canada which was henceforth to be as 
 free as it had always been. It was only in respect to new lands 
 hereafter discovered by the patentees that a monopoly of the fur- 
 trade could be conferred. The monopoly of the copper-mines 
 
 1 Michelant et Ram^, Voyage de Jaques Cartier, 2^ partie, pp. 34 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 44 e.( seq. Archives d'llle-et-Vilaine, Registre des Etats C 2642, 
 p. 635; printed in Michelant et Rame, Relation Originale, etc., (1867) 2* partie 
 p. 10. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit., pp. 152 and 155-56.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 35 
 
 which they asserted they had discovered was however confirmed.i 
 This failure of a few St. Malo merchants to secure a monopoly 
 of the whole trade shows that it had already assumed very con- 
 siderable proportions and that the number of those who had felt 
 their interests threatened was by no means small. Henry the 
 Third's successor, however, was bent on securing the occupation 
 of the St. Lawrence, and convinced that no colonists would go 
 out voluntarily, saw that some inducements must be given to the 
 merchants in order to secure their co-operation in the work of 
 colonization. He therefore granted a monopoly and upheld it 
 even in the face of more vigorous opposition. 
 
 From the year 1588 until the close of the century, the trade 
 went on unhampered, but no inhabitants of the motherland 
 showed any inclination to emigrate to the colony. The trade 
 was only a coasting trade which, though it brought out a certain 
 number of vessels every summer, seemed unlikely to lead to any 
 permanent settlement. A factor no doubt sometimes spent a 
 winter with the Indians in order to familiarize himself with their 
 language and habits, but between such occasional residence and 
 colonization lies a wide gap. On the other hand it was becom- 
 ing clear to the Government at home that unless something were 
 done to fortify and hold the country, it might at any moment be 
 seized by a rival power. From a French vessel captured at the 
 mouth of the English Channel on her way home in the autumn 
 of 159] the fishermen of Bristol learned the exact position of the 
 island of Ramea in the Gulf, where this vessel had shipped her 
 cargo of train-oil.2 Soon afterwards two English ships were des- 
 patched thither. One of them, reaching the island too late in 
 the season to catch walruses, seized a vessel from St. Malo with 
 her cargo almost complete. The other missed the island but, 
 coming near Cape Breton, sighted " five or sixe boates .... 
 which were judged to bee Christians, which had some trade that 
 way."3 In the year 1594 another English vessel, the Grace of 
 
 1 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 8022 fol. 186 verso. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit., 
 pp. 157-159. Michelant et Ram^, Voyage de Jaques Cartier, 2« partie,pp. 48 et seq. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 189 et seq. 
 
 3 Ihid, p. 192.
 
 36 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 
 
 Bristol, sailed as far as the island of Anticosfci in the belief that 
 wounded whales made their way there to die. Not finding any 
 she returned to the Bay of Placentia in Newfoundland where 
 nearly sixty fishing vessels had already arrived.^ The walruses 
 at Ramea island were the prospective cargo of the Hopewell 
 which set sail from London in the spring of 1597.2 
 
 Thus the number of foreign vessels entering the Gulf in- 
 creased year by year and the danger from foreign occupation 
 became thereby the greater. In the year 1584 Hakluyt had 
 written that " if we did not fortifie ourselves aboute Cape Briton, 
 the Frenche, the Normans, the Brytons or the Duche or some other 
 nation, will not onely prevent us, of the mighty Baye of St- 
 Lawrence, where they have gotten the starte of us already, but 
 will deprive us of Newfoundland which nowe wee have discov- 
 ered " ; but his book on Western Planting was never published 3. 
 At the close of the century he again sought to stir up his country- 
 men. " While the French, Bretons, Basques and Biscayans," said 
 he, " do yearly return from these parts a manifold gain, we the 
 English have merely stood still and been idle lookers on."^ In 
 the face of this danger from English enterprise it had become 
 necessary for France to bestir herself if she wished to retain the 
 region of which Cartier and Roberval had taken possession in 
 her name. Her first efforts to strengthen her claim were the 
 despatch of the expeditions under La Roche in the summers of 
 1584 and 1598, Both of these failing, recourse was had to the 
 plan proposed by the nephews of Cartier ten years before. The 
 fur-trade, as has been already shown, was made a monopoly and 
 given to a few merchants on condition that they should take out 
 a certain number of colonists every year. No voluntary col- 
 onists had as yet come forward, and since the interests of the 
 merchants were not in colonization but in trade they took out 
 any persons they could get without regard to fitness. The num- 
 ber taken was generally far below that agreed upon. The ofli- 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 194-5. 
 
 2 Ihid. p. 195. 
 
 3 Hakluyt, Discourse on Westeme Planting, pp. 48, 87, and 102. 
 i Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii, 193.
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 1497-1597 37 
 
 cers appointed to see that the agreement was fulfilled of course 
 complained, but as long as good colonists could not be induced to 
 come forward the evil appeared irremediable. When finally, in 
 despair, the Government withdrew the monopoly before its legal 
 termination, the fresh group of merchants to whom a new mono- 
 poly was given acted generally just as their predecessors had 
 done. One need not therefore be surprised that in the year 
 1628 at the time of the formation of the fifth company since 
 1600 the country boasted of but two families of colonists. Before 
 however recourse was had to this system of a monopolized trade, 
 an attempt was made to form a settlement on Sable Island.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE TWO ATTEMPTS OF LA ROCHE AND THE FIRST FUR-TRADE 
 
 MONOPOLY 
 
 It was doubtless to offset the danger of the occupation of the 
 St. Lawrence by a foreign power that two expeditions were sent 
 out under La Roche in 1584 and 1598. Troilus de Mesgouez, 
 Sieur de Kermoalec and Marquis de la Eoche, had been able, in 
 his position of page at the Court, to gain the favour of Catherine 
 de Mddicis.i Through her influence he was made captain of 
 Morlaix in 1565, and a few years later commander.2 In this 
 capacity he attempted to gain the command of the castle of 
 Taureau, near at hand, but by his illegal extortions he had already 
 roused the resentment of the inhabitants of Morlaix, and they 
 formed a common fund to oppose his claim before the courts.^ 
 Before the publication of the court's decision, which rightly was 
 given against him, La Roche sought to take the matter into his 
 own hands by forcibly seizing the place, but the arrival of several 
 of the neighbouring gentry with their attendants induced him to 
 agree to a compromise.'* It was in his quality of governor of 
 Morlaix that La Roche presided at the meeting of the Estates of 
 Nantes in 1574.^ Three years later a commission was issued by 
 Henry the Third empowering him to occupy territories in New- 
 foundland not then in the possession of any allied sovereign. 
 Although in 1578 he was made lieutenant-general and vice-roy 
 
 1 G. Desfontaines, Uistoire des Dues de Bretagne (Paris 1739) Tome iii, p. 40 : 
 " C'^toit un Gentilhomme de basse Bretagne qui avoit ete autrefois Page de la 
 Reine Catherine de Medicis, et qui ayant, a ce qu'on dit, gagne la faveur de cette 
 Princesse, avoit obtenu I'erection de la terre de la Roche en Marquisat. " 
 
 2 Og^e, Dictionnaire Hidorique et Giographique de la Province de Bretagne ii 
 60, art. Alorlaix note. Rennes 1853. 
 
 * It appears from the evidence furnished on this occasion that La Roche, 
 though a former page of the Queen Mother, had fought with the Huguenots in 
 several of the recent battles. 
 
 * J. Daumesnil, Histoire de Morlaix, pp. 145-153. Morlaix 1879. 
 
 5 Michelant et Ram^, Relation Original e, etc., 2** partie, p, 8 note 1. Biblioth. 
 Nat., Pieces originales vol. 1938 no. 44603 nos 3-5. 
 
 [38]
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 39 
 
 for the King in those parts, he did not set sail until 1584.1 Un- 
 fortunately his largest vessel with over one hundred colonists on 
 board was wrecked near Brouage and the voyage had to be aban- 
 doned.2 At this time La Roche enjoyed the revenues of the 
 Abbeys of Bonrepos^ and Landevenec,'* and in 1585 he was ap- 
 pointed to the command of the Castle of Fougeres in Brittany.^ 
 In July of the following year in consequence of this new appoint- 
 ment he resigned his post at Morlaix.6 He had been governor 
 of Fougeres for four years when on his way back from Paris in 
 February 1589 he was seized by the orders of the Due de Mer- 
 cosur who imprisoned him for seven years in his Castle of 
 Nantes.7 The Due de Mercoeur then secured possession of the 
 Castle of Fougeres which La Roche seems to have left ill-pro- 
 vided for defence, although in truth his own capture was the first 
 notice he had had of the outbreak of hostilities.^ For a sub- 
 stantial ransom^ he was at length liberated in 1596, and he at 
 once abused his liberty by engaging in an unlawful expedition 
 against the island of Ushant, then in the possession of the gover- 
 nor of Brest who was also of the King's party.i^ After a 
 
 1 Dom Morice et Dom Taillandier, Hi'stoire ecclesia-stiqve et civile de Bretagne, 
 Preuves, Tome iii pp. 1439 and 1442. Paris 1746. Also in Michelant et Rame, 
 op. cit., 2« partie pp. 5-10. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, Discourse on Westerne Planting, p. 26: "and this yere 1584 the 
 Marques de la Roche wente with three hundred men to inhabit in those parts 
 whose voj'adge was overthrowen bj' occasion that his greatest shippe of CCC tones 
 was caste awaye over againste Burwage and so the enterprize for this yere ceseth." 
 Cf. also Green, Calendar of Domestic State Papers, Addenda 1580-1625, p. 43. 
 London 1872. 
 
 3 Morice et Taillandier, op. cit. Tome ii p. cliii. 
 * Ibid. p. Ixxxi. 
 
 5 Biblioth. Nat., MS. fr. 3309 fol. 71 verso. 
 
 6 Morice et Taillandier, op. cit., Preuves iii 1482. 
 
 7 Morice et Taillandier, op. cit. Tome ii p. cclxxvii : "et au mesme temps pour 
 coramencer I'hostilite, il fit prendre le Marquis de la Roche, Captaine de Fougeres, 
 qui revenoit de la Cour, lequel il a garde sept ans prisonnier dans le Chasteau de 
 Nantes." Deffaite de VArmee du Prince de Domhes p. 12. Paris 1589. Cf. also 
 Desfontaines, oj). cit. iii 40. 
 
 8 Morice et Taillandier, oj). cit. , Tome ii p. cclxxviii. 
 
 9 Ibid., Preuves iii 1663. 
 
 i^^Ihid. ii 453-454 : " Dans le mois de Juin suivant le Marquis de la Roche fit 
 une entreprise sur I'isle d'Ouessant qui n"eut pas de suite," etc.
 
 40 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 chequered career in France during the civil war he turned his 
 attention once more to the lands in the west.i 
 
 An agreement was drawn up in March, 1597, between La 
 Roche and Thomas Chefdostel, master of the Newfoundland fish- 
 ing smack La Catherine, of one hundred and seventy tons, by 
 which Chefdostel, on condition that La Roche should pay for one- 
 half the cargo of salt at Brouage, one-half the wages of the crew, 
 and the whole of the provisions, undertook to embark on board 
 his vessel a company of soldiers and to land them on Sable 
 Island.2 When however a few weeks later La Roche applied to 
 the Parlement of Rouen for certain prisoners who were to be of 
 the party, these were refused him for lack of sufficient authoriza- 
 tion.3 He was kept waiting until the following January before 
 receiving the order by which he was empowered to take from 
 the gaols of Brittany and Normandy such a number of criminals 
 as he should deem advisable, seeing that on account of the length 
 of the voyage, the fear of shipwreck and regret at the thought 
 of leaving their friends no voluntary colonists had offered them- 
 selves.'* At the same time he was named lieutenant for the King 
 in the lands of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, 
 Labrador, Norumbega and Sable Island, where he was given the 
 same powers formerly accorded to Roberval.^ Clothed with these 
 powers La Roche at once began to make fresh preparations for 
 the despatch of a colony to Sable Island. To transport thither 
 the two hundred sturdy beggars, male and female, handed over 
 to him at Rouen^ he concluded a fresh agreement with Chefdostel 
 on the 16th of March, 1598, by which for the sum of six hundred 
 crowns the latter agreed to transport them to their destination. 
 
 1 P. Potier de Courcy, Nobiliaire et Armorial de Bretagne, ii 268 (Rennes 
 1890), makes him governor of St. L6 and Carentan in 1597. 
 
 2 Br^ard, op. cit., pp. 75-78. 
 
 3 Rouen : Archives de la Cour d'Appel, Registre des Stances de la Tournelle, 
 17th April, 1597, cited by Gosselin, Nouve.lles Olcmen Historiques Normandes, p. 
 10. Rouen 1873. 
 
 4 Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 1609), pp. 442-446. This is similar to the authority 
 given to Roberval, cf. Harrisse, Notes pour servir, etc., pp. 258 et seq. 
 
 5 Lescarbot op. cit. (ed. of 1866), Liv. iii chap, xxxii pp. 398 et seq. 
 
 6 Archives du Parlement de Normandie ; Archives Secretes, 20th May, 1598 
 fol. 189 verso, 23rd May fol. 192.
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 41 
 
 When the season on the Banks was over he was to return and 
 pick up La Roche. Any furs or other goods secured in the inter- 
 val were to be equally divided between Chefdostel, the owners of 
 the Catherine, and La RocheA Two days later a contract of a 
 similar nature was entered into with Jehan Girot master of the 
 Frcuigoise, who however was paid only one hundred crowns as 
 his vessel was smaller than the Catherine.^ 
 
 In spite of these elaborate preparations only sixty persons 
 were actually landed on Sable Island. It appears that the re- 
 mainder, before the vessels set sail, had paid La Roche to be 
 released. La Roche himself continued his voyage towards the 
 mainland, a slight examination of the island convincing him that 
 it was not fit for settlement. Upon attempting to return to the 
 island, after a suitable situation had been found on the mainland, 
 he was driven by a storm all the way back to France. No vessel 
 touched at Sable Island, and the sixty criminals and beggars were 
 left to winter on this barren reef of sand. No relief came until 
 the summer of 160'}, by which time through dissension and famine 
 their numbers had been reduced to eleven.^ Meanwhile La Roche 
 on his return made an attempt to secure a fresh batch of pris- 
 oners, but since it had become known that less than half the 
 former allotment had been transported, the Parlement of Rouen 
 refused to give him any more.** He died some three years 
 later.B 
 
 Thus two attempts to check the encroachments of foreign 
 fishermen and fur-traders by establishing a strong post on Sable 
 Island or the coast near at hand ended in failure. Though in 
 the first case the sea was apparently responsible, in the second 
 the blame must rest with the leader for his choice of such a site for 
 his colony. It was now some sixty years since the French claim 
 
 1 Br^ard, op. cit. pp. 79-81. 
 Ibid. pp. 81-83. 
 
 3 Lescarbot, op. cit. (eel. of 1866), Tome ii p. 396 et seq- Gosselin, op. cit. p. 16. 
 
 4 Rouen: Archives de laTournelle 17th October, 1598: "attendu leretour dudit 
 de Mesgouet dudit pais faict exprez pour lever et niener personiies audit pais." 
 These lines must have escaped the late M. Gosselin or he would not have given 
 1599 as the year of this expedition. Cf. his Nouvelles Olanes, p. 15. 
 
 5 Potier de Courcy, op. cit. ii 268.
 
 42 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 to these regions had first been made, and yet with the exception 
 of the yearly summer coasting trade no signs of possession were 
 visible. 
 
 In the year following La Roche's expedition, a fresh applica- 
 tion was made to the Government for a monopoly of the fur-trade 
 by Pierre Chauvin, Sieur de Tonnetuit.i Although a Huguenot 
 and born at Dieppe, Chauvin had been living for a number of 
 years at Honfleur whither he had been sent as early as the year 
 1589 to occupy the post of captain of the garrison. Some five 
 years later he became interested in the fur-trade of New France 
 and soon possessed four vessels, the largest being of two hundred 
 tons, which annually traded to the St. Lawrence. His application 
 for a trading monopoly of ten years was accepted on condition 
 that he should take out fifty colonists a year or five hundred in 
 all. He appears to have assumed the title of lieutenant for the 
 King in Canada although no Letters patent to this effect were 
 issued.2 With his former partner Francois Grav^, Sieur du Pont, 
 like himself an old fur-trader and one who had often visited the 
 St. Lawrence, he began to make preparations for carrying on the 
 trade under the new conditions.^ A number of colonists were 
 collected and orders were issued forbidding other vessels to trade 
 in those parts. Early in the spring of 1600 the ships of the 
 monopolists reached Tadoussac at the mouth of the Saguenay 
 where the barter was usually carried on.* Chauvin was of the 
 opinion that the colonists should also be landed there. Dupont- 
 Grave however, who had visited the wooded and meadowy banks 
 higher up the river, preferred a site further west and in this view 
 he was supported by the Sieur de Monts, well known afterwards 
 for his attempts to colonize Acadia. At this time however Monts 
 was merely on a voyage of pleasure and his opinion did not have 
 great weight. Thus notwithstanding these remonstrances Chauvin 
 
 1 I cannot find any basis for Poirson's statement about the Discours of 
 Hurault in connection with this company. Cf. his Ilistoire de Henri IV, iii 
 538, Paris, 1865, and Harrisse, Notes, etc., pp. 279-80. 
 
 2 Tabellionage de Rouen, 14th and 23rd February, 1600, cited by Gosselin, 
 op. cit., p. 17. 
 
 3 Breard, op. cit., pp. 93 et seq. 
 
 4 Laverdiere, op, cit.. Tome v Chap, vi p. 41.
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TKADE MONOPOLY 43 
 
 remained firm. It is said he cared less for the welfare of the 
 colonists than for the gains of the trade. After the colonists 
 had been disembarked here, the summer was devoted to barter. 
 When they set sail on their return, instead of fifty sturdy 
 settlers planted on good soil they left a miserable remnant of 
 sixteen men, huddled together for warmth in a small log-hut on 
 the bleak rocks at the mouth of the Saguenay.i Chauvin's 
 profits enabled him to send out a larger number of vessels in the 
 following spring, though it is doubtful whether a new batch of 
 fifty colonists also formed part of his ships' companies. Champ- 
 lain indeed goes so far as to assert that Chauvin never intended 
 to fulfil this condition of his monopoly but had taken out a few 
 men merely to throw dust in the eyes of the Government. This 
 was doubtless the easier in view of the King's great confidence 
 in him, which had been earned by his excellent behaviour when 
 governor of Honfleur.2 
 
 Meanwhile the excluded traders of St. Malo, Dieppe, La 
 Eochelle and other seaport towns were making the land ring 
 with complaints. Having failed to prevent the registration of 
 Chauvin's papers,^ they now petitioned the King, declaring that 
 since the discovery of the St. Lawrence by Cartier they had 
 always been in the habit of trading with the savages in that 
 region, that by long intercourse they had rendered these Indians 
 so friendly that one of their men had been left to winter in the 
 country in order to examine into its geography, and moreover 
 that their vessels had been made ready for the yearly voyage 
 and that if these could not be despatched the loss would be very 
 great.'* Henry the Fourth however remained firm. He seems to 
 have been of the opinion that though these traders undoubtedly 
 added to the wealth and commerce of the nation, it was at that 
 moment of still greater importance to show Europe that France 
 claimed these regions as her own. This the yearly coasting 
 trade could never effect, and since colonists would not go 
 
 1 Ibid., Tome v Liv. i Chap, vi ; Breard, op. cit. pp. 85-86. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit., Tome v Chap, vi p. 44 ; Breard, op. cit, p. 67. 
 
 3 Michelant et Rame, op. cit., 2^ partie p. 12 No. iv. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 51 et seq.
 
 44 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 voluntarily, a monopoly was only a just recompense for those 
 who went to the expense of planting each year a certain number 
 of settlers in the colony. 
 
 In the spring of 1601 Chauvin and his partners again 
 despatched their vessels. It is probable however that had the 
 passengers been counted they would have been found to fall far 
 short of fifty, if indeed Chauvin did not altogether neglect to 
 fulfil this condition of his privilege. The sixteen settlers at 
 Tadoussac, who had been obliged to take refuge with the Indians, 
 were doubtless relieved and we may even believe, in the absence 
 of any information to the contrary, that they were taken home 
 in the autumn. No others appear to have been landed and the 
 whole summer was given over to trade. Under these circum- 
 stances it is not surprising to find that the gains were as great 
 as in the previous year.i The year 1602, though only the third 
 in a monopoly of ten years, was the last during which Chauvin 
 and his partners enjoyed their privileges in full. The persistent 
 opposition of the excluded traders so far forced the hand of the 
 Government that at length it promised to permit certain merchants 
 of Eouen and St. Male to take part in the trade on condition 
 that these also bore their share in the expense of transporting 
 colonists.2 This admission however of a favoured few gave 
 rise to as much hostility as before, and upon the declaration of 
 the Town Council of St. Malo that the full and entire freedom of 
 the trade would alone satisfy their demands, the King deemed it 
 advisable that an inquiry into the whole matter should be 
 instituted so that some mutually favourable arrangement might 
 be arrived at. A monopoly granted ostensibly for a period of 
 ten years was thus virtually withdrawn at the end of the 
 third. Such indeed was so frequently the practice of the Govern- 
 ment that at length the commercial element of the seaport towns 
 lost faith in its word, and taught by experience refused to be 
 bound by any severe conditions as to colonization. 
 
 The monopoly enjoyed during these years by Chauvin had 
 embraced only the valley of the St. Lawrence. Along the 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit., Tome v pp. 43-44. 
 
 2 Michelant et Ram^, op. cit., 2« partie No. v pp. 12-14.
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MOXOPOLY 45 
 
 Atlantic coast a number of vessels continued to barter as they 
 had done in the days when a ship of Havre picked up David 
 Ingram on his arrival from Florida. These consisted principally 
 of French and English vessels, although, according to a report of 
 Indians in the Bay of Fundy, the Basques also came there every 
 summer for furs. A little further to the south an English vessel 
 secured a good stock of skins of beavers, martens, otters, wild- 
 cats, " with very large and deep fur," black foxes, rabbits and 
 " other beasts' skins to them unknown. "l As a result however 
 of the inquiry now opened into the fur-trade by the Government 
 this part of New France was included henceforth in the region 
 to which the monopoly extended. 
 
 On the 28th of December, 1602, an order was issued command- 
 ing the Sieur de la Cour, first president of the Parlement of 
 Normandy and the Sieur de Chaste, vice-admiral in the navy 
 and governor of Dieppe, to repair to Rouen at the end of the 
 following January and there, having summoned before them the 
 deputies of that town, those of St. Malo and finally Captain 
 Chauvin himself, to draw up some suitable agreement for the 
 regulation of the fur-trade and for the colonization of New 
 France. Their final decision was at once to be put in force by 
 the Admiral of France, a position then occupied by the Sieur de 
 Dampville.2 A proclamation was issued forbidding any captain, 
 master, or merchant to send out any vessel to the St. Lawrence 
 or to carry on any trade beyond the promontory of Gaspe until 
 the decision of the Commission was made known.^ The report 
 of this Commission has not so far been discovered, but it appears 
 that after hearing the parties interested, the commissioners 
 recommended the admission of only two vessels, as the Gcvern- 
 ment had at first proposed, one for Rouen and one for St. Malo. 
 The owner of each vessel was however to pay one-third of the 
 cost of colonization. The vessel of the St. Malo merchants was 
 
 1 Archer's Relation of GosnoWa Voyage in the Collections of the Mass. Hist. 
 Society, 3rd Series viii 73. Cf. Brereton's Brief and True Relation in ibid. pp. 
 86 and 91. 
 
 2 Michelant et Rame, op. cit,, 2^ partie pp. 15-17. 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. 17-21. This was addressed to the traders of Calais, Picardy, 
 Normandy, Brittany, Guyenne and Biscay', which shows the extent of the trade.
 
 46 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 placed under tlie charge of a Captain Coulombier while Captain 
 Prevert was given the command of the one fitted out at 
 Rouen, l 
 
 It appears that shortly after the publication of this decision 
 and before the vessels had been despatched for the season of 
 1603 Captain Chauvin died. His death does not seem to have 
 disturbed the existing arrangements, his place being taken by 
 the Sieur de Chaste, who, as one of the late commissioners, was 
 conversant with the demands of the fur-trade. He had been 
 governor of Limoges and was in command of the expedition 
 sent to the Azores in 1583. Although, on account of the 
 superior force of the Spaniards, the French and Portuguese were 
 defeated, yet Chaste so distinguished himself that on his return 
 Catherine de Medicis expressed her satisfaction at his conduct. 2 
 As governor of Dieppe, in which position he greatly distinguished 
 himself during the civil wars, 8 he must have been brought con- 
 stantly into connection with the fishermen and traders of the St. 
 Lawrence, while his recent duty as commissioner at Rouen no 
 doubt gave bim an adequate knowledge of the trade. Before 
 Chaste set sail with a fresh contingent of colonists it was deemed 
 advisable to make a thorough examination of the new regions in 
 order that when more accurate information as to their resources 
 and geographical position had been obtained, the new settlement 
 might be planted in the most favourable spot available. ^ This 
 duty was consigned to Dupont-Grav^ who had charge of the ves- 
 sel belonging to Chaste, and with him was also associated Samuel 
 de Cham plain, a captain in the navy and a personal friend of 
 Chaste. Champlain had jusi returned from the Spanish Main 
 and was ready, now that his country enjoyed domestic peace, to 
 devote his energies to the development and colonization of New 
 
 1 Ihid. pp. 21 et seq. N. Valois, Inventaire des Arrets die Conseil d'Etat, ii 
 129 No. 7566. Paris 1893. Laverdi^re, op. cit. Tome v chap, vii pp. 44 et seq. 
 
 2 De la'Chenaj'e, Desbois et Badier, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, Tome v p. 894. 
 Paris 1865. On the expedition to the Azores vid. M. Theveriot, Relations de Divers 
 Voyages ciLrieux, Tome ii, 4^ partie. Paris 1696. 
 
 3 D. Asseline, Les Antiquitez et Chroniques de la Ville de Dieppe, Tome i, pp. 
 388 et seq.. Tome ii, pp. 1-116. Dieppe 1874. 
 
 4 Laverdiere, op cit.. Tome v Chap, vii p. 45.
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 47 
 
 France, an object which he kept steadily in view and pursued 
 without intermission until his death in 1635. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1603 the vessel of Chaste as well as 
 those in charge of Prevert and Coulombier set sail for New 
 France. They carried no colonists, for while the two latter 
 traded, Dupont-Grave and Champlain were to seek a suitable 
 spot for settlement. Prevert seems to have directed his course 
 to He Perc^e near the Bale de Chaleur where he spent the 
 summer in bartering. He also found time to examine some mines 
 on the Acadian peninsula to which he was guided by a few Indi- 
 ans trading at He Percee. While the others were busy barter- 
 ing with the savages who had come both from the upper St- 
 Lawrence and from the Saguenay to Tadoussac, Dupont-Grav^ 
 and Champlain set off to explore the St. Lawrence as far as the 
 rapids of Lachine. Several merchants of St. Malo had already 
 made their way there since Cartier's time for trading purposes, i 
 but the present was an official exploring expedition. Every- 
 where they found the land rich and fertile. " The further we 
 advanced," says Champlain, " the finer the country appeared." 
 An island at the mouth of the river afterwards called St. Maurice 
 attracted his attention as a suitable spot for an inland post ; for 
 he learned that the Algonquin and Huron tribes who lived in the 
 regions of the upper Ottawa River and Georgian Bay feared to 
 make use of the waterway of the St. Lawrence lest they should 
 be waylaid by their inveterate enemies the Iroquois who dwelt 
 in the peninsula at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. If a strong 
 post were established here, Champlain was of opinion that even 
 the Iroquois might be overawed sufficiently to induce them to 
 sue for peace. 2 After making their way to the rapids of Lachine 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Prijicipall Navigations, iii 236: " I hav^e bene upon the toppe of 
 a mountaine which is at the foot of the Saults," etc. Noel to Groute 19th June 
 1587. Cf. also his Discourse on Westeme PlatUing, p. 115: "A man of St. Malowe 
 this last yere (1583) discovered the sea on the back side of Hochelaga." Annuaire 
 diL Conseil H6raldtque de i^rawce, Paris 1894, p. 50 : " Et apres Cartier plusieurs 
 Normans, Biscains, Bretons et entre autres les S*^ du Pontgrave et Prevert dudit 
 St-Mallo, Fabian de Mescoroua, lesquelz, trente cinq ans (1578) ou environ, ont 
 trafficque dans le dit lac et audessus avecques les dits sauvages." 
 
 - Laverdiere, op. cit., Tome ii Chap, vi p. 30.
 
 48 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 the expedition returned to Tadoussac where trading operations 
 were still proceeding, i Here they remained only a few days 
 before they again set off to explore the regions about Gaspe and 
 the Acadian peninsula. Although they did not actually push 
 their explorations in this direction beyond He Percee where Pre- 
 vert was trading, they were able from him and from the Indians 
 who had come from the south for barter to obtain a full account 
 of the land beyond. Pre vert also gave them a description of the 
 mines he had visited, although, owing to the place being covered 
 at high-tide, his examination was not as thorough as he had 
 wished. The reports of this southern region must have impressed 
 Champlain and Dupont-Grave very favourably for it was doubt- 
 less in consequence of their advice that the colony brought out 
 in the following year was taken to Ste. Croix in the Bay of 
 Fundy instead of to the St. Lawrence. 2 Satisfied with the results 
 of these invcbtigations they once more returned to Tadoussac, and 
 when the barter there was over again set sail for France. 
 
 The hopes of all were now centred upon Chaste in expectation 
 of the despatch of a large expedition under his charge in the 
 spring of the following year. Great must have been the grief 
 and disappointment of Dupont-Grav6 and Champlain on reaching 
 Havre in September to learn that their trusted leader was dead. 
 This brave old man, whose head, says Champlain, bore as many 
 years as grey hairs, and who notwithstanding his advanced age 
 was still ready to place his services at the disposal of his country, 
 had passed quietly away at Dieppe in the middle of the previous 
 May. 3 Champlain especially feared lest, when such an exper- 
 ienced adviser was no longer there, the Government might be 
 
 1 According to the traders of St. Malo nine or ten other barques were also at 
 the rapids this year. Cf. Anmiaire du Conseil Heraldique de France, 1894, p. 50: 
 *' et y a environ de dix a douze ans seuUement que le dit Champlain fut comme 
 passager mene au premier sault par le diet Sr du Pontgi-ave de St-Mallo et en 
 laquelle annee se trouva une infinite de personnes de toutes contrees de la France 
 jusques au nombre de neuf ou dix barques qui toutes ensemble n^goti^rent au dit 
 lieu." 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit., Tome ii Chap, x pp. 50 et seq. For the trade further 
 south this year cf. Pring's Voyage in Purchas, Part Four, pp 1654-56. London 
 1625. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit., Tome v Chap, vii, p. 47i
 
 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 49 
 
 induced to withdraw the monopoly, as the sea-port towns 
 demanded. This year from Havre alone eighty vessels had 
 visited the Banks, and since many of them were dry-fisheis who 
 remained the whole time in harbour, the restriction in regard to 
 bartering was very unpopular.! Champlain haw however that 
 without a monopoly colonization would never make great pro- 
 gress. In none too confident a mood therefore he set out for 
 Fontainebleau where he pre-^ented to the King an account of 
 their explorations, at the same time urging upon him the necessity 
 of colonizing such a valuable tract of territory. Henry the 
 Fourth, who was imbued with the same ideas, was especially 
 pleased to hear that this new territory had turned out so fertile 
 and valuable, and promised that the death of Chaste should in 
 no way lead to the overthrow of the monopoly. A new man 
 would be found and a new and more extensive company formed 
 which should establish a colony, not in the St. Lnwrence where 
 the winters were severe, but in the warmer region of the Acadian 
 peninsula, where in addition there appeared to be prospects of 
 finding minerals. 
 
 With the death of Chaste, the monopoly originally granted to 
 Chauvm and then extended to a few merchants of Rouen and St. 
 Malo came to an end. The withdi'awal of privileges legally with 
 still several years to run, although in this case perhaps justifiable, 
 as no colonists had been settled in the country, became afterwards 
 a regular practice of the Government. It was generally excused 
 on the ground that the condition as to colonists was never pro- 
 perly fulfilled by the monopolists. In the case of the withdrawal 
 of Monts' monopoly, as we shall see, this excuse was the less 
 justifiable, that he carried out that condition of his grant far 
 better than even any of his successors. The history however of all 
 the companies formed during these years for trade in New France 
 is the same; fi-st a monopoly is granted under ciicumstaiices 
 ostensibly most favourable to the Government and to the jsrivi- 
 leged merchants ; then follow the growls of the excludeti traders, 
 the lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation to the 
 colony of a few beggars, criminals or unpromising labourers ; a 
 
 1 Archives de la Seine Inferieure, Serie C 1238 fols. 99 verso et seq. 
 
 4
 
 50 THE FIRST FUR-TRADE MONOPOLY 
 
 drain on the company's funds in maintaining these during the 
 long winter ; a steady decrease in the number taken out ; at 
 length no attempt to fulfil this condition of the monopoly ; the 
 anger of the Government when made aware of the facts ; and 
 finally the sudden repeal of the monopoly several years before its 
 legal termination.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 The man chosen to till the vacancy created by Chaste's death 
 was Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts. Like Chauvin he was a 
 Huguenot and like him also had at one time held the post of 
 governor of Hontieur.i During Henry the Fourth's struggles 
 for the crown, Monts rendered good service in his cause and now 
 enjoyed, as a reward, the governorship of the pretty little town 
 of Pons in Saintonge.2 As mentioned above he had already 
 visited the St. Lawrence with Chauvin in 1600, and on other 
 evidence he seems indeed to have made several voyages to those 
 regions."' He was now to profit by the recent survey of Dupont- 
 Grave and Champlain and to leaa out to the warmer region of 
 Acadia the colony of which the late commander Chaste was to 
 have been the guiding spirit."^ To quiet the complaints of the 
 excluded traders, it was decided to repeal the monopoly originally 
 granted to Chauvin and in a fresh one, given for a similar term 
 of years, to include as many of the merchants as desired to offer 
 their names. The terms however upon which this new company 
 was to enjoy the trade both of the St. Lawrence and of the 
 Atlantic coast were so severe that at first no shareholders would 
 come forward. While Chauvin had agreed to fifty colonists a 
 year, the number was now required to be one hundred, or a total 
 of a thousand colonists at the end of the ten years. To be sure, 
 in case an insufficient number of good colonists came forward, 
 idlers and beggars both in the towns and in the country might be 
 seized, and the judges were instructed not to be too lenient in 
 
 1 Breard, op. cit. p. 68, 
 
 2 Biblioth. Nat,, Pieces originales, vol. 1421 no. 32147, nos. 4 and 5. 
 
 3 Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 1866), ii 409 : " confians . . . en la conoissance 
 que vous avez de la qualite, condition et situation dudit pais de la Cadie pour les 
 diveres navigations, voyages et frequentations, que vous avez faits en ces terres," 
 etc. 
 
 •1 Laverdiere, op. cit.. Tome v Chap \aii pp. 48 et seq. 
 
 [51]
 
 52 THK TWO MONOPOLIES OF MOXTS, lt)04-1608 
 
 the infliction of the punishment of banishment;'- yet a very few- 
 conferences with the other merchants convinced Monts that the 
 number must be reduced, and on the eighteenth of December he 
 presented a petition to the King to this effect. The fact that 
 unless some reduction were made no shareholders would cotne 
 forward seems to have been of sufficient weight with the Govern- 
 ment to cause it to reduce the number to sixt}'. The further 
 request, however, to close the books of the Company at once 
 instead of in the spring, on the specious pretext that otherwise 
 the number of shareholders might be too large, was granted only 
 in a measure. At the end of eight days from that date no more 
 shart-holders were to be admitted, although it was hoped that 
 before then all who wished to do so would have given in their 
 names. Henceforward trade in those regions was to be for- 
 bidden to all but the shareholders of the Company.- In pursu- 
 ance of this last declaration an order was issued on the same day 
 to the officers of the Admiralty in Picardy, Normandy, Brittany 
 and Guyenne, informing them of the new monopoly of Monts 
 and his partners extending from the fortieth to the forty-sixth 
 degree of latitude. To make the prohibition more expdcit it was 
 declared to embrace the Gulf and River St. Lawrence with Gaspe 
 and the coasts of the Acadian peninsula as far south as the 
 fortieth degree. Any vessel caught bartering within these limits 
 would be at once seized, and if convicted the owners would be 
 obliged to pay a fine of thirty thousand livres.3 
 
 Notwithstanding that an endeavour had been made to include 
 in this new company as many of the regular traders as possible, 
 the publication of the new monopoly at once stirred up a vigor- 
 ous opposition. Not only were many excluded merchants 
 among its opponents but Sully the finance minister opposed 
 
 1 Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 1866) ii 408 et seq. 
 
 2 Ministere des Colonies : Corresp. Gendrale, Acadie vol. i fol. 25 et seq., fol. 
 38 et seq., printed in Collection de Manuscrits Relatifs a la Nouvelh France vol. i 
 pp. 44 et seq. It is unfortunate that tlie utility of this publication is so greatly 
 decreased l)y the absence of any indication as to whence the documents have been 
 taken, 
 
 3 Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 1866) vol. ii p. 415; Collection de Mamiscrits, etc., 
 pp. 46 et seq.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 53 
 
 both the monopoly and the whole scheme of colonization. In his 
 opinion no riches could be found north of forty degrees and with- 
 out gold and silver colonies were, he thought, uselessJ When 
 Monts sought to register his commission in the Parlement at 
 Rouen he met with a repulse which was only overcome bv the 
 intervention of the King himself. This opposition was partly 
 due, it appears, to the fact that Monts, a Huguenot, had been 
 placed at the head of the undertaking which announced as one 
 of its principal aims the conversion of the savages of New 
 France to the Catholic faith. The assurance given by the King 
 that Catholic priests should aione have control of the mission 
 work, and the further statement that since the books had lain 
 open for so long the absence of anj' name must be the fault of 
 its owner, seem to have been successful in removing all further 
 oppositioi).2 
 
 Nothing now remained but to draw up the articles of associ- 
 ation among the shareholders. By the terms of the agreement 
 signed on the tenth of February the new company, which was to 
 engage in the fishing, timber and mineral trades as well as in the 
 fur-trade, of which alone however it hp.d the monopoly, possessed 
 a capital of ninety thousand livres divided into live portions of 
 eighteen thousand livres each. Two of these portions, or thirty- 
 six thousand livres, were subscribed by the merchants of St. 
 Malo, two more by those of La Rochelle and St. Jean-de-Luz, 
 while the fifth portion was supplied by the merchants of Rouen, 
 although more than half of it stood in the name of Monts himself. 
 During the first year the Company was to send out dve vessels, — 
 four fur-traders and one whaling vessel. Two of the former were 
 to be despatched by the merchants of St. Malo who were also to 
 receive nine hundred livres for this purpose from the merchants 
 of La Rochelle. These latter again were to send ten thousand 
 livres to the Rouen merchants to aid in the despatch of the two 
 
 1 Sully, (Economies Royales (Paris 1664), vol. ii, chap. 26 p. 246. " Conime 
 la navigation du Sieur de Monts pour aller faire des peuplades en Canada, du- 
 tout centre votre advis, d'autant que Ton ne tire iamais de grandes richesses des 
 lieux situez au dessous de quarente degrez." 
 
 2 Harrisse, Notes, etc, pp. 280 et seq. ; Gosselin, Nouvelles Glanes, etc , pp. 21 
 et seq. ; Michelant et Ram^, op. cif., 2" partie pp. 27 et seq.
 
 54 THE TWO MONOPOLIKS OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 trading vessels from Havre witii the sixty colonists. With their 
 own portion and what remainevl of that of the La Roehelle mer- 
 chants, the mt-rchants of St. Jeande-Liiz were to equip the 
 whaler, since it was the Basques alone who seem to have taken 
 part in this trade. On the return of the vessels in the autumn 
 the results of the season's trade were to be sent to the offices of 
 the Company at Rouen, but for the second year again all the 
 profits of the previous year were to be expended in sending out 
 the colonists and no dividend was to be paid until the close of 
 the second season. In point of fact no dividend ever was paid, 
 and the repeal of the monopoly when it had still seven years to 
 run inflicted great loss on all concerned.^ 
 
 In the spring of 1604 however the prospects of the monopo- 
 lists seemed bright and little difficulty was met with in preparing 
 the vessels and despatching them. While the two trading 
 vessels from St. Malo and the whaler of St. Jean-de-Luz made 
 their way to the St. Lawrence, the vessels with the colonists 
 sailed from Havre to the island of Ste. Croix at the mouth of the 
 river St. John on the west coast of the Bay of Fundy, which after 
 some hesitation was finally chosen as the site of the new settlement. 
 When the ships bad been unloaded one of them was at once sent 
 to Cape Breton and He Percee to trade and fish, as it was found 
 that the remaining vessel would.be sufficient to carry home all 
 the furs collected in the Bay of Fundy,2 
 
 Although the whole of the fur-trade along the coast from 
 Tadoussac to beyond Ste. Croix was now in the hands of Monts 
 and his Company, yet in practice it was extremely difficult to 
 enforce the stiict observance of their right. No doubt a certain 
 amount of surveillance was exercised at the ports in France, but 
 since the cod and whale fisheries were still open a ready pretext 
 for departure was always at hand. If one of the Company's 
 vessels hajtpened to sail along the coast the fraud could of course 
 be detected, but it must have been somewhat discouraging to 
 those who sailed to Ste. Croix that the first vessel sighted after 
 
 1 Gosselin, Nonvelles Glanes, etc., pp. 24-29 ; Beaurepaire, Notes sur Pierre du 
 Gua, in La Normandie, Rouen, Juillet 1893, pp. 10-11. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 26 e/ seq.; Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 18GG) ii 427.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 55 
 
 reachinc^ the coast of New France was a contraband trader hail- 
 ing from Havre, the very port whence they themselves had 
 set sail. The vessel sent from Ste. Croix to He Perc^e also captured 
 four Basque interlopers whose captains were taken into custodj'. 
 In fact during the course of the summer eight vessels at least 
 were caught infringing the rights of the monopolists, which 
 seemed to promise well neither for the success of the Company 
 nor for its popularity at home in France.^ 
 
 While the Banks and the harbours of Newfoundland were 
 swarming with the usual summer fishing fleets, assembled from 
 nearly all the principal ports of Europe, and while the Company's 
 vessels were busy bartering at Tadoussac, Gaspe, He Percee 
 and Cape Breton, the new settlement at Ste. Croix had been 
 made to present quite the appearance of a small town. To 
 quote the words of one who afterwards visited the place, " During 
 all this time Monsieur De Monts his people did worke about the 
 Fort, which hee seated at the end of the Hand, opposite to the 
 place where he had lodged his Canon. Which was wisely consid- 
 ered, to the end to command the river up and down. But there 
 was an inconvenience, the said Fort did lie towards the North, 
 and without any shelter, but of the trees that were on the He 
 shore, which all about hee commanded to be kept and not cut 
 downe. And out of the same Fort was the Switzers lodging, 
 great and large, and other small lodgings, representing (as it 
 were) a Suburbe. Some had housed themselves on the firme 
 lande neere the brook. But within the Fort was Monsieur De 
 Motits his lodging made with very faire and artificiall Carpentrie 
 worke, with the Banner of France upon the same. At another 
 part was the store-house, wherin consisted the safety and life of 
 everie one, likewise made with faire Carpentry worke and cov- 
 ered with reedes. Right over against the said store-house were 
 the lodgings and houses of these Gentlemen, Monsieur D'orville, 
 Monsieur Champlein, Monsieur Champdord and other men of reck- 
 oning. Opposite to Monsieur De Monts, his said lodging, there was 
 a gallerie covered for to exercise themselves either in play or for 
 the workmen in time of raine. And betweene the said Fort and 
 
 1 Lescarbot, op. cit. (edit, of 1866) ii 424 and 426.
 
 56 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 the Platforme where lay the Canon, all was full of gardens 
 whereunto everie one exercised himselfe willingly. "^ There was 
 also a hand-mill for grinding corn and an oven for baking, doubt- 
 less similar to those now seen in all parts of the Province of 
 Quebtc. What was planted on the mainland grew well, but the 
 soil on the island turned out very dry and the sun burnt up 
 every thing.2 Towards the end of August wlien most of the 
 fishermen had already set sail and the traders and whalers in 
 the St. Lawrence were doubtless thinking of doing the same, 
 preparations were made for sending home the vessel which had 
 remained at Ste. Croix. In this ship, which carried fish as well as 
 furs, Monts sent back his secretary Rolleau to inform the share- 
 holders of the successful establishment of the colony and to beg 
 that fresh stores might be sent as early as possible in the follow- 
 ing spring. Owing indeed to the time lost befoie deciding upon 
 the island of Ste. Croix as the site for the colony, the stock of 
 provisions which remained for the winter was none too large. 
 With Kolleau also returned the Sieur de Poutrincourt, a Norman 
 gentleman, who had gone out in search of a suitable spot to 
 which he might retire for the remainder of his days with his 
 wife and family. The situation of Port Royal, on the Bay of 
 Fundy opposite Ste. Croix, had particularly attracted his atten- 
 tion and as Monts had not hesitated to give him a grant of it, 
 he was now setting out for home to put his afiairs in order, so 
 that he might return thither with his family as soon as 
 possible 3 
 
 On the arrival of the Company's vessels in France the cargoes 
 were at once unloaded and the furs forwarded to Rouen. On 
 their way thither however twenty-two bales were seized at 
 Conde-sur-]Noirea,u, owing to the refusal of those in charge to 
 pay the import duty. The customs officers, deeming New France 
 a foreign country, wished to levy the same duty paid on goods 
 coming from Spain, but the Company's agent would only pay 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Nova Francia, Bk. i Chap, vi pp. 29 et seq. London 1609. 
 
 2 Lescarbot, HiM. de la N. France (ed. 1866) vol ii pp. 449 et seq. Laverdi^re, 
 op. cit. iii 26 et neq., with map and plan. 
 
 3 Lescarbot Hist, de la Nouvelle France (edit, of 1609), p. 481 ; Laverdi^re, 
 op. cit. Tome iii Chap iv p. 29.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 57 
 
 the rate levied between the different provinces of France. Pend- 
 ing an authoritative decision the goods were temporarily released, ^ 
 but although these events took place in November the decision 
 was not pronounced until February 1605. It was then declared 
 that since the new regions had been occupied in virtue of powers 
 granted by the King, they necessarily came within the latter's 
 authority and were therefore to be considered as a dependency 
 of the kingdom of France. Commodities brought thence should 
 therefore only pay the same duties as goods passing from one 
 province of France to another. The King'.s displeasure was also 
 intimated against his officers for this seizure whereby the Com- 
 pany had been prevented from obtaining the money necessary 
 for the purchase of fresh stores for the coming year. 2 In ignor- 
 ance of this decision more furs were seized at Avranches but 
 when the King's commands were made known they were at once 
 released. 3 During the same wintei- proceedings were taken 
 against the eight contraband traders caught during the previous 
 summer. It turned out that not only had some of them been 
 flying the colours of other nations but that foreign vessels had 
 actually entered the St. Lawrence under the guidance of French 
 pilots. To prevent a repetition of this, fresh injunctions were 
 issued against any infringement of the Company's monopoly 
 whether by their own countrymen or by ibreigners. The cod 
 and whale fisheries were declared to be still open to all, but any 
 attempt to barter with the savages along the coast was to be 
 severely punished."* 
 
 By the time all these difficulties had been removed, a new 
 season had again come and preparations were made for sending 
 off the Company's fleet to the usual trading grounds. If an 
 English estimate of the success of the former summer be in any 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Hist, de la N'ouvelle France (ed. of 1609), pp. 467 tt seq.; Valois, 
 op. cit. ii 217 No. 8903. 
 
 2 Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvdh France (ed. of 1609), pp. 467 et seq. ; Ministere 
 des Affaires Etrang^res : Amerique Vol. iv fol. 17. 
 
 3 Valois, op. cit. ii 243 No. 9271. 
 
 4 Breard, op. cit. p. 102 ; Ministere des Colonies : Corresp. Generale, Canada, 
 Tome i fol. 52 ; Ministere des Affaires Etrangeres : Amerique Vol. iv 
 fol. 14.
 
 58 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MON^TS, 1604-1608 
 
 way correct, monej" must have been plentiful, i and since little 
 difficulty seems to have been met with in collecting a fresh batch 
 of sixty colonists, the two vessels from Havre were able to get 
 away in good time. Although the documents liave unfortunately 
 preserved for us no record ot the departure of the tw^o traders 
 from St. Mai) or of the whaler from St. Jean-de-Luz, 
 these ships doubtless made their way, along with the great 
 cod-fishing fleets, to the waters of the (jiilf or the sea-coasts near 
 at hand. '^ 
 
 When the two vessels with the fresh colonists reached Ste. 
 Croix they learned that the winter in that region had been quite 
 as severe as that experienced by Chauvin's people at Tadoussac. 
 During the autumn, indeed, all had been busj" completing the 
 buildings and exploring the neighbouring territory. Champlain 
 had thus been able not only to examine a considerable extent of 
 fresh coast-line, but also to establish tradinfj connections with 
 several fresh tribes to the south of Ste. Croix.-^ When, however, 
 the winter began and snow fell, the seventy-nine people had been 
 obliged mostl}' to remain indoors. To feed so many for a whole 
 winter, even under favourable circumstances, would be no easy 
 task, but here the conditions were especially difficult. The 
 severe cold froze the liquid stores so that cider was served out 
 by the pound. As the island possessed no springs they had to 
 content themselves with melted snow or run the risk of an acci- 
 dent in crossing to the mainland between the blocks of ice 
 carried down by the rapid stream. To grind the corn, all they 
 possessed was a small hand mill ; but what with poor water and 
 salted provisions, no one possessed sufficient strength to continue 
 long at the task. Bread thus soon became a luxury. To add to 
 their troubles, the daily fare of salted provisions affected the 
 blood. Scurvy made its appearance and carried ofl' in all thirty- 
 five out of the seventy-nine persons in the settlement. One can 
 
 1 According to this report, " The Frenchmen brought from Canada the value 
 of thirtie thousand Crownes almost in Beversand Otters skinnes only." Purchas, 
 Fourth Part p. 1656. London 1625. 
 
 2 Breard, op. cit., pp. 103 et neq. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit., Tomeiii Chap, v, p. 29 et seq.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 59 
 
 well understand therefore with what delight the arrival of the 
 two vessels with provisions and news from home was hailed.^ 
 
 The fresh stores and warm weather soon put new life into 
 all, and the summer's work was entered upon with good will. 
 Monts however had made up his mind that owing to the unsatis- 
 factory situation of the island with its sanoy ^oil and lack of 
 water a new site must at once be found. One further to the 
 north was of course not to be thought of, but since his powers 
 extended to the fortieth degree it was possible that in a souther- 
 ly direction a situation might be found more suitable than Ste. 
 Croix. Champlain, to be sure, had in his autumnal voyage dis- 
 covered no such sjiot.but there was still apossibility of findingwhat 
 was wanted beyond the limit of his exploration. Accordingly, 
 soon after the arrival of the new colonists the coast was again 
 exaijiined as far south as Mallebarre (Nanset Harbour) but 
 with no better success. Monts indeed was ah]e both to renew 
 the trading relations already established by Champlain with the 
 tribes of this region an<l even to bring back a small stock of furs, 
 but his efforts to lind a new site proved as unsuccessful as those 
 of his predecessor. Since the possibility of parsing a second 
 winter at Ste. Croix could not be considered for a moment, it was 
 finally decided to transport the colony to the beautiful harbour 
 of Port Royal across the Bay of Fundy. Although in the same 
 latituae as Ste. Croix, it ofiered many advantages not possessed 
 by that place, and though this region had already been ceded to 
 Poutrincourt, there seemed little chance that he would be able to 
 occupy it for a year or so at least. In the meanwhile the search 
 for a more southern site could be steadily pushed on. When 
 this decision was arrived at, all the buildings, provisions, people, 
 stores, and animals were transported across the Bay of Fundy. 
 Here the buildings were again set up, not scattered about as at 
 Ste. Croix, but in the form of a large square to assist in protect- 
 ing the colonists against both winter and the Indians.2 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit. , Tome iii Chap, vi pp. 43 et seq. ; Lescarbot, Hist, de la 
 Nouvelle France (ed. of 1866) ii 450 et seq. 
 
 ■2 Laverdiere, op. cit.. Tome iii, Liv. i. Chaps, vii-ix ; Lescarbot, Hist, de la 
 Nouvelle France (ed. of 1866), vol. ii, Chap, viii pp. 477 et seq.
 
 60 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 While the colony was being thus transferred from Ste. Croix 
 to Port Royal by means of the vessel kept there during the sum- 
 mer, the other three traders and the whaler were doubtless trad- 
 ing as usual along the coasts between Acadia and Tadoussac, 
 although our sources tell us nothing but what took place in the 
 Bay of Fundy. While it is possible that interlopers again made 
 their appearance^ even in the face of the repeated injunctions 
 of the authorities at home, they seem to have kept out of the 
 way of the Company's vessels, for no arrests are reported. The 
 Banks and the best harbours of Cape Breton and Newfoundland 
 were as usual the scene of great fishing activity,''^ and from these 
 during the month of August departures for home took place nearly 
 everyday. Towards the end of that month the vessel at PortRoyal 
 was also made ready for the return voyage. In her returned not 
 only Monts himself but also a considerable number of colonists, 
 who, from the experience of the winter passed at Ste. Croix, had 
 lost all desire of a further stay in the new land. Indeed only 
 forty -five persons seem to have remained and these were placed 
 under the charge of Dupont-Grave, while Cham plain became the 
 official geographer and Champdor^ the director of navigation. 3 
 On the arrival of the Company's vessels in France no more 
 trouble was met with in regard to the furs, which were safely 
 transhipped to Rouen and Pai'is. It appears that they were 
 usually bought by the hatters and furriers of the capital, among 
 whom Hakluyt, in 158 *•, mentioned Valeron Perosse and Mathew 
 Grainer, " the kinges skynners." "* 
 
 During the two years of the Company's existence it had been 
 able to pursue its commercial carer r more or less successfully. 
 A good deal of precious time had certainly been lost in the sum- 
 mer of 1604 before Ste. Croix was chosen as the site of the settle- 
 ment, and, though the choice proved unfortunate and the winter 
 a severe one, yet during both years the trade had been good and 
 the returns no doubt large. Now however in the third year of 
 
 1 Breard, op. cit. pp. 103-104. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit., vi 98 et seq. 
 
 •i Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle France (edit, of 1866) ii 479. 
 * Hakluj't, Discotirse on Westtrne Planting, pp. 34-35.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 61 
 
 its existence a number of difficulties suddenly arose, which might 
 have been overcome by patience and careful handling, but when 
 capped by the unjust withdrawal of the monopoly itself brought 
 the Company to a sudden and unfortunate end. The first diffi- 
 culty met with was the impossibility of getting persons of any 
 sort whatever to go out to Port Royal in the spring of 1606. 
 Those who had passed a winter in New France had returned for 
 the first time in the previous autumn and their description of 
 the difficulties of life at Ste. Croix with salt food, no water, 
 intense cold and little fuel was not of a nature to tempt many of 
 their countrymen to follow in their steps. The ravages of the 
 scurvy, a disease then little understood,! struck terror into more 
 than one heart. It was therefore only in the face of gTeat diffi- 
 culties that Monts at length succeeded in bringing together a 
 certain number of fresh colonists. Since he intended to remain 
 in France himself, he induced his friend Poutrincourt to go out 
 in charge of them and to occupy the post of governor during 
 his absence. 
 
 Like Monts the Sieur de Poutrincourt had greatly distingu- 
 ished himself during the recent civil wars in France. Henry of 
 Navarre, when besieging the Castle of Beaumont, of which 
 Poutrincourt was commandant, offered to reinstate him in the 
 lordship of it, if he would surrender. This however the gallant 
 nobleman refused to do, but alter the King had gone over to the 
 Catliolic religion, Poutrincourt voluntarily offered his allegiance 
 and .soon rose so high in the royal estimation that Henry declared 
 hiui to be one of the most valiant and chivalrous men of his 
 kingdo!i).2 Although Port Royal was granted to him in the 
 summer of 1604 he had been unable so far to remove his family 
 thither, but he was now willing, though not without some incon- 
 venience to himself, to do Monts the service of taking charge of 
 the colony. The vessel which was to transport him had been 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle France (edit, of 1866) ii 451 : "voici des 
 maladies inconeues," etc. 
 
 2 Lescarbot, Relation Derniere in Archives Cnrieuses de VHistoire de France 
 XV 379 e< .seg. ; Pierre de L'Estoile, Memoires-Joumaux v 26, 32,38 and vii 78. 
 Paris 1878.
 
 62 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 11)04-1608 
 
 made ready by the shareholders of La Rochelle, but when she 
 was on the point of setting sail, she was driven by a storm 
 against one of the piers and sank in the harbnur itself. This 
 caused a delay of one month and Port Royal was not reached 
 until -Tuly, though doubtless the other vessels of the Ccmpan}'' 
 found their way to the St. Lawrence at a much earlier date. ^ 
 This delay, which one may call the second misfortune of the 
 Company, cost it the season's trade in thes-e parts, where a few 
 Basque interlopers had been able, by their early arrival, to 
 secure the whole of the winter's collection of furs from the 
 natives. Moreover the winter at Port Royal proved as severe as 
 at Ste. Croix. The scurvy again appeared, but out of seventeen 
 struck down only twelve died. Spring passed into summer but 
 no vessel arrived. Finally the provisions ran out. The colonists 
 had made preparations for returning home in some of the vessels 
 fishing on the coast and had in fact actually set out in two small 
 boats to join these vessels, leaving only two of their number in 
 charge of the settlement, when Poutrincourt's ship fortunately 
 reached Fort Royal and the fugitives were recalled.2 Wlien they 
 had once more returned to the old quarters and the provisions 
 and fresh colonists were disembarked, preparations were ma<ie 
 for facing the coming winter. The orders sent by Monts were 
 to the efl'ect that the colony should be at once moved to the 
 south, but since no site had been found and the summer was now 
 almost at an end, it was decided to remain at Port Royal. The 
 men were at once set to work to cultivate and sow the cleared 
 land, for owing e ther to a lack of seed or to their intended depart- 
 ure this had not yet been done. When some weeks later the 
 tops of the Indian corn, wheat and rye, and of the turnips and 
 other vegetables appeared, the outlook for the winter seemed 
 more satisfactory.^ 
 
 Towards the end of August or about five weeks after its 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Hist, de la N. France (edit, of 1866) vol. ii Chap, x-xi pp. 484 
 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cif., Tome iii Liv. i Chap, xi ; Lescarbot, Hist, de la NouvdU 
 France (edit, of 1866), vol. ii Chap, viii pp. 479 et seq. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit. Tome iii, Liv. i Chap, xii ; Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle 
 France (ed. of 1609), Liv. iv Chap, xliii p. 588.
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MOXTS, 1604-1608 63 
 
 airival, the vessel was again made ready for the return voyage 
 Owing to the loss of the six thousand furs taken by the Basques 
 her cargo must have been much lighter than usual. Even then 
 another interloper was reported at Canso, but when the Com- 
 pany's ve.-sel touched there, he had made good his escape.^ Nor 
 unfortunately could any compensation be hoped from the results 
 of the season's trade in the St. Lawrence where the number of 
 foreign vessels was increasing yearly. Not only had Frenchmen 
 again piloted these strangers up the Gulf but a r^ompany had 
 actually been formed at Amsterdam for trade in the river. Re- 
 monstrances had been sent to the Estates General in the matter 
 but they arrived too late to lenetit the Company during that 
 year. Thus while the Basques were stealing the furs along the 
 Atlantic coast, the Dutch were carrying on an equally illicit and 
 doubtless equally fruitful trade in the St. Lawrence. Although 
 the whaler from St. Jean-de Luz may have gone home with as 
 full a cargo as usual, it is doubtful if the same can be said of the 
 vessels of the Company engaged in the fur-trade.2 
 
 Such then were some of the difficulties met with by the Com- 
 pany during the third year of its existence. It was also pestered 
 with complaints about the illegal seizure of fishermen who con- 
 tinually declared that they had done no bartering ^, and dissension 
 arose within the Company itself because one of the shareholders 
 named Bellois was found to have surreptitiously sent out a vessel 
 to Tadoussac the previous autumn ■*. But the final blow, which 
 eventually brought about the dissolution of the Company, came 
 from another quarter. It appears that since the monopolization 
 of the fur-trade the price of furs had risen considerably, so that 
 the trades dependent on this material found themselves obliged 
 to ask more for their goods. Naturally a falling off in the 
 demand ensued. The great Hatters' Corporation of Paris, instead 
 of bearing this in silence, at once complained to the finance 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle France (ed. of 1609) p. 590. 
 
 2 Ihid. p. 590 ; Beaurepaire, op. cit. p. 5 ; Berger de Xivrey, Lettres Missives 
 de Henri IV, vii 465-66. Paris 1858. 
 
 3 Michelant et Rame, Voyi-ge de Jaques Cartier 2e partie, pp. 51 et seq. 
 
 4 Archives du Tabellionage de Ro'ien 18th Nov. 1606, 8th, 16th and 19th Jan- 
 uary, and 24th April 1607, cited by Gosselin, op. cit., p. 31.
 
 64 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 minister Sully. He from the first had been against any scheme 
 of colonization, at least in a northern latitude, where he thought 
 the search for gold useless. In a lettt-r to President Jeannin 
 written at this time he gave additional reasons tor his view that 
 French colonies would never succeed^ " I regretfully recognize," 
 he wrote, " that the French are only interested in what is 
 momentarily ot importance or is continually brought before their 
 eyes. Lands beyond the seas therefore can only entail consider- 
 able cost while being only of slight or extremely little use." 
 Holding such opinions, it is not strange that wh^^n the,complaint 
 of the Hatters' Company was presented to him he at once took 
 the rather startling decision to withdraw the monopoly of the 
 Company when it had still seven years to run. 2 Thus, as in the 
 case of the company formed by Chauvin, a monopoly legally 
 granted for ten 3' ears was suddenly withdrawn at the end of the 
 third. The effect of these frequent repeals in undermining the 
 confidence of the commercial classes in the word of the 
 Government cannot be too strongly insisted on. The next 
 company to which a monopoly was given stipulated that not 
 sixty colonists each year but only six families in all should be 
 taken out. 
 
 It was one of the vessels from St. Malo which brought to 
 Port Royal the news of the approaching dissolution of the Com- 
 pany. As this third winter had proved no milder than its pre- 
 decessors, the prospect of returning to France cannot have been 
 received with very great dissatisfaction. In a fresh attempt 
 to discover a site to the south the explorers only succeeded in 
 reaching a point half a degree beyond the extreme limit visited 
 by Monts in 1604. The cold weather again broughi. with it 
 heavy snow, continual confinement, deprivation of all but salted 
 provisions, and last but not least the dread scurvy, which carried 
 oif seven of the company. Preparations for the return journey 
 were made therefore with no great reluctance. When a few 
 
 1 Biblioth. Nat., Collect. Colbert Cinq Cents vol. 203 fol. 236. 
 
 2 Beaurepaiie, op. cit. p. 10; Laverdiere, op. cit.. Tome iii Chap, xvi, pp. 121 
 et seq. ; Ibid. Tome v Chap, viii pp. .51 et .seq.; Lescarbot, HUtoire de la Nouvelle 
 France (edit of 1609), p. 630.
 
 THF TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 65 
 
 bad furs had been secured in the Bay of Fundy the vessel pro- 
 ceeded to Canso in order to complete her cargo with dry cod. 
 Towards the end of August this had been secured, and the ship's 
 company, with those who had remained at Port Royal to gather 
 in the crops, set sail for home.l Of the movements of the other 
 vessels of the Company during this season we have little infor- 
 mation. It appears however that though the monopoly was 
 officially repealed in July, they sought to uphold it against the 
 numerous strange vessels entering the St. Lawrence. The result 
 was that several disputes arose which had afterwards to be set- 
 tled in the law-courts at home.2 
 
 To look elsewhere for a moment in estimating the work of 
 the year, the Newfoundland fleet was as large as ever and 
 vessels from England and occasionally those from France con- 
 tinued as before to take their cargoes to Italy or Spain and to 
 carry home the products of those countries. In fact as Protes- 
 tantism spread more and more in the north, the Catholic countries 
 of the south became the great fish markets of Europe. About 
 this time the fishermen of St. Jean-de-Luz, who had been in the 
 habit of getting their salt in Spain, asked to be allowed to con- 
 struct salt marshes of their own at the mouth of the Bidassoa 
 which falls into the Bay of Biscay at Fontarabia. Thus it 
 is clear that the cod-fishing was a prosperous industry at this 
 port.3 
 
 On the return of the colonists and the vessels of the Company 
 in the autumn of the year 1607 its affairs seems to have been at 
 once wound up. During the three years of its existence the 
 expenses had been considerable, and though the returns had not 
 been small the balance was unfortunately on the wrong side. 
 Monts himself reckoned his losses at more than ten thousand 
 livres and he debated for some time whether he should not alto- 
 gether sever his connection with the fur-trade of New France. 
 On the advice of Champlain however he decided to keep up his 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit.. Tome iii, Chaps, xiii-xvii; Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle 
 France (ed. of 1609), pp. 629 et seq. 
 
 2 Valois, op. cit., ii, 388, No. 11199 (14) ; Breard, op. cit., pp. 104-106; Arret 
 du Parlement de Rouen 25th June, 1633. 
 
 3 Archives de la Gironde, Serie C 3812, fol 62 verso et seq, 
 
 5
 
 66 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 interest in it, but to transfer his efforts to the St. Lawrence. 
 With a factory at the narrows in the St. Lawrence called Quebec, 
 his asjents would be able not only to establish fresh trading con- 
 nections with the savages to the west, but also by means of the 
 alliance thus formed be enabled to push on their investigation 
 into the geography of those regions and, possibly, even to 
 discover the long-sought passage to the East.^ When at 
 length Montshad decided to follow this advice, he thought it well 
 to make his plans known to the King, hoping that if the true end of 
 his efforts were made clear Henry the Fourth would see his way 
 to give him some assistance. In this he was not disappointed. 
 When he and Champlain announced their plans at Court, his 
 Majesty at once granted Monts a fresh monopoly for one year 
 with no condition as to colonists or other expenses. Delighted 
 with this unexpected good fortune, Monts associated with him- 
 self a few of his old Rouen partners, who were only too ready to 
 assist him in the enjoyment of the monopoly, when no outlay for 
 colonists was demanded in return.^ 
 
 Three vessels were despatched by these partners in the spring 
 of 1608. While two of them made their way to the St. Law- 
 rence, the third under the charge of Ohampdore returned to the 
 old quarters at Port Royal. Here everything w'as found un- 
 touched. In the fields stood the waving grain awaiting only the 
 mower and his scythe. With the Indians of the neighbourhood, 
 who were greatly delighted at his return, Champdore was soon 
 able to carry on a brisk trade, while at Ste. Croix and along the 
 coast to the south, he secured a further supply of good furs. ^ 
 Meanwhile the other vessels, one of which had on board the 
 materials for the new factory, sailed to the St. Lawrence and cast 
 anchor at Tadoussac. In fact the vessels which crossed the At- 
 lantic rarely went beyond this point, * and even when the post 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, ojp. cit., iii 135-136, v 127. 
 
 2 Ibid, iii pp. 136-137 ; Valois, op. cit. ii 468, No. 12212 ; Lescarbot, Hist, de la 
 Nouvelte France (ed. of 1609), pp. 651 et seq. 
 
 3 Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle France (ed. of 1609), pp. 652 et seq. 
 
 4 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 149 : "A Tadoussac oi\ vaisseaux ne peuvent passer 
 pliis outre pour n' avoir la cognoissance du passage ny des bancs et rochers qu'il y 
 a en chemin."
 
 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MOXTS, 1604-1608 67 
 
 at Quebec had been established, everything was transhipped here 
 and sent on in small boats. A couple of Basque whalers found 
 bartering refused to recognize the fresh monopoly given to 
 Monts, and since superior force was on their side a decision in 
 the matter was left to the judicial authorities at home.i While 
 Dupont-Gravd was busy conducting the trading operations, 
 Champlain set off up the river in a .small barque of fifteen tons, 
 having on board the materials for the factory to be erected at 
 the narrows called Quebec. Such was the origin of this first 
 permanent settlement of the St. Lawrence by the French, and 
 except for the years 1629 to 1632, the fieurs cle lis floated bravely 
 above its ramparts until the victory of Wolfe in the autumn of 
 1759. 
 
 This first structure, which was of wood, was built at the foot 
 of the cliff and contained two stories. Outside ran a moat six 
 feet deep and fifteen feet wide, while the place was made still 
 more secure by cannon placed on mounds at the corners. The 
 land close at hand was cleared and on part of it were planted 
 the crops necessary for the sustenance of the inmates. These 
 consisted of the interpreters and factors for the trade as well as 
 of the workmen sent out to construct the building. Champlain, 
 who had charge of the place, not only intended to do all in his 
 power to develope the trade, but he was more particularly inter- 
 ested in the discovery of what lay beyond the rapids of Lachine. 
 That was the most westerly point yet reached by Europeans and 
 the geography of the regions beyond was absolutely unknown. 
 The possibility of discovering a water-way to the Southern Sea, 
 or even of coming upon that great ocean suddenly as did those 
 who first crossed the Isthmus of Darien, appeared then quite 
 within the region of the achievable. 2 During the next twenty- 
 
 1 Arret du Parlement de Rouen 2oth of June 1633 ; Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 
 140 et seq. 
 
 2 As early however as 1586 Thevet had doubted of any such success. " Par 
 quoy si ces entrepreneurs, qui sont encor de present en cest erreur, trouvent ce 
 destroit, ils tromperont Thevet et plusieurs autres qui tiennent son party. " Bib- 
 lioth. Nat., Ms. Fr. 15452 fol. 277. In the map printed in the Cosmo 
 graphic Universelh he depicts North America as a large continent with no north- 
 em passage.
 
 68 THE TWO MONOPOLIES OF MONTS, 1604-1608 
 
 seven years Champlain kept this object always in view and 
 though he was necessarily doomed to disappointment, his labours 
 added considerably to the geographical information then extant 
 as to the regions of the west. ^ 
 
 On the return of the three vessels in the autumn of 1608 the 
 period of monopolies which had been inaugurated by Chauvin's 
 Company in 1600 came finally to an end. By this last monopo- 
 ly of one year, in return for which they were bound by no 
 stipulation as to colonists, Monts and his partners had been able 
 to repair to some extent their financial condition, while their 
 new factory at Quebec gave them virtual control of a large 
 extent of the best fur country. Twenty-eight men had been 
 left there with Champlain during the winter, and though many 
 of these died the continued presence in the country of these 
 agents assured to Monts and his partners a marked superiority 
 over the other traders in the period of open trading which was 
 about to commence. The plan of granting trade monopolies had 
 not colonized the country ; we shall now see that the system of 
 open trade was equally unsuccessful. 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 139 et seq.; Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvdle France 
 (ed. of 1866), iii 595 et seq.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TKADE 1609-16-13 
 
 In the spring of 1609 the fur-trade was once more thrown 
 open to the merchant marine of France as in the old days betore 
 the monopoly granted to Chauvin. To satisfy the complaints 
 which had continually poured in from all quarters^ the privilege 
 granted to Monts for ten years was suddenly withdrawn at the 
 end of the fourth. To be sure the King's council accorded him 
 a compensation of six thousand livres which was to be levied on 
 the traders of St. Malo and Bayonne, but unfortunately all 
 attempts to obtain this sum failed. " It was," says Champlain, 
 " like trying to drink the sea to enforce payment fr^m the 
 seventy or eighty vessels which now visited New France."^ 
 When an officer of the Court appeared at St. Malo to enforce the 
 p.iyment on pain of imprisonment, he was quietly informed that 
 he had got hold of the wrong names and that the persons he 
 sought were not those who had traded in New France.^ Besides 
 these regular traders who once more set sail in the spring of 
 1609, it is probable that many of the dry-cod fishers again 
 resumed their bartering operations with the Indians, if indeed 
 they had ever ceased to do so. 
 
 At Quebec, of the twenty-eight who had remained for the 
 winter, only eight men were left, ten having died of scurvy and 
 five of dysentery. The cold had been so severe that the Indians 
 of the neighbourhood also suffered much, though Champlain did 
 
 1 " Autre requeste du Maire et eschevins gens du Conseil . . . des villes, 
 bourgs et parroisses de Bayonne, Sainct Jehan de Luz, Subibourre, Urougne, 
 Handaye, etc." Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr, 18176 fol 4 verso. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, oip. cit. v 52 : " Mais quelle despense luy eust-il fallu faire en 
 tous les ports et havres, pour recouvrer ceste somme . . . sur plus de quatre 
 vingts vaisseaux qui frequentent ces costes ? C'estoit luy donner la mer k boire," 
 etc. 
 
 3 Archives Municipales de St. Malo, serie EE 4 no. 138. 
 
 [69]
 
 70 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 all in his power to relieve them. At the same time he promised 
 his neig"hbours the Montagnais Indians to assist them in an expe- 
 dition against the Iroquois. He hoped by this not only to 
 attach them more closely to French interests but also to see a 
 good deal of the unknown region of the west, and if possible 
 inflict such a defeat upon the Iroquois that they should soon sue 
 for peace.l 
 
 At this point it will be well to state briefly the condition of 
 affairs among the Indian tribes of New France when Champlain 
 made his first expedition against the Iroquois in the summer of 
 1609. When Cartier visited the St. Lawrence in 1535 he found 
 the Montagnais Indians occupying the north shore of the St. Law- 
 rence almost up to the narrows called Quebec. From that point 
 to the Ottawa dwelt the Algonquins, the conquerors of the 
 Montagnais, while beyond the Ottawa and still bordering the 
 St. Lawrence lay the country of the Hurons, who acted as the 
 allies of the Algonquins in tlieir wars with the Iro(|uois. This 
 great nation of the Iroquois, to which the Hurons also belonged, 
 although the two branches were now at war, occupied the terri- 
 tory south of the St. Lawrence and south-east of Lake Ontario. 
 The St. Lawrence was thus the dividing line between the two 
 forces, and though marauding parties crossed it from the north 
 and from the south it was not infrequently itself the scene of 
 their battles.2 At the time of Cartier's visit the balance of 
 power seems to have been maintained, but during the course of 
 the sixteenth century, or between the visit of Cartier and that 
 of Dupont-Grav^ and Champlain in 1603, the Iroquois power 
 consolidated itself, and by this increased strength was at length 
 able to drive its enemies far from the St. Lawrence. The Hurons 
 took refuge in the peninsula between the Georgian Bd,y and Lake 
 Huron. They still however kept up intercourse with the Algon- 
 quins, who had been likewise obliged after the destruction of 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 166 et seq. 
 
 2 D'Avezac, op. cit., fol. 29 a and b : "Lequel Donnacona nous dist que c'estoient 
 des Trudamans devers le Su, que leur nienoient continuellement la guerre, et nous 
 fut diet qu'il y a eu deux ans passez que les dictz Trudamans les vindrent assaillir 
 iusques dedans lediet fleuve, h une ysle qui est le travers du Saguenay, ou ilz estoient 
 a passer la nuict tendans aller ix Honguedo leur niener guerre," etc.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 71 
 
 their towns to retire to the Upper Ottawa,i through the chain 
 of lakes connecting the Ottawa River with the Georgian Bay. 
 In fact until the middle of the seventeenth century this was the 
 only route used for going to and from the Huron country to 
 Quebec. The Montagnais row no longer dared to show them- 
 selves on the St. Lawrence west of Quebec and were confined for 
 the most part to the region about Tadoussac. The Etechemins, 
 who had sometimes joined the alliance against the Iroquois, in- 
 habited the shores of the Bay of Fundy.2 
 
 The traders in their barter at Tadoussac and in the Bay of 
 Fundy had first been brought into contact with the Montagnais 
 and the Etechemins. The former in their turn were in the habit 
 of re-exchanging the goods obtained from the French with the 
 tribes of Lake St. John and the upper Saguenay.^ These goods had 
 reached the Algonquins, and since expeditions even by the weaker 
 party against the Iroquois were still common 4 the Algonquins 
 had been led in the course of one of them to visit the French at 
 Quebec. In dread however of an Iroquois ambush they did not 
 come by the Ottawa River, but by the rivers St. Maurice and 
 Batiscan.-^ In fact the Algonquins' fear of an Iroquois ambush 
 in the St. Lawrence had been in part the cause of the choice of 
 Quebec as the site of the factory, in order that it might serve, by 
 its position, as a check to the Iroquois and enable the friends 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle France (ed. 1866), iii 828 : " Les Iroquois 
 jadis en nombre de huit mille hommes ont extermine les Algoumequins, ceux de 
 Hochelaga et autres voisins de la grande riviere. " Hochelaga may even have been 
 destroyed between 1535 and 1541 unless at this later date it is called Tutonaguy. 
 Cf. Hakluyt, Principall Navigations, iii 235 ; Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 189 : " Ces 
 lieux ne sont habitez d'aucuns sauvages pour lesubject deleurs guerres etse retirent 
 des rivieres le plus qu'ils peuvent au profont des terres, afin de n'estre si tost 
 surprins " ; and ihid. ii 41. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, ojp. cit. ii 8-9, vi 196 and 232. 
 
 3 Ihid. ii 21-22 : " Au bord desdittes rivieres il y a quantite de cabannes, ou il 
 vient d'autres nations du cost4 du Nort, trocquer avec lesdicts Montagn^s des 
 peaux de castor et martre, avec autres marchandises que donnent les vaisseaux 
 frangois aux diets Montagues," Cf. also Tome iii pp. 143-144. 
 
 * Ihid. ii 33 : " ou estoient cabannez et fortifiez les sauvages qui leur alloient 
 faire la guerre." 
 
 5 Ihid ii. 27 : " Du coste du Nort, il y a une riviere qui s'appelle Bastican, qui 
 va fort avant en terre, par ou quelques-fois les Algoumequins viennent." Cf. 
 also pp. 30-31.
 
 72 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 of the French to use the St. Lawrence without danger.^ Having 
 now such powerful auxiliaries the Algonquins and Montagnais 
 would be satisfied with nothing less than that Champlain should 
 aid them in taking revenge on their conquerors, and in the summer 
 of 1608 he finally promised to accompany them on the warpath.2 
 
 The report of this proposed expedition and the conviction of 
 its assured success induced the Hurons to come down for the first 
 time in the summer of 1609. Until then they seem to have con- 
 tented themselves with receiving their goods through the Algon- 
 quins.3 But curiosity and the pleasing expectation of revenge on 
 their old enemies were strong magnets. Champlain and his men 
 met them at the island of St. Eloi opposite the river Batiscan, 
 where the Montagnais and Algonquins had already assembled. 
 The expedition however could not proceed against the Iroquois 
 until the new-comers had been gratified with a visit to Quebec as 
 well as with a display of the marvellous effects produced by the 
 fire-arms of the French.^ After five or six days at the factory, 
 during which they seem to have bartered a certain amount of 
 furs, a start was at length made for the mouth of the Richelieu 
 River. Here, owing to some dispute, part of the Algonquins set 
 off for home with their wives and goods,^ but the rest, along with 
 
 1 Ihid. p. 31 : " Aussi que I'habitation . . . seroit un bien pour la liberty 
 de quelques nations qui n'osent venir par 1^, k cause desdicts Irocois leurs ennemis 
 qui tiennent toute laditte ^i^^ere de Canadas bordee ; mais . . . sous le favour 
 de laditte habitation, lesdicts sauvages viendroient librement sans crainte et 
 danger." 
 
 ^ Ihid. iii 176 : " Qu'il y avoit pres de dix lunes, que le fils d'Yroquet ni'avoit 
 veu et que ie luy avois fait bonne reception, et declare que le Pont et moy desirions 
 les assister centre leurs ennemis." 
 
 3 Ihid. ii 47-48 : "lis nous dirent qu'il y a une nation qu'on appelle les bons 
 Irocois, qui %nennent pour troquer des marchandises que les vaisseaux fran9ois 
 donnent aux Algoumequins." Cf. also Tome iii p. 201. 
 
 4 Ihid. iii p. 177 : " Et que maintenant ils me prio3'ent de retourner en nostre 
 habitation, pour voir nos maisons et que pour signe de grande amiti^ et resious- 
 sance ie feisse tirer des mousquets et arquebuses," etc. 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 181 : " Oil il s'esmeut entre eux quelque different sur le subiect dela 
 guerre, qui fut occasion qu'il n'y en eut qu'une partie qui se resolurent de venir 
 avec moy et les autres s'en retournerent en leur pays avec leurs femmes et 
 marchandises qu'ils avoient traict^es." It was evidently the Algonquins who 
 returned, for the Hurons coming prepared for war had doubtless brought neither 
 their wives nor their furs. Cf. ihid. p. 177 : " qu'ils n'avoient point d'enfansavec 
 eux, mais gens qui sgavoient faire la guerre," etc.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 73 
 
 the Hurons and Montagnais continued their way up that river 
 and into what is now Lake Champlain. On the shores of the 
 lake they came suddenly upon a band of almost two hundred 
 Iroquois, who like themselves were proceeding only at night. In 
 the battle which took place the next morning, the sight of 
 Champlain and his two companions, and the deadly effect of their 
 mysterious fire-arms, so wrought upon the fears of the Iroquois 
 that in a very few moments they broke and fled. Champlain and 
 his allies had not lost a single man. With ten or twelve prisoners, 
 reserved for torture, they returned in triumph to the St. Lawrence, 
 whence the Algonquins and Hurons at once set off" for home. 
 Both nations promised to return again in the following summer, 
 and so delighted were the Hurons with their reception at Quebec 
 and with the aid given them by Champlain in the war that they 
 even promised to take him to visit their country whenever he 
 should care to do so.i 
 
 Such were the results of the summer in the St. Lawrence 
 region. Of the trade carried on at Gaspe, He Percee, Port Royal 
 and Ste. Croix we have very little information. Doubtless 
 Champdore and others made their way as usual to the Bay of 
 Fundy, for when the English captain, Hudson, was on his way 
 south this summer, he came upon several French shallops on the 
 coast of Acadia full of Indians, who said they were in the habit 
 of bartering their furs to ships from France. Hudson himself 
 was able to secure a good supply of furs here, giving in exchange 
 red cassocks, knives, hatchets, copper kettles, beads and other 
 trifles.2 Several fishing vessels dried their cod as usual in the 
 harbours of Gaspe and He Perc6e while on thft Banks was to be 
 seen the great annual international fleet.^ Dupont- Grave and 
 Champlain returned to France in the autumn with their ships. 
 They leftthefactory with its fifteen interpreters and agents incharge 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 198-199: " Les Algoumequins s'en retournerent en leur pays et 
 aussi les Ochatequins . . . fort contens de ce qui s'estoit pass^ en la guerre et 
 de 06 que librement i'estois alle avec eux . . . . et me dirent si ie ne desirois 
 pas aller en leur pays pour les assister tousiours comme freres : ie leur promis." 
 
 2 Purchas His Pilgrimes, iii 586. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit. ii 49-50 : ' ' Tous cesdits lieux de Gachepay, Baye des 
 Molues et Isle Percee sont les lieux ou il se fait la pesche du poisson sec et verd."
 
 74 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 of a Captain Chauvin, Sieur de la Pierre, who had alreadj'- gained 
 considerable experience of the fur-trade under Dupont-Grave.i 
 
 During the winter of 1609 and 1610 Monts made a fresh 
 application for a monopoly of the region visited by Champlain 
 during the expedition against the Iroquois, He was unsuccess- 
 ful and according to Champlain unjustly so, for his demands 
 were fair and reasonable. 2 It appears however that Henry the 
 Fourth, to whom Champlain's account of his adventures as well 
 as a few presents brought from New France had given great 
 pleasure, was not altogether a free agent in the matter and that 
 in this as in other affairs he was obliged to follow the advice of 
 his council. Here Sully had considerable influence and his views 
 were quite opposed to any fresh monopolies of the kind. In con- 
 sequence of this, Monts and his partners debated for some time 
 what their future course of action should be. The opening of 
 the upper St. Lawrence to the public seemed to preclude any 
 hope of more than a moderate return which might not even be 
 suflacient to pay the running expenses of the factory at Quebec. 
 On the other hand this permanent post in the country, as well as 
 the aid recently given by Champlain to the Algonquins and 
 Hurons against the Iroquois, appeared to assure to Monts and 
 his friends a superiority over their competitors which it seemed 
 a pity to forego. After a x;onf erence of the partners at Houen it 
 was finally decided to maintain the factory at Quebec and even 
 to push on the exploration of the western part of the St. Law- 
 rence valley. ^ Their only desire, they said, was to serve their 
 country well, and the discovery here of a short route to the East 
 would bring considerable glory both to them and to France. 
 
 1 Ihid. iii 200 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid, iii 202-203 : •' Le sieur de Monts chercha raoj^en d'avoir noiivelle com- 
 mission pour les traictes des nouvelles descouvertures .... oil auparavant 
 persoune u' avoit traict^ : Ce qu'il ne pent obtenir, bien que les demandes et propo- 
 sitions fussent iustes et raisonnables." 
 
 3 Ibid, iii 202 : " Le Sieur de Monts se delibera d'aller h. Rouen trouver ses 
 assoeiez les sieur s Collier et le Gendre marchands de Rouen, pour advi.ser k ce 
 qu'ils avoient k faire 1' ann^e ensuivant. lis resolurent de continuer I'habitation 
 et parachever de descouvrir dedans le grand fleuve S. Laurens, suivant les prom- 
 esses des Ochateguins, k la charge qu'on les assisteroit en leurs guerres comme 
 nous leur avions promis."
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 75 
 
 While therefore Dupont- Grave was to continue to take charge of 
 the bartering operations and to endeavour to secure as many furs 
 as possible in the face of the new competition, Champlain was to 
 assist the Hurons in their wars in order to visit under their guid- 
 ance the supposed salt sea which, as they reported, lay not far to 
 the west of their home, i With a spirit no whit inferior to that 
 of Monts, his old friend Poutrincourt also decided to return this 
 spring to New France and make his permanent home in the old 
 buildings at Port Royal. This site, it will be remembered, had 
 been originally granted to him by Monts on their first arrival in 
 the Bay of Fundy in the summer of 1604 ; but until now he had 
 not been able to remove there permanently with his family. 2 
 
 Although the trade had actually been thrown open in the 
 summer of 1609, advantage was not generally taken of this free- 
 dom until the following year. It is not surprising therefore that 
 the number of vessels in the St. Lawrence in the summer of 1610 
 was large. After passing one trader near Gaspe, 3 Champlain 
 and Dupont- Grave found several more already at anchor at Ta- 
 doussac. '^ When the strangers saw these last arrivals tranship 
 their goods into small boats and proceed up the river to Quebec, 
 they at once followed suit. Since the representatives of Monts 
 and his partners now enjoyed no special privileges in the river, 
 they were obliged to accept in silence this invasion of their old 
 territory. All was well at the factory, but an expedition pro- 
 jected by Champlain to the north in search of Hudson Bay had 
 to be postponed as his Indian guides refused to accompany him.5 
 
 1 Ibid, ii 41-48. 
 
 2 Lescarbot, Histoire de la N. France (edit, of 1866) iii 608, 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 206-7 : " Estans le travers de Menthane nous rencon- 
 trasmes un vaisseau de S. Maslo, ou il y avoit un ieune homme qui beuvant a la 
 sante de Pont-grave . . . tombast en la mer et se noya." 
 
 * Und. p. 207 : " Le 26 du mois (AATil) arrivasmes a Tadoussac ou il y avoit 
 des vaisseaux qui y estoient arrivfe des le 18 ce qui ne s'estoit veu il y avoit plus 
 de 60 ans." This would be a further proof of the early existence of the fur-trade 
 if one could be sure they had come for furs. 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 208 : " Qu'apres le retour de leur guerre, il me meneroient descoiivrir 
 les trois ri\neres iusques en un lieu ou il y a une si grande mer qu'ils n'en voj'ent 
 point le bout et nous en revenir par le Saguenaj' audit Tadoussac : et Icur deman- 
 day s'ils avoient encore ceste mesme volonte : lis me dirent qu'ouy : mais que ce 
 ne pouvoit estre que I'annee suivante."
 
 76 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 Preparations were made instead for meeting the Algonquins and 
 Hurons further up the river, to accompany them on the war- 
 path against the Iroquois in case they wished to make a second 
 expedition. With Champlain and his sixty Montagnais allies set 
 out also not only the four boats belonging to the factory but also 
 the traders who had followed him up the river from Tadoussac. 
 Here again nothing could be done to prevent them. They fol- 
 lowed him in fact all the way to the Algonquin and Huron bar- 
 ter which took place at the mouth of the Richelieu River. On 
 Champlain's arrival, news was brought that a band of Iroquois 
 had been surprised and surrounded further up the river by some 
 Aln^onquins. A general rush at once took place to the spot, and 
 though the enemy were entrenched in a log fort, the arquebuses 
 of Champlain and of one or two of the rival traders who had also 
 come on soon made short work of the little Iroquois band. When 
 the palisade was broken down, the inmates of the fort were all 
 massacred except fifteen, reserved for death by torture. 
 
 On the morrow, when passions had had time to cool, the 
 barter with the Algonquins, who had come down almost two 
 hundred in number, finally took place. Although both Cham- 
 plain and Dupont-Grave were present in the interests of 
 Monts and his partners, the new arrivals in the river both out- 
 numbered them and also secured a larger share of the furs. 
 "Thus," says Champlain, " had we done them the service of find- 
 ing new nations in order that they might carry ofi all the booty 
 without running any risk or taking any trouble. "^ So little 
 respect indeed did these newcomers show either for the savages or 
 themselves, that they actually stripped the blood-stained furs 
 from the bodies of the dead Iroquois.2 The following day 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 218 : " Cedit iour on traicta quelque pelleterie, mais les autres barques 
 emporterent la meilleure part du butin. C'estoit leur avoir fait un grand plaisir 
 de leur estre alle chercher des nations estrangeres, pour apres em porter le profit 
 sans aucune risque ny hazard." 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 217 : " Quand ce fut fait, il vint une autre chalouppe et quelques 
 una de nos compagnons dedans, qui fut trop tart : toutesfois assez k temps pour la 
 despouille du butin, qui n'estoit pas grand chose : il n'j' avoit que des robes de 
 castor, des morts, plains de sang, que les sauvages ne vouloient prendre la peine de 
 despouiller, et se moquoient de ceux qui le faisoient, qui furent ceux de la derniere 
 chalouppe : Car les autres ne se mirent en ce vilain devoir."
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609 1613 77 
 
 arrived the Hurons, who were greatly distressed at having missed 
 the fight with the enemy. Their barter, with its feasts, pipes of 
 peace and other ceremonies, lasted three days, and seems to have 
 passed without cause of complaint against the other traders on the 
 part of the representatives of Monts. When the others had left, 
 Champlain persuaded the Hurons to take back with them a 
 young French boy while he in his turn accepted a young Huron 
 who later accompanied him home to France.^ After completing 
 the palisade about the factory, Champlain mad6 his way to 
 Tadoussac where a second barter was usually held in July. 2 
 Even with this however a number of the new-comers were unable 
 to get rid of their merchandize and when Champlain set out for 
 home in August some of them still lay at Tadoussac with all 
 their goods on board. " Many," said he, " will long remember 
 the loss they suffered this year."3 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast Poutrincourt had managed to collect 
 a fair number of furs, and one of his company, writing from Port 
 Royal to a Iriend in France, said that if he had brought some 
 men with him he could secure annually furs to the value of 
 almost seven or eight thousand livres. " I assure you," he con- 
 tinued, " there is nothing pleasanter than trading in these parts 
 and making every year a good round sum."* Thfe trading vessels 
 which came here seem to have ranged the coast from He Percee 
 as far south as below Ste. Croix.^ 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 219 et seq. ; Ihid. v 170 et seq.; Lescarbot, Hist, de la Nouvelle 
 France (ed. of 1866) iii 603 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 223 : "et moy i'y fus aussi pour voir ce qui reussiroit 
 de la seconde traite," etc. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 224 : "Or apres avoir seiourne trois ou quatre iours k Tadoussac, et 
 veu la perte que firent beaucoup de marchans qui avoient charge grande quantite 
 de marchandises et equipe bon nombre de vaisseaux esperant faire leurs affaires en 
 la traite de Pelleterie, qui fut si miserable pour la quantite de vaisseaux que 
 plusieurs se souviendront long temps de la perte qu'ils firent en ceste ann^e." 
 
 4 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. i (Cleveland 1896) 
 pp. 120 and 122: " I'espererois faire trafiq tous les ans de sept ou huict mille 
 livres en Castors et Pelleterie . . . Vous asseurant qu'il fait beau trafiquer par 
 degk et faire un beau gain." 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 66 : " De-Ik il vint h. la riviere sainct Jehan ... oil il trouva un 
 navire de S. Malo, qui troquoit avec les 8auvages du pais." Cf. also pp. 98 
 and 168-70; Breard, op. cit. pp. 117 et. seq. ; Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 226; " et
 
 78 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 The season of 1611, the third during which the trade was 
 open, in most respects was merely a repetition of that of the pre- 
 vious year, except that the competition was even greater than 
 before. While the factors at Quebec had become acclimatized 
 and no longer suffered from cold or scurvy, Poutrincourt and his 
 people at Port Royal enjoyed no such happy immunity. This 
 was partly due no doubt to the lack of fresh stores. His vessel, 
 in charge of his son Saint-Just, had reached France in safety 
 with its load of furs the previous autumn and preparations were 
 made to return immediately with a supply of provisions. When 
 Saint-Just was leaving Court however, after having expressed to 
 the Queen-mother the regrets of his father and himself at her 
 recent bereavement in the death of the late King, one of the 
 ladies present asked if he would take back a couple of Jesuits to 
 convert the savages, as his father had promised King Henry. 
 He made no objection to this proposal and two Jesuits were 
 requested to be at Dieppe by the twenty-fifth of November ready 
 to set sail for Port Royal. They appeared at Dieppe on the day 
 appointed but here a difficulty arose. The two merchants who 
 had fitted out the vessel and were in partnership with Poutrin- 
 court in the fur-trade absolutely refused to allow the Jesuits to 
 embark. The report that the murder of King Henry the Fourth 
 had not been without some connection with this Order had 
 stirred both Catholics and Huguenots against it from one end of 
 France to the other. The merchants offered to accept Benedic- 
 tines, Franciscans, Trappists or any other Order whatsoever, or 
 in case the Queen-mother would send all the Jesuits to New 
 France, they offered to find the necessary means of transport, but 
 a small company of two they declared should never go in their 
 vessel. As express orders from the Queen to receive the priests 
 failed to secure obedience, a collection in behalf of the two Jesuits 
 was made at Court and with this sum the sh«ires of the 
 two merchants in the vessel were bought up. The priests 
 thus embarked, not as guests or passengers, but as part- 
 owners of the vessel and her cargo. This intermixture of the 
 
 arrivasraes k I'isle Perctje le lendemain [14th August] oil nous trouvasmes quan- 
 tity de vaisseaux faisant pesche de poisson sec et vert."
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 79 
 
 spiritual with the commercial did not in the end prove very 
 successful.! 
 
 The vessel set sail from Dieppe in January but did not reach 
 Port Royal until the end of May. Champlain who had not set 
 out until the first of March found her still struggling in the ice 
 floes near Cape Breton when he passed up the St. Lawrence to 
 Tadoussac.2 In the meantime Poutrincourt and his twenty-two 
 friends and dependants sufiered considerably from cold and from 
 the absence of fresh provisions. Some of them were sent to live 
 with the savages, where the food though ill prepared was often, 
 at least, more plentiful. When the vessel did at length arrive 
 she brought little relief. She had been four months at sea, and 
 during that time most of the stores she was bringing out were 
 consumed. To make matters worse, other vessels had arrived 
 before her and had carried off all the furs in that region so that the 
 remaining supply was not large.^ Now however that Madame 
 de Guercheville and other ladies of tbe Court had become inter- 
 ested in the settlement through the Jesuit missionaries, Poutrin- 
 court hoped that some sort of trade monopoly might possibly be 
 accorded to him, and in this hope he took charge of the vessel 
 himself on her return voyage.^ 
 
 In the St. Lawrence the competition was even greater than 
 it had been the previous summer. Although when Champlain 
 and Dupont-Grave reached Tadoussac snow still covered the 
 ground, they nevertheless found three vessels in port before 
 them. The effect of last season's excessive competition on the 
 savages of this region was at once seen, for they refused to en- 
 gage in any bartering operations until more vessels still had ap- 
 peared.5 While Dupont-Gravd was thus meeting with considerable 
 
 1 Thwaites, op. cit. i 138 e< stq. ; Ibid, ii 172 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 238-39 ; Thwaites, op. cit. ii 176. 
 
 3 Ihid. p. 180 : " Le retardment susdit est cause que lesditz navires et autres 
 estans arrives devant ledit Sainct Just, ils ont enleve tout ce qui estoit de bon au 
 pais pour le commerce des Castors et autres pelleteries," etc. Cf also p. 100 : 
 " Si quando in Gallicas naves incidebamus, ut stepe incidimus," etc., and p. 178. 
 
 4 Ihid. i 190, ii 6, iii 192. 
 
 5 Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 240 : " encore voulurent ils attendre qu'il vint plus- 
 ieurs vaisseaux ensemble afin d 'avoir meilleur marche des marchandises ; et par 
 ainsi ceux s'abusent qui pensent faire leurs afifaires pour arriver des premiers : car 
 ces peuples sont maintenant trop fins et subtils."
 
 80 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 difficult}^ in securing furs from the Montagnais at anything like 
 the old rate of exchange, Champlain proceeded in a small boat to 
 Quebec, where all were found well. He at once set to work to 
 prepare to meet the Algonquins and Hurons who were to assem- 
 ble this summer at the Lachine rapids. This year as last he was 
 followed up the river by a host of other traders, though he had 
 taken no pains at Quebec to hide his wish that they should not 
 accompany him.i Since the savages had not yet arrived at the 
 rapids, he spent the interval in examining the land close at hand. 
 To observe the height reached by the spring floods, he erected a 
 small wall at a spot which he thought offered a good site for a 
 new factory. Quebec indeed was not far enough west to intimi- 
 date the Iroquois. The need of a fresh post had soon become 
 apparent. At this very time a report reached him that four 
 hundred Hurons, who had set out to come to the barter, had re- 
 turned home on hearing that the Iroquois were lying in ambush 
 near this spot. The island opposite he named St. Helen's Island 
 after his fiancee Helen Boulle, whom he married some years 
 later.2 
 
 On the first of June arrived Dupont-Grave followed closely 
 by a considerable number of other traders. He had remained at 
 Tadoussac until the increasing competition of the fresh arrivals 
 had pushed prices up to such a height that a satisfactory gain 
 was impossible.'^ With the continuous arrival of fresh boats 
 however, it did not seem that the outlook at the rapids was much 
 better. In fact when on the thirteenth of June the first batch of 
 two hundred Hurons appeared, with the French boy lent them by 
 
 1 Ihid. p. 242 : " Je fis cependant diligeance de faire accommoder nostre dicte 
 barque. Et comme elle fut preste, un ieune homme de la Rochelle appele Tresart, 
 me pria que ie luy permisse de me faire compagnie audit saut, ce que ie luy refu- 
 say, disant que i'avois des dessins particuliers et que ienedesirois estre conducteur 
 de personne k mon preiudice et qu'il y avoit d'autres compaignies que la mienne 
 pour lors, et que ie ne desirois ouvrir Ie chemin et servir de guide et qu'il Ie 
 trouveroit ass^s aisement sans moj'." 
 
 2 Ihid. pp. 242 et seq. and p. 251. 
 
 3 rind. p. 245 : " Le premier iour de luin Ie Pont arriva audit saut qui n'avoit 
 rien sceu faire a Tadoussac ; et bonne compagnie le suivirent et vindrent apres luy 
 pour y aller au butin car sans ceste esperance ils estoient bien de I'arriere. . . . 
 Le lendemain arriva quatre ou cinq barques . . . d'autant qu'ils ne pouvoient 
 rien faire audit Tadoussac."
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRAD'fc, 1609-1613 81 
 
 Champlain, there were in all thirteen boats ready to trade with 
 them. As in the previous summer, Champlain did not spare his 
 strictures on the rival traders. Monts and his partners were 
 keeping up the factory at Quebec, aiding the savages in their 
 wars, entering into relations with new nations, and endeavouring 
 in every way to discover the nature of the regions to the west 
 while the new traders, solely bent on gain, would bear none of 
 the burdens and yet expected to share all the rewards.! A month 
 later twenty canoes full of Algonquins arrived, but since they were 
 on a war expedition their supply of furs was not large. " Each," 
 Champlain remarks. " took what he could get."2 Fourteen canoes 
 which arrived three days later brought little consolation for their 
 stock also was small.^ The dissatisfaction was not confined to 
 Champlain and Dupont-Grave. On account of the small supply 
 of furs brought to the rapids, most of the other traders as well 
 found themselves with a large surplus stock of goods still on 
 hand. The Indians too were no better pleased. The number of 
 new faces so frightened the Hurons, many of whom had never 
 seen a white man before, that on their arrival they built a barri- 
 cade about their camp and, a report arising that a plot was 
 hatching against them, soon after hastily set off on a pretended 
 hunt. They sent word to Champlain however to come to them 
 secretly further up the river. There they told him that they were 
 always ready to guide him to their own country, and that in case 
 he wished to do so they would even allow him to erect factories 
 there, but they begged him when next he returned not to bring 
 any strangers with him. These new-comers, who seemed only 
 intent on gain, alarmed them. Their old friend only too readily 
 promised that when next he returned matters should have im- 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 252-253 : " Apres tous ces discours finis, ie leur dis qu'ils traictas- 
 sent ce peu de commodites qu'ils avoient, ce qu'ils firent le lenderaain, dont 
 chacune des barques emporta sa piece : nous toute la peine et advanture, les 
 autres qui ne se soucioient d'aucunes descouvertures, la proye, qui est la seule cause 
 qui les meut, sans rien employer ny hazarder." 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 262 : " et qu'ils traitassent paisiblement : ce qu'ils firent et chacun 
 en emporta ce qu'il peut." 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 263 : " le 15 iour du mois arriverent quatorze canots . . . Le 
 lendemain ils traitterent ce peu qu'ils avoyent," etc. 
 
 6
 
 82 THE FREEDOM- OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 proved. Hurons and Algonquins having each accepted one of 
 his boys, they all separated the best of friends with promises to 
 meet again the following summer.! 
 
 As a sign of the increasing intercourse between Old and New 
 France it is interesting to note that not only did Champlain go 
 home in a vessel from La Kochelle,^ but that two vessels engaged 
 in the fur-trade on the Atlantic coast left men to winter in the 
 Bay of Fundy. A Captain Plastiier took up his quarters in the 
 old buildings at Ste. Croix, while at the river St. John were 
 quartered young Dupont-Grave and some of his friends.^ One 
 wonders indeed whether, had the trade remained open, these 
 small beginnings would not in time have developed into perman- 
 ent settlements. They had their basis in trade, they did not 
 support any non-productive colonists and seem indeed to have 
 possessed all the requirements of a successful colony. Many of 
 the towns in Newfoundland had a similar origin ; in that very 
 autumn John Guy and his family took up their quarters at 
 Cooper's Cove.* Even now however when the trade was open 
 these budding colonies were not left alone. Saint-Just in his 
 official capacity of Vice- Admiral of Acadia insisted on receiving 
 from each man one-fifth of the furs he had managed to collect. ^ 
 No wonder that, resenting this interference, they abandoned 
 their settlements the following spring. 
 
 These three years of open trade thus had their good and their 
 bad side. For the owners of the factory at Quebec of course the 
 balance inclined rather in the latter direction. The factory, 
 instead of proving an advantage, was becoming a burden. The 
 cost of keeping it up throughout the winter was great, and in 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 257 : " et me prierent que revenant avec mes compagnons ie n'en 
 amenasse point d'autres. Je leur dis que ie ne les araenois pas, ains qu'ils me sui- 
 voient sans leur dire et qu'k I'adveuir i' j'rois d'autre fa9on que ie n'avois fait . . . 
 dont lis furent fort contens." 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 265 : ' ' Apr^s avoir mis ordre k ce qui despandoit de nostre habi- 
 tation, suivant la charge que ledit Sieur de Monts m'avoit donnee, ie 
 m'embarquay dedans Ie vaisseau du capitaine Tibaut de la Rochelle, I'onziesme 
 d'Aoust." 
 
 3 Thwaites, op. cit. ii 26 et seq. Cf. also pp. 178 et seq. 
 
 4 Purchas, vol iv pp. 1877 et seq. ; Prowse, op. cit. Chap. v. 
 
 5 Thwaites, op. cit., vol. iii 198 and 210.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 83 
 
 the season the vessel which had just arrived enjoyed the same 
 facilities as the men who had passed the whole winter in the 
 country. Only one expedition, that of 1609, had been despatched 
 into the interior, and since then nothing had been done in the 
 way of discovery. To be sure, agents had been sent to winter 
 among the Hurons and the Algonquins but any trader in the 
 river was at liberty to do the same, and Bouvier, a stranger, had 
 in fact sent one of his boys to winter with the Hurons that very 
 year.i It is not surprising therefore that in the autumn of 1611 
 the two partners of Monts signified to him their intention of 
 giving up their inteiest in the factory. Here again the patriot- 
 ism and high spirit of Monts showed themselves. Rather 
 than suffer the fieurs de lis to be lowered and retire from this 
 advanced post in the west he decided to buy out his old partners 
 and to keep up the place himself. After his great losses at Ste, 
 Croix and Port Royal this spirited action deserves the very 
 highest praise. It was indeed by simple acts like this that the 
 French colonial empire became what it did. To Champlain, 
 intent on finding a northern passage to the East, this change was 
 of course not unwelcome, as he now hoped to have more liberty to 
 push on his explorations.^ In the spring of 1612 however, 
 owing it seems to a fall from a horse, Champlain was unable to 
 go out to the St Lawrence, so Dupont-Grave alone superintended 
 the transfer of the factory to Monts. Doubtless most of the old 
 factors and interpreters were retained, although, on account of 
 the absence of our principal informant, we know very little of 
 what took place this summer on the St. Lawrence. Over two 
 hundred Algonquins and Hurons came down to the rapids where 
 they were met by an unusually large number of traders who 
 tended more and more to neglect Tadoussac and to press on up 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit. iii 260. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 266 : " Ledit sieur de Mons .... estant retourne 
 ^' Paris parla h. ses associez, qui ne voulurent plus continuer en I'associa- 
 tion pour n'avoir point de commission qui peut empescher un chacun d'aller en 
 uos nouvelles descouvertures negotier avec les habitans du pays. Ce que voyant 
 . . . . il convint avec eux de ce qui restoit en I'habitation de Quebec, 
 moyennant une somme de deniers qui leur donna pour la part qu'ils y avoyent : et 
 envoya quelques hommes pour conserver ladite habitation sur I'esperance d'obtenir 
 une commission de sa Maiest^."
 
 84 
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 the river. The non-appearance of Champlain was a great dis- 
 appointment to his Indian friends, with whom he had hitherto 
 always kept his word. A false report of his death, spread by the 
 rival traders, only induced the Indians to declare that if this 
 were the case, they would never return to the rapids. They 
 knew that the others only sought immediate gain ; Champlain 
 alone was generous enough to help them in their wars.^ 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast and on the Banks, the fishing and 
 fur trades went on at this time much as before, but the settle- 
 ment at Port Royal was not successful. Saint- Just, in demanding 
 from the traders at Ste. Croix and the river St John one-fifth of 
 their furs, of course forfeited their friendship, so that when, soon 
 after the departure of the vessel, the provisions ran out, no help 
 was to be expected from them. A voyage along the coast to the 
 south gave small relief, for the Indians had little corn and even 
 less furs. In this expedition Saint-Just discovered something of 
 which he was not in search. This was the English fort, aban- 
 doned by the northern branch of the Virginia Company in 
 1609. The English had in fact seized Captain Plastrier when he 
 was wintering at Ste. Croix and had only set him free on obtain- 
 ing a promise that he would not trade again in those parts. To 
 counteract the English claim, Saint-Just now set up the arms of 
 France on the most conspicuous height near at hand and the 
 little company once more returned to Port Royal. For some 
 time its outlook was not bright. At the end of January, how - 
 ever, the vessel, which Poutrincourt had been able to fit out by 
 means of aid given by Madame de Guercheville, at length arrived, 
 and the rest of the spring and summer passed without incident.2 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 266-67 : " disans que plus de deux cents sauvages estoient venus, 
 pensans me trouver au grand saut S. Louys, oi\ ie leur avois donn^ le rendez-vous, 
 en intention de les assister en ce qu'ils m'avoient supplie : mais vo3fans que ie 
 n'avois pas tenu ma promesse, cela les fascha fort : toutesfois nos gens leur firent 
 quelques excuses. . . . Mais plusieurs autres qui avoient quitte Tadoussac, 
 traffic encien, vindrent audit saut avec quantite de petites barques pour voir s'ils 
 y pourroient faire leurs affaires avec cesjpeuples, qu'ils asseuroient de ma mort,'' 
 etc. Cf. also p. 291. 
 
 2 Thwaites, op. cit. ii 30 et seq. and 228 et seq. ; ibid, iii 198 et seq. ; Jean 
 H^roard, Joumcd siir I'Enfance et la Jeunesse de Lotus XIII, ii 75 (Paris 1868) ; 
 Carayon, Premiere Mission des J^suites au Canada^ Letter V pp. 44 et seq, (Paris 
 1864).
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1G09-1613 85 
 
 Thus during the summers of 1609, 1610, 1611 and 1612 the 
 fur-trade had been open to all comers from the Lachine Rapids 
 as far south on the Atlantic coast as the fortieth decree of 
 latitude. Although such freedom was conducive to the increase 
 of the trade itself and doubtless led to a considerable addition to 
 the number of vessels which yearly visited the coast, yet this 
 very increase bore hardly upon Poutrincourt and Monts. Both 
 had posts, the one for trade, the other for settlement, which 
 could only be continued on condition of a fair return each year 
 from the fur-trade. Their competitors, not hampered by the 
 expenses of such posts and generally more energetic in getting 
 away early from France, succeeded in securing the larger share 
 of the trade. The efforts of Poutrincourt to obtain relief had 
 only resulted in the despatch of the Jesuits and the subsequent 
 admission of Madame de Guercheville as a half -partner. Monts 
 had also been unable to secure a monopoly for the upper St. 
 Lawrence, although it seemed to Champlain most unfair that 
 Monts should keep up the post at Quebec and he himself spend 
 his summers in enduring the fatigues of long canoe voyages 
 through the wilds of the west, only that in the next year a few 
 St. Malo traders should reap the whole benefit of their pains. 
 He had promised the Hurons in the summer of 1611 that when 
 he again returned to the rapids he should be accompanied only 
 by his friends, and during the summer of 1612, which he passed 
 in France, he made considerable efforts to keep his word. The 
 best solution which presented itself to his mind, and the one 
 indeed which was finally adopted, was to form the better class 
 of traders who yearly visited the St. Lawrence into one large 
 company. By means of a common outlay they would be able 
 both to push on discovery beyond the rapids and as the trade 
 increased to erect new factories farther west.l In order to safe- 
 
 1 Laverdi^rc, op. cit, iii 28.3 : " Le desir . . . de faire nouvelles descouver- 
 tures . . . ensemble d'amener ces pauvres peuples k la cognoissance de Dieu 
 m'a fait chercher la facilite de ceste entreprise, qui ne peut estre que par le moyen 
 d'un bon reglement:d'autant que chacun voulant cueillir les fruits de raon labeur, 
 sans contribuer aux frais et grandes despences qu'il convient faire, k I'entretien 
 des habitations necessaires pour araener ces desseins k une bonne fin, ruine ce 
 commerce par I'aviditc^ de gaigner," etc.
 
 86 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 guard themselves against an ending as disastrous as that which 
 had happened to Chauvin and to Monts, Champlain proposed 
 that the support of some noble powerful at Court should be 
 secured. In return for such protection the company would 
 allow him a certain yearly income. The man proposed by 
 Champlain to fill this role of protector for the company was the 
 Comte de Soissons, uncle of the young King i 
 
 Charles de Bourbon, Comte de Soissons, the youngest son of 
 Louis de Bourbon, first Prince de Conde, had fought with Henry 
 the Fourth both at Arques and at Ivry. Offended, however, first 
 at the King's opposition to his courtship of the Princess Cath- 
 erine, and after his marriage to another lady at the King's refusal 
 to allow her to wear the ^eurs de lis, he retired from the Court 
 in anger. At the death of the King, he threatened to make 
 trouble but was bought off with the government of Normandy. 
 Although a man of narrow intelligence and loose morals, who 
 sought to hide under a mock gravity a character without worth 
 and full of dissimulation, he yet possessed a certain amount of 
 influence at Court due rather to fear of his ambition than to 
 respect for himself. By means of this influence, the request of 
 Champlain that the King's council should in some way regulate 
 the fur-trade resulted in the appointment of Soissons a^ Viceroy 
 of Canada with a monopoly of the fur-trade from Quebec west- 
 ward, for twelve years. 2 Unfortunately, just when this mono- 
 poly was about to be published in all the ports and harbours of 
 France, the Comte de Soissons died. At Champlain's request 
 the vice-regency and the monopoly were then transferred to Sois- 
 sons' nephew, the young Prince de Condd. 
 
 Henri de Bourbon, third Prince de Cond^, spent the first six 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 284 : "II me sembla k propos de me letter entre les bras de 
 quelque grand ... Or cognoissant Monseigneur le Comte de Soissons . . . 
 ie m'adressay k luy," etc. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 285 : ' ' Aussi tost apr^s ie presentay k sa Maiest^, et k Nosseigneurs 
 de son Conseil une requeste avec des articles, tendans k ce qu'il luy pleust vouloir 
 apporter im reglement en cat affaire . . . . et pource sa Maiest^ en donna la direc- 
 tion et gouvernement a mondit Seigneur le Comte, lequel deslors m' honora de sa 
 Lieutenance"; Due (TAnmale, Histoire des Pri7ices dt Condi iii 11 et seq. Paris 
 1886 ; Zeller, Marie de Midicis et Sidly (Paris 1892), passim ; Archives du Parle- 
 ment de Rouen 4th March 1613.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 87 
 
 years of his existence in the prison of St. Jean d'Angely where 
 his mother was confined on suspicion of poisoning her husband. 
 In July 1595, through the influence of Thou and his friends, she 
 was again set at liberty, and her son, now recognized as heir to 
 the throne, was installed under Catholic tutors in the Chateau of 
 St. Germain. Summoned a few years later about the person of 
 the King, he played for some time a conspicuous role in the fetes 
 and ceremonies of the Court. His marriage to Mademoiselle de 
 Montmorency caused hira to lose the favour of the King who 
 had himself fallen a victim to her charms. Since the Kinsf's 
 importunities still continued, even after their marriage, Condd 
 decided to withdraw with his wife to his castle of Valery. i 
 When shortly afterwards the King summoned him to return, he 
 set oft' indeed with his wife but discreetly turned the horses' heads 
 towards Brussels where he hoped she would at length be safe. 
 Notwithstanding that the Pope urged Conde to lead back his 
 wife in the interests of peace, he remained firm and an attempted 
 abduction by force on the part of the King was not more suc- 
 cessful. After the King's death they both quietly returned. 
 Though Conde was now urged by Sully to give his support to 
 the Queen-mother in securing the peace and the improvement of 
 the kingdom, his course was exactly the opposite. He spent his 
 time in finding fault with all that the Regent did and though an 
 oflSce or occasional grant of money would for a time secure, if 
 not his good will, at least his silence, yet at the end of a few 
 months he became as troublesome as before. Just before the 
 death of his uncle, Soissons, Cond^ had supported him in his 
 quarrels with the Court and it was doubtless partly as a sop for 
 
 1 It was on this occasion that Malherbe put the following into the mouth of 
 the King : 
 
 Men soin n'est point de faire 
 
 En I'autre hemisphere 
 Voir mes actes guerriers ; 
 Et jusqu' aux bords de I'onde 
 
 Oi\ finit le monde, 
 Acquerir des lauriers. 
 Deux beaux yeux sont I'empire 
 Pour qui je soupire ; etc. 
 
 Malherbe, (Euvres i 165. Paris, 1862.
 
 88 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 
 
 this as well as at Champlain's request that the viceroyship and 
 the monopoly were now transferred to him. i 
 
 By the terms of the new monopoly, granted for twelve years, 
 the trade westward of Quebec was to be confined to the members 
 of the new company about to be organized by Ghamplain. On 
 account however of the delay caused by the death of the Comte 
 de Soissons and by the opposition of the merchants of St. Malo 
 to this new monopoly, there was not sufficient time before the 
 season began to organize the company. It was therefore decided 
 to postpone that proceeding until the autumn, for this summer, 
 Conde would grant a certain number of passports to future 
 shareholders of the company, which would enable them, and 
 them alone, to trade above Quebec.^ Below that point and on the 
 Atlantic coast the trade was still open to all, but any boat caught 
 bartering above it would be confiscated and the owners fined 
 three thousand livres. All traders to N ew France were forbid- 
 den to sell fire-arms to the savages, and Frenchmen caught pilot- 
 ing foreign vessels into the St. Lawrence were to be seized and 
 dealt with in a summary manner. In order to encourage a new 
 branch of industry, it was announced that all the timber brought 
 from New France would be admitted into the mother country free 
 of duty 3 This clause was due to the fact that Ghamplain for the 
 first time in the autumn of 1611 had brought home some oak and 
 the experiment had evidently proved successful.* 
 
 Seven vessels obtained passports from Condd for trade above 
 Quebec in the summer of 1613, and while doubtless obliged to 
 
 1 Zeller, op. cit., pp. 190 et seq.; Due d'Aumale, op. cit. iii 1-110. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 286: " Quelques brouillons, qui n'avoyent aucun 
 interest en I'affaire, I'importunerent de la faire casser, luy faisaut entendre le pre- 
 tendu interest de tous les marchans de France, etc. . . . leur malice estant 
 recogneue f urent reiettees avec permission seulement d'entrer en I'association . . . 
 le temps de partir nous pressoit fort. Ainsi se fallut contenter pour cette ann^e 
 d'y aller sans autre association, avec les passeports," etc. Cf. p. 287 : " ioint aussi 
 que les marchans de S. Maslo s'y opposerent." A copy of their petition will be 
 found in the Anmudre du Conseil H6raldique de France, 1894, pp. 48-53. 
 
 3 Archives du Parlement de Rouen, 4th, March 1613 ; Ibid. Archives 
 Secretes, Annee 1613-14 fol. 123 verso et seq. 
 
 4 Laverdiire, op. cit. iii 264 : " et fis charger du chesne de fente pour faire 
 I'espreuve en France," etc.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 89 
 
 pay him a certain sum for this privilege, they were also bound to 
 furnish Champlain with four rnen each, in case he wished to 
 undertake an exploring expedition or make a campaign against 
 the Iroquois.i When however they reached the rapids on the 
 twenty-first of May, they found no savages but learned that a 
 small troop of Algonquins had just set out on their return home 
 from an expedition against the Iroquois,^ A few days later three 
 canoes arrived. Their occupants informed the traders that 
 owing to the unfair treatment met with in the previous summer, 
 when a report was also spread that Champlain was dead, the 
 savages did not intend to come to the rapids any more. Over 
 one thousand of them, despairing of any aid from the French, 
 had gone off alone on a war expedition against the Iroquois. 
 This news was a great blow to the traders, who saw before them 
 a lost season and an unrequited outlay. It was an immense relief 
 therefore when Champlain proposed to make a voyage up the 
 Ottawa and to investigate the statements of Vignau, one of the 
 coureurs de hois who, on returning home to France in the 
 autumn of 1612, had reported that he had seen a great sea in the 
 north. On its shore were even, he said, the remains of an Eng- 
 lish vessel, cast away shortly before, while the scalps of the crew 
 adorned the neighbouring wigwams. Since Hudson had not 
 returned from his search for a north-west passage, begun in the 
 year 1610, there seemed a probability that the account was a 
 true one and that the ship had belonged to him. Besides, even 
 if Champlain did not reach this sea, he hoped to be able to 
 examine a considerable stretch of country and also to urge the 
 Indians to come and meet the traders then awaiting them at the 
 rapids.3 
 
 '^ Ibid. p. 286: " Les passeportc de Monseigneur le Prince . . . furent 
 donnes pour quatre vaisseaux, lesquels estoient ia prepares pour faire le voyage ; 
 S9avoir trois de Rouen et un de la Rochelle, a condition que chacun fourniroit 
 quatre hommes pour m'assister, tant en mes descouvertures qu'k la guerre." Cf. 
 also p. 322 : "pour m'advertir que le sieur de Maison-neufve de S. Maslo avoit 
 apporte un passeport de Monseigneur le Prince pour trois vaisseaux." 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 290. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 291 : Que le mauvais traictement qu'avoient re9eus les Sauvages 
 I'annee precedente, les avoit degoutes de venir plus, et qu'ils ne croyoient pas que 
 ie deusse retourner iamais en leurs pays . . . et pource 1200 hommes estoyent
 
 90 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613. 
 
 Champlain and his five men travelled laboriously up the 
 Ottawa. His presence, so far from Quebec, excited everywhere 
 considerable surprise. On reaching an Algonquin village on the 
 Lake des Allumettes the deceit of his guide was at length 
 suddenly exposed. The chief Tessoiiat declared that this man 
 had spent the winter with them and had never been beyond 
 their village. Vignau himself then confessed that the whole 
 story, including the tale of a northern sea and the English vessel, 
 was a fiction, invented merely to gain credit ; the possibility of a 
 search being actually undertaken had never entered his mind. 
 In fact except for the two French boys and an odd interpreter 
 or so, no Frenchman had until then advanced beyond the rapids 
 of Lachine.i Notwithstanding that the attempt to find the north 
 sea had thus proved a failure, the second object of Champlain's 
 journey, to urge the savages to go to the rapids, met with more 
 success. He assured them indeed that his failure to meet them 
 in the previous year had been altogether due to an accident, that 
 henceforth only trusted friends would be allowed to come to the 
 rapids and that there were then awaiting them at that point six 
 or eight of these with barques and goods. This news and the 
 assurance that Champlain himself would be there to conduct the 
 barter soon led to the despatch of over eighty canoes. The 
 Algonquin chiefs also informed Champlain that if ever he carried 
 out his intention of erecting a new post at the rapids they would 
 then lead back their nation to its old quarters there under the 
 shelter of the French guns.^ By means of Champlain's energy 
 the merchants were able to make a good season's trade, though 
 some of them got into difficulties with the traders who had not 
 been allowed to proceed above Quebec. These men waylaid 
 several of the boats on their way from Quebec to Tadoussac, 
 where the sea-going vessels were lying, and robbed them of all 
 the furs they had secured at the rapids. In the end however 
 
 allez ii la guerre. . . . Ces nouvelles attristerent fort les niarchans . . . ce 
 qui me fit resoudre en faisant mes descouvertures, de passer en leur paj's, pour 
 encourager ceux qui estoyent rest^s, du bon traicteraent qu'ils recevroyent," etc. 
 Cf. also p. 311. 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 292 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 313, et seq. ; Arret du Parlement de Rouen 25th June 1633.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613. 91 
 
 this policy defeated itself for when the matter was reported in 
 France the area of reserved trade was extended from Quebec as 
 far as Gaspe, as we shall presently see.l 
 
 While such were the conditions of trade during this summer 
 in the reserved area above Quebec, on the Atlantic coast events 
 of a more extraordinary nature were taking place, before which 
 the question of trade takes a subsidiary place in the records of 
 the time. While the two Jesuits as interested partners in the 
 fur-trade were at Port Royal, disputes were continually break- 
 ing out between them and Saint-Just, who resented the advice of 
 men unaccustomed to the direction of commercial affairs. To 
 such a height indeed did feeling run that the Jesuits finally 
 requested Madame de Guercheville, who had already helped them 
 to come to New France, to provide the funds necessary for the 
 establishment of an altogether new colony. As a result of this 
 demand, in the spring of that year a vessel called at Port Koyal 
 and took on board Fathers Biard and Masse. They were to have 
 complete liberty of action for their proselytizing efforts in a new 
 settlement founded at the expense of Madame de Guerchevjlle, 
 to whom the rights of Monts in this region had just been trans- 
 ferred by the King. In sailing down the coast a storm drove 
 the vessel ashore at Mount Desert where the beauty of the spot and 
 a mutiny of the crew finally induced them to establish their home. 
 While however they were in the act of unloading the vessel and 
 erecting quarters, an English vessel suddenly entered the harbour 
 and after a short skirmish took more than half of them prisoners. 
 
 As has already been mentioned, the colony sent out by the 
 northern branch of the Virginia Company returned again to 
 England in the spring of 1608. It was indeed the remains of 
 their settlement which Saint-Just had discovered two summers 
 later when in search of food.2 At Jamestown in Virginia how- 
 ever the southern branch of the same company still continued to 
 maintain a flourishing settlement, and since their charter em- 
 braced the territory as far north as the forty-fifth degree of 
 
 1 Archives du Parlement de Rouen 14th December 1613. 
 
 2 W, Strachey, The Historie oj Travaile into Virginia Britannia, chap, viii 
 pp. 162 et seq. London (Hakluyt Society) 1849. Stith, History of Virginia, 
 bk. ii pp. 74 et seq. New York (Sabin's reprint) 1865.
 
 92 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613. 
 
 latitude, complications were bound to ensue with the holders of 
 French charters whose powers extended south to the fortieth 
 degree of latitude. Saint-Just had indeed at the time of his 
 visit set up the French arms, to show that France's claim was the 
 earlier and more valid one. Just however as it was an English 
 fishing vessel which had seized Captain Plastrier and forbidden 
 him to trade in that region, so now it was another English fish- 
 ing vessel sent north from Jamestown, which captured the 
 colonists about to settle at Mount Desert.^ She had been making 
 her way to an island in the neighbourhood, where the fishing 
 boats were left during the winter, when some savages, mistaking 
 her for a French vessel, informed her captain, one Argall, of the 
 presence on the coast of the vessel at Mount Desert. Proceed- 
 ing thither, Argall attacked the settlement so suddenly that 
 a firm resistance was out of the question. Two Frenchmen, one 
 of them a priest, lost their lives in the short skirmish which 
 ensued. Of the remaining members of the colony, thirty made 
 their way home in fishing and trading vessels met with along the 
 coast, while fifteen were carried ofi as prisoners to Virginia. 2 
 Their arrival and the account of the destruction of the young 
 settlement at Mount Desert created considerable excitement at 
 Jamestown. The Virginia Council not only unjustly considered 
 this attempt to found a colony on the coast as an infringement of 
 their own rights but also declared that if the report were true that 
 Poutrincourt had seized an English vessel and was about to 
 
 1 The discussion in il/o««. Hist. Collections, 4th Series, vol. ix, pp. 41 et seq, 
 has not convinced me that this attack was premeditated. If so how did word of 
 the arrival of the French vessel at Mount Desert reach Jamestown and why did 
 Argall return there before attacking Port Royal ? It was in triith a voyage similar 
 to that of the previous summer. Vid. Purchas^ Part iv, pp. 1758-62 and 1764-1765. 
 Cf. also Laverdiere, op. cit. v 117 : " Depuis que ces Anglois se sont establis aux 
 Virgines, afin. de se pourveoir de molues, ont accoiistume de venir faire leur pesche 
 k seize lieues de I'isle des monts deserts : et ainsi y arrivans I'an 1613 estans sur- 
 pris des brumes et iettez k la coste, des Sauvages de Pemetegoet, estimans qu'ils 
 estoient Frangois, leur dirent qu'il y en avoit k Sainct-Sauveur. Les Anglois 
 estans en necessity de vivres, et tous leurs hommes en pauvre estat," etc. 
 
 2 Thwaites, op. cit. ii 246 et seq., iii 274 et seq. ; Purchas, Part iv, p. 1768 ; 
 Hamor, True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia (London, 1615) 
 pp. 36 et seq. ; Brt^ard, op. cit., pp. 121 et seq. Fleury's account mentioned by 
 Gosselin in his Nouvelles Glanes, p. 43, has not yet been discovered.
 
 THE FREEDOM OF TRADE, 1609-1613 93 
 
 fortify himself at Port Royal with thirty cannon, the further 
 existence of that place was a standing menace to their own 
 security. Argall was accordingly ojSicially despatched to drive 
 the French from the coast. In truth however not only were 
 these reports untrue but the French right to this region was the 
 better and more valid one. When Argall had destroyed all ves- 
 tiges of the French occupation at Mount Desert and Ste. Croix, he 
 made his way to Port Royal where the surprise was as complete 
 as it had been on the earlier occasion. Most of the men were 
 busy peacefully working in the fields. The marauders took no 
 prisoners but burned down all the buildings with the exception 
 of the barns and the mill which, being a little way off, were 
 hidden from view.l 
 
 On account of these events one hears little of the state of the 
 fishing or fur trade on the Atlantic coast during this summer. 
 From the French or the savages however the English learned 
 that the trade in these regions was extremely good and that in 
 some years a single vessel would carry home furs to the value of 
 eight thousand pounds. They therefore made arrangements 
 with the savages for bartering the furs formerly taken by the 
 French, who thus saw themselves gradually restricted to the 
 region about the St. Lawrence.2 With the close of the season of 
 1613 the outlook for the French fur-trade was indeed not a 
 brilliant one. English competition was henceforth to be feared 
 in the Bay of Fundy while the whole of the St. Lawrence as far 
 east as Gaspe was reserved for the company which Champlain 
 was on the point of forming. The trader therefore who did not 
 join this company had only the coast of New France from Gaspe 
 to Cape Breton at his disposition. On top of the competition of 
 the English from Virginia soon came that of the Dutch at Man- 
 hattan and later that of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth. The 
 only road to commercial salvation for the ordinary trader lay in 
 joining the company about to be formed by Champlain. 
 
 1 Thwaites, <yp. cit. ii 264 et seq., iv 30 et seq. ; Purchas, Part iv, p. 1808 ; 
 Carayon, op. cit., Lettre vii, pp. 106 et seq. 
 
 - Hamor, op. cit., pp 36 et seq. Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 288: " Le 15 [Avril 
 1613] nous eusmes un grand coup de vent, accompagn^ de pluye et gresle, suivi 
 d'un autre, qui dura 48 heures, si irapetueux qu'il fit perir plusieurs vaisseaux k 
 I'isle du cap Breton." Cf. also Ibid, vi 100 et seq.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 Although the St. Lawrence above Quebec had been closed to 
 the general trader in the summer of 1613, the lower part from 
 Quebec to the Gulf as well as the Atlantic coast as far south as 
 the fortieth degree of latitude had been left open to all. When 
 however the robberies committed on the privileged traders 
 between Quebec and Tadoussac in the autumn of that year were 
 reported to the Viceroy in France,, he determined to obtain the 
 inclusion of this area in his monopoly. On the 14th of Novem- 
 ber the King, at his wish, issued new Letters patent wherein 
 Conde's monopoly, which bad still eleven years to run, was 
 extended from Quebec as far down as to the river Mantanne in 
 the Gasp^ peninsula. The penalties to which a merchant who 
 traded above this river made himself liable were similar to those 
 formerly attached to trading on the St. Lawrence above Quebec.^ 
 
 It had always been Champlain's intention, when the protec- 
 tion of a powerful noble had been secured, to form the better 
 class of merchants who traded to the St. Lawrence into one large 
 company. With the danger of a sudden repeal of the monopoly 
 removed and competition reduced to a minimum, he felt that the 
 future of the St. Lawrence valley would be assured The nego- 
 tiations carried on in the spring of 1613 had led to no result, 
 having been interrupted by the departure of the vessels for the 
 season's trade. However in the autumn of that year they were 
 again resumed and in the spring of 1614 the articles of the new 
 Company were at length agreed upon. The shares were to be 
 divided into three portions, one to be subscribed for by the 
 merchants of Rouen and the other two by those of St. Malo and 
 La Rochelle. In return for the enjoyment of the monopoly 
 
 1 Archives du Parleraent de Rouen, 14th December 1613. Although the term 
 used is " strangers and pirates," the French interlopers are evidently the people 
 intended. 
 
 [94]
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 95 
 
 during the space of eleven years they agreed to pay Conde one 
 thousand crowns a year and to take out six families each season 
 to people the country. Champlain, as Condd's lieutenant, was to 
 receive a salary and to have at his disposal every summer four 
 men from each vessel in the river. With these he might either 
 make war against the Iroquois, explore the interior or, if he 
 wished, employ them during the whole summer at Quebec. 
 Although these terms had been accepted by the representatives 
 of the merchants of the three towns mentioned above, when the 
 moment came for aflBxing the signatures, the representatives 
 from La Rochelle failed to put in an appearance. Nothing 
 remained but to divide the whole of the shares among the mer- 
 chants of Rouen and St. Malo.'^ 
 
 In the summer of 1614 therefore the factory at Quebec once 
 more changed hands and became the property of the new Com- 
 pany, in which however the former owner, Monts, was also a 
 shareholder. The Company's trade this year in the St. Lawrence, 
 which was now closed to all other traders as far down as Gasp^, 
 must have been a very considerable one, but owing to the ab- 
 sence of Champlain, who again remained in France, we know 
 almost nothing of what took place in the river. After his prom- 
 ise to build a fort at the rapids, his non-appearance and the 
 absence of all preparations to this end were a great disappoint- 
 ment to his savage friends. An expedition which they were to 
 undertake together against the Iroquois had thus to be postponed 
 until another year. 
 
 The closing of the St. Lawrence led naturally to increased 
 competition along the Atlantic coast, for this was now the only 
 region open to the independent trader. Madame de GuercheviJle 
 attempted no fresh colony but contented herself with representa- 
 tions to the English Court. King James however declared that 
 the Virginia Company had been quite within its rights, and there 
 the matter ended.2 To the south of Mount Desert both the Dutch 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iii 326. Ibid, v 237-238. No copy of these articles has 
 turned up so far unfortunately. 
 
 2 Sainsbury, Calendar of State Papers, Colonial i 15. London, 1860. Tbid. 
 Addenda pp. 52-53, London 1893. Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations iv 68 et seq. 
 Cf. also Mass. Hist. Collect. 3rd Series vi 72.
 
 96 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 and the English were now doing considerable trade. In 1614, as 
 a result of Hudson's discovery, some Dutch merchants obtained 
 from their Government a monopoly of the fur-trade at ^lanhattan 
 for three years.i The English were still nearer to the French. 
 Although the colony sent out by the northern branch of the 
 Virginia Company returned in 1608, Sir Francis Popham contin- 
 ued to despatch a vessel to the abandoned settlement every sum- 
 mer for trade.2 In the year 1614 Captain John Smith arrived 
 on the same coast and though the season was over he yet man- 
 aged to secure 1100 beaver skins, 100 martens and as many otters. 
 To the south of him were two French vessels and Sir Francis 
 Popham's ship, while to the north his " commodities were not 
 esteemed, they were so near the French, who affords them 
 better."^ Among the latter was perhaps Poutrincourt, who on 
 reaching Port Royal in March and finding all his buildings des- 
 troyed and the cattle killed decided to collect what furs he could 
 and transport his people back to France. To build a new settle- 
 ment was beyond his means ; even when finished it might after 
 all only suffer a fate similar to that of the earlier one. Although 
 Poutrincourt himself was shortly afterwards killed, fighting for 
 his sovereign at M6ry-sur-Seine, his son Saint-Just returned in 
 the following year to Port Royal where until the year 1621 he 
 acted as agent for some fur-traders of La Rochelle.'* 
 
 These traders of La Rochelle who had at the last moment re- 
 fused to join the Company formed by Charaplain somehow in this 
 summer obtained from Conde a passport into the St. Lawrence 
 for one of their vessels. This permission was a direct infringe- 
 ment of the Company's monopoly and led to a great deal of legal 
 warfare between Conde, the Company and the La Rochelle mer- 
 
 1 E. B. O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, i 74-76. New York 1846. 
 Brodhead and O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the 
 State of New York, i 13-14. Albany 1856. 
 
 2 Brief Relation, etc., in Mass. Hist. Collect., 2nd Series ix 4. Cf. also Georges* 
 Brief e Narration in Ibid., 3rd Series vi 57 et seq. 
 
 3 Description of New England in Mass. Hist. Collect., 3rd Series vi 103-104. 
 
 4 Lescarbot, Hiat. de la Nouvelle France (edition of 1617), pp 687 et seq. 
 Arret du Parleraent de Rouen 12th July 1633. Cf. also Br^ard, op. cit., pp. 
 123-124,
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 97 
 
 chants. In fact the matter was not finally settled until the year 
 1633.1 
 
 Whether the troubles in which Conde now found himself 
 involved at home were the cause both of this illegal permission 
 to trade and also of the absence of Champlain from the St. 
 Lawrence that summer we do not know, but this explanation is 
 prima facie not unlikely. Although it had been hoped that the 
 viceroyship of Canada would have quieted Conde at least for 
 some time, in January of this year 1614 he was again in arms 
 and, contrary to the general expectation, had a considerable 
 following. The alarm of the Court was great and no time was 
 lost in assembling troops and in preparing for the gravest even- 
 tualities. Fortunately however the difficulties of the situation 
 were overcome by the coolness of the Chancellor de Sillery who 
 continued to urge prudence at the moment of the greatest 
 tension. By means of his efforts, the affair passed off without 
 bloodshed. By the terms of the treaty of Sainte-Menehould, the 
 Regent agreed not only to hand over to Cond6 some 400,000 
 livres but to assemble the States-General for the discussion of 
 the affairs of the realm. Even after this however Conde re- 
 fused to appear at Court, and learning of the ill-treatment of 
 some of his followers at Poitiers he sent another of his familiar 
 admonitory letters. This however found Marie de Medicis in 
 no conciliatory mood. Advancing with her army on Orleans 
 she forced Condd, now in great fear of being taken prisoner, 
 hastily to decamp. During the rest of the summer the Court 
 continued its triumphant progress through the west, while the 
 Viceroy of Canada wandered aimlessly hither and thither with- 
 out plan or friends. On a report reaching Bordeaux that he was 
 approaching that place, the citizens announced that they would 
 shut the gates in his face. It was not indeed until September, 
 on the eve of the King's majority, that, receiving a polite invita- 
 tion from the Regent, Conde finally consented to make his 
 reconciliation with the royal family. That these troubles, dis- 
 putes and wanderings were not without some connection with 
 the passport illegally granted to the merchants of La Rochelle 
 
 1 Archives du Parlement de Rouen, Arret du 25 Jiiin 1633. 
 
 7
 
 98 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 for trade in the St. Lawrence and with the absence of Champlain 
 from Canada during this same summer is at least probable.^ 
 
 The demand made by Cond^ for the assembling of the States- 
 General was carried out in the autumn of this year and was not 
 without its effect on the trade of New France. The St. Male 
 merchants had for some time opposed the registration of Condd's 
 monopoly and only joined the new Company when further 
 opposition became useless. It was indeed a question of doing 
 this or of losing their share in the trade of the St. Lawrence. 
 The deputies however from Brittany to the States-General were 
 requested to obtain the repeal of the monopoly and one of their 
 most innocent-looking proposals virtually contained such a 
 clause. Champlain soon got wind of the affair and obtained, 
 through Conde, permission to state to the Assembly the real 
 facts of the case, whereupon the article was at once erased.2 
 Another article whereby the salt for the Newfoundland fishery 
 was freed fror* all taxes actually received the King's assent ; but 
 this unfortunately does not imply that it was ever carried into 
 effect.3 In fact few if any of these demands of the third estate 
 were afterwards enforced. 
 
 At the opening of the trading season of 1615 the outlook for 
 the new Company seemed bright. Conde was at peace with the 
 Court and had promised to give no more special trading licenses. 
 The barter took place as usual both at Tadoussac, where the sea- 
 going vessels remained, and at the rapids, whither the traders 
 made their way in small boats. On account of his failure to 
 appear in the previous summer, Champlaiii found his Indian 
 allies rather sceptical about his intention to aid them against the 
 Iroquois. To prove the sincerity of his intentions and at the 
 same time to search for the western passage, he decided, alter a 
 consultation with Dupont-Grave, to spend the whole of the 
 coming winter among the Hurons. With a score or so of French- 
 men to accompany him he hoped not only to render the Indians 
 
 1 Zeller, Marie de Midicis et Villeroy, Chaps, viii and ix (Faris 1897). Due 
 d'Aumale, Histoire des Princes de Cond6 iii 21 et seq. 
 
 2 i)e< Etats G6n6raux et Autres AsiembUes Nationales Tome xvii (Paris 1789), 
 2e partie, p. 132. Laverdi^re, op. cit. v 240 et seq. 
 
 3 Des Etats Oiniraux, etc., xvii 2e partie, pp. 29-30.
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 99 
 
 valuable assistance in their wars but also to prepare them to 
 some extent by such an intercourse for the reception of the 
 Gospel which was henceforth to be preached to them by four 
 Recollect Fathers, brought out that summer to Quebec. A few 
 years later their number was increased to six, who were support- 
 ed and maintained by the Company as long as its monopoly 
 lasted.i 
 
 As had been agreed, therefore, Champlain with Father Joseph, 
 one of the Recollects, and twelve other Frenchmen spent the 
 winter of 1615-16 among the Hurons in their homes on the pen- 
 insula between Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. The journey 
 thither by way of the Ottawa river, Lake Nipissing and Georgian 
 Bay proved very long and very difficult to the white men. To 
 Champlain the pleasure of exploring these regions made him 
 oblivious of the difficulties of the route. On reaching the Huron 
 country he not only seized every opportunity of examining it in 
 all directions but he carefully inquired of all strangers the nature 
 of the regions further to the west.2 During the course of an 
 expedition which the Hurons made against the Iroquois, he was 
 able to visit Lake Simcoe, the Trent river and the Bay of Quinte 
 as well as that portion of New York State which borders on the 
 eastern end of Lake Ontario. The attack made on the Iroquois 
 fort near Lake Geneva proved however unsuccessful. The French 
 indeed reared a wooden platform from which the musqueteers 
 were able to command the village and to drive its defenders from 
 their palisade but though the Hurons seized this occasion to 
 place flaming bundles against the undefended woodwork, they 
 placed them to leeward of it so that the palisade did not catch 
 tire.s During the remainder of the winter Champlain was busy 
 contracting alliances with the tribes who were the neighbours of 
 'the Hurons. Just as, up to the time of their expedition against 
 the Iroquois in the summer of 1 609, the Hurons had been content 
 to receive the French goods from the Algonquins, so the tribes in 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iv 14 et seq. Sagard, op. cit. i 36 e< seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iv 25 : " Je donnay une hache k leur Chef . . . et 
 communiquant avec luy, ie 1' entretins sur ce qui estoit de son pais, qu'il me figura 
 avec du charbon sur une escorce d'arbre," etc. Cf. ibid, pp. 58 tt seq. 
 
 8 Ihid. iv 39 et seq,, v 258 tt seq.
 
 100 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 this region had hitherto never visited the rapids but had received 
 the French goods from the Hurons, to whom they gave in 
 exchange the furs collected during the winter. Thus not only 
 the Hurons but also the Algonquins and Montagnais brought 
 to the St. Lawrence their own furs and those also of the tribes 
 that lay beyond them. In 1 608, for example, Captain John Smith , 
 when on a voyage up country from Jamestown, heard of a 
 tribe called the Massawomeckes who had received " their hat- 
 chets an<l such like tooles from the French who inhabit the river 
 of Cannida."! It was now Champlain's endeavour to induce 
 these neighbours of the Hurons to come to the rapids themselves, 
 not only in order to increase the barter but also by this closer 
 intercourse to learn more of the regions to the west and to the 
 north He of course promised liberal aid to all against their 
 enemies and received in return the much-desired invitation to 
 visit their country ; for in this way he hoped to discover finally 
 the lono;-sought passage to the East.^ In the spring of 1616 
 indeed some Algonquins had promised to guide him as far as 
 Lake Superior, but owing to a quarrel between them and his 
 Huron hosts the expedition had to be put off.^ Everywhere 
 however he received reports of a most encouraging natui'e. One 
 tribe informed him that not far from them, near the setting suui 
 dwelt a white people like the French, who enjoyed a high state 
 of civilization. " I do not know," says Champlain, "what to think 
 of this, but in order to discover the truth a good deal of time and 
 money must be spent." He doubted whether the keenness of the 
 Viceroy or of the shareholders for discovery would reach the 
 point of sending him on such a long and expensive journey.^ 
 
 1 Smith's Works (Arber's Edition, Birmingham 1884) p. 119 ; Cf. also p. 117. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iv 141 : " J' avois passe par plusieurs et diverses nations 
 . . . non cogneus aux Fran9ois, ny ^ ceux de nostre habitation, aveclesquels 
 
 i"avois fait alliance, et iure araitie avec eux, a la charge qu'ils viendroient faire 
 traicte avec nous, et que ie les assisterois en leurs guerres." 
 
 3 Ibid, iv 61 et seq., v 277 et seq. 
 
 i Ibid, iv ^2 : " quelques prisonniers leur ont rapporte y avoir des peuples 
 semblables k nous en blancheur et autres choses . . . Je ne puis que penser 
 la dessus, sinon que ce fussent gens plus civiliaez qu'eux, et qu'ils disent noua 
 ressembler : il seroit bien besoing d'en s9avoir la verity par la veue, mais il 
 faut de I'assistance," etc. Cf. Tome v pp. 287 et seq.
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 101 
 
 After having urged as many nations as possible to come to 
 the rapids durin^j that summer, Champlain, with Father Joseph 
 and the twelve Frenchmen, set off towards the end of May on 
 the return journey. Dupont-Grav6 and the other factors were 
 waiting for them at the rapids, and as many canoes arrived they 
 doubtless did a good season's trade. Before the Hurons departed 
 Champlain promised his host of the winter, as he had already so 
 often done the chiefs of the Algonquins, that as soon as possible 
 a fort should be built at the rapids to hold the Iroquois in check 
 and render safe the navigation of the Ottawa and St. Lawrence.^ 
 This summer the factory at Quebec was strengthened and en- 
 larged. Since the Kecollects had also taken up their quarters 
 there the old accommodation was no longer sufficient, and before 
 he set out for France, Champliin superintended considerable 
 alterations in the buildings. 
 
 During the summers both of 1615 and 1616 the trade along 
 the Atlantic coast seems to have gone on much as usual. 
 Besides others, a vessel from La Rochelle came every spring to 
 visit Saint-Just at Port Royal, and young Dupont-Grave, who 
 had wintered once or twice at the river St. John, still kept up his 
 old intercourse with the savages there.2 According to Captain 
 John Smith's estimate this Atlantic trade was very good indeed- 
 A vessel could get as a rule from six to seven thousand furs in a 
 summer. In the year 1616 the French got twenty -five thousand 
 furs, " of which," he adds boastfully, " we may have as good 
 parts as they, if we take good courses."^ At the Bale de Chaleur 
 the skins principally bartered were those of the beaver and the elk. ^ 
 The iSewfoundland fishery was also on the increase and in the 
 year 1615 steps were taken both in England and in France to 
 
 1 Ibid. iv. 104 : " et que . . . nous faisions une autre habitation au sault 
 Sainct Loiiys, pour leur donner la seuret6 du passage de la riviere pour la 
 crainte de leurs ennemis," etc. 
 
 2 Arrets du Parlement de Rouen, 25th June and 12th July 1633. Breard, 
 op. cit. pp. 125-128. 
 
 3 Mass. Hist. Collect., 3rd Series, vol. vi, p. 115. 
 
 4 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 102, ' ' L'on fait en ce lieu bonne partie de traitte avec 
 les habitans du pays. Pour des marchandises ils donnent en eschange des peaux 
 d'eslan et quelques castors."
 
 102 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 check some abuses. The worst was the destruction or the 
 removal of platforms. It appears that the earliest arrivals 
 among the dry -fishers were in the habit either of seizing the best 
 platforms in any bay or of tearing them down and putting them 
 up again elsewhere. A vessel was never sure in fact whether she 
 would find her old platform on her return and the erection of a 
 new one demanded considerable time. For the French fishermen 
 Louis XIII issued an order forbidding any one to tear down or 
 remove such platforms, which were henceforth to be regarded as 
 private property. The stones carried out on the outward voyage 
 for ballast were not to be thrown into the harbours, which might 
 in process of time become filled up, but were to be dropped at sea 
 or carried on shore.i In the same year an English sea-captain, 
 Richard Whitbourne, was authorized to check the same abuses, 2 
 but neither of these attempts proved very effectual. According 
 to Whitbourne there were at this time two hundred and fifty 
 English vessels engaged in the trade with a total aggregate ton- 
 nage of 15,000. These ships gave employment in all to no less 
 than five thousand persons.^ The French, Basque and Portuguese 
 vessels numbered altogether about four hundred, although this 
 included those who went " to the Coast of Canady."'* It was 
 also becoming more and more usual for the English vessels to 
 take their cod to Spain, southern France or Italy, and to bring 
 home to England the products of these countries.^ It should 
 seem that the abolition of the duty on Canadian timber in the 
 year 1612 led to a considerable development of that trade, for 
 
 1 Archives Municipales de St. Malo, EE 4 no. 139. 
 
 2 R. Whitbourne, Discoiirse and Discovery of Newfoundland (London 1622), 
 Preface : " In the yeere 1615 I returned againe to New-found-land carrying with 
 mee a Commission out of the high Court of Admiralty, under the great Scale 
 thereof, authorizing me to impannell juries, and to make inquiry upon oath, of 
 sundry abuses and disorders committed amongst Fishermen yeerely upon that 
 Coast." 
 
 3 Ihid. pp. 11-12. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 11. 
 
 ^ Ibid, preface: "Letting passe my Voyage that I intended for Naples;" 
 "Although I was bound from thence to Marseilles;" cf. also p. 11 : "Yea some 
 men are of opinion that the people of France, Spaine, Portugall and Italy could not 
 so well live, if the benefit of the fishing . . . were taken from them."
 
 CHAMPLAIN'S COMPANY 1614-1620 103 
 
 Montchretien, no mean witness, tells us that at this time the 
 supply which formerly came from Denmark, Sweden and Russia 
 was now obtained from the St. Lawrence.^ 
 
 On reaching France in the autumn of 1616 after his winter 
 among the Hurons, Champlain was both surprised and alarmed 
 to learn that Cond6 had once more got himself into trouble. 
 Although he had boon reconciled to the Court in the autumn of 
 1614, at the time cf the King's majority, the peace had been of 
 short duration. H c was indeed preparing to give further trouble 
 early in the following year when a sudden illness put an end to 
 his plans. This attack seemed to him the more unfortunate as 
 he thought the Huguenots were prepared to back him up. By 
 the terms of the peace of Loudron in May 1615 he received, 
 in addition to the posts already held, the government of Berry 
 and the usual donation of some nine hundred thousand livres. 
 " Adieu, d' Aubigne," cried Cond6, as his friend left the sick 
 room, "get off to your Dognon," a small unhealthy spot near La 
 Rochelle. " And you to the Bastille," called back the other in 
 truly prophetic words. ^ In fact the Regent, alarmed at Condi's 
 growing popularity and at the rumours of his designs on the 
 Crown, secured his arrest on the morning of the first of Septem- 
 ber 1616, when he came to the Louvre to attend the ordinary 
 Council meeting. Notwithstanding his mother's efforts to rouse 
 the populace c)f Paris they remained unmoved, and a few days 
 later the doors of the Bastille closed on Conde for three years.3 
 
 When Champlain landed at Honfleur a week later, the news 
 of the Viceroy's imprisonment was soon made known to him- 
 " I concluded at once," he tells us, " that the enemies of the Com- 
 pany would not be slow in vomiting forth their poison," and his 
 forecast did not prove incorrect. * Conde's arrest had been car- 
 ried out by a Gascon officer, M. de Thymines, who received as his 
 
 1 Montchretien, op. cit. (edition of Funck-Brentano), pp. 324-325. 
 
 2 Due d'Aumale, op. cit. iii 66. 
 
 3 Ihid. iii 82 et seq. 
 
 * Laverdiere, op cit. v 310: " Estant arriv^ en France, nous eusmes nouvelles 
 de la detention de Monseigneur le Prince, qui me fit iuger que nos envieux ne tar- 
 deroient gueres k vomir leur poisorij et qu'ils feroient ce qu'ils n'avoient ose faire 
 auparavant. "
 
 104 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 reward the staS of a marshal of France. He was urged further to 
 seize the occasion to apply for one or two of the numerous offices 
 held by Cond^. The viceroyship of New France, worth a thousand 
 crowns a year, he soon obtained without much trouble. The 
 same friend who had urged this step now announced to the Com- 
 pany that unless the Viceroy's salary were increased by five hun- 
 dred crowns, which he meant to keep for himself, the monopoly 
 would be taken from them. With the fate of Chauvin and Monts 
 before them, the shareholders were alarmed at this threat, the 
 more so perhaps as the possibility of a powerful protector like 
 Conde being arrested had never entered into their calculations. 
 Condd on the other hand by no means intended to lose the office 
 without a struggle, and sent word to the Company from prison 
 that if they paid Themines they would be obliged to pay twice, 
 for he by no means intended to forego his own salary. The 
 affair then entered the domain of law where it remained until 
 the autumn of 1617. During this interval, the importance of the 
 dispute and the prominence of the persons concerned drew pub- 
 lic attention to the country in question. The total absence of 
 colonists of any sort, in the face of the explicit condition stipu- 
 lated when the monopoly was granted, excited open comment. 
 To calm matters, Monts, as the shareholder of most experience, 
 hurriedly drew up a fresh agreement by which, in return for a 
 few new privileges, the Company offered to take out the stipu- 
 lated number of colonists, to support them for two years, and to 
 fortify the country as well. As usual, or as Champlain puts it, 
 " by some strange accident," public interest in the matter soon 
 cooled and so did the zeal of the Company to fulfil its engage- 
 ments. 1 
 
 The undertaking to ship colonists was not altogether unob- 
 served however, for in the spring of 1617 one family was at 
 length taken out to Quebec, though under conditions scarcely 
 likely to induce many others to follow in their footsteps. Louis 
 Hebert, a Parisian chemist, whose father had been in the service 
 of Catherine de M^dicis and who himself had been at Port Royal 
 with Poutrincourt, was urged by Champlain at this time to take 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 312 et seq.
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 1U5 
 
 up land on the St. Lawrence. When application was made to the 
 Company, they appeared only too pleased, and offered not only 
 to support him and his family for two years but to ^ive him two 
 hundred crowns a year as well for three years. Delighted with 
 the offer, Hubert sold his house in Paris and with suitable goods 
 set off with his family to Honfleur. Here however matters 
 changed. Instead of two hundred crowns they now offered only 
 one hundred, while in return he was obliged to sign an agree- 
 ment that not only himself, but his wife, his children and his 
 servant would serve the Company diligently during the whole 
 of that period. Instead of becoming a colonist he was to be a 
 servant of the Company and could only clear his land and build 
 his house when the chief factor at Quebec had no need of his or 
 his family's services. At the end of three years he might grow 
 tobacco or wheat and other cereals, but he must sell his produce 
 to the Company, not at prices suitable to the condition of affairs 
 in a new country but at the prices current in France. He was 
 further strictly forbidden to engage in any shape or manner in 
 the fur-trade, and finally his services as apothecary were to be 
 continually at the service of the Company without any payment 
 in return. In the impossibility of returning to Paris, Hebert 
 reluctantly accepted these conditions, but it is not diflScult to under- 
 stand why his example was not followed by others. ^ At Quebec 
 matters had not gone well. As nothing had as yet been planted, 
 all were dependent on supplies from France, and this year the 
 stock ran out before the vessels arrived. On his arrival Cham- 
 plain scolded the factors, as he had always done, and during his 
 stay did all he could to prevent a recurrence of scarcity by clear- 
 ing and sowing the land near at hand. But after his departure 
 everything was again neglected. It seems indeed that as soon 
 as the boats full of furs disappeared round Point L6vy to join 
 the sailing-vessels at Tadoussac, the factors gave themselves up 
 entirely to six months of perfect idleness. Champlain would be 
 almost certain on his return each spring to find everything juso 
 as he had left it in the previous autumn, l 
 
 1 Au Roy sur la Nouvelle France (1626), pp. 10 et seq. 
 
 2 Sagard, op. cit. i 52 et seq.
 
 106 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 The barter at the rapids this summer was unusually large, 
 for all the tribes visited b}^ Champlain during his winter among 
 the Hurons now came down to the St. Lawrence for the first 
 time. The new comers were indulged in a round of perpetual 
 feasting, then as now considered a not ineffectual method of 
 securing a second visit. While on the one hand the Company 
 was thus reaping the fruits of Champlain's labours during the 
 winter of 1615-16, on the other the news that the Dutch traders 
 on the Hudson had finally succeeded in concluding an alliance 
 with the Iroquois confederation showed that little hope could 
 henceforth be entertained of any trading connections in that 
 direction,! The future for French trade clearly lay then among 
 the tribes of the west and of the north. At Tadoussac this sum- 
 mer the Recollects for the first time erected a small chapel. 
 During the trading season the place presented a busy appear- 
 ance, for here gathered the tribes from the regions of the ^ague- 
 nay as well as those from the southern shore of the St. Lawrence. 
 This was the harbour also where the ships of the Company 
 passed the summer ; beyond this point navigation was deemed 
 too difficult for ocean-going vessels. During the winter nothing 
 was to be seen but the boats used for transporting the goods to 
 Quebec, which were left drawn up on the shore.2 
 
 Along the Acadian coast young Dupont-Grav^ and the other 
 French traders continued their yearly bartering voyages,^ while 
 the Banks and the harbours of Cape Breton and Newfoundland 
 presented every summer the same busy appearance. From the 
 port of St. Malo alone there sailed now over one hundred and 
 twenty vessels ;4 the total of all nations must have reached 
 nearly a thousand.^ 
 
 1 O'Callaghan, op. cit. i 78. Brodhead, History of the State of New York 
 (New York 1853), p. 88. 
 
 2 Sagard, op. cit., i pp. 47 et stq. 
 
 3 Br^ard, op. cit., p. 129. 
 
 4 Archives Municipales de St. Malo, Serie EE 4 no. 139. This fleet alone gave 
 employment to over six thousand men. 
 
 5 The estimates vary from "many thousands" to "six or seven hundred." Cf 
 Whitbourae, op. cit. p. 2 ; Archives Historiques de la Saintonge et de VAunia (Paris 
 1879), vii 379 ; Mass. Hist. Collect., 3rd Series, vi 110.
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 107 
 
 Champlain, on his return to France in the autumn of 1617, 
 found that the dispute about the viceroyship had been finally- 
 decided in favour of Themines, who retained Champlain however 
 as his lieutenant. With Champlain also returned the Recollect 
 Father Dolbeau, who sought, as one of his colleagues had already 
 done, to obtain further aid from the Company in mission- work. 
 The Company's invariable reply was that in supporting six 
 priests they were doing as much as they could for the spreading 
 of the Gospel. Fresh aid, they said, should come rather from the 
 great lords of the Court who would then be employing their time 
 to better purpose than they now were in forcing the poor merch- 
 ants for protection's sake to hand over every year a large portion 
 of their just earnings. ^^ During the winter of 1617 and 1618 
 some disaffected Breton merchants once more made an attempt to 
 break down the Company's monopoly in the St. Lawrence. Pro- 
 fiting by Conde's imprisonment and by the appointment of a new 
 viceroy, they caused a clause to be inserted in the articles of the 
 Estates of Brittany requesting that the fur-trade might be free 
 for that province. This article received the King's ratification 
 before its true meaning was perceived. Champlain however, 
 ever on the alert against such tactics, soon heard of it and begged 
 the King's Council to suspend the article until both sides of the 
 question had been heard. In the negotiations which ensued the 
 Bretons based their claim on the historical right established by 
 their countryman Cartier. Champlain and the Rouen sharehold- 
 ers of the Company, after insisting on the fact that when their 
 Company was formed all who wished to join it had been at liberty 
 to do so, combated their opponents' arguments by " citing authors 
 worthy of faith." This evidently means nothing more than that 
 from the beginning the trade had been general and not confined 
 to Brittany. This view was finally accepted by the Council who 
 thereupon annulled the article. The Bretons were informed that 
 the trade along the Atlantic coast was still open to all, but that 
 none but shareholders of the Company could be allowed tu barter 
 in the St. Lawrence.2 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. v 313 et seq.; Sagard, op. cit. i 52. 
 
 2 averdi^re, op. cit. v 314-315.
 
 108 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 About this time Champlain presented to the Chamber of 
 Commerce at Paris a statement of the various trades which might 
 be fostered in New France, if only proper means were taken to 
 encourage them. As a description, not of what was then actually 
 the case, out of what might exist, if capital were directed to the 
 country, this document possesses an academic interest. Suffice 
 it here to say that he speaks of fisheries, the fur-trade, lumbering* 
 cattle-raising, mines and finally the cultivation of wheat, barley, 
 maize and peas.l At the same time he presented to the King 
 and his Council a request that the colony might be properly 
 fortified. If, he informed them, this were not soon done, the 
 English and Dutch, already settled close at hand and hostile to 
 the French, would repeat the exploits of the former at Mount 
 Desert and Port Royal. The value of the valley of the St. Law- 
 rence was too great to allow of much hesitation on the course to 
 be taken. The King here possessed a country nearly two thou- 
 sand leagues in length which abounded in rolling plains, beauti- 
 ful forests, and rivers full of fish. Besides giving an opportunity 
 of spreading the Gospel in so large a territory, further explora- 
 tion might lead to the discovery of the long-sought passage to 
 the East. All the ships in Christendom would then pass that way 
 in order to save time and avoid pirates. From the duties levied 
 on these vessels a revenue would be secured ten times greater 
 than what was then collected throughout France ; with this money 
 a city about as large as Saint-Denis, to be named Ludovica, could 
 be built on the site of the factory at Quebec, and besides the other 
 numerous large buildings of this city would be erected a beautiful 
 temple called the Redeemer and dedicated to Christ in token of 
 his love for the heathen of the New World. Here fifteen Recol- 
 lects would daily minister to the spiritual wants of this large 
 community. Such was Champlain's beautiful dream of the 
 future of the St. Lawrence valley. Unfortunately no passage 
 existed, so that the dream was never to take practical form. At 
 that time however all seemed to promise fair. The enthusiasm 
 of the dreamer had infused itself into those to whom he spoke, 
 
 1 Archives Historiques de la Saintonge et de l' Aunts, vi 387 et aeq., nos. viii 
 and ix.
 
 champlain's company 16*14-1620 109 
 
 so that while the Chamber of Commerce agreed that the mono- 
 poly of the present Company should be allowed to run its course, 
 it yet insisted that attention should be paid to the stipulation 
 about colonists and that as long as its privilege lasted ten families 
 should be taken out every year. Although notice to this effect 
 was sent to the Company ,i the latter waited for the Government 
 to move in the matter ; but the Government remained inactive 
 Indeed when the trading season of 1619 opened nothing in the 
 way of obtaining colonists had been done, although Champlain, 
 still hopeful, left the further negotiations on the subject in the 
 hands of one of his f riends.2 
 
 We hear nothing of this year's barter at Tadoussac. That 
 in the upper river, which took place between Quebec and the 
 rapids, had been in progress some days before Champlain arrived. 
 As usual the factors had totally neglected everything at Quebec 
 so that not only had they themselves suffered from famine but 
 the whole place had fallen into ruin. For some time before the 
 arrival of the vessels they had even been living on wild roots. 
 Champlain did his best to put matters right, but this repeated 
 neglect of all his express orders and of all that tended to the 
 welfare of those at the factory gradually caused him to lose 
 patience, and in the remaining years of the Company's existence 
 he began to tighten the reins of control.^ When at length he 
 was able to set out for the barter, he met a boat returning to 
 Quebec for the purpose of bringing up everything exchangeable 
 in the storehouse. On account both of Champlain's visit to the 
 Huron country and of the hospitable reception accorded to those 
 who had come down in the previous summer, the concourse of 
 savages was this year greater than ever. Although the Indians 
 welcomed Champlain with every expression of delight, he was 
 not able to return this feeling in kind. The reason was that 
 some years before two servants of the Company had disappeared 
 from Quebec and were believed to have lost their way or been 
 drowned. This spring however the tide had thrown the bodies 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit, v 324-325. 
 
 2 Archives Historiques de la SaiiUnngc tt de I'Aunis vi 378 et seq., nos. vi and vii 
 
 3 Laverdi^re, op. cit. iv 128, Sagard, op. cit. i 58.
 
 110 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 high and dry on the beach, when it was discovered that after 
 having been foully murdered the bodies had been sunk in the 
 river with stones. Only the rotting of the cords had revealed 
 the crime. The unanimous voice of the assembly was that ven- 
 geance should at once be taken on the murderers. To find them 
 however was not an easy matter. After some deliberation Cham- 
 plain and Dupont-Grave decided that in view of this difficulty and 
 of the danger, by hasty action, of estranging all the savages there 
 assembled and thus doing immense harm to the trade, it would 
 be better for the present at least to arrange the matter amicably. 
 When the barter was over therefore, Champlain informed the 
 assembled savages that until some trace of the culprits had been 
 discovered nothing would be done. By next year he hoped that 
 some information on the subject would have been obtained, and 
 with the three hundred soldiers that the King had just promised 
 him he would then secure justice.^ 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast young Dupont-Grav^ traded as 
 usual, while another fur-trader from Dieppe was captured by the 
 English.2 Foreign vessels seem indeed to have now become 
 more numerous on the coast. In a letter addressed by Saint- 
 Just this autumn to the Town Council of Paris he warned 
 them that if they did not send out colonists to that region 
 or build a few forts on the coast, the French would soon 
 be altogether dependent on the English for the " manna 
 of Europe,' the Newfoundland cod. If the Town Coun- 
 cil, he said, could only see their way to helping people for the 
 first two years, they would easily get along afterwards, for the 
 land was fertile and game and fish were abundant.^ In the same 
 autumn Champlain also, on his return to France, sought to stir 
 up the shareholders of his Company in this matter of coloniza- 
 tion. The monopoly had only been given on this condition and 
 the Chamber of Commerce at Paris urged him to see that the 
 Company carried it out. With the exception indeed of the 
 Vienne couple and the Hebert family, there is no trace in the 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op cit. iv 114 et seq., and 131 et seq. 
 
 - Breard, op. cit. p 130. 
 
 3 Collection de Manuncrits relalifs a la Nouvelle France i 57-59.
 
 champlain's company 1614-1620 111 
 
 records of any other colonists in the country at this time. The 
 wife of the former had died soon after her arrival, while if the 
 accounts given be true the Hebert family were extremely badly 
 treated. The terms of the agreement on which they had come 
 out seemed hard enough, but in practice the factors of the Com- 
 pany went even beyond it. " In fact," says Sagard, " the Company 
 treated these people in the most rigorous manner possible, think- 
 ing that they would thereby discourage others from following in 
 their footsteps, unless indeed they came as slaves."^ On the other 
 hand the shareholders declared that as long ass things were so 
 unstable and the viceroy continually being changed, they could 
 not engage in any great outlay as to colonists. For all they 
 could tell their monopoly might be repealed at any moment. Their 
 trade was also continually interrupted by interlopers, especially 
 those of La Rochelle, who, since the unfortunate passport given 
 by Conde, had never ceased to injure the Company's commerce 
 in the St. Lawrence. When a decision was given against any 
 citizens of La Rochelle, it could not be enforced. If one of the 
 Company's agents appeared at La Rochelle, the mayor would 
 inform him that he was conferring no slight favour on him in 
 advising him to retire again as quickly as possible, for if his arrival 
 became known even he, the mayor, would have no power to pre- 
 vent the townspeople from throwing him into the sea.2 It 
 appears indeed that religious hatred was not altogether absent 
 from these disputes; and this may indeed have been the cause why 
 
 1 Sagard, op. ciL, i p, 53 : " Hebert, qui depuis un an estoit arrive k Kebec 
 
 en intention de s'y habituer et y perseverent encores a present, nonob- 
 stant les grandes traverses des anciens marchands qui les ont traictez avec toutes 
 les rigueurs possibles, pensans pent estre leur faire perdre I'envie d'y demeurer 
 et a d'autres mesnages de s'y aller habituer qu'en condition de serviteurs ou 
 plustost d'esclaves." 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit. v 321 : " Et de plus, combien ont-ilseu de procez centre 
 les Rochelois, qui n'en vouloient perdre leur part, souz des passe-ports qu'ils 
 obtenoient par surprise, sans rien contribuer? et autres sans commission .=e 
 mettoient en mer a la desrob^e pour aller voler et piller contra les defenses de 
 sadite Maieste, et ne pouvoit-on avoir aucune raison ny iustice en 1' enclos de 
 leur ville : car quand on alloit faire quelque exploict de Justice le Maire disoit : 
 Je crois ne vous /aire pas pen de faveur et de courtoisie, en vous conseillaut de 
 
 . voiis retirer au plii-stost. Que si le peuple sr^ait . . . vous courez fortune 
 d^ estre noyez dans le port . . . a quoy ie ne pourrois remedier."
 
 112 champlain's company 1614-1620 
 
 the merchants of La Rochelle refused at the last moment to join 
 Champlain's Company. In fact the Huguenots who did join only- 
 planted dissension and distrust among the shareholders. Each 
 party so mistrusted the other that it kept its own factors and 
 agents at the factory, whereby of coarse the expenses were 
 doubled. In the face of these troubles one is not surprised 
 that Champlain's efforts to rouse the Company to its duty 
 in regard to colonization came to nought. On the contrary 
 his complaints only made his future relations with it more 
 difficult.i 
 
 When he arrived at Honfleur at the opening of the trading 
 season of 1619 he was informed that the Company had decided 
 to hand over the charge of the factory at Quebec for the future 
 to Dupont-Grave. If Champlain cared to do so he was at liberty 
 to continue his explorations but otherwise his authority was at 
 an end. Champlain however knew too well the true condition 
 of affairs not to treat such language in the way that it deserved. 
 He pointed out that, as the representative of the King and the 
 Viceroy, it was his duty to tell them what they should do. The 
 only result of such ill-considered action would be to make him 
 more exacting in the future as to the fulfilment of all the con- 
 ditions stipulated by them, Dupont-Grave' had long been his 
 friend and he hoped would still remain so, but even at the risk 
 of such a loss, he intended to allow no interference with the King's 
 authority. Some disaffected shareholders, urged on by one 
 Boyer, still held out, so that when permission to embark on the 
 Company's vessels had been explicitly denied him, he returned to 
 Paris and presented his case to the King. At Court he re- 
 ceived full acknowledgment of the justice of his claims and 
 soon after, in a public meeting of the Exchange at Rouen, Boyer 
 was obliged to offer an apology for his behaviour.2 We must 
 regret this quarrel especially because on account of the absence 
 of Champlain which it involved we know almost nothing of what 
 took place this summer in the St. Lawrence. Along the Atlantic 
 coast there was the usual fleet of traders and among them the 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 325 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. v 322 et seq.
 
 OHAMPLAINS COMPANY 1614-1620 113 
 
 vessel of young Dupont-Grave as well as one from La 
 Rochelle.^ 
 
 In the autumn of this year, 1619, about the time the vessels 
 were returning from Acadia and the St. Lawrence, Conde was 
 once more set at liberty. As a salve to his feelings he was rein- 
 stated in the office of Viceroy of New France, although he 
 voluntarily relinquished it shortly afterwards for a good round 
 sum. At the time of his dispute before the courts with Themines, 
 the Admiralty Board had deemed it necessary to appoint a repre- 
 sentative to look after its interests. This man, the Sieur de 
 Villeraenon, had then convinced himself that in the interest of 
 French shipping the Navy Board should be given the control of 
 the colony. Now especially, when Champlain's power over the 
 Company seemed on the wane, Villemenon advised Montmorency, 
 the Admiral of France, to have the viceroyship transferred to 
 himself. The matter was then broached to Conde who agreed to 
 consent, provided he received some recompense tor the loss of his 
 f^;alary. In return for a sum of eleven thousand crowns the vice- 
 royship was made over to the Admiral of France.2 
 
 Henry, second Duke of Montmorency, at this time the darling 
 both of the Court and the town, had been appointed Admiral of 
 France and Brittany in the year 1612 when only seventeen years 
 oi age. The duties of the office were performed by subordinates. 
 The man who really took over the functions of Viceroy of New 
 France was a certain Sieur Dolu of whom little else is known. 
 He was instructed by Montmorency to inquire into the present 
 condition of affairs in the colony and to report on the manner in 
 which the Company was performing its engagements. In the 
 course of this examination, in which he rect-ived considerable aid 
 from Champlain, Dolu had no difficulty in persuading himself 
 that the present Company was by no means doing its duty. Not 
 only had it taken out no colonists, refused to recognize the 
 authority of the King's lieutenant and left the river absolutely 
 unfortified, but even after twelve years of existence, the factory 
 
 1 Breard, op. cit., p. 130. Arret du Parlement de Rouen, 12th Jul}% 1633. 
 
 2 This was doubtless at the rate of 1000 crowns a year for the eleven years of 
 the monopoly. Laverdiere, op. cit. v 326-327. 
 
 8
 
 114 cha3IPLain's company 1614-1620 
 
 at Quebec was still dependent on France for its annual supply of 
 food. With the English in Newfoundland and the Dutch at the 
 mouth of the Hudson, such a policy was exceedingly hazardous. 
 Dolu informed the Company therefore that if they did not bestir 
 themselves their monopoly would soon be taken away. The 
 Company as usual took no steps to improve matters.^ When 
 Champlain reached Quebec in the summer of 1620 he found that 
 during his absence the whole place had been allowed to fall into 
 decay. Not only did the rain enter the factory from every side 
 but the storehouse had ahnost literally fallen to pieces. The 
 dirt and filth of the court-yard showed that even the common 
 rules of health had been neglected. He at once set to work as 
 usual to try and make the place habitable, for he had brought 
 his wife and intended to remain for the winter. To Dolu how- 
 ever he sent back an account of the state in which he had found 
 matters, at the same time pointing out the evident hopelessness 
 of expecting any improvement from the present Company. So 
 much indeed had to be done before the winter arrived that 
 Champlain could not even find the time to pay a visit to the 
 barter, at which he had not been present since the summer of 
 1618, Doubtless both above Quebec and also at Tadoussac things 
 went on much as usual, for this was really the only piece of 
 business to which the factors did pay any attention.2 As a result 
 of the report sent home by Champlain this autumn on board the 
 returning vessels, Dolu at length decided to cancel the present 
 Company's monopoly, though it should legally have run on until 
 the year 1625. That this step was unexpected or even unde- 
 served can hardly be maintained. On the other hand however 
 the new Company to which Dolu regranted the monopoly for a 
 fresh term of eleven years turned out no better than its predecessor. 
 It was in the period of this Company, organized by the Caens, 
 that Quebec M'as taken by the English in 1629. 
 
 1 Ibid. V 326 et seq, , vi 3 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid, vi 5 etseq. Le Clercq, Etablissement de la Foy (Paris 1691), i 159 et seq.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY AND ITS UNION WITH CHAMPLAIN's 
 
 1621-1627 
 
 On receipt of Champlain's account of the condition in which 
 he had found the buildings at Quebec, Dolu, the agent of the 
 new Viceroy, came to the conclusion that the immediate with- 
 drawal of the monopoly from Champlain's Company was the 
 only course left open. Next to nothing had been done during 
 the six years it had been in existence, either for defence or 
 colonization, and the decayed state of the factory showed how 
 lightly it viewed even its most elementary duties. Since several 
 groups of merchants had been forsome time endeavouring to obtain 
 the monopoly, Dolu had no lack of applicants. His choice soon 
 fell on two Huguenot merchants of Rouen, William de Caen and 
 his nephew Emery. In consideration of the enjoyment of the 
 monopoly for eleven years, they agreed to conditions similar for 
 the most part to those which the old Company had accepted but 
 had left unfulfilled. Montmorency was to receive the usual 
 Viceroy's salary of one thousand crowns a year, while Champlain, 
 who with his family was to live at Quebec, was to be paid two 
 hundred crowns. He was also to have every summer at his 
 disposal ten of the Company's men, whom he might use as 
 workmen or soldiers according as circumstances demanded. As 
 before, six Recollects were to be maintained for missionary work 
 among the savages, as well as for the purpose of supplying the 
 spiritual needs of the Company's men at Quebec. During the 
 course of these eleven years, six families of not less than three 
 persons each, were to be taken out to New France, but, like its 
 predecessor, this Company was only obliged to pay them for 
 their produce the prices current at home in France. On the 
 whole, these conditions were very similar to those which obtained 
 
 [115]
 
 116 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 under the old Company and they were fulfilled as little in this 
 case as in the other.l 
 
 The members of the old Company, having heard various 
 rumours of impending changes, begged Dolu for some assurance 
 that no harm was intended against them. If injustice were done 
 them, they said, it was the new Viceroy himself who should 
 finally bear the consequences. In reply, Dolu informed them 
 that the change of Viceroy had cancelled all former commissions. 
 Besides this, he had learned that in addition to neerlectinof all the 
 conditions under which they had received the monopoly, they even 
 contemplated handing the country over to a foreign power. 
 Indeed this rumour, he said, had been chiefly instrumental in 
 causing the Admiral of France to place the colony under his own 
 control.2 While it was thus quite plain that their worst fears 
 were to be realized and the monopoly taken from them, yet the 
 shareholders did not intend to submit without a struggle. Con- 
 vinced that they haci been calumniated, at least in what related 
 to handing the country over to a foreign power, they appealed to 
 the King for justice. No reply however had been received when 
 the season of 1621 opened, so both Companies thought themselves 
 justified in sending out their vessels to the St. Lawrence 
 
 The first to arrive at Tadoussac was a vessel belonging to the 
 new Company, with letters for Champlain informing him of the 
 withdrawal of the monopoly from the old Company and of the 
 formation of the new one. He was further ordered by the 
 Viceroy to confiscate the goods of the old Company found in the 
 factory, as a punishment for its neglect to spend money on col- 
 onists and fortifications. When this was al)Out to be effected, 
 the chief factor asked to see the order from the King. Since 
 none had arrived and since the other factors, clerks and inter- 
 preters of the old Company backed up their head-man, Champlain 
 was at length obliged to assert that until such an order did arrive 
 not only would their goods be left intact, but they alone should 
 be at liberty to trade in the river. He sent word however to 
 
 1 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 16738 fol. 143 et seq., and fol. 148 et seq.; Ibid. Ms. 
 fr. 8022 fol. 181 et seq. 
 
 2 Bibhoth, Nat., Collection Colbert Cinq Cents No. 203 fol. 188 et »eq.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 117 
 
 the factors of the new Company at Tadoussac that as soon as 
 the King's order or the decision of the Council arrived, it was to 
 be at once sent on to Quebec. Until the King's Council had 
 given its decision, said he, everything was to go on exactly as in 
 former years. The next vessel to cast anchor at Tadoussac was 
 one belonging to the old Company with Dupont-Grave himself 
 in charge. Fearing lest,on account of his recent attempt to seize 
 their goods, resort might now be had to reprisals, Champlain 
 ordered the half -finished fort on the top of the cliff to be put in 
 a state of defence, and prepared, as far as the means at his 
 disposal permitted, to uphold the King's authority. Dupont- 
 Grav^ however was more surprised than annoyed at this recep- 
 tion. Though he had left France before the Council had given its 
 decision, he by no means intended to oppose that decision when 
 once it was announced. On the contrary, expecting that it 
 would probably be given against his Company, he had brought 
 out no fresh stores for the winter as he intended to take the old 
 Company's men back with him to France. Wiien all cause of 
 anxiety had thus been removed, he and his friends continued 
 their preparations for the barter. Having been again assured 
 by Champlain that until the decision of the Council arrived they 
 should not be disturbed, they departed with their goods to meet 
 the savages up the river. 
 
 These factors of the old Company had been bartering almost 
 a month before William de Caen at length reached Tadoussac 
 with the long-expected decision of the Council. As signified to 
 him " by soun<l of trumpet " in the harbour of Dieppe, this 
 decree ran, that for that year 1621 both Companies should trade 
 in the St. Lawrence. In the autumn however they should either 
 unite their interests or agree to form an entirely new Company, 
 Since Champlain had already allowed the old Company to trade 
 and had also sent word to the barter as soon as Caen's arrival 
 was announced, nothing now remained for Caen but to take full 
 advantage of what was left of the trading season. Strange to 
 say however, this Caen utterly refused to do. He asserted that 
 until the vessel of the old Company commanded by Dupont- 
 Grave, which had set sail without its charter-party, had been
 
 118 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 handed over to him that he might attack some interlopers seen 
 when approaching Tadoussac, he would not move from that port. 
 In the decision of the Council cognizance had been taken of the 
 departure of this vessel without its charter-party and any such 
 breach of the regulations was strictly forbidden for the future. 
 As to the interlopers, Champlain who had come down to 
 Tadoussac, was of the opinion that Caen's own three vessels with 
 their one hundred and fifty sailors were quite sufficient to 
 attack two small barques.^ Caen however remained obdurate ; 
 but on discovering, after he had forcibly seized Dupont- Grave's 
 vessel, that she was not so well armed as he had hoped, he at 
 once restored her. Although he now gave up the idea of pur- 
 suing the interlopers, he still refused to take any share in the 
 trade, though for what reason is not quite clear.2 Yet he did 
 not return to France empty-handed. For the merchandize 
 brought out in the first vessel the old Company, which had alone 
 enjoyed the trade this year, paid him seven hundred beaver-skins. 
 As they had also brought out no stores for the winter, they were 
 obliged to buy them from Caen at the price of one thousand skins 
 more. The old Company was thus able to leave thirty of its 
 factors and servants for another winter, while Caen himself left 
 eighteen of his men.^ 
 
 In one of the vessels of the old Company returned home two 
 butchers and their wives, who, although sent out by the old 
 Company in the previous summer as prospective colonists, had 
 according to Champlain done nothing since their arrival but 
 " hunt, fish, sleep and get drunk.''^ Since they only served as a 
 useless drain upon the winter's stores, their return was an 
 advantage. At the same time Father George, one of the Recol- 
 lects, bore back to France a petition to the King begging him to 
 pay some attention to the colony. Not only should a garrison 
 be sent to Quebec and a watch-tower be erected at Tadoussac, 
 but justice and law should be better enforced in the colony. It 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 27 and 31. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 27 et seq. 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. 30 and 31. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 35 : "ne faisant que se donner du bon temps k chasser, pescher, 
 dormir, et s'enj'vrer avec ceux qui leurs en donnoient le moyen."
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 119 
 
 was lamentable enough to see a man like Caen openly flout the 
 King's authority, but when it was considered that robberies, 
 murders, assassinations, lust and blasphemy were only too com- 
 mon among the factors and interpreters, the need of some control 
 became rapidly apparent. For themselves the EecoUects wanted 
 money to build a seminary at Quebec, while at the same time 
 they desired the exclusion from the colony of all heretics. This 
 last demand was doubtless due to the troubles occasione'! in the 
 summer by Caen, but since in some of his vessels nearly two- 
 thirds of the crew were Huguenots, its enforcement was not an 
 easy matter. i 
 
 In the previous winter the Pilgrim Fathers made a landing 
 on the New England coast. Though at first the necessity of 
 constructing a settlement cjave them little leisure for trade, yet 
 in time they were able to pay more attention to this matter. 
 The savages at first kept aloof, on account of a pestilence w^hich 
 broke out among them after the capture of a French fur- trader 
 some years before. As time passed however this fear was over- 
 come and the Plymouth settlement became a rival trading-post, 
 which limited considerably the area open to the French traders 
 on the Atlantic coast.2 The number of English vessels here and 
 on the Banks now reached three hundred and gave employment 
 to some ten thousand seamen.^ 
 
 The dispute between the rival Companies for the trade in 
 the St. Lawrence was at length settled in the spring of 1622. 
 By a decree of the King's Council the new Company received an 
 extension of its monopoly until the year 1635. Up to that date 
 it could in no way be deprived of this privilege by any change 
 of viceroy or other official. On the other hand it was ordered to 
 pay to the old Company the sum of ten thousand livres for the 
 four years during which the monopoly of the latter should still 
 have run, or, if they preferred it, they might hand over five- 
 
 1 Sagard, op. cit. i 90 et seq. Le Clercq, op. cit. i 187 et seq. Laverdiere, op. 
 ctt. vi 121 : " car ils etoient presque les deux tiers de huguenots," etc. Cf. also 
 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 16738 fol. 143 et seq. 
 
 2 J. A. Doyle, The English in America: The Puritan Colonies, (London 1887 
 i 70. Mass. Hist. Collect., 4th series, iii 98. 
 
 3 Sainsburj', Calendar of Colonial State Papers i 25, no. 54.
 
 120 THE CAEXS' COMPANY 
 
 twelfths of their capital to the shareholders of the old Company 
 and unite the two Companies into one. After some deliberation, 
 the latter course was chosen and the two Companies became one 
 with a monopoly guaranteed against all interference until the 
 year 1635. In truth, this United Company did enjoy the trade 
 until the summer of 1633, but not uninterruptedly nor always 
 with the consent of the Government.'' 
 
 During the years 1622 and 1623 the trade was carried on by 
 this United Company without the occurrence of any incident 
 worthy of notice. Whether it was the baneful influence of the 
 shareholders of the old Company however or a like indifference 
 on the part of the new, no efforts of any kind were made during 
 these years to fulfil the conditions stipulated as to colonists and 
 fortifications. When in the summer of 1623 the Company's ves- 
 sels reached the St. Lawrence rather later than usual, the factory 
 was as empty of supplies as ever, the men having had recourse 
 as usual to roots and berries. This is the more surprising as 
 Champlain had been living continuously at the factory since the 
 summer of 1620 and had had plenty of opportunity to cultivate 
 a local source of supply. In the autumn of 1622 he had indeed 
 prepared some land but nothing was planted until the following 
 April. No result could therefore be hoped for before August at 
 the earliest.2 The barter in the summer of 1623 took place at 
 the river Richelieu where assembled more than sixty canoes of 
 Hurons and Algonquins alone. On the 27th of July arrived 
 other tribes who dwelt further west. They complained bitterly 
 of the treatment meted out to them on their way down by the 
 nations through whose territory they were obliged to pass. The 
 Algonquins, not content with a heavy toll, had also robbed them 
 of their furs, while the Hurons had actually tried to stop their 
 passage. Champlain calmed these troubles as best he coulH. 3 
 
 1 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 16738 fol. 143 et seq. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 38 
 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 55 and 58. 
 
 ^ Fbid. p. 62: " Le 17 dudit mois arriverent des sauvages, qui firent une 
 assemblee entr' eux, touchant les passages qui n'estoient pas libres aux Hurons, 
 que les Algommequins les traittoyent mal, leur faisant contribuer de leurs mar- 
 chandises et .... les deroboient," etc.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 121 
 
 In a large assembly, held after the barter, the Indian who had 
 murdered the two servants of the Company some three years 
 before was pardoned. Having openly confessed his ungrateful 
 return for the kindness of the French, he and the savage who 
 had assisted him publicly demanded forgiveness from Champlain. 
 When this had been given, a naked sword was thrown into the 
 St. Lawrence in token that all was to be henceforth forgotten. 
 On the return journey thirteen interpreters and three Recollects 
 set out with the savages. It was the duty of these interpreters 
 both to perfect themselves in the various Indian dialects and also 
 to see that the savages came down in the following summer with 
 a plentiful supply of furs, i After the barter Champlain returned 
 to Quebec where he drew up the plans for a new factory. The 
 old building, originally erected in 1 608, had suffered badly both 
 from storms and neglect and no longer sufficed for the needs of 
 the increasing trade. As soon as the design of the new building 
 had been decided upon, eighteen men were at once set to work 
 upon it.2 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast fishermen and fur-traders had been 
 as busy this summer as ever. Many of the vessels of this Com- 
 pany now carried home fish from Gasp6 in addition to the furs 
 loaded at Tadoussac.^ On the other hand many of the whalers 
 which came to Tadoussac bartered furs whenever an occasion 
 oftered.4 
 
 This summer an attempt was made to set up a colony in 
 Acadia from a quarter whence one would hardly have expected 
 such an effort. Stirred by the accounts of the foundations of 
 New Spain, New France, New Holland and New England, a 
 Scot, Sir William Alexander, was moved with ambition to see a 
 
 1 Fbid. p. 66: " Deux autres Fran9ois furent donnez aux Algommequins, pour 
 les maintenir en amitie et inciter a venir en traitte " ; Sagard, Grand Voyage au 
 Pays des Hurons (Paris 1865), i 69. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 67-69. 
 
 3 Ihid. p. 61 : " Miscou, ou estoit le sieur de la Ralde en pescherie " ; p. 67 : 
 " et Deschesnes de s'en aller k Gaspey . . . pour faire faire diligence de la 
 pesche du poisson." Cf. also p. 84. 
 
 4 Ihid. pp. 53-54: " qu'un vaisseau de 50 h. 60 tonneaux estoit arrive k 
 Tadoussac pour faire pesche de baleine . . . ayant k la valeur de six h. sept 
 cans escus de raarchandises, pour traitter." Cf. also p. 120.
 
 122 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 part of this new world called New Scotland. He received 
 encouragement in this design from Sir Ferdinand Georges, one 
 of the members of the Plymouth Company, who even pointed out 
 to him the beauty and richness of the region to the north ot New 
 England,! which, since the expedition of Argall in 1613, seems to 
 have been generally looked upon as belonging to England. 
 Pleased at this encouragement Alexander at once applied for a 
 patent to this region, and since King James and his Scottish 
 Council were both favourable, the Charter passed the great seal in 
 September, 1621. Without regard to the earlier French grants, 
 of which Alexander at least was by no means ignorant,^ King 
 James granted to him the huge peninsula between the Gulf of 
 St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean This territory included 
 the preseiit provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as 
 well as that portion of Quebec which borders the St. Lawrence 
 at Gasp6. In fact, all that tract of land cut off by an imaginary 
 line drawn from the mouth of the river Ste. Croix to its source and 
 thence no- th ward overland to the St. Lawrence was made over to 
 Alexander in this charter.-^ Although Sable Island, Prince Edward 
 Island and Cape Breton Island were also included, the two latter 
 were a few days later granted to Robert Gordon of Lochinvar to 
 form the barony of Galloway.-* In the summer of 1622 Alex- 
 ander sent out his first vess 1, which carried, besides agricultural 
 labourers, an artisan, a blacksmith and a minister of the Scottish 
 Church. When nearing Cape Breton the ship was suddenly 
 driven back to Newfoundland, and since the summer was then 
 well-nigh spent, the company decided to winter hei'e while the 
 vessel went home for fresh supplies.^ On his side Robert Gordon 
 had also been busy ; but the two ships which he was fitting out 
 at Beaumaris in the Island of Anglesea were not ready when 
 
 1 According to Georges the prime mover was John Mason, the author of a 
 tract on Newfoundland. Cf. 3Tass. Hist. Collect. , 3rd Series, vi 78 et seq. 
 
 2 J. F^lix, Voyage a la Nonvelle France du Capitaine Danitl (Rouen 1881), 
 Introd. p. 6. 
 
 3 D. Laing, Royal Letters Charters and Tracts relating to the Colonization of 
 New Scotland (Edinburgh 1867), Charters, pp. 1 et seq. 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 16 et seq. 
 
 6 Sir W. Alexander, An Encouragement to Colonies, etc., pp. 2i2,etseq., in 
 Laing's Royal Letters, etc. Felix, op. cif., Introd. pp. 5 et seq.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 123 
 
 winter arrived. Although in the spring of 1628 fresh prepara- 
 tions were made for despatching them and Gordon even received 
 encouragement from the Spanish Ambassador at the English 
 Court, yet, for some unknown reason they never set sail.l For 
 the present therefore Cape Breton remained untenanted by 
 Europeans. Alexander's vessel did not reach St. John's on its 
 return until late in the summer of 1623. It was then found that 
 the men who had remained there for the winter had already 
 hired themselves out in the numerous fishing vessels which 
 thronged the place Those on board contented themselves there- 
 fore with reconnoitring the coast of Acadia, and after securing a 
 cargo of cod at Newfoundland they set sail for home.^ Thus at 
 the close of the summer of 1623 Saint-Just had been in no way 
 disturbed in his peaceful trading operations at Port Royal. It 
 appears that he also returned to France this autumn.-^ He ceded 
 his rights at Port Eoyal to a friend, young La Tour, whose quar- 
 ters were at Cape Sable to the south ot Port Royal. Here La 
 Tour and a few of his friends continued the same half -trading, 
 half roving life which Saint- Just himself had been leading since 
 the destruction of his home in 1613.^ 
 
 In the summer of 1624 the concourse of savages at the barter 
 in the upper St. Lawrence was greater than ever. Although 
 Champlain had not been beyond the rapids since the year 1615, 
 yet owing to the annual winter visits of the interpreters,^ and to 
 the gradual extension of the area in which the French merchan- 
 dize circulated, fresh tribes continued to make their way nearly 
 
 1 Felix, op. cit., Introd. pp. 7 et seq. 
 
 2 Alexander, A n Encouragement to Colonies, etc. , p. 34. 
 
 3 Dr. Patterson's article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada, 
 second series, vol. ii, 1896, p. 127. Biblioth. Nat., Collect. Colbert Cinq Cents 
 No. 148 fol. 436. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 83 and 313. 
 
 ■t If the English contention be correct. Saint- Just could only cede a limited 
 right to young La Tour. Public Record Office, Foreign Corresp. : France, Dor- 
 chester to Wake, March 2nd 1631 : "and this accord [between Alexandei and 
 this La Tour's father] need be the lesse stood upon, because it is no other than 
 the self same which was presented to Sir Samuel Argall by one Biencourt (a 
 Frenchman remayning then in that place as chief e of that nation) who 
 demanded a protection of Argall to depend upon his late Majesty as King 
 of England." 
 
 5 Laverdiere, op. cit, vi 65-66 and 80-81.
 
 124 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 every summer to the place of barter. This summer was made 
 especially noteworthy by the arrival of thirty- five canoes of 
 Iroquois. Two years before this, two Iroquois warriors had 
 come to the Montagnais of their own accord in order to try and 
 conclude a treaty of peace. But as they were not official repre- 
 sentatives Champlain induced four of the Montagnais, specially 
 deputed to conclude a peace, to return with these Iroquois.^ On 
 their arrival in the Iroquois country they met with a good recep- 
 tion and a permanent treaty was drawn up 2 Thirty-five canoes 
 of Iroquois had now arrived both to trade and to sign the peace. 
 Although the nations and tribes were thus very various, no diffi- 
 culty arose, so perfect were the arrangements made by Champlain. 
 Each nation had its own interpreter. After the ordinary business 
 of the barter, there was the feast of friendship with the presents 
 given by both sides. Then followed the dances and other 
 festivities. Finally the whole was brought to a close b}?- the 
 conclusion of the long-hoped-for peace between the Iroquois, the 
 Hurons and the French. Although no new post had been erected 
 at the rapids, it certainly looked as if the end thereby sought had 
 been already attained. All hoped that with pea^e in the land a 
 new era had dawned for the trade and prosperity of New France.^ 
 In one of the returning vessels Champlain and his wife set 
 sail for home. Since the summer of 1620 he had been contin- 
 uously at work in the colony and the results now obtained seemed 
 to warrant a short rest. With him also returned Father Iren^e. 
 one of the Recollects, to secure if possible the aid of the Jesuits 
 in their missionary work among the savages. In the course of 
 their labours, the Recollects were continually hearing of fresh 
 tribes further to the west and to the north. For a field which 
 tended thus to enlarge itself indefinitely, they felt that the six 
 men of their own Order were by no means sufficient. The Jesuits 
 with their great wealth and better organization would prove, 
 they hoped, a valuable ally.'* 
 
 1 Ibid, vi 46 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 80: "lis furent tres bien receus des Yrocois qui leurs firent tout plain 
 de bonne reception, pour achever de faire cette paix." 
 
 3 Le Clercq, op. cit. i 259 et seq. 
 
 * Sagard, Histoire du Canada, iii 783.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 125 
 
 Along the Atlantic, the open coasting trade as well as the fish- 
 ing trade went on much as before. In a dispute with some sav- 
 ages one vessel lost five of her crew. Three Recollects who came 
 out to Acadia in a vessel from Bordeaux were able to make their 
 way overland and join their brethren at Quebec.^ 
 
 Shortly after the return of the vessels to France in the autumn 
 of 1624, there were rumours of an impending change in the viceroy- 
 ship, which in the course of the winter were verified. As Mont- 
 morency informed Champlain, he found the duties of the office of 
 Viceroy of New France more troublesome than those of Admiral 
 of old France, and he finally made up his mind to hand the 
 position over to another.2 This resolution was carried into 
 effect in January 1625, when the young Due de Ventadour was 
 gazetted to the viceroyship.3 Henri de L^vis, Due de Ventadour, 
 peer of France, Prince of Maubuisson and Comte de la Voulte, 
 had succeeded his father in the government of Languedoc in 
 December 1624 when only twenty-eight years of age. Shortly 
 before his father's death he had married Marie Liesse of Luxem- 
 bourg who had been brought up by his own mother and who, 
 though now only thirteen years of age, was one of the richest 
 heiresses of the kingdom. Of the personal capacities of the new 
 Viceroy we know little. The fact that in the year 1629 he and 
 his wife separated in order to devote themselves to a religious 
 life so impressed their contemporaries that few other facts about 
 either of them have been recorded.'* By the terms under which 
 the United Company was granted its monopoly, the change of 
 Viceroy was to have no effect on its rights. Nor did it. Cham- 
 
 1 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 83 ; Le Clercq, op. cit. i 293. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit, vi 85 : " Les anciens et nouveaux associez, eurent 
 plusieurs contestations . . . cela en partie donna suiect k mondit seigneur 
 de Montmorency, de se deffaire de sa charge de Viceroy, qui luy rompoit plus la 
 teste, que ses affaires plus importantes." 
 
 3 Ibtd. : " La remettant a Monseigneur le Due de Ventadour, qu'il voyoit 
 porte k ce sainct dessein, convenant avec luyd'un certain prix, tant pour la charge 
 de Viceroj', que pour I'interest qu'il avoit dans ladite Societe," etc. Biblioth. 
 Nat., MS. fr. 20163 fol. 239. 
 
 4 For an uninteresting account of their lives vid. Le Due et la Duchesse 
 de Ventadour— un Grand Amour Chretien au XVIIe siecle, par X. 
 Paris, 1889.
 
 126 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 plain was maintained in the post of lieutenant for the Viceroy in 
 the colony and other arrangements were left as before.^ 
 
 During the summer of 1625 Champlain remained in France 
 in order to look after his own affairs.2 On this account we are 
 again without any record of what took place during the summer in 
 the St. Lawrence valley. We know however that the disputes 
 between the Catholic and Huguenot shareholders still continued. 
 Caen, being a Huguenot, gave umbrage to the Catholics by allow- 
 ing his co-religionists to hold their services openly and by request- 
 ing the Catholics also to assist at them. When this was reported 
 to the new Viceroy, he ordered Caen to place a Catholic in com- 
 mand of the fleet for the future, who should give orders forbid- 
 ding all psalm-singing of any sort when the Newfoundland 
 Banks had been passed.^ There were also continued bickerings 
 between the shareholders of the old Company and Caen who could 
 never get on peaceably for long with anybody. They frequently 
 dragged one another before some tribunal or other, but with 
 what result is not always clear.* The invitation addressed by 
 the Recollects to the Jesuits had been at once accepted by that 
 Order. The new Viceroy generously furnished the funds for the 
 first year and five members left France for the St. Lawrence in 
 the spring of 1625.5 As a result of this preliminary visit a 
 vessel of eighty tons was hired in the following year, in which 
 they embarked the materials for a college at Quebec as well as 
 twenty workmen to construct it.^ 
 
 As usual after a period of absence, Champlain, on his return 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 88 et seq. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 87 : " me promettant pour icelle annee de demeurer proche de luy, 
 pour I'instruire des affaires dudit pais et donner ordre k quelques miennes autres 
 que i'avoisa Paris." 
 
 3 n>id. p. 93 : " De plus que mondit seigneur avoit du mescontentement 
 dudit sieur de Caen, sur ce qu'on luy rapporta qu'il avoit fait faire les prieres deleur 
 religion pretendue, publiqueraent dans le fleuve sainct Laurent : desirant que les 
 Catholiques y assistassent," etc. Caen, it is onlj' fair to add, d<^nied this charge. 
 Ibid. p. 94. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 94-95. 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 86 : " II en envoya six, k ses propres cousts et despens, des Tannic 
 mesmes," and the note on this. 
 
 6 Ibid. pp. 95-96.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 127 
 
 to Quebec in the summer of 1626, found everything in complete 
 disorder. The new factory, which he had left almost completed, 
 had never been finished, though all the necessary material had 
 been ready at hand. No one had paid any attention to the 
 gardens or the crops, so that when the vessels were late, recourse 
 was had as usual to roots and berries.^ Without a moment's 
 delay, Champlain set everybody to work. The factory was first 
 completed according to the original plans, whereby at least a 
 shelter for the winter was assured. He next turned his atten- 
 tion to the little fort on top of the hill. Although this building, 
 commenced in the year 1620,2 had been finished before his 
 departure for France, he now deemed it too small to hold all the 
 colony in case of need, especially if the garrison promised by the 
 King should ever be sent out. The fort was therefore torn down 
 and a larger one built on the same foundation.-^ The cattle were 
 transported to the rich meadows at Cape Tourmente to avoid the 
 necessity of bringing hay thence to Quebec. Here huts " like 
 those in Normandy " were constructed for the beasts besides one 
 for the cowherd and his family. As the twenty workmen 
 brought out by the Jesuits had also made good progress on their 
 building, the once desolate promontory began to present an ani- 
 mated appearance.^ 
 
 During this time the annual barter had been going on as 
 usual further up the river. It was learned however from the 
 Iro(|Uois present that trouble had broken out between them and 
 the Dutch, and that five of the latter had even been massacred. ^ 
 A rupture of this sort would prove of course of great advantage 
 
 1 Ihid. vi. p. 123 : " Voili les risques et fortunes que Ton court la pluspart 
 du temps, d'abandonner une habitation et la rendre en telle necessite qu'ils mour- 
 roient de faim, si les vaisseaux venoient k se perdre . . . . Ce n'est pas que 
 souvent ie n'en donnasse des ad vis, et represente les inconveniens qui en pouvoient 
 arriver : mais comme cela ne touche qu'^ ceux qui demeurent au pays, Ton ne 
 s'en soucie." Cf. ihid. p. 167 : "L'utilite demeure aux associez et h nous le raal." 
 
 2 Ihid. p. 6. 
 
 3 Ihid. p. 126 : " Je considere que le fort estoit bien petit, pour retirer a une 
 necessity les habitans du pays, avec les soldats qui un jour y pourroient estre . . . 
 qui me lit resoudre de I'abatre et I'agrandir, ce que ie fis iusqu'au pied." 
 
 4 Ihid. pp. 127 e.t seq. 
 
 5 Ihid. p. 129.
 
 128 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 to the trade of the French. In the course of the barter the 
 Huguenot crews of several of the barques disobeyed the rule of 
 the new Viceroy b}'' holding their prayers publicly. As this was 
 apt to give the Indians a poor idea of the unity of faith among 
 the French, such practices were again forbidden for the future. ^ 
 Although for the Algonquins and Hurons the shortest route to 
 the barter was the one vicl the Nipissing lakes and the Ottawa 
 river, for the tribes to the suuth of them about Lake Ontario the 
 river St. Lawrence oflFered a much more convenient line of com- 
 munication. When however a Recollect missionary among the 
 Neutrals on the Niagara peninsula urged them to use this route, 
 the Hurons at once interfered. The new route meant in fact the 
 loss to them of their annual toll. They therefore spread a report 
 among the Neutrals that the priests exercised evil influences. As 
 the iife of this missionary was scon afterwards threatened, he 
 had before long to be recalled to the central mission-station iu 
 the Huron country. 2 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast, the fish and fur trades went on much 
 as before. La Ralde, the new Catholic Admiral of the fleet, who 
 had remained at Miscou and He Percee to fish, was successful in 
 capturing several interlopers, though one of the numerous con- 
 traband traders from La Rochelle managed to escape.^ Several 
 men were left for the winter at Miscou to barter some goods 
 which he had not been able to exchange during the summer. 
 Although attacked by the scurvy, these managed to survive and 
 doubtless presented La Ralde with a good supply of furs on his 
 return in the spring of 1627/* 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 128-129 : " D'aucuns dirent quiljavoit des pretendus reformez 
 qui faisoient leurs prieres en quelques barques, s'assemblant au desceu dudit 
 Emery de Caen," etc. 
 
 2 Sagard, Histoire du Canada, iii 800 et seq. According to this same writer 
 the attempts to bring about peace with the Iroquois were unpopular with the 
 shareholders lest part of the furs of the Hurons should then go to the Dutch on 
 the Hudson. Ibid, p 811. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 129 : " De la Ralde m'escrivit qu'il avoit treuv^ 
 plusieurs vaisseaux qui avoient traitte des peleteries, contre les deffences du Roy," 
 etc.; also pp. 121-2 
 
 ^ Ibid, p 133: "k Miscou . . . de la Ralde avoit laisse quelques Fran9ois 
 hyverner, pour traitter quelque reste de raarchandises," etc. Biblioth. Nat., 
 Ms. fr. 16738 fol. 143 et seq.
 
 THE CAEJNS' COMPANY 129 
 
 Early in that year before the arrival of the vessels, the peace 
 with the Iroquois was unfortunately broken. The savages who 
 dwelt beside the Dutch had sent presents asking the Montagnais 
 and Algonquins to help them against the Iroquois, who when 
 they had killed the five Dutchmen had also massacred twenty- 
 four of that tribe. In an assembly held near Quebec no decision 
 was come to, since opinion on the subject was divided. It was 
 agreed to wait until the vessels had arrived, when the other 
 nations should have come down for the barter. During the inter- 
 val however some Algonquins went off on the war-path and a few 
 light-headed young Montagnais braves caught two Iroquois on 
 Lake Champlain. Although Champlain was able to induce the 
 savages assembled at the barter to send back these prisoners with 
 presents and an expression of regret for what had occurred, yet 
 his efforts were too late. On reaching the Iroquois country the 
 embassy was at first well received, but when news was brought 
 of the ravages committed elsewhere by the Algonquin warriors 
 who had gone on the war-path, all the members of it were speed- 
 ily massacred, without distinction of French or Indian. " While 
 you," said they to the victims, " talk here of peace, your friends 
 already wage war on us and kill our people." Thus by the action 
 of a few rash young warriors the peace, concluded after so many 
 efforts and calculated, had it continued, to be so rich in good 
 results for French trade, was irrevocably broken. New France 
 was destined indeed long to repent this rupture of peace with the 
 Iroquois.i Perhaps on account of this very event however the 
 trade in the St. Lawrence this summer was better than it had 
 been for some time.2 An ordinary season yielded from fifteen 
 to twenty thousand furs ; in a good year like the present the total 
 reached as high as twenty-two thousand. While the gain from 
 such a traffic must have been considerable, the beaver skins alone 
 selling in France for ten francs or two dollars each, yet the ex- 
 penses were also heavy. Besides the salaries of the Viceroy and 
 of Champlain, a good interpreter received as much as a thousand 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 133 et seq. 
 
 ^ Ibid. ^. 144: " La traitte, qui fut I'une des bonnes que se fust faicteily 
 avoit long temps." 
 
 9
 
 130 THE CAENS COMPANY 
 
 francs ; the wages of a sailor were about six hundred, while those 
 of the factors and other servants doubtless fluctuated between 
 the two.i 
 
 The presence of the Dutch and the English on the Atlantic 
 coast was now beginning to have its effect on the French trade. 
 The Company established by the Dutch in 1621 was hampered 
 by no restrictions in regard to colonists and thus devoted all its 
 enero-ies to the fur- trade. In the summer of 1626 it sent home 
 7246 beaver skins, 850 of otter, 81 of mink and 36 of wild-cat. 
 These realized in all a sum equal to over nineteen thousand dol- 
 lars In this year 1627, owing no doubt to the troubles with the 
 Iroquois, the total was slightly less.2 The Pilgrim Fathers were 
 still nearer to the French. At first indeed it was they who were 
 in fenr of a French raid, but in time they gradually usurped the 
 territory where the French had formerly traded.3 In the year 
 162H Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic nobleman, •^ent out a 
 colony to Ferryland in Newfoundland. In this year, 1627, he 
 came out himself with two priests and about forty people.* 
 
 With such settlements all about them and the prospect of 
 another in Acadia, ordinary prudence would have demanded that 
 some attention should be paid to strengthening the French post 
 at Quebec To this fact Champlain himself was keenly alive but 
 he had many obstacles to contend against. Although he had 
 presserl on the fort as fast as possible, Caen, who objected to any 
 such fortification, would not give him the men for the work. ^ 
 Cannon and other arms indeed had been sent out but there was 
 no powder for the muskets and no gunners for the cannon.6 But 
 the weakest point was the absence of any local source of supply. 
 
 1 Rdatiom des Jesuites (Quebec 1858), i: Lettre du P. Charles L'AUeraant p.5. 
 
 2 Brodhead and O'Callaghan, Documents Relative to the Colonial History oj 
 the State of Neio York, i 37-38. O'Callaghan, op. cit., p. 110. 
 
 3 Mass. Hist. Collect, First Series viii 253: "Hither [Buzzard's Bay] the 
 Dutch or French or both use to come," etc. Cf. Ibid. pp. 236, 241, 243, 244 
 and 245. 
 
 * Sainsbury, op. cit. i 94, no. 59. 
 
 5 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 148: "Un des deplaisirs que ie recognu en ceste 
 affaire que Ton estoit fache que ie faisois construire un fort au dessus de I'habita- 
 tion," etc. Cf. p. 147. 
 Ibid. pp. 32-33.
 
 THE CAENS' COMPANY 131 
 
 In case the vessels were prevented from entering the St.Lawrence, 
 the whole place was at the mercy of the smallest trader. In this 
 very autumn the Jesuits had been obliged to se^d home the work- 
 men encfae'ed on their college on account ot" the non-arrival of 
 their vessel with winter supplies.! Affairs at the factory were 
 not much better. Although the vessel with the greater portion 
 of their supplies had also never appeared, none of the lifty-five 
 people there set sail for home.2 "I was however," says Chaniplain, 
 ** greatly surprised how they could leave us so very badly off for 
 the winter.''^ 
 
 It cannot be said that in the autum:i of 1627 the outlook for 
 the Company was a bright one. The shareholders, besides being 
 only intent on their gain of forty per cent., were continually at 
 daggers drawn among themselves, foreign nations were estab- 
 lishing posts near the St. Lawrence, the peace with the Iroquois 
 had been broken and already on the 20th of September it was 
 announced that a large force of that nation wasonthe marcliHgainst 
 Quebec, the provisions at the factory for the winter were miserably 
 insufficient, and the priests and the two families of colonists were 
 almost equally badly off. The only bright side to this picture was 
 Champlain himself. Although Caen gave him no men for the 
 fort, although he saw the peace with the Iroquois, for which he 
 had striven so hard, broken by the action of a few silly savages, 
 and although the winter's supply of food was small, he never 
 despaired. He had sent word home to the Viceroy of Caen's negli- 
 gence in regard to the food and of his refusal to furnish men to 
 work at the fort, and he hoped, as human nature always does, 
 that next year things would be better. As is not unusual how- 
 ever they were worse. The fleet, sent out in the following spring, 
 besides not being that of the United Company, whose monopoly 
 had been guaranteed through all changes of Viceroy until 1635, 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 144-145 : " Leur vaisseau n'estoit venu leur apporter des comraoditez 
 qui leurs estoient necessaires pour la nourriture de vingt sept k vingt huict 
 personnes." 
 
 '^ Ibid. p. 146: "Nous demeurasmes cinquante cinq personnes . . . assez 
 mal accormiodez de toutes les choses necessaires pour le maintien d'une habita. 
 tion . . . et en attribuoit on les defauts a la prise d'un petit vaisseau par les 
 Anglois." 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 146
 
 132 THE CAENS' COMPANY 
 
 was captured by the English and the colonists and crews were 
 taken prisoners. Champ] ain indeed refused to surrender the 
 factory to the victors but their success was only a question of 
 time. On account of the small supply of food left in the autumn 
 of 1627 provisions at Quebec had run very low indeed. In the 
 summer of 1629 the place was finally starved into submission.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 While the United Company had been trading during these 
 years in the St. Lawrence, a man made his appearance at the 
 council board of the King who was destined first to suppress the 
 office of viceroy and then to revoke the monopoly of the Com- 
 pany as suddenly and as effectually as his predecessors had 
 revoked those of Chauvin and Monts, notwithstanding that its 
 rights had just been guaranteed, through all possible changes of 
 viceroy, until the year 1635. This is not the place to discuss the 
 political work of Richelieu. As the enemy of Austria and the 
 oppressor of the Huguenots, he may have been successful, but his 
 attempts to reorganize the trade and commerce of his country 
 shew how unreasonable it "U'as to place the direction of such 
 affairs in the hands of one whose knowledge of them was 
 inadequate. Indifferent to the value of facts and figures, he 
 seems in regard to trade to have dwelt in a realm of pure theory, 
 where gigantic commercial corporations were formed and dis- 
 solved again by a mere stroke of his ecclesiastical pen. For the 
 scholar at the Sorbonne such powers of imagination proved of 
 value ; when exercised by the guardian of the cotum'^rcial 
 interests of a nation, they proved extremely harmful. After a 
 short tenure of office under Marie de Medicis, from November 
 1616 to April 1617, Richelieu finally entered the Council, with 
 the full consent of the King, in August, 1624. He had in the 
 meantime been made a member of the Sacred College and had 
 seen enough of the intrigues of the Court to take proper steps to 
 secure his own position. He began by quickly settling several 
 matters which, like the marriage of Henrietta Maria with Prince 
 Charles of England, had been hanging fire for some years. As 
 time passed his influence increased. In October 1626 he was 
 named Grand Master, Chief and General Superintendent of the 
 
 [133]
 
 134 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 Navigation and Commerce of France.^ After suppressing in the 
 following January the office of admiral 2 he at length turned his 
 attention to the fulfilment of the duties of his new office. 
 Among these was the consideration and examination of all pro- 
 posals, articles or treaties in regard to foreign trade or to the 
 formation of trading companies for home or foreign commerce. 
 One of the first of the proposals submitted in regard to foreign 
 trade was that of the great Company of Morbihan. 
 
 With whom the idea of this gigantic undertaking first origin- 
 ated is not quite clear, but the plan would certainly do honour to 
 a Russian or Prussian staff'-officer of the present day. The whole 
 of the trade and commerce of France by sea as well as by land 
 was to be placed in the hands of one huge company composed of 
 the principal merchants of the country. In the town of 
 Morbihan, in Brittany, where the company was to have its own 
 courts and jurisdiction, were to be built docks, warehouses, ship- 
 yards, arsenals, powder factories, schools of navigation, and in 
 fact everything pertainintf to the exercise and control of the whole 
 commercial life of the nation. Fortunately for France however, 
 commerce did not lend itself, like politics, to such extreme cen- 
 tralization, and when the edict was denied the assent of the 
 Parlement of Paris, the plan was quietly allowed to drop.-^ Un- 
 dismayed by this defeat, Richelieu next had recourse to a mixed 
 French and Dutch company. The Dutch were already gaining 
 an European reputation as traders and it was hoped that their 
 knowledge and experience would be of service to their neigh- 
 bours. La Com/pagnie de la Nacelle de St. Pierre fleurdelisee 
 was also to carry on all the trade of the country by sea and land 
 like the Company of Morbihan.^ In addition it was to woik all 
 mines, develope all colonies and in fact control the commercial 
 
 1 Isambei't et Taillandier, Beceuil General des Ancienne.s Lois FraiK^aises (Paris 
 1829), xvi 194 et seq. 
 
 2 lUd. p. 198. 
 
 3 A copy of these articles is in the Minist^re des Colonies — Correspondance 
 G^nerale : Canada, Volume i. Folio 1\ et seq. Cf. also Avenel, Richelieu et la 
 Monarchie Absolue (Paris 1887), iii 210 et seq., where they are erroneously attri- 
 buted to the year 1629. 
 
 4 These articles will be found in the Memoires de Mathieu MoU, i 423-448. 
 Paris 1855.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 135 
 
 life of the nation in the same way as the army controlled its 
 defence. Yet this proposal pleased no more than its predecessor, 
 so that the plan of one great company had finally to be aban- 
 doned. Recourse was then had to a number of small companies 
 for specific purposes. One of these was the Company of New 
 France which replaced the United Company in its enjoyment of 
 the monopoly of the fur-trade of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 While the author of the two former proposals seems to have 
 been Richelieu himself, the father of the Company of New 
 France was the Chevalier de Razilly. Isaac de Razilly. a younger 
 son of an ancient family of Touraine, had early taken to the sea 
 and in the course of his wanderings had visite'l the " four parts 
 of the world." He was therefore, as he expressed it, better 
 versed in the customs of the living than in the literature of the 
 dead when he addressed to Richelieu in 1626 a memorandum on 
 the need of reform in matters of trade and commerce. According 
 to him, the low state of commerce generally was due to the idea 
 entertained by the Government that foreign trade was not neces- 
 sar}' to the nation's welfare. This notion he easily refuted by 
 the example of the King of Spain, who, accustomed formerly to 
 a small revenue drawn from oranges and lemons, now possessed 
 an empire upon which the sun never set.^ The great hindrances 
 to French foreign trade were inferior ships and the fear of 
 Turkish pirates. If larger and better-armed vessels were sent 
 out, the French would soon lose their nickname of the " sardines 
 of the sea." 
 
 With reference to America and the trade of New France, 
 Razilly's plan was as follows. A large company should be formed, 
 capable of holding the English in check by colonizing the country 
 with three or four thousand good colonists. Previously, the 
 colony had been given over to about twentj^-five traders who 
 
 1 L. Deschamps, Isaac de Razilly, avec memoire inedit (Paris, 1887 ; an extract 
 from the Revue de Geographie ior Octohev, 1886), p. 17: " Aussi chascun scayt 
 qu'il n'y a que six vingts ans que son plus grand revenu estoyt en oranges et 
 cittrons, et depuys les advys receus de Christophle CoUcn et qu'il a arme par mer, 
 il a tant conquys de royaulmes que jamais le soleil ne couche dans ses terres," etc. 
 Two memoirs by his brother, for they both gave Richelieu advice, will be found 
 in the Biblioth. Nat., xMs. fr. 4826 folios 1-12.
 
 1:^6 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 were merel}' intent on gain and did nothing for colonization or 
 defence. A large companj^ with a capital of some three hundred 
 thousand livres and a good director at its head, would soon 
 increase French power and influence in that region.i As Riche- 
 lieu was hopelessly ignorant of all matters connected with trade 
 and commerce he at once proceeded to put into execution the 
 advice so honestly given. He first bought from Vent ad our the 
 office of Viceroy of New France and incorporated it with that of 
 Grand Master of the Navigation of France. He was then in a 
 position to annul the monopoly of the United Company notwith- 
 standing that it had been guaranteed to them, even in case of a 
 change of Viceroy, until the year 1635, Richelieu seems indeed 
 to have taken small pains to find out what the rights of that 
 company were. It was sufficient justification, he thought, for 
 the step he was taking, that during the seven years of its exist- 
 ence it had made no efforts to take out the stipulated number of 
 colonists.2 Having thus made a tabula rasa of all the old con- 
 ditions he found the way clear for the establishment of the large 
 company suggested by Razilly. 
 
 Notwithstanding that none of the companies to which the 
 monopoly had already been given had ever fulfilled, even in a 
 small degree, the conditions under which that monopoly was 
 usually granted, yet with a naivete truly most remarkable those 
 same conditions were now again repeated in the case of the 
 Company of New France. In return for a monopoly of fifteen 
 years, this company agreed to take out three hundred colonists a 
 year, or some four thousand by the year 1643. In addition to 
 this, the King ceded to the Company the full ownership of the 
 whole of the St. Lawrence valley, and all merchandize entering 
 the mother-country from those parts was to pay no duty during 
 a like period of fifteen years. None but French Catholics might 
 be taken out by the Company as colonists, and it was further to 
 
 1 Deschamps, op. cit., p. 32. 
 
 - Collection de Mamiscrits Relatifs a la Nouvdle France i 63 : " Ceulx qui 
 avoient jusques k present obtenu par eulx seuls tout le commerce esdits Pays, ont 
 eu sj' pen de pouvoir ou de volonte de le peupler que . . . encore jusques a 
 present qu'il y a sept ans que les articles furent dressez, ils ne se sont mis en aucun 
 devoir ni commence de satisfaire a ce dont ils s'estoient obligez."
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 137 
 
 support in each settlement three priests until the community 
 itsjlf was able to undertake that charge. The stipulation that 
 an artisan who had plied his trade in New France for six years, 
 should, on his return to France rank as a master-workman, did 
 not receive the assent of the Parlement of Paris. These were 
 the conditions under which the land of New France as well as 
 its trade and commerce were handed over to the Company of 
 New France for an indefinite period.l 
 
 Since the King- had granted twelve titles of nobility to be 
 distributed among the shareholders, little difficulty was experi- 
 enced in finding the necessary amount of capital. While those 
 who had formerly engaged in the trade were mostly provincial 
 merchants from Rouen, Sr. Malo and La Rochelle, the majority 
 of the shareholders of the new Company were Parisians and it 
 was there that the Company's offices were situated. The capital, 
 in all three hundred thousand livres as Razilly had suggested, 
 was divided into one hundred shares of three thousand livres 
 each. Although each share could be again sub-divided, it was 
 on]y entitled to one representative at the meetings of the Com- 
 pany.2 At the annual meeting of the shareholders in January 
 were elected the president and the board of twelve directors. 
 The condition that six of the directors, who held office for two 
 years, must be domiciled at Paris, shows the preponderating 
 influence of the merchants of the capital in the Company. The 
 negotiations with Richelieu about taking over the country and 
 its trade, and the subsequent labour ot" forming the Company 
 its3lf, had consumed so much time that the directors begged to 
 be allowed to postpone sending out the fiist consignment of 
 colonists until the year 1629. A naval war seemed also on the 
 point of breaking out with England, which made the prospects 
 for the year 1628 none too good. The Government however 
 refused to agree to any delay and a fleet of four vessels was 
 made ready at Dieppe in the spring of that year. On the 28th of 
 
 1 Edits, Ordonnances Royaux etc. (Quebec 1854), pp. 5 20. 
 
 2 It appears that the actual number of shareholders was thus 120. Biblioth. 
 Nat., Ms. fr. 16738 folio 132 verso : " La Compagniede la Nouvelle France de six 
 vingts associes," etc.
 
 138 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 April these vessels at length got under way, having on board a 
 large number of colonists, with provisions, cattle, and the mater- 
 ial for the construction of numerous buildings at Quebec. ^ On 
 board of one of the vessels were four agents of the old Company, 
 who were to be allowed to dispose of the goods still remaining at 
 Quebec and to arrange for the return to France of any of their 
 men who did not care to take service with the new Company. 2 
 Thirteen or fourteen Newfoundland fisliinpf vessels seized this 
 opportunity of sailing under the protection of the guns of the 
 Company's fleet, as the naval war with England which had been 
 threatening had finally broken out. 
 
 Although Charles the First was married to King Louis' sister 
 this matrimonial connection had not removed aU causes of dis- 
 sension between the two Crowns. Charles egged on the Hugue- 
 nots in France and absolutely forbade the exercise of the Roman 
 Gi^tholic religion in England. When in August 1626 some diffi- 
 culty arose in regard to the Mass celebrated in the Queen's pri- 
 vate chapel, he unceremoniously bundled the whole of her 
 Catholic houseliold out of the country. Bassompierre, who was 
 sent over to patch matters up, might possibly have succeeded had 
 not a man-of-war appeared one day at Falmouth, while he was 
 still there, with three rich French prizes in tow.-" Feeling in 
 France soon rose high and on the 10th of October the Parlement 
 of Rouen ordered the seizure of all English goods found in that 
 town 4 The " English merchants trading for France " at once 
 complained, and since similar seizures were reported elsewhere. 
 King Charles at lenyth gave the order for the arrest of all 
 French ships and goods found in England.^ The French answer 
 to this was the seizure of the English wine fleet of two hundred 
 sail at Bordeaux.'' Since Bassompierre, who was himself insulted 
 in the streets of London, could promise no relief, King Charles 
 
 1 Sagard, Histoire du Canada iv 858. Asseline, Les Antiquilez et Chroniques 
 de la Ville de Dieppe (Dieppe 1874), ii 235. 
 
 2 Biblioth. Nat., Ms. fr. 16738 vol. 143 B verso et seq. 
 
 3 State Papers, Domestic, Vol. xxxvi No. 31. 
 
 4 State Papers, France, l\: October 1626, 
 
 6 Rymer, Fadera (London 1726), xviii 802-3. 
 
 6 Court and Times of Charles the First (London 1848), p. 180.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 139 
 
 sent a fleet of twelve men-of-war along the French coast with 
 orders to burn all the war material found and to release all 
 English ships held in custody.i On the 19th of March 1628 
 permission was given to grant letters of reprisal, "as the only 
 means of securing satisfaction," and one month later this permis- 
 sion was extended to letters of uiaique.^ 
 
 Among those who applied for the latter was Jarvis Kirke, a 
 merchant of London, who had spent nearly forty years of his life 
 in Dieppe. Indeed he had married ami brought up his family 
 there.3 He had in all live sons, who besides knowing French 
 well were not altogether unconversant, from their long residence 
 at Dieppe, with the stote of affairs in jSew France. This out- 
 break of hostilities had seemed to Jarvis Kirke an excellent op- 
 portunity of securing the region of the St. Lawrence for the English 
 Crown, and in conjunction with a few other London merchants 
 a small fle*"t of three ships was prepared for this purpose in the 
 spring of 162S. The vessels, which carried in all sooie two hun- 
 dred men, were under the chief command of David Kirke, while 
 with him were associated his brothers Lewis, Thomas, John and 
 James. Setting forth from England in March with letters of 
 marque, the vessels first made their way to Miscou where the 
 fishing huts and other buildings were destroyed.'* On their way 
 up the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Tadoussac, they managed to 
 capture several fishing vessels and whalers, as well as the ship 
 sent out with fresh stores for the Jesuits. In one of the barques 
 left at Tadoussac, Kirke despatched his brother Lewis to Quebec 
 wiih a letter to Champlain informing him of what had already 
 been done and demanding the surrender of the factory. On 
 the way, this boat destroyed the crops at Cape Tourmente and 
 also killed all the cattle there, in order that they should not serve 
 
 1 State Papers, Domestic, vol. Ivi Nos. 18, 85 and 90. Cf. also Xegociation 
 du Mareschal Baasompierre en AngleUrre (Cologne 1668), p. 284 et seq, 
 
 2 Rymer, Fcedera, x\aii 861 and 887. 
 
 3 H. Kirke, The First English Conquest of Canada (London 1871), appendix A, 
 p. 206. 
 
 4 One of these was " un batiment contenant plusieurs demeures de planches 
 doubles, dehors et dedans, fortifie de palissades tout autour," which La Ralde 
 had ordered to be constructed. Bibl. Nat. Ms. fr. 16738 fol. 143 C. verso.
 
 140 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 to re-prov!sion the factory. It was from this point that the 
 news of the enemy's approach was conveyed to Champlain. 
 
 At Quebec things were not going at all well. On account of 
 the loss in tlie previous summer of the vessel which was convey- 
 ing the greater part of the winter stores, and on account of the 
 retention, notwithstanding this, of the workmen engaged on the 
 fort, provisions at the factory had run very low. It was only 
 this spring in fact that, for the first time in the history of the 
 colony, a pair of oxen had been harnessed to the plough. Hitherto 
 the little land cleared had been cultivated by hand.^ Two 
 more servants of the Company had been secretly murdered 
 by the savagas and relations with the latter were consequently 
 somewhat strained.2 Notwithstanding these difficulties, Cham- 
 plain was not one who gave in easily. When Lewis Kirke pre- 
 sented the letter written by his brother calling upon him to sur- 
 render, Champlain returned a fearless answer. Although it was 
 true, he replied, that their stores were not too plentiful, yet with 
 order and economy the supply could be made to last for a con- 
 siderable period. Kirke himself was too brave a man not to 
 understand what little respect the French would have for them- 
 selves if they gave up the place without a struggle. They pre- 
 ferred that he should first try his cannon and powder, nor did 
 they think he would find the conquest so easy as he anticipated.^ 
 
 When David Kirke at Tadoussac received this answer he 
 made up his mind that an assault on Quebec would become 
 unnecessary if he could intercept the supplies coming up the 
 river. Thereupon he ordered his ves-els to stand down the Gulf 
 and to keep a sharp look-out for French sail. As we have seen, 
 the first fleet despatched by the Company of New France left 
 Dieppe in April. After parting company on the Banks with their 
 convoy of fishing vessels, the ships made their way to Gasp^ 
 where they first received word of the presence of Kirke's fleet in 
 the river. Although the vessels were overladen with colonists, 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 160-161. 
 '^ Ibid. pp. 150 et seq. 
 
 3 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 173 et seq. Hist. MSS. Commission, 12th Report, Ap- 
 pendix i, p. 374 et seq.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 141 
 
 merchandize and building materials, there was nothing for it but 
 to fight, if Quebec was to be relieved. Sailing on therefore they 
 soon met Kirke's fleet coming leisurely down the Gulf. The 
 engagement lasted for several hours and the French were finally 
 obliged to yield, although with the loss of only two persons 
 killed. On the English side no one seems to have been injured. 
 The principal French officers were distributed throughout the 
 English fleet, the men being sent home in two of the vessels 
 which had just been taken. The other vessels were guarded 
 as prizes, and English crews were put on board to sail 
 them. Near the island of St. Pierre, Kirke captured more 
 Newfoundland fishing vessels. His fleet now numbered fourteen 
 sail, with some ^ix hundred prisoners. Most of these he sent 
 back to France, and he sank the poorest of the prizes. He then 
 directed his course for England, feeling certain that until the 
 following spring no fresh supplies were likely to be sent to 
 Quebec.! 
 
 In this same summer Alexander had also been able to send 
 out his colony to New Scotland. After the return of his vessel 
 from the second voyage in the autumn of 1623, the loss involved 
 had forced him to the conclusion that paper charters alone would 
 not build up colonies. The two voyages made by his vessel had 
 cost him a considerable sum. The King was kind enough to offer 
 to charge this on the Exchequer, but the guardians of the latter 
 had sense enough not to pay the demand.2 Something must be 
 done however to raise fresh funds. In this connection the colon- 
 ization of Ulster seemed to oflTer a model. During the years 1611 
 to 1622 over two hundred English landowners had become 
 baronets of Ulster, and a sum of something like two hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand pounds had been thereby obtained. Alex- 
 ander now determined to institute a similar baronetcy of New 
 Scotland or Nova Scotia, for the benefit of Scottish landowners 
 and the younger sons of the nobility. The whole territory of 
 
 1 Sagard, Histoire du Canada iv 862 et seq. Hist. MSS. Commission, 12th 
 Report, Appendix i pp. 375 et seq. 
 
 2 Rev. C. Rogers, The Earl of Stirlinrfs Register of Royal Letters relative to 
 the Affairs of ^Scotland and Nova Scotia (Edinburgh 1884) vol. i, Introd. p. xviii.
 
 142 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 Nova Scotia was accortUngly divi<led into two provinces, each 
 made up of a certain numbsr of dioceses and counties. These 
 latter were each again subdivided into ten baronies, which were 
 to extend three miles along t!ie coast, and ten )niles inland. The 
 only condition for obtaining such a barony was the despatch 
 thither of six colonists and the payment to Alexander of three 
 thousand marks. The holder received the hereditary title of 
 " sir " and came in order of precedence after the 3'oungest sons 
 of vi'^counts and the Lords Barons of Parliament. At fir^t how- 
 ever no one came forward, and when the sum had been reduced 
 from three thousand to one thousand marks only eight persons 
 took out baronies In November 1625 the lesser barons of Scot- 
 land complained that not only was this new institution an inter- 
 ference with their hereditary dignities, but that it was, in their 
 opinion, by no means necessary to Alexander's plan of coloniza- 
 tion. The only result of their action was the removal of Lord 
 Melrose, for this and other reasons, from the post of Secretary 
 for Scotland, and the appointmrnt of Sir William Alexander in 
 his place.^ In his new position Alexander was able to explain 
 his plan clearly to King Charles, who had just succeeded his 
 father on the throne. In March 1626 the new monarch ordori.d 
 his Chancellor to confer the order of knighthood, without extra 
 charge, on the sons of those baronets of New Scotland who had 
 alreadj^ attained their majority. A week later a proclamation 
 was made at the " Mercat Croce " in Edinburgh " to wairne all 
 and sundrie the gentrie of this kingdome that they either procure 
 the said dignitie for thameselflSs or not repyne at otheris for doing 
 of the same."2 This r'.>yal exhortation produced its effect and in 
 January 1626 two ships were made ready at Dumbarton. They 
 were not, finally despatched until the following spring when with 
 two others they took out .seventy colonists and landed them at 
 Poutrincourt's old quarters at Port Royal. -^ From his home at 
 Cape Sable young La Tour, whose father had been taken prisoner 
 by the Kirkes, surveyed with some surprise this invasion of the 
 
 1 Ibid., Introduction pp. xix and xxii. 
 
 2 Ibid., Introduction p. xxiv and pp. 18, 29 and 119. 
 
 3 Memoirs of the Maxv)elh of Pollok, edited by W. Fraser, vol. ii p. 200, 
 Edinburgh 1863. Sainsbury, op. cit. i 84, nos. 22 and 23.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 143 
 
 riyhts he had inherited from Saiut-Just. Yet as his was the 
 weaker side, he could make no effective opposition. The two 
 rival posts thus remained facing one another during the whole 
 of the winter. 
 
 In the autumn of 1628 Alexander heard of tl>e success of the 
 expedition of Jarvis Kirke and his partners and at once laid 
 claim to this territory as coming within the limits of his charter. 
 In reality his rights did not extend beyond Gaspe but thi ^ fact 
 was unknown to Kirke and his friends. Frightened therefore at 
 the possibility of seeing their efforts frustrated when on the 
 point of being crowned with success, they offered to let Alexander 
 have not only Acadia but also the shores of the St. Lawrence up 
 to within ten leagues of Tadoussac, on condition that all the 
 region west of that point should fall to them.l After some 
 further deliberation, during which the Scottish Privy Council 
 requested King Charles to see that no injustice was done to 
 Alexander, the latter at length agreed to unite his interests with 
 the Kirkes.2 In the winter of 1628-1629, they formed the 
 Scottish and English Company for trade in the St. Lawrence. 
 On the fourth of February 1629 they were given a njonopoly of 
 the fur-trade in the Gulf and River of Canada and the parts 
 adjacent, with permission not only to seize all French vessels but 
 also to destroy all French settlements in that region.^ No men- 
 tion was made of colonists. 
 
 In the spring of 1629 this new Company sent out two fleets 
 to New France. The one made its way to Port Royal in order 
 to relieve the colonists there while the other was despatched to 
 the St. Lawrence. Young Alexander, Sir William s son, who 
 was in char^je of the fleet for Port Royal, first landed Lord 
 Ochiltrie and fifty fresh colonists at Cape Breton. On arriving 
 at Port Royal he found that thirty people had died during the 
 previous winter. All the attempts of the Sieur de la Tour, who 
 on his arrival in England as a prisoner had married one of the 
 Queen's French maids of honour and who had now come out to 
 
 1 Hist. MSS. Commission, 12th Report, appendix Part i pp. 376-377. 
 
 2 Sainsbury, op. cif. i 180, no, 15, Rogers, op. cif., Introd. p. xxvii. 
 
 3 State Papers, Colonial, Vol. v No. 2, printed in Kirke's English Conquest 
 of Canada, appendix D.
 
 144 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 win over his son to the English side, proved ineflFective. The 
 son despised his father's submission and refused even to enter 
 into negotiations with him. During the summer the English 
 vessels at Port Royal managed to carry on a considerable trade 
 in furs along the coast of the Bay of Fund}', and with young 
 Alexander returned home in the autumn an Indian chief of this 
 region who was desirous of concluding an alliance with the 
 English and their King.i 
 
 The second fleet of the same Company under the command of 
 David Kirke had steered for the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Near 
 Gaspe they captured a pinnace sent down the river by Champlain 
 to obtain provisions from some of the fishing vessels. From the 
 occupants of this boat the}' soon learned the condition of affairs 
 at Quebec. In putting on a bold front in the previous summer, 
 Champlain had hoped that at least one of the vessels destined for 
 his relief might avoid the English fleet. As the summer wore on 
 howerer and none appeared he concluded that Kirke had really 
 succeeded in capturing them all. The outlook for the winter 
 was thus not pleasant. Their sole provision consisted of peas, 
 which they managed to grind into a sort of flour. During the 
 autumn they exchanged the furs in the warehouse for eels, but 
 the savages, seeing their necessity, only gave ten eels for one 
 beaver-skin. During the winter they occasionally secured an elk , 
 also sharing part of the produce from Hebert's farm as well as 
 that from the field cleared by the Jesuits. But this relief was 
 so slight that by the end of May they were in extremities. Pro- 
 visions of every sort were exhausted and their hunger was only 
 allayed by roots and wild berries gathered in the woods. A 
 canoe sent to Tadoussac, to offer to any vessel found there the 
 trade of the river if she would relieve the factory, returned and 
 reported that no sail was in sight. Shortly after this the savages 
 from the upper countiy began to arrive for the annual barter. 
 With them were the twenty interpreters, priests ^^nd factors who 
 had spent the winter among the Indians and who now swelled con- 
 
 1 Court and Times of Charles the First, ii 60. Sainsbury, op. cit. i 104 no. 41. 
 Rogers, op. cit., Introd, p, xxx. Uenys, Description Geographique et Historique 
 des Costes de rAmerique Septentrioncde avec VHistoire Naturelle du Pais (Paris 
 1672), i 68 et seq.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW TRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 siderably the number to be fed at the factory. The new arrivals 
 were obliged for the most part to search for roots and berries like 
 the others, though it was now difficult to find a spot near the 
 factory which had not been thoroughly worked out. A boat sent 
 to Gasp^ obtained no better news than the canoe which had gone 
 to Tadoussac. No vessels were to be seen, though the savages 
 reported that a fleet of six English ships had been sighted off the 
 coast. While affairs were in this state and the savages who had 
 come down for the barter were on the point of returning home, 
 three strange vessels were one day perceived approaching 
 Quebec.i 
 
 Fully informed by the men captured in the small boat of the 
 weak condition of the factory at Quebec, Kirke had made his 
 way from Gaspe to Tadoussac and from there at once despatched 
 three of the smaller vessels in charge of Lewis and ThoToas Kirke 
 up the river to Quebec. These three vessels were the strange 
 ships now seen approaching behind Point L^vy. Although 
 Champlain sought to obtain as favourable terms as possible, he was 
 in no position to dictate conditions to the new-comers. On the 
 20th of July Quebec surrendered and two days later the English 
 flag was run up on one of the bastions. The French, who were 
 promised a free passage home by way of England, were allowed 
 to march out with arms and baggage, the head-men carrying all 
 their furs, the factors, servants and workmen one beaver-skin 
 each. These however were at once bartered to the victors for 
 food and fresh provisions. As the savages had not yet set out 
 on their return journey, the new-comers were able to trade for the 
 furs which the Indians had brought with them, besides buying 
 from those about Quebec the 1200 beaverskins which had been 
 returned to them during the winter by the garrison for pro- 
 visions.2 
 
 Although the vessels of the English and Scottish Company 
 had thus reached the St. Lawrence first, the Company of New 
 France had not altogether neglected its interests there. The loss 
 of their fleet in the previous year had greatly discouraged the 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 180 et seq. Sagard, Histoire du Canada iv 884 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 187. 
 
 10
 
 146 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 shareholders, but they only did their duty in fitting out a fresh 
 one in the summer of 1629. Richelieu had promised men-of-war 
 to convoy this one and care was also taken to make the vessels 
 themselves as strong as possible. But in the midst of these pre- 
 parations negotiations for peace were begun. With the fall of 
 La Rochelle in October 1628 the English had lost all chance of 
 securing a foothold in France. French corsairs were also plaj'ing^ 
 havoc with the Newfoundland fishing fleet,! while the interrup- 
 tion of all trade with France was beginning to cause uneasiness 
 among the English commercial classes. The spring of 1629 
 therefore found Charles not altogether disinclined for peace, which 
 was finally concluded, by the mediation of Venice, at Suza on the 
 29th of April. Since there still remained many vessels at sea^ 
 with letters of marque, it was further agreed that anything taken 
 during the space of two months after the peace should be restored 
 on both sides. All danger from English vessels being thus 
 removed, Richelieu cancelled the order for the men-of-war that 
 were to convoy the fleet of the Company to New France.^ Al- 
 though it had already waited two months for these ships, the 
 Company's fleet was thus obliged to set sail without them.3 On 
 the voyage out the ships became separated. One vessel, with the 
 fresh stores for the Jesuits and their workmen who had been sent 
 home in the autumn of 1G27, was wrecked off the coast of Cape 
 Breton^ Another vessel reached Gasp6 in safety but at once 
 set sail again for France when it was learned that the English 
 were already in the river.^ Captain Daniel, who had had charge 
 of the whole fleet, on reaching New France first made his way to 
 Gape Breton to get some information about the state of affairs at 
 Quebec. There he received the unexpected information that 
 Lord Ochiltrie, who with fifty colonists had been deposited at 
 that spot when young Alexander was on his way to Port Royal,. 
 
 1 Sainsbury, op. cit. i 93 et seq., nos. 56, 57, 61 and 62. Numbers 56 and 57 
 are printed in full in Kirke, op. cit., pp. 148-153. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 264-265. 
 
 3 Rymer, Fcedera xix 66. Le Mercure Fran<;ois,, vol. xv, 2e partie^ 
 Paris 1631, pp. 147-149 and pp. 480-1. 
 
 i Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 304 et seq. 
 5 Ibid. pp. 263-264.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 147 
 
 had built a fort and was now exacting one-tenth of their cod 
 from all the fishermen who visited the locality, James Stewart, 
 the fifth Lord Ochiltrie, had taken an active part in the coloniz- 
 ation of Ulster, where however he seems to have lost most of his 
 fortune. He next obtained a grant of land in Cape Breton Island 
 and with the help of some five hundred pounds given him by the 
 King had now taken colonists thither in the hope of retrieving 
 his fortunes. In response to the complaints of the fishermen of 
 the neighbourhood, Daniel at once assembled a small force, and 
 after approaching the place as a friend, suddenly made himself 
 master of the inmates. The buildings were razed to the ground 
 and the prisoners treated with undue rigour. Daniel constructed 
 a fresh fort with the same material in another harbour close at 
 hand, where he left a garrison of forty men. He then set sail for 
 home without attempting to enter the St. Lawrence. Of the 
 prisoners who were carried back, packed like sardines in the 
 hold, forty-five were put ashore at Falmouth while the remaining 
 sixteen were imprisoned at Dieppe.! This was the French retort 
 to the expedition of Argall in 1613. Another French vessel in 
 charge of Emery de Caen reached the St. Lawrence in safety and 
 even succeeded in getting past Tadoussac without being discover- 
 ed by Kirke's vessels that were at anchor there. Between 
 Tadoussac and Quebec however she ran across the largest of the 
 three vessels that had taken Quebec. This ship was now on her 
 way back to Tadoussac, having on board several of the prisoners 
 and a considerable quantity of furs. After a short engagement, 
 during which the English had one sailor killed, the French vessel 
 yielded.2 She was then brought to Tadoussac where were collect- 
 ed in all some nineteen French and Basque prizes.^ Thus for the 
 second year of its existence the Company of New France had to 
 deplore not only its exclusion from New France but also the 
 virtual loss of a second fleet. 
 
 When the prisoners taken at Quebec had been distributed 
 among the vessels and Lewis Kirke had been placed by his 
 
 1 F^lix, op. cit. passim and Appendix A. Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 299-304. 
 Sainsbury, op. cit. i 104 et seq., nos. 41, 46 and 47. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 251 et seq. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 290.
 
 148 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 
 
 brother in command of the factory with a store of fresh provis- 
 ions for the winter, preparations were made for setting sail for 
 England. %s a report got abroad that some French men of- war 
 were waiting for them at Gaspe, the vessels kept as close to the 
 Island of Anticosti as possible. On the 27th oi October they 
 reached Dover in safety and here the prisoners were landed 
 preparatory to their return to France. Champlain however, as 
 soon a,H he heard that peace had been concluded in April, made 
 his way to London to urge upon the French ambassador there, 
 M. de Chateauneuf, the necessity of at ,>nce pressing for the res- 
 toration of Quebes.'i 
 
 On the return of this fleet and of the one sent to Port Royal 
 under young Alexander, the Scottish and English Company had 
 every reason to be satisfied with the results of the summer's 
 work. The whole trade of the St. Lawrence had now become 
 theirs while their poft at Port Royal gave them command of the 
 greater part of the trade in the Bay of Fundy. On the other 
 hand, Daniel's new fort at Cape Breton and the presence of young 
 La Tour at Cape Sable still gave to the French an entry into the 
 country. The conclusion of peace with France also made it 
 doubtful whether the capture of Quebec could now be main- 
 tained. On his arrival in London indeed Champlain at once 
 gave an account of what had occurred to M. de Chateauneuf, the 
 French ambassador. At the same time he wrote to Lauson, the 
 president of the Company of New France, urging him to come 
 to England himself, or to request Richelieu to forward proper 
 instructions to Chateauneuf in the matter.2 Armed with the 
 information supplied by Champlain, the French ambassador soon 
 presented a demand for the surrender both of Quebec and of 
 Port Royal.3 xhe claim was couched in no hesitating terms, for 
 feeling on the subject in France was beginning to run high. To 
 show that his intentions in concluding the recent treaty had been 
 sincere, Charles the First gave his word that the matter would 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 292 et seq. Sagard, Histoire du Canada, iv 911 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op cit. vi pp. 296 et seq. 
 
 3 Avenel, Lettres Instruction), Diplomatiques et Papiers d'etat du Cardinal de 
 Richelieu (Paris 1858) iii 446, 451 and 455.
 
 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE, 1627-1629 149 
 
 be favourably considered and even promised that Quebec at any 
 rate should be restored. From that moment the restoration of 
 New France was only a question of time. The negotiations 
 dragged on until the spring of 1632 before the terms of restitu- 
 tion were finally f^ettled. By the Treaty of St. -Germain-en Laye, 
 the French once more took possession both of Acadia and of the 
 valley of the St. Lawrence. During the intervening years 1629 
 to 1632 the Scottish and English Company continued to pnjoy 
 unhampered the fur-trade in the St. Lawrence. Let us see what 
 success it met with.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 NEW FRANCE UNDER THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 
 
 1629-1632 
 
 Although Champlain had written to Lauson, the president of 
 the Company of New France, to press for the restoration of the 
 colony, the persons interested in what had been seized at Quebec 
 were not the directors of the Company of New France but the 
 shareholders of the old United Company. Its monopoly had 
 indeed been repealed by Richelieu at the close of the year 1627 
 but the Company had never, up to the time of the capture of 
 Quebec, been able to withdraw its goods from the factory. All 
 the vessels, sent out for this purpose, had, like the fleets of the 
 Company of New France, been captured by the English. Thus, 
 though the Company of New France as titular owners of the 
 land pressed for its restoration, yet the goods and furs seized at 
 Quebec belonged to the old United Company. Since all goods 
 seized within two months after the proclamation of the treaty of 
 Suza were to be restored, Caen set off for London in the autumn 
 of 1629 to obtain re-possession of these furs. Although he suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining from the Court of Admiralty the appointment 
 of a commission consisting of two Frenchmen and two English- 
 men, he afterwards refused to allow it to proceed on account of 
 the intermeddling of a certain Mr. Chamberlain, of whom nothing 
 further is known. At the request of the French ambassador the 
 furs were placed in a warehouse under the seal of the Admiralty 
 Court.i 
 
 At the same time, as Champlain and Lauson requested, the 
 French ambassador continued to press for the surrender of New 
 France itself. Not only was it demanded that Quebec be restored 
 in the same state in which it had been taken, but the French 
 
 1 State Papers, Colonial, vol. v, No. 48. Avenel, op. cit. p. 472. Laver- 
 di^re, op. cit. vi297, and appendix vi, where the State Papers connected with the 
 above will also be found. Cf. Ibid, appendices ii-v. 
 
 [150]
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 151 
 
 also asked for the restoration of Port Royal and of a vessel cap- 
 tured during the summer by young Alexander. Since a report 
 had also begun to spread that the seal of the Admiralty Court 
 had been broken and the furs stolen from the warehouse where 
 they had been temporarily placed, Chateauneuf begged that an 
 inquiry into the matter might be at once instituted. To make 
 these several demands more effective, three English prizes at 
 Dieppe and at Calais were ordered to be detained until the English 
 King should show a disposition to negotiate favourably.! In re. 
 ply to these demands King Charles assured the French Govern- 
 ment, through Dorchester, his minister for Foreign Affairs, that 
 he still remained firm in his former resolution to restore Quebec. 
 The question of the robbery of the furs placed under the seal of 
 the Admiralty Court would be inquired into, and should it be 
 found that the Scottish and English Company had been guilty of 
 any irregularity, they should be brought to justice.2 No mention 
 was made of Port Royal nor of the vessel seized by young Alex- 
 ander This reply, which reached Paris in the spring of 1630, 
 seems to have satisfied Lauson that the restoration of Quebec 
 was actually intended. Preparations were therefore at once 
 begun by the Company for the despatch of representatives to 
 receive possession of it from the Kirkes. 
 
 In fitting out their third fleet the Company met with some 
 difficulty in regard to funds. Of the total capital of three hun- 
 dred thousand livres, nearly two hundred and seventy thousand 
 had been already spent on the first two unsuccessful ventures. 
 Only thirty thousand livres were now left. In fact the losses of 
 the two previous years had almost ruined the Company, In view 
 however of the fact that the land of New France was their own 
 property and that one of their principal aims, apart from trade, 
 was the propagation of the Gospel among the savages,^ it was 
 
 1 Avenel, op. cit., pp. 478 and 519. State Papers, Colonial, vol. v No. 50, 
 printed in Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi appendix vii. 
 
 2 State Papers, Colonial, vol. vNo. 51,inLaverdi^re, op. cit. vi appendix viii. 
 
 3 Collection de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvdle France, i 76 : " Cette nou- 
 velle perte ruina presque cette Soci^t^ .... on crut qu'il falloit faire un 
 efifort pour ne laisser pas perirune si belle occasion d'aller porter la lumi^re de la foy 
 dans un pais infid^le " etc.
 
 152 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 determined to proceed with the despatch of this third fleet by- 
 borrowing some forty thousand livres. By means of this loan 
 four vessels were made ready in the spring of 1630. The six men- 
 of-war promised in the previous year were again ordered to 
 accompany them, both as a safeguard against attack and also to 
 overcome any possible hesitation on the part of the English gar- 
 rison about retiring.i 
 
 The news that these men-of-war were being prepared greatly 
 alarmed King Charles. He feared lest under cloak of the re- 
 occupation of New France a renewal of hostilities might be 
 intended. Complaint was therefore made to the French ambas- 
 sador in England that in view of the assurances already given 
 and of the efforts to see that Caen received full justice in regard 
 to his furs, such an action could only be regarded as an unfriendly 
 one. When this was reported at Paris, Richelieu countermanded 
 for the second time the order for the six men-of-war. Shortly 
 after this hostilities broke out between France and Spain in 
 Italy and the negotiations with England for the surrender of 
 New France at once came to a standstill. Thus not only was the 
 Company's fleet obliged to set sail alone, but all hope of securing 
 re-possession of New France during that summer had also to be 
 given up.2 The four vessels prepared by the Company set sail 
 nevertheless for the west. Two of these, which had been fitted 
 out at Bordeaux, made their way to young La Tour's fort at Cape 
 Sable. Here they were enthusiastically received. Young La Tour, 
 who had resisted all his father's efforts to win him over to the 
 British side, recognized in the arrival of these vessels a personal 
 compliment to himself and an encouragement to further patriotic 
 action. Letters indeed to this purport were presented to him 
 from the directors wherein he was exhorted to continue firm for 
 the future. Arms and provisions were supplied to him and pre- 
 parations were being made to set up a strong fort at this spot, 
 when La Tour's father, finding the outlook for himself at Port 
 Royal not so good as he had hoped, came over again to his own 
 people and informed them of the condition of affairs among their 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 312. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 313.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 153 
 
 rivals. The British, he reported, had no intention of retiring from 
 Port Royal even if Quebec were handed back. Their occupation 
 of this region had, they said, been projected several years before 
 the war, and though it had been actually made during the pro- 
 gress of hostilities, it could in no way be affected by the terms of 
 the treaty, which only referred to seizures taking place during 
 the two months following the peace. To circumvent their 
 enemies therefore and hold them in check on every side, La Tour 
 and his friends decided to build a second fort at the mouth of the 
 river St. John. Here La Tour the elder was to have command 
 while his son remained in charge at Cape Sable. As the material 
 brought out in the two vessels was only sufficient to strengthen 
 the post at Cape Sable, the smaller vessel was immediately sent 
 back without any cargo, to inform the directors at Bordeaux of 
 this decision and to ask for sufficient fresh material for a new 
 fort at the river St. John. The second vessel returned more 
 leisurely to Bordeaux with a small cargo of fish and f urs.^ The 
 other two vessels of the fleet of the Company of New France 
 made their way to the fort built by Captain Daniel on Cape 
 Breton Island. They found on iheir arrival here that twelve 
 of the garrison had died during the winter. Although 
 few savages were about, the traders managed to collect some 
 furs, but the principal portion of the cargo of both vessels 
 on their return consisted of fish. The fort was supplied with 
 fresh stores and a sufficient garrison left to ward off" any 
 attack.2 
 
 Meanwhile the Scottish and English Company had been 
 enjoying the trade both in the St. Lawrence and along the 
 Atlantic coast. It was found that fourteen of the garrison had 
 died at Quebec during the winter, but fresh provisions soon put 
 matters right. To prevent a repetition of this, the land cleared 
 by the Jesuits and Recollects, who had all gone home in the 
 previous year, was planted by the English, in order that hence- 
 forth they should have a local source of supply. Of the amount 
 of trade done this summer by the vessels sent to Port Royal we 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 313 et seq. Denys, op cit. i 68 et seq. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit., vi 319-20.
 
 154 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 know nothing ; the two sent to Quebec brought back three hun- 
 dred thousand pounds weight of fursA 
 
 Owing to the ravages of the French and English privateers 
 in the summer of 1628 the number of vessels which frequented 
 the Newfoundland Banks had rapidly fallen off. Although in 
 the year 1629, at Lord Baltimore's request, an English man-of- 
 war was sent thither, yet owners were afraid to allow their 
 vessels to set sail. Indeed only some forty English vessels put in 
 an appearance.2 Lord Baltimore himself was not finding New- 
 foundland quite to his taste as a permanent home. During the 
 winter of 1628 and 1629 the cold had been most severe from 
 October until May. His house, he said, resembled more a hospi- 
 tal than a private residence. Since however, to use his own 
 words, " his inclination still carried him to proceedings in planta- 
 tions," he received a fresh grant of land in Virginia and to this 
 milder climate he soon after removed with his colony.^ 
 
 On account of the continuation of hostilities between France 
 and Spain in Italy, no further progress had been made since the 
 spring of 1629 in the negotiations for the restoration of New 
 France. But the efforts of Caen at London to secure re-posses- 
 sion of the furs found at Quebec kept the English Government 
 from altogether losing sight of the matter. When Caen had 
 refused the commission appointed by the Admiralty Court 
 shortly after his arrival in England, the Lord Mayor of London 
 proceeded to deal with his complaints. On the 9th of April 
 1630, by the Lord Mayor's decision, the furs were sold to Caen 
 in public auction at twenty-five shillings per pound. When 
 however men were sent to weigh and deliver them, the key of 
 the warehouse could nowhere be found. A domiciliary visit at 
 the home of the Kirkes failing to discover its whereabouts, the 
 order was finally given to break the warehouse open. This 
 forced entrance disclosed the fact that of the seventeen hundred 
 odd beaver-skins originally stored there only three hundred now 
 remained. A certain Thomas Fittz was arrested as the guilty 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 320 et seq.: "lis avoient rapports pour Trois cens mille livres de 
 peleterie, et estoit mort quatorze Anglois de nonante qu' ils eatoient," etc. 
 
 2 Sainsbury, op. cit. i 96, tJo. 3. 
 
 Ibid. pp. 100 et seq. Nos. 27, 39 and 40.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 155 
 
 party and confined to the Fleet. On promising, in July, to 
 restore the stolen goods, he was again set at liberty. Caen was 
 finally able to obtain possession oi all the furs brought from 
 Quebec, but he now declared that the total left there was not 
 seventeen hundred but five thousand, and he claimed composi- 
 tion for the three thousand three hundred missing skins. Though 
 the Scottish and English Company continuously maintained that 
 they had found no more than the number already sworn to as 
 correct, Caen still held out and finally, indeed, gained his point 
 in the peace of 1632.1 
 
 It was however not until January 1631 that the negotia- 
 tions about New France were again resumed at the point where 
 Chateauneuf and the English ministers had left them at the out- 
 break of war in Italy, in the spring of 1630. At the next meet- 
 ing of the representatives of the two countries, which was held 
 in Paris on the 21st of January 1631, it was agreed that all the 
 vessels and goods taken since the peace which were in esse should 
 be restored, while the value of those already sold should be paid 
 back according to the inventories drawn up at the time of 
 seizure. King Charles on his part also agreed to restore Quebec, 
 while the French expressed their readiness not only to cancel 
 several acts of outlawry passed against the Kirkes, but also to 
 see that justice was done to the English merchants whose goods 
 had been seized at Rouen. There only remained the question of 
 Port Royal. Here however the French made a firm stand. The 
 English proposal that it should be left " as a disputable point " 
 for separate negotiation with M. de Fontenay, who had succeeded 
 Chateauneuf as French ambassador in England, was rejected at 
 once. Its immediate restoration was demanded conjointly with 
 that of Quebec, as " both agreeable to reason and to the treaty 
 itself." 2 The English representatives in Paris also recommended 
 this step to Dorchester, the English Foreign minister. Accord- 
 ing to the best information they could get, the French trade 
 there in former days had never exceeded one thousand elk-skins 
 
 1 State Papers, Colonial, vol. v, Nos. 79, 81 (i, ii, iii), 92, 96 and 97. Most of 
 these will be found in Laverdi^re, op. cit., vi Appendices x-xiv. 
 
 2 Public Record Office — State Papers : France, De Vic to Dorchester, ff Jan- 
 uary, 1631 ; Ibid, i\ January, 1631.
 
 156 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 and about as many beaver-skins. Rather than endanger all the 
 negotiations for this one point, and the French would prefer to 
 " hazard new misunderstandings than fall from their pretended 
 right thereto," i let Alexander be given a fresh grant elsewhere 
 on the same coast. Such at least was their advice. At this 
 point however the negotiations were again interrupted by the 
 departure of the King for Compiegne. The diplomatists were 
 referred to that place for the next meeting. 
 
 In view of the firm position taken up by the French on the 
 subject of Port Royal, which, since it had been occu})ied before 
 the close of the war, could in no way be brought under the 
 terms of the treaty of peace, King Charles thought fit on his side 
 to press for the payment of the remaining portion of his wife's 
 dowry.2 It was only fair, he thought, that if the question of 
 Port Royal, which had no connection with the treaty, were 
 brought into it, the question of the portion money should also be 
 introduced. Dorchester warned De Vic, the English agent, that 
 he was not " to make tender of his Majesties giving contentment 
 in the point of Port Royal by way of bargain, which were a 
 marchandly proceeding and in no way becoming negotiations be- 
 twixt Princes," but if King Charles' demands were fully accepted 
 "Port Royal should not breed any interruption to a total 
 agreement. "3 
 
 In the meantime King Louis had at length become station- 
 ary at Dijon, and here at the end of March the negotiations 
 were again resumed. Lord Montagu, a special envoy in France, 
 who reached the Court before the others, informed the French 
 commissioners that all their demands had been accepted in Eng- 
 land and that the terms of the treaty could be at once drawn up. 
 "When the English commissioners arrived however they declared 
 that they had no instructions to conclude the treaty. The Frtmch 
 demands in writing must be again sent to England and accepted 
 there before this could be done. When also they broached the 
 subject of the dowry the French commissioners grew very 
 
 1 Ibid., De Vic to Dorchester, ^ January, 1631. 
 
 2 Ihid., Dorchester to De Vic, February 17th, 1631. 
 
 3 Ibid., Dorchester to De Vic, March 2nd, 1631.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 157 
 
 " colde," nor would they give any assurance of satisfaction being 
 received in this matter until the announcement was made that in 
 return for this Port Royal should be restored as they demanded. 
 Richelieu then went so far as to state that when he had seen the 
 King, he would fix a day for the payment of the dowry.i A cer- 
 tain amount of progress had thus been made when the French in 
 their turn again introduced a fresh demand. It appeared that 
 when Chateauneuf was ambassador in England he had drawn up 
 certain regulaiions as to trade which he wished the two countries 
 to enforce. The war in Italy and his own return to France, 
 where he then occupied the post of Keeper of the Seals, had pre- 
 vented the matter from being concluded. He now demanded 
 that these regulations should be embodied in the treaty.'-^ As 
 they were totally unknown to the English commissioners, who 
 had not even a copy of them, they said that they must write to 
 England for instructions. On account of this, all hope of com- 
 pleting the negotiations in time for the surrender of New France 
 in the summer of 1631 had to be given up.^ 
 
 For another season therefore the Scottish and English Com- 
 pany enjoyed the fur-trade of New France. The reports of their 
 great gains had excited other English merchant:^ to fit out vessels 
 for this trade, notwithstanding that the Company had been given 
 the monopoly of it. But word of this reaching the harbour 
 authorises at London the suspected vessels were at once stayed.'* 
 The Company sent out its vessels as usual both to Port Royal 
 and to Quebec. Before the arrival of the vessels destined for 
 Quebec, the agents there were greatly surprised one day at the 
 unexpected appearance of Emery de Caen. He informed them 
 that since the countries were now at peace and the restoration of 
 Quebec only a question of time, he was quite within his rights 
 in trading in the river. Lewis Kirke, who was in command at 
 the factory, allowed him to land his merchandize, but when it 
 was found, after the arrival of the Company's three vessels from 
 
 1 Ihid., De Vic to Dorchester, March fg 1631. 
 
 2 Ibid., and De Vic and Augier to Dorchester, ^^^ 1631, 
 Cf. Avenel, op. cit., iv 143. 
 
 4 State Papers : Colonial, vol. vi, Nos, 4, 5, 27 and 33, pr nted in Laverdi^re, 
 op. cit., vi Appendices xv, xvi, xx and xxi.
 
 158 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 London, that the barter this year would not be large, he was for- 
 bidden to take any share in the trade. Leaving his goods at 
 Quebec in charge of one of his men, he returned to France in a 
 violent rage.l The whole trade therefore was as usual taken by 
 the Company's three vessels. On the arrival at Port Royal of 
 the other fleet of the same Company with colonists and cattle, 
 the outlook for that settlement began to seem bright. King 
 Charles assured his Scottish Privy Council that he was still ready 
 to grant baronies to all who would aid in colonizing New Scotland 
 which would continue as before to be the object of his solicitude.2 
 The Company of New France, on its side, also despatched two 
 ships. Though the vessel sent back empty to Bordeaux had been 
 received none too joyfully by the directors, yet they at once pro- 
 ceeded to load her with the materials demanded by the La Tours 
 and she arrived in due course. The new fort at the river St. 
 John was therefore soon constructed and the elder La Tour placed 
 in charge, while his son still continued to govern at Cape Sable. ^ 
 This time on her return the vessel bore back a cargo of fish and 
 furs.4 On the arrival of the other vessel of the Company in 
 charge of Captain Daniel at Cape Breton, it was found that a 
 dispute had broken out among the garrison there. The com- 
 mander Gaude, who had shot one Martel of Dieppe, was put in 
 irons and a new commander appointed in his place. After land- 
 ing provisions for the winter, the vessel proceeded to Miscou 
 where she intended to fish and if possible to trade. Her crew 
 however soon became involved in a dispute with some Basque fish- 
 ermen and with some Indians who sided with them In a skir- 
 mish which ensued Daniel lost one of his crew. A pinnace sent 
 up the river to Tadoussac secured a good supply of furs, but they 
 were unfortunately taken from her again by one of Kirke's ves- 
 sels met with on her way back. Daniel was thus obliged to set 
 sail for home completely empty-handed.^ 
 
 1 State Papers : Colonial, vol. vi no. 23, in Laverdi^re, op. cit., vi appendix 
 xix ; Ibid. pp. 339 et seq. 
 
 2 Rogers, op. cit., Introd. p. xxxviii. 
 
 3 Denys, op. cit. i 38. 
 
 4 Laverdi^re op, cit. vi 330 
 6 P)id. pp. 331 et seq.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 159 
 
 In the meantime the negotiations for the surrender of New 
 France, which had been transferred from Dijon to London, had 
 been quietly proceeding between the new French ambassador and 
 the English ministers. Since the goods of some English mer- 
 chants had been seized that spring at Rouen and the merchants 
 themselves ill-treated by the townspeople, De Vic had sought to 
 induce Chateauneuf to forego his commercial regulations by 
 pointing out to him the many causes of complaint on the English 
 side. Chateauneui's only reply was that the English should state 
 these complaints in writing.^ In England, Fontenay and Dor- 
 chester had made such good progress that in May Dorcheeter 
 informed his agents in Paris that he would " very speedily have 
 all in rypenes to speake with the French ambassador of the meanes 
 to putt every thing into final execution." Yet this would require 
 a " Sending over once more to that syde " to agree about the time 
 for delivering the ships and foi restoring Quebec and Port Royal. 
 There was no studied delay, as the French seemed to think, but 
 only so much as was necessary for an affair of such importance. 2 
 Ten days later the affair was " in that forwardnes " that a final 
 issue might soon be expected.3 At the beginning of June how- 
 ever King Charles desired that the negotiations should be again 
 transferred to Paris that it might not appear that the difficulty 
 of reaching a final agreement lay with him and his ministers. * 
 The point where matters now stuck was the dowry. King 
 Charles wished a guarantee in the treaty itself. The French 
 ambassador would only give verbal promises. It was at length 
 agreed that the dowry should not be mentioned in the treaty but 
 that Burlamachi, a London merchant, on going over with all the 
 papers " to shutt up this long negotiation " should receive the 
 money in person.^ 
 
 It was the end of August before Burlamachi reached Paris 
 
 1 State Papers: France, De Vic to Dorchester, April -2 1631 ; Memorial of 
 the Merchants, ^L^ 1631. 
 
 2 Ibid., Dorchester to Wake, May i\ 1631, 
 
 3 Ibid., Dorchester to Wake, May if 1631. 
 
 4 Ibid., Dorchester to Wake, H^ 1631. 
 
 ' June '2 
 
 5 Ibid., Dorchester to Wake, ^f- 1631.
 
 160 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 The English ambassador iu France was now Sir Isaac Wake 
 who had just arrived from Italy. He at once took charge of the 
 negotiations, until then carried on by De Vic and Augier, the 
 two secretaries at the Embassy. In informing Wake of the then 
 condition of the negotiations, King Charles stated that the 
 restoration of Port Royal was not being done in ignorance, for 
 he well knew that it did not come under the Treaty of Suza. 
 The real reason was " an affection and desire to comply with our 
 good brother the French king, in all things that may, friendly 
 and reasonably, though not rightly and duly, bee demanded of 
 us." 1 The real truth seems to be that Port Royal was sacrificed 
 on account of the King's pressing need of money. Owing to the 
 refusal of the Parliament to vote subsidies in 1629, which was 
 the last year it had met, the Government was experiencing con- 
 si<ierable difficulty. The payment to the troops in Germany was 
 greatly in arrears, and at home the army and the navy were 
 continually breaking out into mutiny on account of arrears of 
 pay. It was hoped that the payment of the dowry would enable 
 the Government to meet the most pressing of these demands. 
 Burlamachi was presented at Court on the second of September 
 and soon after made a round of oflBcial visits to the min sters. 
 He had hardly completed these before the King left Paris and 
 Court and commissioners were obliged to f(jllow. 2 At the same 
 time it was learned that preparations were being made to sell the 
 two English vessels at Dieppe, which according to the terms of 
 the treaty were to be handed back intact. King Charles, who 
 had all along shown a friendly attitude, was furious and told 
 Fontenay plainly what he thought of such behaviour. "WTien 
 this was reported to Richelieu he ordered the sale of the ships to 
 be stayed until further orders. 3 From Compiegne, whence the 
 King soon after set out for Monceaux, Burlamachi wrote to 
 Dorchester that in view of the exorbitant demands of Caen and 
 the shareholders of the United Company, who affirmed that the 
 
 1 Ibid., The King to Wake, June H 1631. 
 
 2 Ibid., Burlamachi to Dorchester, "^"^ -' 16.31. 
 
 ' ' September 5 
 
 3 Ibid., Dorchester to Wake, 7th September 1631. Avenel, op. cit. iv 202 and 
 203 note. Cf. also State Papers : France, Brown to Dorchester, Sept. ^ 1631.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 161 
 
 furs bought in London were only about one-third of those left in 
 the factory in the autumn of 1627, it would be well for the 
 Scottish and English Company to send over all the papers they 
 had for their defence.! After a short stay at Monceaux, his 
 Majesty again set out for Troyes, Their journey, as Burlamachi 
 wrote to Dorchester, was beginning to have all the appearance 
 of a wild-goose chase.2 Indeed it was not until the beginning of 
 October, when the King had finally made a halt at Fontaine- 
 bleau, that the course of the negotiations was resumed. 
 
 At the first conference, held on the tenth of that month, it 
 was agreed that the English demands for wrongs suffered and 
 ships seized should be examined by M. de Bouthillier, the secre- 
 tary for Foreign Affairs, while Wake, the English ambassador, 
 should check off" those of the French merchants and traders. As 
 to New France, Wake informed them that he had no procuration, 
 but a donation which he would deliver when all had been 
 adjusted, for it was an act on his master's part not of obligation 
 but of " pure courtoisie, whereas he did require nothing of them 
 but what they were bound to give in virtue of treatyes."^ A 
 second conference followed some ten days later. Wake began 
 by demanding that having first ratified the conclusions reached 
 in England by Dorchester and Fontenay they should next come 
 to some final agreement about the reciprocal pretensions of the 
 merchants and fix a day for mutual restitution. When the first 
 point had been settled, they for some time discussed the second. 
 Finally the proposal of Marechal de Schomberg that all the French 
 and all the English claims should be lumped together, and 
 Burlamachi and a French merchant be made respectively respon- 
 sible for the totals, was accepted by both sides. No day how- 
 ever was yet fixed for the mutual restitution. 
 
 Although Wake had gained his principal points in this last 
 conference, he found, on looking into matters, that they did not 
 really profit him very greatly. There existed among his papers, 
 he found, neither an inventory of the English goods sold in 
 
 1 Ibid., Burlamachi to Dorchester, Sept. t\ 1631. 
 
 2 Ibid., Burlamachi to Dorchester, Sept. if 1631. 
 
 3 Ibid., Wake to Dorchester, September 30 jg3j 
 
 ' October 10 
 11
 
 162 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1682 
 
 France, nor one of the French goods sold in England. For the 
 absence of the former, he wrote home, some one was to blame, 
 and if the merchants lost by the treaty they would only have 
 themselves to thank for it.^ His difficulties were further increased 
 by the repeated affirmation of the shareholders of the United Com- 
 pany that the number of furs in the factory at the time of its 
 capture was 4,266 while Kirke and his men swore on oath that 
 they had only found 1,713.2 Although copies of these sworn 
 depositions were forwarded from London to Wake, they did not^ 
 according to Burlamachi, completely refute the statements of 
 Caen and his people.^ 
 
 Hardly had these two conferences at Fontainebleau been 
 concluded, when the Court was once again under way. After fol- 
 lowing it about for some time, without any occasion presenting 
 itself of resuming the negotiations, Burlamachi quite lost pati- 
 ence. On reaching Chateau-Thierry he expressed to the French 
 ministers his intention of returning at once to England. He had 
 now, he said, been in the country some six months and during 
 nearly the whole of that period he had been on the march. 
 Bouthillier begged him in Heaven's name not to think of such a 
 step. The King's movements had been quite unexpected and as 
 uncomfortable for his ministers as for the foreign representa- 
 tives. He concluded his apology by promising that at the next 
 place where a halt was made, the whole matter should be wound 
 up.4 On reaching Metz all made preparations for the next con- 
 ference which took place in fact in that town on the twenty- 
 sixth of January 1632. 
 
 Although the Scottish and English Company had sent an 
 agent to France with all the papers they thought necessary to 
 uphold their case, this man did not go beyond Paris. According 
 to Burlamachi he was afraid of getting his boots muddy on the 
 country roads. The conclusions reached recently at Fontaine- 
 bleau having been taken as the basis of the present conference,. 
 
 1 Ibid., Wake to Dorchester, October Jf, 1631. 
 
 2 Sainsbury, op. cit. i 103 no. 37. 
 
 3 State Papers : France, Burlamachi to Dorchester, October J§, 1631. 
 
 4 Ibid., Burlamachi to Dorchester, Dec. ^ 1631.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 163 
 
 all went well until it came to the question of the demands pre- 
 sented by Caen. On account of the failure of the agent of the 
 Scottish and English Company to appear, Caen's statement that 
 the number of furs left at Quebec was 4,266 was accepted as 
 valid. As to his other demands, a total was after some debate 
 agreed upon, which, though it included some items considered 
 by Wake to be incorrect, was nevertheless not as large as the 
 sum he himself had calculated. Chateauneuf and Bouthillier 
 were then requested to draw up the treaty. " When tliis has 
 been done," wrote Wake, " we have nothing more to do but to 
 sign it."i According to the terms finally agreed upon, all the 
 vessels and goods which had not been sold were to be restored 
 intact. In the case of goods already disposed of, a return was 
 to be made in money according to the value of the object as 
 specified at the time of seizure. During the summer of 1632, in 
 the course of which both Quebec and Port-Royal were to be 
 handed back, the trade of New France was to be open to the 
 subjects of both the contracting States. On the twentieth of 
 March, after the Court returned to Paris, this treaty was finally 
 signed at St.-Germain-en-Laye. Wake then handed over the 
 orders for the surrender both of Quebec and Port Royal, while 
 at the same time Burlamachi received the securities for the pay- 
 ment of the remaining portion of the dowry.2 
 
 The terms of the treaty as finally concluded were greatly in 
 favour of the French. Discontent in England was therefore gen- 
 eral. Kirke wrote to Wake that it was plain the statements of 
 the French had been always accepted, while those of the English 
 had been wholly rejected. ^ Although Alexander had been sup- 
 ported throughout by the Scottish Parliament, which only in the 
 previous July informed that nation that Bang Charles, far from 
 quitting his title to New Scotland, " will be verie careful to 
 maintean all his good subjects who doe plant thameselfis there," 
 
 1 Ibid., Wake to Dorchester, January i| JIM. 
 
 2 Mercure Fraru^oifi, xviii 39-56. Rymer, Fcedera xix 361 et seq. Collection 
 de Manuscrits t datifs a la N. France i 86 et seq. State Papers : France, Wake 
 to Dorchester, March H 1632. 
 
 3 State Papers : Colonial, vol. vi, No. 53.
 
 164 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 he seems to have taken the surrender of Port Royal very lightly. 
 He had already been named viscount, and a royal warrant of 
 £10,000 was now made out to aid him in removing his people 
 from Port Royal. Even at this date however King Charles 
 hoped that he would begin a fresh colony elsewhere and informed 
 his subjects that they were to help and encourage the same, i In 
 fact in August Viscount Sterling (Alexander's new title) was or- 
 dered to communicate to the baronets such propositions .as might 
 best serve " for making the right use heirefter of a plantatione 
 and trade in these boundis."^ But though he became a member of 
 the Council of New England, he never attempted a fresh colony 
 and died in the year 1640, heavily in debt. ^ 
 
 To King Charles himself the terms of the treaty were also an 
 unpleasant surprise. It was found indeed that the claims of the 
 French exceeded those of the English by some £14,380 which his 
 Majesty was now called upon to pay. Although the remaining 
 portion of the dowry amounted to 400,000 crowns, or about the 
 same number of pounds,^ the payment of the former sum greatly 
 displeased King Charles. He said however that for the sake of his 
 honour he would not disavow the burden cast upon him and or- 
 dered the money to be paid. 5 
 
 Equally unpopular was the surrender of Quebec and Port 
 Royal, which took place as agreed upon in the summer of 1632. 
 It was not however the Company of New France which took 
 possession of Quebec but the old United Company that had been 
 in possession at the time of the capture by the English. In con- 
 sideration of its losses through this capture and through the 
 sudden withdrawal of the monopoly before its legal termination, 
 Richelieu granted them the trade in the St. Lawrence for this 
 
 1 Rogers, op. cit., Introd., p. xxxvii ; Ibid. pp. xxxv-vn, where State Papers : 
 Colonial, vol. v No. 102 (1) will be found ; of. also Ibid. p. xxxix for State Papers: 
 Colonial, vol. vi No. 56. 
 
 2 Rogers, op. cit., Introd. p. xl. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. li. 
 
 4 An approximation of values is difficult. Both coinages had been much de- 
 based but the French more than the English. This is estimating the crown at 
 three livres fifteen sols and making the whole equal to an English pound. 
 
 5State Papers : Colonial, vol. vi No. 45, in Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi Appendix 
 xxiv.
 
 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 165 
 
 summer. On the 13th of July Lewis and Thomas Kirke at 
 length embarked their people, the expenses of whose return were, 
 according to the terms of the treaty, to be borne by Caen and 
 his associates, l Besides the furs already secured by trade this 
 summer in the St. Lawrence, the Scottish and English Company 
 also obtained a considerable indemnity from some English inter- 
 lopers who had been infringing their monopoly earlier in the 
 year. 2 
 
 The fort at Port Royal was taken over by the Company of 
 New France, which now possessed three other posts — at Cape 
 Breton, Cape Sable and the river St. John. Razilly, the original 
 promoter of the Company, received possession of the fort from 
 young Alexander and landed in place of the returning Scotch 
 the first batch of colonists which, during the four years of its 
 existence, the Company uf New France had ever succeeded in 
 landing in the country. Another post was established at Penta- 
 goiiet, south of the river St. John. ^ Yet not one of these posts 
 ever became very prosperous and two years later Razilly wrote 
 home that though fifty thousand crowns had been expended not 
 a single denier had been gained in return. ^ It was not until the 
 summer of 1(''33 that the same Company was at length able to 
 instal itself at Quebec. The old United Company, whose mono- 
 poly should have gone on unaltered until the year 1635, then 
 retired and the agents of the Company of New France took pos- 
 session. For the loss of its monopoly during the remainder of 
 this period the United Company obtained a compensation of 
 seventy-nine thousand livres. ^ 
 
 With the entry of the Company of New France into posses- 
 
 1 Thwaites, The Jesuit Belation-s and Allied Documents, v \Oet seq. Archives 
 du Ministere des Affaires Etrang^res : Am^rique, Tome iv fol. 119 et seq. State 
 Papers : Colonial, vol. vi No. 75, in Laverdiere op. cit. vi Appendix xxx. 
 
 2 State Papers : Colonial, vol. vi No. 66, 66 (1) and 66 (2), in Laverdiere, op. 
 cit. vi Appendix xxix Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Winthrop's Letters in Mass. Hist. Coll., 
 3rd Series vol. ix p. 238. 
 
 3 Denys, op. cit. i 2 and 54. 
 
 4 Archives du Ministere des Affaires Etrang^res: Am^rique,Vol. ivfols. 122 and 
 130. Memoires des Commissaires du Boy pour la Delimitation de VAcadie (Paris, 
 1755), ii 491. 
 
 5 Collection de Manu^crits relatifs d la Nouvelh France i 77.
 
 166 THE SCOTTISH AND ENGLISH COMPANY, 1629-1632 
 
 sion at Quebec in the summer of 1633 the period of the early 
 trading companies comes to an end. Until the year 1663 this 
 one trading corporation continued to control the political and 
 commercial destinies of New France. In looking back over the 
 period covered, one or two points force themselves into promin- 
 ence. The first of these is that from the time of Roberval to the 
 year 1632 and even up to the present day the French have not 
 cared to leave their native land. While New England grew up 
 through persecution and New Holland through the great induce- 
 ments ofiered to any one who would take up land there, New 
 France never had above one or two families of. colonists during 
 all these years. This was due perhaps partly also to the treat- 
 ment meted out to those who did venture to settle in the colony- 
 Not only were they forbidden to engage in any way in the fur- 
 trade, the staple industry of the country, but they had to sell all 
 their produce at half or even less than half its real value, as well 
 as to pay the very high charges demanded by the Company for 
 all the articles brought from the mother country, and finally they 
 were often treated by the Company's servants not as free settlers 
 but as mere dependents. This remark brings us to the second 
 point, that of the monopolized companies. It is certain that 
 though intercourse between the old France and the new had ex- 
 isted throughout the latter part of the sixteenth century, no one 
 ventured to settle there until Chauvin took out his sixteen 
 people to Tadoussac in the summer of 1600. When that system 
 was once adopted, it should have been entorced more logically. 
 If it was found that the number of colonists stipulated was too 
 large, the Government should have reduced it. As it was, each 
 company, finding the burden too great, did nothing ; and this 
 breach of its promises after a few years caused the monopoly to 
 be withdrawn. The open system, in force ber.ween the years 
 1609 and 1614, would doubtless have succeeded in time, had the 
 Government taken over the post at Quebec and left discovery 
 and trade to look after themselves. Bub then as now France had a 
 strong centralized government at home and could hardly be 
 expected to do things on a different system in her colony. Thus 
 between the two evils of no colonistn and exces.sive governmental 
 control, New France during these years never prospered.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE SOURCES 
 
 [ 169']
 
 THE SOURCES 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 The sources of the early history of New France form merely 
 one section of the sources of French history in general during 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In addition to the 
 documents already brought to light many more in so vast a field 
 doubtless still remain unknown. Until more detailed catalogues 
 of the great stores at the Archives Nationales and other centres 
 have been published, small results can be looked for from the 
 efibrts of individual research. 
 
 Since the sources of the early history of Canada and those of 
 the history of France are the same for the period in question, 
 the guide to French sources in general prepared by MM. Langlois 
 and Stein will be found of inestimable value.i By means of the 
 indications given in that work, I have been able not only to 
 search the French manuscripts of the Bibliotheque Nationale, 2 
 
 1 Langlois et Stein, Les Archives de VHistoire de France, 2 vols. 8", Paris, 
 1891-94. 
 
 2 The French MSS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale are in three divisions. Of 
 the first, called ancien fonds a,nd comprising nos. 1-6170, a detailed catalogue has 
 been prepared under the title of Catalogue des Manuscrits franqais, 4 vols. 4^, 
 Paris, 1868-95. The fifth and last volume is in the press. The second division, 
 called nouveau fonds and comprising nos. 6171-33264, has only been catalogued in 
 a summary manner under the title of Catalogue general des Manuscrits fran^ais, 
 which comprises nine volumes published since 1895. The third' division called 
 nouvelles acqui'iitions, begun in 1860, already embraces ten thousand manuscripts. 
 A catalogue of nos. 1-10,000 was published by M. Henri Omont in 1899 and 1900. 
 Since 1891, M. Omont has however published every two years a list of the new 
 acquisitions in the Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Chartes, (Ann^e 1898, pp. 81-135.) 
 Besides these manuscripts, there are also the numerous collections of French 
 manuscripts copied or collected at home or abroad. Full information as to these 
 will be found in Langlois and Stein, op. cit. pp. 857-870, while the catalogues are 
 given on pp. 92-94 of the useful little book entitled Catalogue Alphabitique des 
 Livres Imprimis mis a la disposition des lecteura dans la salle du travail du 
 D^partement des Manuscrits, Paris, 1895, 8°. 
 
 [171]
 
 172 
 
 THE SOURCES: INTRODUCTION 
 
 but also those of the other large libraries at Paris,^ as well as the 
 Archives Nationales^ and those of the French Foreign^ and Col- 
 onial^ Offices. The naval archives of which a general catalogue 
 has been published^ are now stored at the Archives National es, 
 but contain, nothing bearing on this portion of the history of New 
 France. In the catalogue of manuscripts preserved in the various 
 provincial libraries,! have found little for the period dealt with in 
 this work.6 On the other hand, the archives of those Departments 
 which border on the sea often contain papers relating to New 
 France, but the search for them involves much labourJ Several 
 towns such as St. Malo and Bordeaux contain in their municipal 
 archives documents bearing on New France ; the catalogues how- 
 ever are not always complete.^ Private collections should also 
 not be disregarded ; the Chateau de Roberval in the Department 
 of the Oise still contains papers relating to the first viceroy of 
 Canada.^ Provincial law offices should some day bring to light 
 
 1 H, Martin, Catalogue des Maniiscrits de la Bibliotheque de V Arsenal, 7 vol- 
 umes 8", Paris, 1885-1896. H. Molinier, Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bihlio- 
 tMque Mazarine, 4 volumes, Paris, 1885-1892. Ch. Kohler, Catalogue des Manu- 
 scrits de la Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevi^ve, 2 volumes 8", Paris, 1893-96. 
 
 2 ^tat sommaire par series des Documents conserves aux Archives Nationales, 
 4°, Paris, 1891. Catalogue des Manuscrits conserves aux Archives Nationales,' 
 Paris, 1892. Langlois et Stein, op. cit., pp. 5-44. - 
 
 3 Langlois et Stein, op. cit., pp. 45-50. There has been since published a Sup- 
 pUment au Fonds France et au Fonds divers, 8°, Paris, 1896. 
 
 4 The only catalogue of the archives at the Colonial Office is the one made by 
 M. Marmette and published by Mr. Brymner in his Reports on Canadian Archives 
 for 1883, 1885, 1886 and 1887. Ottawa : Government Printing Office. 
 
 5 Mat sommaire des Archives de la Marine antirieures a la R6volution. Paris 
 1898. 
 
 6 Catalogue g6n6ral des Bihliotheques publiques de France : Dipartements, vols. 
 1-37, and still in course of publication. 
 
 7 CcUcdogue des Manuscrits conserves dans les Dipdts d^ Archives ddpartementcdes, 
 communales, et hospitaliires, 8°, Paris, 1886. Collection des Inventaires sommaires 
 des Archives dipartementcUes antirieures a 1790, 250 volumes 4'', and still in pro- 
 gress. Langlois et Stein, op. cit. pp. 67-271. 
 
 8 Collection des Inventaires sommaires des Archives commuTiale-s antirieures a, 
 1790, about fifty volumes already published. Langlois et Stein, op. cit. pp. 273" 
 442. 
 
 9 Abb4 E. Morel, Jean Francois de la Roque seigneur de Roberval, vice-rot du 
 Canada in the Bulletin de Giographie historique et descriptive, Paris, 1892, pp. 
 273 et seq.
 
 THE SOURCES: INTRODUCTION 173 
 
 much fresh material^ and the legal archives at Kouen, which I 
 was unable to consult, certainly contain documents relating to 
 the early history of New France.^ 
 
 For English manuscripts relating to New France the search is 
 made extremely simple by the Calendars of State Papers,^ 
 which contain short synopses not only of the papers in the 
 Public Record Office but also of those in the British Museum 
 and of any others, wherever found, which the labours of the 
 Historical Manuscripts Commission may have brought to light. 
 
 The early printed books relating to New France as well as 
 the early maps of that country have been carefully catalogued 
 by Mr. Harrisse in a work published in 1872.'* 
 
 For convenience, in the critical examination of these sources, 
 i have divided them into the three classes of official, narrative, 
 and anonymous. Although this division is slightly irregular, it 
 still serves to mark them off into classes of documents which 
 can be conveniently treated together. In the first class are con- 
 tained all charters, grants, letters patent and other documents of 
 a purely formal character, which I have simply placed in chrono- 
 logical order. It is only in the second division, narrative sources, 
 that the critical work actually begins. As the value of the 
 narrative depends altogether on the character and personality of 
 the author and the opportunities he enjoyed for observing the 
 events recorded, I have endeavoured to give first of all a brief 
 account of his life, and have then sought to estimate, in the 
 light of this evidence, the value of his testimony. Official docu- 
 ments preserved by these authors of narratives have been 
 catalogued in the first division since their value as historical 
 evidence depends not so much on him who has preserved them 
 
 1 Ch. et P. Breard, Doctimenfs Relatifs a la Marine normande, p. xi. Rouen 
 1889, 8''. 
 
 2 Gosselin, Nouvelles Glanes Historiques Normayides, p. 6. Rouen 1873. 
 
 3 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, London, 1860 etc., 8°, nine volumes 
 published, of which four relate to America. 
 
 * Notes pour servir a V Histoire, d la Bihliographie et a la Cartographie de la 
 Nouvelle France et des Pays Adjacents, 1545-1700, Paris, 1872, 8". In 1885 M. 
 Gabriel Marcel published an additional list of maps in the Revue de Giographie, 
 vol 16 pp. 186-194, 282-289, 359-365, 442-447, and vol 17 pp. 50-57.
 
 174 THE SOURCES: INTRODUCTION 
 
 as on their own character and style of expression. Letters, 
 though not always strictly narrative sources, have yet been 
 included under that head, as their value depends altogether on 
 the personality of the author, who is in most cases here noted 
 also one of the writers of narrative. 
 
 In the third and last class are contained the anonymous 
 sources. In estimating their value I have generally followed 
 the plan of first eliminating the authentic material embodied by 
 the writer in his work and then discussing the question of 
 authorship, upon which necessarily hinges the value of the 
 remainder.
 
 THE SOURCES 
 
 PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 September 1510 \ Pardon granted to Guillaume Dobel, mate 
 of a Newfoundland fishing vessel, who had pushed one of his 
 men overboard. Annales de Bretagne ix 435-436. Rennes 
 1893. 
 
 October 1511. Sobrecarta of the Queen Dona Juana con- 
 taining the agreement made with Juan de Agramonte for a 
 voyage of discovery to Newfoundland. Navarrete, Goleccion de 
 lo8 Viages y Descuhriiaientos que hicieron por mar los Espan- 
 oles, etc., iii 122-125, no. xxxi. 
 
 October 1511. Order from Queen Juana confirming the 
 appointment of Agramonte as captain of the expedition. Ibid. 
 iii 125-127, no. xxxii. 
 
 14th December 1514. Act passed at Paimpol in Brittany 
 between the monks of Beauport and the inhabitants of the island 
 of Brehat wherein the former claimed one-tenth of all the fish 
 brought from Newfoundland. Annales de Bretagne ix 177-182. 
 
 27th March 1523. Letter from Joao da Silveira, Portuguese 
 ambassador in France, referring to Yerrazano's approaching 
 voyage. RaccoUa di Documenti e Studi puhblicati dalla R. Com- 
 missione Columbiana Parte V, Volume ii 245. Roma 1894. 
 
 27th March 1523. Agreement of the Emperor Charles V 
 Mjith the pilot Estevan Gomez for a voyage to the Moluccas. 
 Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos relativoa al Descubrimiento, 
 Gonquista y Organizacion de las Posesiones Espanolas de 
 America y Oceania, etc., Primera Serie, xxii 74. 
 
 1 A chronological list of the documents referring to the Cabots will be found 
 in R. Beazley, John and Sebastian Cabot, (London 1898), pp. 265-291. The 
 few documents relating to the voyages of the Corte-Reals have been very carefully 
 edited by Mr. Harrisse in his work entitled Les Corte-Real et leurs Voyages ott 
 Nouveau Monde, large 8°, Paris 1883, with a postscriptum. Mr. Harrisse in 
 his Notes pour servir d VHistoire, etc., de la Nouvelle France (pp. 243-354) also- 
 gave a list similar to the above and printed several unpublished documents. 
 
 [175]
 
 176 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 25th April 1523. Another letter with information about 
 Verrazano's departure. Murphy, The Voyage of Verrazzano, 
 pp. 162-168. New York 1875. 
 
 29th September 1525. A"Clameur de haro " on behalf of 
 Jean Verrazano. De Costa, Verrazano the Exploiter, preface. 
 New York 1881. 
 
 11th May 1526. Jean Verrazano gave a power of attorney 
 to his brother and another. Revue Critique, 10^ annee, Tome I, 
 p. 22. Paris 1876. 
 
 12th May 1526. Verrazano gave a special power of attorney 
 to Adam Godeffroy. Ibid., p. 22. 
 
 Circa 1526. Agreement between Chabot, Ango and Verra- 
 zano for a voyage ibr spices. Freville, Memoire sur le Commerce 
 Maritime de Rouen, ii 432-434. Paris 1857. 
 
 22nd July 1527. An order in regard to the sale of cod. 
 N. E. Dionne, La Nouvelle France de Gartier a Champlain, pp. 
 346-347. Quebec 1891. 
 
 24th December 1527. Letter from Joao da Silveira mention- 
 ing that Verrazano was to set sail in the spring. Memorie 
 della Societd Geografica Italiana, vii (parte prima) 190. Roma 
 1897. 
 
 18th March — . Six thousand livres paid to Cartier to fit out 
 his first expedition. Biblioth^que Nationale, Ms. Fr. 15628, fol. 
 213 verso, no. 618. 
 
 19th March —z,. Order forbidding the fishing vessels of St. 
 
 Ioo4 o o 
 
 Malo to leave for Newfoundland until Cartier had completed his 
 crews. Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Jaques Cartier au Canada 
 en 153 Jf, 2^ partie, pp. 3-5. Paris 1865. 
 
 30th October 1534. Letters patent from Admiral Chabot 
 authorizing Cartier to prepare three vessels in the following 
 spring for the completion of his discoveries. Ibid. pp. 5 et seq. 
 
 12th December 1534. Receipt given by Roberval for the 
 sum of 100 livres for his pay for three months as ensign in the 
 company of the Marechal de la Marck. Bibliotheque Nationale, 
 Pieces originales, vol. 2523, no. 56459, no. 11. 
 
 3rd March — . Meeting of the community of St. Malo 
 wherein complaint is made of the detention of the Newfound-
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 177 
 
 land fleet in order that Cartier might complete his crews, Joiion 
 des Longrais, Jacques Cartier, pp. 21-23. Paris 1888. 
 
 6th March J|^ . Receipt given by Roberval for his pay as 
 ensign for October, November and December 1534. Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, Pieces originales, vol. 2523, no. 56459, no. 12. 
 
 30th March 1535. 3,000 livres paid to Cartier to equip his 
 second fleet. Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr. 15(132, fol. 170 
 verso, no. 571. 
 
 31st March 1535. Complaints at a meeting of the commun- 
 ity of St. Malo against a ban ordered by Cartier ; roll of the 
 crews. Michelant et Rame, op. cit. pp. 8-12, also Joiion des 
 Longrais, op. cit. pp. 126-142. 
 
 5th October 1535. Receipt given by Roberval for his pay as 
 ensign during the three months of April, May and June 1535. 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Collection Clairambault, vol. 134, fol. 
 1891, no. 5. 
 
 10th May 1537. King Francis I makes a present to Cartier of 
 the vessel Hermine. Archives Nationales. Serie J 962 (12), no. 10. 
 
 14th September 1538. Payment of 3499 livres 4 sols and 
 6 deuiers to Cartier by the King for the expenses of his two 
 voyages. Archives Nationales, S^rie J 962 (15), no. 23. 
 
 22nd September 1538. Order from Francis I to his treasurer 
 to pay to Cartier fifty crowns for his salary and to aid in the 
 keep of the savages brought from Canada. Bibliotheque Nation- 
 ale, Ms. Latin 17059, no. 202. 
 
 22nd October 1538. Receipt given by Roberval, lieutenant 
 in the company of Captain de Sedan, for 62 livres 10 sols, being 
 his salary for the months of April, May and June 1538. Biblio- 
 theque Nationale, Pieces originales, vol. 2523, no. 56459, no. 13. 
 
 25th March ^g. Baptism at St. Malo of three of the savages 
 brought home by Cartier from Canada. Collection de Manu- 
 scrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 29-30. Quebec 1883, 4°. 
 
 17th October 1540. Letters patent granted by Francis I to 
 
 Cartier appointing him chief pilot of the fleet which formed the 
 
 third expedition in 1541. Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle 
 
 France, ii 387 et seq., Paris 1866 ; Michelant et Rame, op. cit. 
 
 pp. 12-17. 
 12
 
 178 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 20th October 1540. Commission from the Duke of Brittany 
 to Cartier empowering him to take away any prisoners found 
 suitable for the purposes of the expedition. Michelant et Rame, 
 op. cit. pp. 17-19. 
 
 12th December 1.540. Order from Francis I to the Senechal 
 at Rennes ordering him to inquire into the attempts made at St. 
 Malo and elsewhere to discourage pilots and siilors from offer- 
 ing their services to Cartier. Ibid. pp. 19-21. 
 
 15th January ^^ . Letters patent from Francis I to Rober- 
 val appointing him to the leadership of the expedition against 
 the kingdom of Saguenay. Harrisse, Notes sur la Nouvelle 
 France, pp. 243-253 ; Collection de Manuscrits relatifs d la 
 Nouvelle France, i 30-36. 
 
 loth January j^, . Order from Francis T to Roberval empow- 
 ering him to enrol men and to provide himself with all arms and 
 provisions necessary for the expedition. Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 
 265-268. 
 
 4th February j^^ . Fleuryot, one of Cartier's men, appointed 
 guardian of some children. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 24-25. 
 
 7 th February ^^ . Letters patent from Francis I to the Par- 
 lements of Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rouen and Dijon ordering 
 them to hand over to Roberval or his lieutenant any prisoners 
 whom they might select as suitable to accompany them to 
 Canada. Harrisse, o]). cit. pp. 258-264. 
 
 26th February ^° . Order of Parlement for the delivery of 
 prisoners to Roberval. Biblioth^que de 1' Arsenal, Paris, Ms. Fr. 
 6650, fol. 56. 
 
 27th February ^— . Power of attorney given by Roberval to 
 Paul d'Auxilhon for the South of France. Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 
 254-258. 
 
 1540 
 
 27th February — ^- Power of attorney given by Roberval to 
 his brother-in-law Guillaume de Magdaillan for Paris and Dijon. 
 Archives of the Chateau de Roberval. 
 
 4th March — . Fleuryot, one of the men chosen by Cartier, 
 freed from a guardianship. Joiion des Longrais op. cit. pp. 25-26. 
 
 9th March ^^ . Order from Francis I to the Parlements of 
 Paris, Toulouse and Poitou to cease their obstruction to the
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 179 
 
 delivery of criminale to Roberval. Archives Nationales, serie U, 
 reg. 754, fols. 65-66. 
 
 9th March ,— : . Order of the Parlement of Rouen for the 
 delivery of prisoners to Roberval. Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 268-271. 
 
 11th March j^ . Power of attorney from Roberval to Civille 
 for Rouen and to Pierre Martin for the region round about. 
 Archives Nationales, serie U, reg. 754. fols. 66-68 verso. 
 
 29th March — . Thomas Monsler guilt}^ of theft at Dieppe 
 handed over to Roberval at Rouen. Archives de la Seine-Inf^r- 
 ieure, serie G, no 961. 
 
 20th April 1541. Roberval acknowledges the return of a 
 power of attorney given to his brother-in-law Magdaillan. Bulle- 
 tin de Geographie historique et descriptive, Paris, 1N92, p. 297. 
 
 8th May 1541. Roberval and Cartier hire the M"rie of 
 eighty tons at St. Malo. Archives of the Chateau de Roberval. 
 
 19th May 1541. Arrival of thirteen prisoners, 8 men and 5 
 women, at St. Malo to form part of the expedition to Canada. 
 Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 27-36. 
 
 19th May 1541. Cartier makes his will before setting sail. 
 Ibid. pp. 39-43. 
 
 20th May 1541. Cartier intervenes in a dispute between a 
 cobbler and a sailor. Ibid. pp. 44-48. 
 
 23rd May 1541. Notice of Roberval's departure from St. Malo 
 to Honfleur one week previously. Ibid. pp. 37-38. 
 
 17th June 1541. Roberval buys the shares of Pierre 
 Guehemenc and Jean Peppin in the Marie. Archives of the 
 Chateau de Roberval. 
 
 19th June 1541. Roberval contracts for the hire of two ves- 
 sels, the Valentine of 92 tons and the Ste. Anne of 80 tons, for 
 the voyage to Canada. Ibid. 
 
 June J 541. Roberval acknowledges the receipt of a prisoner 
 named Fournier. Bulletin de Geographie historique et descrip- 
 tive, 1892, p. 298. 
 
 10th July 1541. Letter of Chancellor Poyet to the Parle- 
 ment of Rouen complaining of Roberval's delay in setting sail. 
 Archives du Parlement de Rouen. Vid. Gosselin, Nouvelles 
 Glanes Historiques Normandes, p. 6. Rouen, 18 /'S.
 
 ] 80 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 18th July 1541, Reply of Roberval addressed. Ibid. 
 
 12th November 1541 Registration of Cartier's will made 
 the 19th of May, Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. pp, 49-50. 
 
 22nd February ^, . Letter of Marillac, French ambassador in 
 England, mentioning the complaints made there of Roberval's 
 piracies, Kaulek, Gorres'pondavce politique deMM. de Castillon 
 et de Marillac, p. 390. Paris 1885, 8°. 
 
 8th March —] . One Buffon of St, Malo still in Canada. 
 Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. p. 51. 
 
 9th September 1542, Roberval grants pardon to Auxilhon 
 for the murder of one of the sailors of the Ste. Anne. Harrisse, 
 op. cit. pp, 273-276. 
 
 1st December 1542. Cartier gives evidence at St. Malo as to 
 the price of wheat in 1540. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 
 52-54. 
 
 26th January — ^ , Order from Francis I to Auxilhon to take 
 charge of the vessels destined to bear fresh provisions to Rober- 
 val. Harris.se, op. cit. pp, 272-273, 
 
 11th September 1543. Order from Roberval to Auxilhon to 
 sell the material belonging to him at La Rochelle, Ibid. pp. 
 276-277. 
 
 3rd April ~^. Commission from Francis I to Robert Legoupil 
 of Rouen ordering him to verify Cartier's accounts and to examine 
 the differences between him and Roberval, Michelant et Ram6, 
 op. cit. pp, 21-23. 
 
 loth April — ^ . Cartier acts as Portuguese interpreter at 
 St, Malo, Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp, 57-58, 
 
 21st June 1544. Report of Legoupil and the other commis- 
 sioners on Cartier's accounts, Michelant et Ram6, op. cit. pp. 
 24-31, 
 
 17th December 154 K Cartier gives evidence as to there 
 being no vessels of 300 tons in all the duchy of Brittany. Joiion 
 des Longrais, op. cit. pp, 59-60, 
 
 23rd April — ^ 
 
 r.h,.i nr -.'^/r I Cartier present at St. Malo as a witness in 
 
 27th May 1545. V . ^ 
 
 ,n^i T 1 ir.ir I various cascs. iotot. pp. 61-62. 
 
 18th July 1545. J -^^
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 181 
 
 18th July 1545. Receipt given to Roberval Yon, a mer- 
 chant at Paris, in return for a payment for arms. Bulletin de 
 Geographie historique et descriptive, 1892, pp. 298-299. 
 
 18th May 1546. Cartier present at the division of his father- 
 in-lavt^'s property. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 63-65. 
 
 18th July 1546. Receipt given for 20 crowns paid by Rober- 
 val to Guillaume Barre of Fecamp for service with his vessel. 
 Bulletin de Geographie historique et descriptive, 1892, p. 
 299. 
 
 19th July 1546. ") Cartier present at St.Malo as a witness. 
 
 2nd January J^^ j- Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 66-67 and 
 
 27th July 1548. ' ^ pp. 5-6. 
 
 1548. An Act passed in England against illegal exactions by 
 officers for licenses to trade to N ewfoundland for fish. Hakluy t, 
 Principall Navigations, iii 131. London 1600. Prowse, History 
 of Newfoundland, pp. 53-54. London 1895. 
 
 23rd March 1549. Memorial of Jacobo de Ibaceta, master of 
 a vessel bound for Newfoundland, begging church ornaments for 
 a priest he was taking on board. Coleccion Vargas Ponce, legajo 
 iii, no. 2, In the Deposito Hidrografico at Madrid. 
 
 29th November 1549. Cartier and his wife found an office 
 for the dead in the cathedral at St. Malo. Joiion des Longrais, 
 op. cit. pp. 68-69. F. G. Manet, Biographic des Malouins celebres, 
 p. 52. St. Malo, 1824. 
 
 5th February 1550. Cartier names a child. Collection de 
 Manuscrits Relatifs a la N. France, p. 39. 
 
 23rd December 1551. Cartier as a witness before the Court 
 at St. Malo. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 6-7. 
 
 29th January ^~^. Cartier gives evidence against a thief, 
 Pasdalot, who insults him. Ibid. pp. 70-72. 
 
 12th June 1552. Cartier names a child. Ibid. p. 80, note 2, 
 
 15th October 1552. Cartier present as witness at the bap- 
 tism of Thomas le Breton. Ibid. pp. 73-75. 
 
 3rd June 1553. Memorial of the Province of Guipuzcoa in 
 Spain against an order that ships bound for Newfoundland should 
 sail in consort with the armada of Luis de Carvajal. Coleccion 
 Vargas Ponce iii, no. 4.
 
 182 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 June 1553. Letter recommending that Antonio de Abalia be 
 heard against the order for Newfoundland ships to sail in consort 
 with the armada of Luis de Carvajal. Ibid. no. '6. 
 
 17th September 1553. Baptism at St. Malo of a savage 
 brought from Newfoundland. Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 
 76-77. 
 
 12th December 1553. Roberval's commission as comptroller 
 of mines registered at Carcassonne. Bulletin de Geographie 
 historique et descriptive, 1892, p. 300. 
 
 5th June 1555. Cartier appoints a guardian to his nephews 
 and nieces. Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 80-81. 
 
 31st August 1555. A certain Jacques Boulain then absent 
 on a voyage to Newfoundland. Revue de Bretagne et de Vendee, 
 viii 377. Nantes 1880. 
 
 18th September 1555. Document concerning a le»al dispute 
 between Jalobert, Secart and Maingard who accompanied Cartier 
 in 1535. Ihid. p. 378. 
 
 28th September 1555. Legal dispute between Cartier and 
 one Jehan Eberard. Ihid. p. 379. 
 
 1555. Examination of witnesses as to the ravages inflicted 
 by Spanish vessels on French fishermen in Newfoundland. 
 Goleceion Vargas Ponce i no. 18. Printed in a condensed form 
 in Cesareo Fernandez Duro, Libro Sexto de Disquisiciones 
 Nduticas, pp. 355-378. Madrid 1881. 
 
 6th June 1556. Cartier gives evidence in the trial of Perrine 
 Gandon, unjustly accused of eating meat on a fast-day. Jolion 
 des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 82-88. 
 
 17th July 1556. Cartier called by the Court at St. Malo to 
 aid in fixing a scale between the value of wheat and the price of 
 bread. Ibid. pp. 89-92. 
 
 27th November 1556. Cartier gives evidence in the Court at 
 St. Malo as to the currents near the harbour of that town. Ibid, 
 pp. 93-94. 
 
 9th March —^ . Cartier as appraiser in the division of a herit- 
 age. Ibid. pp. 95-98. 
 
 25th March ]~ . Cartier testifies to the fitness of two inter- 
 
 1557 
 
 preters. Ibid. pp. 99-100.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 183 
 
 26th June 1557. Cartier as witness in two cases and as 
 surety in another. Ibid. pp. 100-105. 
 
 15th July 1557. Royal order permitting ships from Guipuz- 
 coa, Vizcaya or the Four Cities to sail to Newfoundland without 
 special licence. Coleccion Vargas Ponce, iii, no. ti. Another copy 
 in the Academy of History at Madrid. Coleccion Munoz, vol. 34 
 fol. 236 verso-237. 
 
 1st September 1557. Death of Cartier. Jotion des Longrais» 
 op. cit. pp. 106-108. 
 
 8th February 1564. Letter from the town of Cap-Breton in 
 France 'o that of San Sebastian on the subject of a mutual 
 understanding in regard to the fishing in Newfoundland. Colec- 
 cion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 8. 
 
 10th February 1564. Letter from the town of Biarritz to 
 that of San Sebastian on the same subject. Ibid. 
 
 12th January 1569. ^ Gift of Cartier's widow to Jean Le 
 Gobien their lawyer. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 109-114. 
 
 10th October 1569. Receipt, given by La Roche for 500 
 livres paid to him for a journey made in the King's service from 
 Tours to St-Pol-de-Leon, a small town on the coast of Brittany 
 near Roscoff. Bibliotheque Nationale, Pieces origiiiales, vol. 1938> 
 no. 44603 no. 3. 
 
 1570. Notice of the loss of a ship of Pasajes that year in 
 Newfoundland. Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 9. 
 
 29th May 1572. Receipt given by La Roche for 100 livres. 
 being his salary as governor of Morlaix for the months of January 
 and February, J 572. Bibl. Nat., Pieces originales, vol. 19-j8, no. 
 44603, no. 4. 
 
 26th August 1572. Similar receipt for the months of Janu- 
 ary, February, March and April for pay and pension. Ibid. no. 5. 
 
 15th April 1573. Reply of the town of St. Malo to the gover- 
 nor's demand for vessels to proceel against the Huguenots of 
 Belle Isle, in which it is stated that most of them are absent at 
 Newfoundland and elsewhere Bulletin et Menioires de la Soc- 
 iete archeologique dllle-et-Vilaine, iv 298-310. Rennes 1866. 
 
 1 The documents given by Gosselin (Nouvelles Glanes, etc., pp. 8-9) under the 
 date of April, 1564, evidently refer to Florida.
 
 184 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 1574. Notice of the Spanish ships which sail to New- 
 foundland. Coleccion Navarrete in the Dep6sito Hidrografico 
 at Madrid, vol. 28, no. 22. 
 
 29th August 1575. Letters patent of Henry III, appointing 
 La Jannaye a captain in the Navy. Michelant et Ram6, op. cit- 
 pp. 32-34. 
 
 March 1577. Letters patent of Henry III empowering La 
 Roche to conduct an expedition to Newfoundland. Michelant et 
 Ram6, Relation Originale da Voyage de C'artier, pp. 5-8. Paris 
 1867. 
 
 1577. Representation of the Syndic of Renteria as to the 
 proceedings taken against several inhabitants of San Sebastian 
 who sent French vessels to Newfoundland. Coleccion Vargas 
 Ponce V, no. 8. 
 
 3rd January 1578. Letters patent of Henry IIT appointing 
 La Roche ^'iceroy of Newfoundland. Michelant et Ram6, op. cit. 
 pp. 8-10 
 
 11th June 1578. Letters patent of Elizabeth giving Sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert power to form a settlement in America* 
 Hakluyt, Frincipall Navigations, pp. 677-679, London 1589. 
 
 16th March 1580. Order from the King to the Governor of 
 Brittany to hold all vessels in the harbours of that province. 
 Joiion des Longrais, op cit. pp. 193-194. 
 
 31st March L580. Order from the governor to the seigneur 
 de la Hunaudaye to the same effect. Ibid. pp. 194-196. 
 
 12th April 1580. Order for the release of the vessels held. 
 Ibid. p. 196. 
 
 21st April 1580. Petition of the Syndic of the town of 
 Renteria against an order forbidding the sending of foreign ves- 
 sels to Newfoundland. Coleccion Vargas Ponce v, no 10. 
 
 1580. List of the crew of a Spanish Newfoundland vessel 
 and of the distribution of the whale oil and blubber. Ibid, iii no. 10. 
 
 26th September 1 580. Sale of Newfoundland fish. Prowse, 
 History of Newfoundland, p. 84, no. I. 
 
 1581. Act of Queen Elizabeth prohibiting the importation of 
 foreign-caught fish, that from Newfoundland excepted. Prowse, 
 op. cit. p. 56.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 185 
 
 1584. Articles agreed upon between the Due de MerccBurand 
 the Admiral de Joyeuse wherein mention is made of the trade 
 with Newfoundland. Bibliotheque Nationale, Collection Duch- 
 esne et Oihenart, vol. 43, fol. 15. 
 
 1584. Complaint of the people of Guipuzcoa against the per- 
 mission given to the fifty Newfoundland vessels of St. Jean-de- 
 Luz and Ciboure to sail home from San Sebastian with 
 money instead of Spanish goods. Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, 
 no. 11. 
 
 14th November 1585. Order from Henry III to Crenay, 
 governor of Fougeres, directing him to hand over the governor- 
 ship of the castle to La Roche. Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr 
 3309, fol. 71 verso. 
 
 4th June 1586. Letter from the Due de Mercoeur to Henry 
 III wherein mention is made of a delay in handing over the 
 castle of Fougeres to La Roche. Bibliotheque Nationale, Collec- 
 tion Colbert Cinq Cents, fol. 104, no. 10. 
 
 18th June 1586. Royal order offering to put a remedy to 
 the losses caused by previous embargoes on Newfoundland vessels. 
 Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 12. 
 
 23rd March 1587. Royal order that the Spanish ships bound 
 for Newfoundland should sail well armed. Ihid. iii, no. 6. 
 
 20th April 1587. Royal order that Newfoundland fishermen 
 should not be pressed into the Royal Navy. Ihid. 
 
 25th April 1587. Royal order that Newfoundland ships 
 should also not be pressed for the Royal Navy. Ihid. 
 
 14th January 1588. Commission from Henry III granting 
 a monopoly of the fur- trade in the St. Lawrence to La Jannaye 
 and Nouel for twelve years, with permission to take out sixty 
 criminals a year as colonists and workmen. Michelant et Ram^, 
 Voyage de Jaques Cartier pp. 34-44. 
 
 9th February 1588. The community of St. Malo decides to 
 oppose the registration of the former commission. Jotion des 
 Longrais, op. cit. p. 152. 
 
 27th February 1588. Registrar of St. Malo, held to be re- 
 lated to those who have received the monopoly, withdraws dur- 
 ing the deliberations. Ihid. pp. 152-153.
 
 186 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 11th March 1588. Inhabitants of St. Malo get legal advice 
 at Rennes in the matter of applying for the revocation of the 
 monopoly. Michelant et Ilam^, op. cit. pp. 4-4-48. 
 
 17th March 1588. Order from the Estates of Brittany to 
 apply for the revocation of the trade monopoly of La Jannaye 
 and Nouel. Michelant et Rame', Relation originate, etc., pp. 10-11. 
 
 March 1588. Remonstrance of the Estates of Brittany 
 against above monopoly. Jolion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 155-156. 
 
 5th May 1588. Decree of King's Council given at the re- 
 quest of the town of St. Malo declaring that the monopoly to La 
 Jannaye and Nouel is not to affect their fishing or fur trade. 
 Ibid. pp. 157-158. 
 
 9th July 1588. Letters patent of King Henry III to the 
 Estates of Brittany revoking the trade monopoly given to La 
 Jannaye and Nouel. Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Jaques 
 Gartier, pp. 48-51. 
 
 16th July 1588. Notice of the revocation given to La Jannaye 
 at St. Malo. Ibid. p. 159. 
 
 1593. Notice of the seizure of a Spanish Newfoundlander by 
 Frenchmen of La Rochelle. Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 22. 
 
 28th January 1594. Order from King Henr}^ IV appointing 
 Monts to a pension of 1200 crowns a year. Bibliotheque Nation- 
 ale, Pieces originales, vol. 1421, no. 32147, no. 4. 
 
 10th March 1594. Receipt given by Monts for one hundred 
 crowns, being his pay for February 1594. Ibid. no. 5. 
 
 3rd November 1596. Receipt given by Pierre de Chauvin for 
 the sum of 108 crowns 33 sols lent to a Newfoundland fisherman. 
 Ch. et P. Breard, Documents relatifs a la Marine Normande, p. 
 73. Rouen 1889. 
 
 12th November 1596. La Roche signs a power of attorney 
 for Guillaume Ravend to obtain 5500 crowns from Madame de 
 Matignon. Ibid. pp. 73-75. 
 
 2nd March 1597. Receipt given by Martin Faride to Pierre 
 de Chauvin for 8 crowns. Ibid. p. 75. 
 
 4th March 1597. Agreement between La Roche and Chef- 
 dostel, master of the CatJierine, for the transport of" soldiers to 
 Sable Island. Ibid. pp. 75-78.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 187 
 
 12th March 1597. Receipt given by Pierre de Chauvin for four 
 cannons to arm one of his vessels. Ibid. p. 78. 
 
 1597, Petition of the Brownists to Queen Elizabeth to be 
 allowed to move to a " far country which lieth to the west in 
 Canada." Sainsbury, Calendar of Colonial State Papers, Ad- 
 denda 1574-lo74, pp. 31-32 no. 47. London 1893. 
 
 12th January 1598. Letters patent appointing La Roche 
 Lieutenant-General for King Henry IV in Canada, Hochelaga, 
 Newfoundland, etc. Lescarbot, op. cit. ii 398-400. 
 
 2nd March 1598. The above Letters patent registered in the 
 Parlement of Rouen. Archives du Parlement de Rouen, 2nd 
 March 1598. 
 
 16th March 1598. Fresh agreement between La Roche and 
 Chefdostel for the transport of the expedition to Sable Island 
 Breard, op. cit. pp. 79-81. 
 
 18th March 1598. Agreement for the same purpose with 
 Jehan Girot, master of the Frangoise. Ibid. pp. 81-83. 
 
 19th March 1598. La Roche gives a power of attorney 
 to one Martin Le Lou to act during his absence. Ibid 
 p. 83. 
 
 29th March 1598. Receipt given by Le Liepvre, owner of the 
 FroMcoise, and Girot" her captain, for 107 crowns to fit her out. 
 Ibid. pp. 83-84. 
 
 2nd April 1598. Receipt by Girot and others for 150 crowns 
 for the same purpose. Ibid. p. 84. 
 
 14th April 1598. A power of attorney given by La Roche to 
 one Le Gac, Sieur de Collespel. Dionne, op. cit. pp. 366-367. 
 
 20th May 1598. Order of the Parlement of Rouen for the 
 assembling of two hundred beggars for La Roche. Archives 
 Secretes, same date, fol. 189 verso. 
 
 23rd May 1598. Report of the officer entrusted with the 
 above duty. Ibid. fol. 192. 
 
 17th October 1598. Refusal of the Court at Rouen to hand 
 over a prisoner to La Roche. Rouen, Archives de la Tournelle 
 same date. 
 
 17th September 1599 License to export Newfoundland fish 
 from England. Prowse, op. cit. p. 84, no. II.
 
 188 THE SOURCES; PART I: OFFICIAL 
 
 3rd January 1600. Decision of the Municipality of St. Malo 
 to oppose the registration of Chauvdn's monopoly. Michelant et 
 Ram6, Relation originale, etc., p. 12. 
 
 1600. Reclamation of the owner of a Spanish Newfoundland 
 vessel which returned to Bayonne instead of San Sebastian. 
 Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 28. 
 
 1600. French Newfoundland vessels used to get their grain 
 at the town of Motrico in Spain. Ibid. no. 29. 
 
 1600 (?). Request from the town of St. Malo to the Estates of 
 Brittany for the repeal of Chauvin's monopoly. Michelant et 
 Rame, Voyage de J Cartier, pp. 51-52. 
 
 7th December 1600. Jehan Brouet, a doctor, to receive five 
 crowns a month for his services on board one of Chauvin's vessels 
 sailing to Newfoundland. Breard, op. cit. p. 86. 
 
 19th January 1601. Receipt given by Chefdostel for 50 
 crowns to fit out his vessel the Jehan. Ibid. p. 87. 
 
 8th March 1601. Receipt signed by one Silvestre for 11 
 crowns lent him by Chauvin. Ibid. pp. 87-88. 
 
 3rd May 1601. Receipt signed by Deschamps and Le Roux 
 of Dieppe for 16 crowns lent them to trade in Canada. Ibid. p. 88. 
 
 3rd May 1601. Charles Andrieu lends 25 crowns to Chauvin 
 for the trade with Canada. Ibid. p. 88. 
 
 8th March 1602. Vincent Poullain of Havre is paid 120 
 crowns for his services on a voyage to Canada. Ibid. p. 89. 
 
 16th March 1602. Receipt by one Gohorel for 10 crowns to 
 trade with Canada. If the vessel returns via Spain the interest 
 is to be 40 per cent., otherwise 35 per cent. Ibid. 
 
 18th March 1602. Gion Dieres, Captain of the Esperance, 
 gives a receipt for 10 crowns to be used in the trade with Canada. 
 The vessel is to return either via Portugal or La Rochelle. Ibid.-p. 90. 
 
 1st April 1602. Ten crowns lent to one Mallorthie, master 
 of the Jeiesaibien trading to Canada. Ibid. 
 
 2nd April 1602. Loan of 25 livres to Captain Dieres for the 
 trade with Canada. Ibid. 
 
 29th June 1602. Receipt given by Monts for 660 crowns 2 
 Uvres being his pension for that year. Bibliotheque Nationals, 
 Piecp'^ originales, vol. 1421, no. 82147, no. 6.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 189 
 
 2nd November 1602. Receipt by Henry CouiUard, master of 
 the Don-de-Dieu of 200 tons, for 54 livres for having brought 
 home three sailors left in the island of Canada by a vessel of St. 
 Malo. Br^ard, op. cit. p. 90. 
 
 23rd November 1602. Chauvin empowers one Le Pillois who 
 had been to Canada in 1600 to give evidence at Pont I'Eveque. 
 Ibid. pp. 90-91. 
 
 21st December 1602. Decision of the town of St. Malo to ap- 
 ply for the liberty of trade with Canada and to oppose the regis- 
 tration of the new monopoly given to a few merchants of Rouen 
 and of St. Malo. Michelant et Ram^, Relation originale, etc.> 
 pp. 12-14. 
 
 28th December 1602. Letter from the King to the town of 
 St. Malo informing them of the appointment of a commission to 
 inquire into the trade with Canada. Ihid. pp. 15-17. 
 
 2nd January 1603. Royal order forbidding all trade in the 
 St. Lawrence until the decision of the commission was announced. 
 Ihid. pp. 17-18. 
 
 3rd January 1603. Letter from Montmorency, Admiral of 
 France, to the town of St. Malo enclosing the documents above 
 cited. Ibid. pp. 19-21. 
 
 20th January 1603. Chauvin gives a power of attorney to 
 his sister. Br^ard, op. cit. p. 91. 
 
 26th January 1603. Decision of the town of St. Malo to leave 
 the negotiations as to the monopoly of the fur- trade to those 
 traders who were interested in it. Michelant et Rame, op. ctit. 
 pp. 14-15. 
 
 1st February 1603. Couillard freed from responsibility for 
 the payment of the duty on the cod brought home by him in the 
 Don-de-Dieu in 1599 and 1600. Breard, op. cit. pp. 91-92. 
 
 8th February 1 603. Receipt given by Girot and Le Liepvre 
 of the Frongoise for 260 livres to fit out their vessel for New- 
 foundland, Ihid. p. 92. 
 
 18th February 1603. The Sieurdela Pierre borrows 36 liv- 
 res to go to Canada. Ihid. pp. 99-100. 
 
 24th February 1603. Jehan Girot borrows 100 livres to fit 
 out the Frangoise. Ibid. p. 100.
 
 190 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 10th March 1608. Girot borrows 150 more livres at 35 per 
 cent. Ibid. p. 100. 
 
 12th March 1603. Demand of Girot for an increase of pro- 
 visions as he was going to Canada instead of Newfoundland. Ibid. 
 pp. 100-101. 
 
 12th March 1603. Girot borrows 600 more livres at 35 per 
 cent. Ibid. p. 101. 
 
 13th March 1603. Order in council permitting Captain Cou- 
 lombier of St. Malo to trade to Canada. Michelant et Rame, op. 
 cit. p. 23. 
 
 13th March 1 603. Order from the King to Montmorency to 
 the same effect. Ibid. pp. 24-25. 
 
 7th April 1603. Notice of this given to the municipality of 
 St. Malo. Ibid. pp. 21-22. 
 
 17th October 1603. Royal order allowing Newfoundland 
 whale oil and blubber to be exported free of duty from Guipuz- 
 coa. Coleccion Vargas Ponce v, no. 16. 
 
 22nd October 1603. Decision of the Estates of Brittany to 
 apply for the liberty of trade with Canaiia. Michelant et Ram^, 
 op. cit. p. 26. 
 
 6th November 1603. Propositions submitted to King Henry 
 IV by Monts for the colonization of New France. Collection de 
 Manuscrits relatifs d la Nouvelle France, i 40-43. 
 
 8th November 1603. Letters patent of King Henry IV ap- 
 pointing Monts Governor of New France. Lescarbot, op. cit ii 
 408-415. 
 
 18th December 1603. Edict of King Henry IV granting to 
 Monts a monopoly of the trade of New 5 ranee for ten years. 
 Ibid. pp. 415-417. 
 
 18th December 1603. Remonstrance presented by Monts as 
 to the number of colonists to be taken out each year. Collection 
 de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 44-45. 
 
 31st December 1603. Advice of the Tr^soriers generaux to 
 reduce the duty on fish for the fishing fleets of Havre. Archives 
 de la Seine-Inferieure, serie C 1238, fols. 99 verso-101. 
 
 17th January 1604. Order from King Henry IV to the Par- 
 cement of Rouen to cease its opposition to the registration of
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 191 
 
 Monts' commissions. Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 280-282 ; Gosselin^ 
 Nouvelles Glanes Historiques Normandes, pp. 21-23. Rouen 
 1873. 
 
 25th January 1604. A similar order from King Henr}' IV 
 on the same subject. Harrisse, op. cit. pp. 282-283 ; Gosselin, op- 
 cit. pp. 23-24. 
 
 27th October 1604. Power given by Dupont-Grave to his 
 representative to proceed against the interloper captured off the 
 coast of Acadia. Breard, op. cit. p. ] 02. 
 
 28th October 1604. Receipt by Louis Coman, a pilot, for 66 
 livres due for his services in Acadia. Ibid. pp. 102-103. 
 
 16th November 1604. Appeal from St. Malo to the Estates 
 of Brittany to secure the freedom ol' trade with Canada. Miche- 
 lant et Rame, op. cit. p. 27. 
 
 1st December 1604. Agreement of the pilot Gadois to sail to 
 Leghorn and thence to Canada for cod. Breard, op. cit. 
 p. 103. 
 
 4th December 1604. Decision of the Estates of Brittany to 
 support the demand made by the merchants of St. Malo for the 
 freedom of the fur-trade with Canada. Michelant et Rame, op. 
 cit. pp. 27-28. 
 
 1604. Insurance policy on Newfoundland fish. Prowse, op. 
 cit. pp. 84-85, no. iii. 
 
 17th January 1605. The pilot Gadois to receive 21 livres a 
 month for his voyage. Breard, op. cit. p. 103. 
 
 20th January 1605. Order in council to release 22 bales of 
 beaver-skins seized at Conde-sur-Noireau. Bibliotheque Nation- 
 ale, Ms. Fr. 18168, fol. 12 recto and verso. 
 
 29th January 1605. Order of King Henry IV to the Parle- 
 ment of Paris to register Monts' Letters patent. Collection de 
 Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 48-49. 
 
 8th February 1605. Order from King Henry IV to the Cour 
 des Aides at Rouen informing them that goods from New France 
 were only to pay the usual French provincial duties. Lescarbot, 
 op. cit. ii 418-422. 
 
 1st March 1605. Le Liepvre borrows 100 livres for a voyage 
 to Newfoundland. Breard, op. cit. p. 103.
 
 192 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 20th March 1606. Opposition of the town of St. Malo to the 
 registration of Monts' commissions at Rennes. Michelant et 
 Rame, op. cit. p. 29. 
 
 31st March 1605. Order for the release of furs belonging to 
 Monts seized at Avranches. Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr. 
 18168, fol. 230 and verso. 
 
 3rd June 1 605. Commissions of Monts registered in the Par- 
 lement of Brittany. Michelant et Rame, op. cit. pp. 29-30. 
 
 17th November 1605. Complaint of the town of Motrico in 
 Spain against being obliged to unload its vessels from Newfound- 
 land in Pasajes. Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 31. 
 
 9th February 1607. Jehan Desamaison, Captain of the Es- 
 perance, borrows 100 livres to make the voyage to Leghorn and 
 thence via Spain to Newfoundland. Breard, op. cit. p. 105. 
 
 12th February 1607. Gion Dieres borrows money for the 
 same purpose. Ibid. 
 
 17th July 1607. Repeal of Monts' monopoly. Archives 
 Nationales, s^rie E 14a, fol. 71 recto and verso. 
 
 21st October 1607. Notice of Chauvin's death. Breard, op. 
 cit. p. 105. 
 
 5th November 1607. Sale of one-fourth of a Newfoundland 
 fishing-smack of 60 tons for 500 livres. Ibid. pp. 105-106. 
 
 12th November 1607. Fresh appeal from theEstatesof Brittany 
 for freedom of trade with Canada. Michelant et Ram6, op.cit. p 31. 
 
 1607. Demand for permission to construct a salt marsh at 
 the mouth of the Bidassoa. Archives D^partementales de la Gi- 
 ronde, s^rie C 3812, fol. 62 verso et seq. 
 
 1607. Notice to the French ambassador in Holland to com- 
 plain of the invasion of the St. Lawrence by Dutch traders. Ber- 
 ger de Xivrey, Lettres Missives de Henri IV, vii 465, no. Ixxxiv. 
 Paris 1858. 
 
 1607. Letter from Henry IV to the Estates of Holland com- 
 plaining of the same. Ibid. p. 466, no. Ixxxv. 
 
 7th January 1608. Order of Henry IV to the officers of the 
 Admiralty of Normandy, Brittany and Guyenne informing them 
 of M unts' monopoly for one year. Laverdiere, (Euvres de Cham- 
 plain, iii 136-137. Quebec 1870.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 193 
 
 26th February 1608. Letter from Sully to President Jeannin 
 in which mention is made of the unsuitability of the French na- 
 tion for colonial enterprises. Bibliotheque Nationale, Collection 
 Colbert Cinq Cents, vol. 203, fol. 236. ^ 
 
 26th February 1608. Receipt of Thomas Neufville for 600 
 livres for a voyage to Canada. Br^ard, op. cit. p. 110. 
 
 1st March 1608. Sale of one-eighth of the Newfoundland 
 fishing-smack L'Amiralle. Ibid. pp. 110-111. 
 
 28th March 1608. Loan of 750 livres for the fitting out of 
 the Tessier for Newfoundland. Ibid. p. 112. 
 
 29th March 1608. Order in council granting to Monts a fresh 
 monopoly of the fur-trade for one year. Bibliotheque Nationale, 
 Ms. Fr. 18173, fols. 194 verso- 195. 
 
 31st March 1608. Loan of 75 livres for the voyage of the 
 Dauphin to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 112. 
 
 2nd April 1608. Loan for the despatch of the Tigre to Can- 
 ada. Ibid. 
 
 4th April 1608. Loan of 600 livres at 27 per cent, for 
 the voyage of the Don-de-Dieu of 150 tons to Canada. 
 Ibid. 
 
 5th April 1608. Loan of 50 livres for the Ouillaume and of 
 60 more for the Don-de-Dieu of 80 tons both bound for Canada, 
 Ibid. pp. 112-113. 
 
 3rd November 1608. Order to inquire into the case of a 
 Spaniard sending a French vessel to Newfoundland. Cohccion 
 Vargas Ponce iii, no. 33. 
 
 24th November 1608. Decision of the community of St. Malo 
 to urge the Estates of Brittany to apply for the liberty of the 
 fur-trade in Canada. Michelant et Ram^, op. cit. pp. 31-32. 
 
 8th February 1609. Permission to send a French vessel from 
 San Sebastian to Newfoundland. Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, no. 
 35. 
 
 20th March 1609. Loan of 300 livres to Dupont-Grav^ for 
 the vo}'age to Tadoussac. Breard, op. cit.'p. 114. 
 
 1 I have not been able to see a copy of the Galerie Philosophique du xvi^ Siecle 
 (London 1783, 4°) in which this letter is published. Cf. Harrisse, Notes sur la 
 Nouvdle France, p. 284. 
 
 13
 
 194 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 26th March 1609. Notification to the town of St. Malo of the 
 opening of the fur-trade and of the decision of the Council grant- 
 ing a compensation to Monts. Michelant et Rame, ojo. cit 
 p. 33. 
 
 2nd June 1609. Order to Spanish vessels bound for New- 
 foundland to go well armed against English pirates. Coleccion 
 Vargas Ponce iii, nos. 36 and 37. 
 
 21st June 1609. Receipt of Monts for 2000 livres of his pen- 
 sion. Bibliotheque Nationale, Pieces originales, vol. 1421, no.32147 
 no. 7. 
 
 6th October 1609. Order in council declaring the fur-trade 
 henceforth open and granting a compensation of 6000 livres to 
 Monts to be divided among the vessels which traded there in 1609. 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr. 18176, fols 4-6. 
 
 17th January- 1610. Loan for the Newfoundland fishing 
 trade. Breard, o/>. ci^. p. 117. 
 
 24th February 1610. One Morin loans the use of three 
 boats left at the Bale des Morues in Canada. Ihid. p. 118. 
 
 4th March 1610. The Petite Lanterne about to set sail for 
 Acadia. Ibid. 
 
 6th March 1610. Loan of 195 livres at 25 per cent, to Du- 
 pont-Grav6. Ibid. 
 
 2Dd May 1610. Patent from James I to the London and 
 British Company for the colonization of Newfoundland. Prowse, 
 op. cit. Chap, V, appendix i, pp. 122-125. 
 
 1st October 1610. King Louis XIII to Poutrincourt en- 
 couraging him in his enterprise. Marcel's reprint of the Factum 
 du P voces, etc., p. 5. Paris 1887. 
 
 2nd October 1610. The Queen Mother to Poutrincourt to the 
 same effect. Ibid. pp. 5-6. 
 
 7th October 1610. Louis XIII to Poutrincourt recommend- 
 ing the Jesuits. Ibid. p. 6. 
 
 7th October 1610. The Queen Mother to the same for the 
 same purpose. Ibid. p. 7. 
 
 25th October 1610. Decision of the town council of St. Malo 
 to ask permission to arm two vessels against the savages of New- 
 foundland who had killed several sailors and for the continuation
 
 THE SOURCES, PART 1 : OFFICIAL 195 
 
 of the freedom of trade in Canada. Michelant et Ram^, op. cit. 
 pp. 34.-35. 
 
 27th December 1610. Contract of marriage between Cham- 
 plain and Helen Uoulle. Laverdiere, op. cit. vol. vi, pieces justi" 
 ficatives no. xxxi. 
 
 20th January 1611. Agreement between Robin, Saint- Just 
 and the Jesuits for the fur-trade. Reprint of Factum du Proces 
 etc. pp. 10-13. 
 
 17th February 1611. Payment to a pilot of 250 livres, 15 
 pots of oil, and 12 handfuls of green and 12 of dry cod for his 
 salary. Breard, op. cit. p. 119. 
 
 17th February 1611. Decision of the town council of St. 
 Malo to have the permission to arm two vessels against the sav- 
 ages of Newfoundland registered at Rennes. Michelant et Ram6, 
 op. cit. pp. 35-36. 
 
 2nd April 1611. Examination of Monts before the Court as 
 to his monopoly. La Norraandie, Revue mensuelle, Rouen, 
 Juilletl893, pp^ 8- 11. 
 
 13th August 1611. Proclamation of Governor Guy against 
 abuses in the fishing trade. Sainsbury, op. cit, i 20 no. 40 (I). 
 
 8th February 1612. Loan of 40 livres to the pilot Routier 
 for a trading voyage to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 120. 
 
 13th March 1612. Excommunication of Saint- Just and 
 L'Abbe. Reprint of Factum, etc., pp. 43-47. 
 
 13th March 1612. Deposition of Hebert. Ibid. p. 54. 
 
 14th March 1612. Dupont-Grave gives a power of attorney 
 to his wife. Breard, op. cit. p. 1 20. 
 
 17th March 1612. Loan of 48 livres at 32 1 per cent, for a 
 voyage to Newfoundland. Ibid. 
 
 17th March 1612. Loan of 85 livres at 30 per cent, for a 
 trading vovag-e to Canada. Ibid. 
 
 25th April 1612. Proces-verbal of what took place at the 
 Port des Etechemins. Reprint of Factum, etc, pp. 30-32. 
 
 l5th October 1612. Letters patent from Soissons appoint- 
 ing Champlain his lieutenant. Laverdiere, op. cit. v 231-235. 
 
 13th November 1612. Letters patent from Louis XIII to 
 Conde appointing him Viceroy of Canada with a monopoly of
 
 196 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 the fur-trade for twelve years. Archives of the Parlement of 
 Rouen, 4th March 1613. 
 
 18th November 1612. Edict of Louis XIII to the officers ot 
 the Admiralties of Normandy, Brittany, Picardy and Guyenne 
 informing them of Conde's monopoly. Ibid. 
 
 22nd November 1612. Decision of the town of St. Malo not 
 to prevent Monts from trading under Condi's monopoly. Michel- 
 ant et Rame, op. cit. pp. 36-37. 
 
 22nd December 1612. Reiterated notice to the town of St. 
 Malo of the new monopoly of the Prince de Conde. Ibid. p. 37. 
 
 16th January 1613. Decision of the town of St. Malo to ap- 
 ply for liberty to trade with Canada. Ibid. pp. 37-39. 
 
 18th January 1613, Loan of 200 livres at 30 per cent, for a 
 voyage to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 121. 
 
 19th January 1613. Another loan of 45 livres for the voyage 
 to Canada. Ibid. 
 
 21st January 1613. Decision of the Parlement of Rouen to 
 hear the merchants before registering Conde's monopoly. Ar- 
 chives Secretes of the Parlement of Rouen, annee 1613-14, fols. 
 123 verso-124 and 126 verso. 
 
 26th February 1613. Order from Louis XIII to the Parle- 
 ment of Rouen to register Condi's monopoly. Archives of the 
 Parlement of Rouen, 4th March 1613. 
 
 26th February 1613, Agreement by which one Jacques 
 Simon was to receive 100 livres for his services as interpreter to 
 the Jesuits at St. Sauveur. Br6ard, op. cit. pp. 121-123. 
 
 27th February 1613. Loan of 100 livres at 30 per cent, for a 
 voyage to Canada. Ibid. p. 123. 
 
 4th March 1613. Condi's Letters patent registered in the 
 Parlement of Rouen. Archives of the Parlement of Rouen, same 
 date. 
 
 20th June 1613. Receipt by Monts for the sum of 5000 
 livres given him by the King for his services as governor of the 
 town of Pons. Bibliotheque Nationale, Pieces originales, vol. 
 1421 no. 32147 no. 8. 
 
 12th October 1613. Order in council summoning four merch- 
 ants of St. Malo to pay 6000 livres to Monts within three months
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 197 
 
 on pain of imprisonment. Archives of St. Malo, s^rie EE. 4, 
 no. 138. 
 
 12th October 1613. Order to the sergeant to the same effect. 
 Ibid. 
 
 14th November 1613. Edict of Louis XIII to the oflBcers of 
 the Admiralties of Normandy, Brittany and Guyenne informing 
 them of the extension of Conde's monopoly from Quebec to the 
 river Mantanne. Archives of the Parlement of Rouen, 14th 
 December 1613. 
 
 19th November 3 613. Statement of the sergeant as to his 
 visit to St. Malo. Archives of St. Malo, sdrie EE. 4, no. 
 138. 
 
 8th December 1613. Complaint of La Rochelle fishermen 
 against the English settlement in Newfoundland. Sainsbury, 
 op. cit. Addenda, p. 51 no. 83. 
 
 14th December 1613. The extension of Condi's monopoly 
 registered in the Parlement of Rouen. Archives of the Parle- 
 ment of Rouen, same date. 
 
 21st December 1613. Decision of the town of St. Malo to 
 free if possible the four merchants condemned by the King to 
 pay to Monts the sum of 6000 livres. Michelant et Ramd, op cit. 
 pp. 39-40. 
 
 1613. List of the Newfoundland vessels of St.- Jean-de-Luz 
 which entered the canal of Pasajes that year. Coleccion Vargas 
 Ponce iii, no. 41. 
 
 9th .Tanuar3'^ 1614. Statement of the sergeant at St. Malo as 
 to the delivery of the papers regarding Monts' demand at St. 
 Malo. Archives of St. Malo, s^rie EE. 4, no. 138. 
 
 13th January 1614. Loan of 50 livres at 27| percent, for 
 the voyage of the Don-de-Dieu of 80 tons to Acadia. Br^ard, 
 op. cit. pp. 1*23-124. 
 
 15th January 1614. Loan of 25 livres at 30 per cent, for the 
 voyage to Acadia. Ibid. p. 124. 
 
 8th February 1614. Order in council putting an end to a 
 difference between Monts and one of the captains of the garrison 
 at Pons. Bibliotheque Nationale, Collection Clairambault, vol. 
 364 fol. 28
 
 198 THE SOURCES, PART I: OFFICIAL 
 
 18th July 1614. Statement made by Poutrincourt about the 
 destruction of his home at Port Royal before the Admiralty Court 
 at La Rochelle. Lescarbot, op. cit. (Paris 1617) pp. 687-690. 
 
 — October 1614. Expression of thanks from the Marquise 
 de Guercheville to Secretary Winwood. Sainsbury, op. cit. Ad- 
 denda, p. 52 no. 85. 
 
 ^ October 1614. Complaint from Admiral Montmorency 
 to King James of Argall's depredation. Sainsbury, op. cit i 15. 
 
 1st December 1614. Receipt given by Monts for 750 livres of 
 his pension of 2000 livres a year. Bibliotheque Nationale, 
 Pieces originales, vol. 1421, no. 32147, no. 9. 
 
 12th December 1614. Audience of Sir Thomas Edmondes 
 with the King and Queen of France as to the English complaints 
 against French sailors. Sainsbury, op. cit. Addenda, p. 52 no. 86. 
 
 80th December 1614. Memorial of the English complaints 
 against the French. Ibid. pp. 52 53. 
 
 1614. Answer to the complaints presented to King James I 
 by the Sieur de Buisseaux. Ibid. pp. 53-54. 
 
 20th February 1615. Agreement for the voyage of the Loyal 
 of 70 tons to the coast of Acadia for fish and furs. Breard, op. 
 cit. pp. 125-126. 
 
 17th April 1615. Loan of 39 livres at 30 per cent, for a voy- 
 age to Canada. Ibid. p. 127. 
 
 18th April 1615. Loan of 26 livres for the same purpose. Ibid. 
 
 22nd April 1615. Loan of 50 livres at 25 per cent, for the 
 same purpose. Ibid. pp. 127-128. 
 
 26th June 1615. Proclamation of Louis XIII forbidding the 
 Newfoundland fishermen to tear down or remove the platforms 
 in the bays and harbours on their first arrival. Michelant et 
 Rame', o]j. cit. pp. 40-44. 
 
 20th August 1615. The above proclamation is registered in 
 the Parlement of Brittany. Ibid. p. 44. 
 
 9th September 1615. The town of St. Malo decides to sup- 
 port its citizens in the demands for the freedom of the fur-trade. 
 Ibid. pp. 44-45. 
 
 1615. Petition to prevent the introduction into Spain of 
 whale oil from Norway under the same favourable conditions
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 199 
 
 enjoyed by that from Newfoundland. Coleccion Vargas Ponce v, 
 no. 45. 
 
 5th January 1616. Loan of 63 livres at 25 per cent, for a 
 trading voyage to Acadia. Br^ard, op. cit. p. 128. 
 
 5th November 1616. Appeal of the Estates of Brittany for 
 the liberty of trade with New France. Michelant et Rame, op. cit. 
 pp. 45-46. 
 
 6th March 1617. Agreement between Hebert and Cham- 
 plain's Company, Au Roy sur la Nouvelle France, pp. 14-15. 
 1626. 
 
 9th March 1617. Loan for a trading voyage to Canada. 
 Breard, op. cit. p. 129. 
 
 29th October 1617. Notice to the Estates of Brittany of the 
 repeal of the article granting the freedom of trade with Canada 
 and their determination to re-apply for its execution. Michelant 
 et Rame, op. cit. pp. 47-49. 
 
 15th December 1617. Loan of 100 livres at 80 per cent, for 
 a voyage to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 129. 
 
 18th December 1617. Loan of 26 livres at 30 per cent, for a 
 trading voyage to Acadia. Ihid. 
 
 January 1618. Petition of the inhabitants of St. Malo to the 
 Parlement of Brittany to appoint a judge to try those guilty of 
 tearing down platforms in Newfoundland. Archives de St. Malo, 
 serie EE. 4, no. 139. 
 
 12th March 1618. Letters of Louis XIII to the Company 
 formed in 1614 ordering them to give Champlain every assist- 
 ance in fulfilling the duties of his office. Laverdiere, op. cit. v 
 324-325. 
 
 20th March 1618. Bull of Paul V giving permission to the 
 Recollects to proceed as missionaries to New France. Sagard, 
 Histoire du Canada, i 28-32. Paris 1865. 
 
 24th April 1618. Loan of 69 livres at 25 per cent, for a 
 trading voyage to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 130. 
 
 25th July 1618. Petition that the whale oil and blubber 
 brought from Newfoundland by the inhabitants of Guipuzcoa be 
 preferred in the markets to that offered by strangers : granted. 
 Coleccion Vargas Ponce iii, nos. 50 and 51.
 
 200 THE SOURCES, PART I: OFFICIAL 
 
 25th September 1618. Payment to the widow of one Betourn6 
 of 111 livres for his services as carpenter in Robert Gravey's 
 vessel, on her voyage to Acadia. Breard, Oj3. cit.ip. 130. 
 
 28th October 1618. Order of the Estates of Brittany to its 
 representatives at Court to continue the lawsuit arising out of the 
 monopoly of the fur-trade. Michelant etBam^, op. cit. pp. 49-50. 
 
 21st December 1618. Statement of the persons to be taken 
 out and supported at the factory of Quebec during the year 1619. 
 Laverdiere, 029. cit. v 317-319. 
 
 December (?) 1618. Articles of grievances against the plan- 
 tation of Newfoundland. Sainsbury, op, cit. i 20, no. 39. 
 
 December (?) 1618. Answer of the Company of the 
 Plantation of Newfoundland. Ibid. no. 40. 
 
 December ( ? ) 1618. Reply of the petitioners to this 
 answer. Ibid no. 41. 
 
 1618 ( ? ). Letters patent of Louis XIII granting permission 
 to the Recollects to continue their missionary labours in New 
 France. Sagard, op. cit. i 32-35. 
 
 3rd October 1619. Order from the Estates of Brittany to its 
 representatives to defend those who are engaged in lawsuits in 
 regard to the fur-trade monopoly. Michelant et Rame, op. cit. 
 pp. 50-51. 
 
 16th March 1620. Petition from the Newfoundland planta- 
 tion for relief against pirates. Sainsbury, ojj. cit. p. 25 no. 54- 
 
 7th May 1620. Letters from Louis XIII to Champlain en- 
 couraging him in his work in New France. Laverdiere, o}). cit. 
 v328. 
 
 23rd October 1620. Statement signed by the shareholders of 
 Champlain's Company freeing one Mathieu Leforsonney from all 
 responsibility as to some furs stored at Honfleur. Breard, op. 
 cit. pp. 130-131. 
 
 27th October 1620. Letter to Sir Ferd. Gorges with orders 
 to establish quiet among the fishermen of Newfoundland. 
 Sainsbury, op. cit. p. 26. 
 
 8th November 1620. Articles stipulated by the Caens in re- 
 turn for a monopoly of the fur-trade of New France. Biblioth^- 
 que Nationale, Ms. Fr. 16738, fols. 148 et seq.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 201 
 
 27th November 1C20. Petition of the old Company to Mont 
 morency to have their monopoly continued for four years, with 
 Dolu's reply. Bibliotheque Nationale, Collection Colbert Cinq 
 Cents, vol. 203, fols. 188-190. 
 
 29th January 1621. Loan of 72 livres at 25 per cent, for a 
 trading voyage to Canada. Br6ard, op. cit. p. 131. 
 
 2nd February 1621. Notice sent to Charaplain by Montmo- 
 rency of the formation of the Caens' Company. Laverdiere, op 
 cit vi 10-11. 
 
 24th February 1621. Letter from Louis XIII to Champlain 
 informing him of the despatch of arms to New France. Ibid. 
 pp. 9-10. 
 
 2nd April 1621. Loan of 30 livres at 30 per cent, for a trad- 
 ing voyage to Canada. Breard, op. cit. p. 131. 
 
 18th August 1621. Petitions from the inhabitants of New 
 France and from the Recollects to the King for the removal of 
 certain abuses. Sagard, oj). cit. i 80-94. 
 
 18th August 1621. List of arms handed over to Champlain. 
 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 32. 
 
 31st August 1621. Statement by one Hallard of the powder 
 handed over to Champlain. Ihid. pp. 32-33. 
 
 10th September 1621. Charter from James I granting Nova 
 Scotia to Sir William Alexander. D. Laing, Royal Letters, 
 Charters and Tracts relating to the colonization of New Scot- 
 land, Charters pp. 1-15. Edinburgh, (Bannatyne Club) 1867. 
 
 21st October 1621. Baptism of Eustache Martin at Quebec. 
 Collection de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 61. 
 
 8th November 1621. Grant of a portion of Nova Scotia to 
 Robert Gordon of Lochinvar. Laing, op. cit., Charters pp. 
 16-26. 
 
 20th March 1622. Letters from Louis XIII to Champlain in- 
 forming him of the decree of the Council uniting the two Com- 
 panies. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 51. 
 
 Slst December 1622. Grant of Newfoundland to Sir George 
 Calvert. Sainsbury, op. cit. p. 35. 
 
 30th March 1623. Regrant of a territory in Newtounclland 
 to Sir George Calvert. Ihid. p. 41.
 
 202 THE SOURCES, PART I: OFFICIAL 
 
 7th April 1623. James I grants Avalon to Lord Baltimore. 
 Prowse, op. cit pp. 131-132, no. IV. 
 
 2nd September 1623. Statement of Pierre Guerard before 
 the Admiralty officer at Dieppe. Felix, Voyage a la Nouvelle 
 France du Gapitaine Charles Daniel, Introd. pp. 5-9. Rouen 1881. 
 
 15th January 1625. Notice that there were then in the port 
 at Pasajes bound for Newfoundland forty-one vessels with 295 
 ship's boats and 1475 men. Coleccion Vargas Ponce v, no. 30. 
 
 15th February 1625. Commission from Ventadour appoint- 
 ing Champlain his lieutenant. Laverdi^re. op. cit. vi 88-92. 
 
 12th July 1625. Renewal of Baltimore's grant in Newfound- 
 land by Charles I. Prowse, op. cit. 2nd edition, pp. 27-45. 
 
 8th August 1625. Petition of the Mayor of Poole to the 
 Privy Council for protection for the Newfoundland fleet against 
 Turkish pirates. Sainsbury, op. cit. p. 75. 
 
 24th August 1625. Royal order that ships from Newfound- 
 land with cod were not to pay duty. Coleccion Vargas Ponce 
 iii, no 57. 
 
 18th November 1626. The owners of the Newfoundland 
 fishing vessel Saint-Thomas- des-Maretz demand indemnity for 
 the seizure of the same by La Ralde. Breard, op. cit. pp. 133-134. 
 
 21st November 1626. Payment of 81 livres to one Bataille 
 for his services in Canada. Ihid. p. 134. 
 
 26th November 1626. Report on shipping presented to 
 Richelieu by Razilly. L. Deschamps, Isaac de Razilly, pp. 15- 
 35. Paris 1887. 
 
 29th April 1627. Articles accorded by King Louis XIII to 
 the Company of New France. Collection de Manuscrits relatifs 
 a la Nouvelle France, i 62-71. 
 
 1627. Description of the fleet which left St. Malo for New- 
 foundland in May 1627. Sainsbury, op. cit. Addenda, p. 69. 
 
 2nd February 1628. Grant to Alexander by Charles I of the 
 islands and trade of the St. Lawrence. Laing, op. cit., Charters 
 pp. 46-51. 
 
 27th April 1328. Order from Louis XIII directing Champlain 
 to draw up an inventory of the arms, furniture, provisions, etc., 
 brought to Quebec by the Caens. Laverdiere, o-p. cit. vi 181-182.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 203 
 
 J^ July 1628. Demand sent by David Kirke to Champlain 
 for the surrender of Quebec. Ihid. pp. 175-177. 
 
 18th July 1628 (?). Reply of Champlain. Ibid. pp. 177-179. 
 
 9th August 1628. Petition of Lord Newburgh and his part- 
 ners to the King; about Canada and Alexander's rio-hts. Sains- 
 bury, op. cit. Addenda, p. 70 no. 149. 
 
 1628. Statement of the condition of affairs in the St. Law- 
 rence. Ibid. p. 69 no. 148. 
 
 1628. Propositions of accomodation with Alexander. Ibid. 
 p. 70 no. 149(1). 
 
 4th February 1629. Monopoly of the trade in the gulf and 
 river of Canada granted to Alexander and his partners. Sains- 
 bury, op. cit. p. 96. 
 
 21st March 1629. Commission appointing Champlain lieu- 
 tenant for Richelieu in New France. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 
 297-299. 
 
 March (?) 1629. Memorial touching the preparations of the 
 French for Canada. Sainsbury, op. cit. p. 96 no. 3. 
 
 17th May 1629. List of the shareholders of the Company of 
 New France. Collection de Manuscrits relatifs d la Nouvelle 
 France, i 80-85. 
 
 19th July 1629. Demand for the surrender of Quebec. La- 
 verdiere, op. cit. vi 239. 
 
 19th July 1629. Champlain's reply. Ibid. 
 
 19th July 1629. Articles demanded by Champlain before 
 the surrender. Ibid. pp. 240-242 ; Sainsbury, op. cit. i 98, no 16. 
 
 21st July 1629. Statement by Lewis Kirke of what he found 
 at Quebec. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi 245-246. 
 
 19th August 1629. Articles granted to Champlain and Du- 
 pont-Grave. Ibid. pp. 242-243. 
 
 1629 (?). Grievances of Champlain when m London. Ibid. 
 Pieces justificatives no. i. 
 
 9th November 1629. Deposition of Champlain before the 
 Admiralty Court. Ibid. no. ii. 
 
 9th November 1629. Examination of Boulle. Ibid. no. iii. 
 
 9th November 1629. Examination of Nicholas Blundell of 
 Dieppe. Ibid. no. iv.
 
 204 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 I7th November 1629. Deposition of David Kirke, Thomas 
 Kirke, John Love and Thomas Wade. Ibid., no. v. 
 
 1629. Petition of the Scottish and English Company for the 
 restoration of goods. Sainsbury, op. cit. p. 106 no. 49. 
 
 January (?) 1630. Memorial of Lord Ochiltrie to the King 
 complaining of his seizure by Captain Daniel. F^lix, op. cit. 
 Appendice A pp. 5-14. 
 
 January (?) 1630. Paper presented to the King by Lord 
 Ochiltrie as to the plans of the French in America. Sainsbury, 
 op. cit. i 106, no. 47. 
 
 27th January 1630. Appointment of a commission to inquire 
 into Caen's claims. Ibid. no. 48. 
 
 1st February 1630. Demand of the French ambassador to 
 have the furs seized which were brought from Quebec. Laver- 
 diere, o^?. cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. vi, 
 
 1st February 1630. Demand of the same for the restitution 
 of Port Royal and Quebec. Ibid, no vii. 
 
 ^■^ 1st February 1630. Answer of the Lords' committees for For- 
 eign Affairs to the above demands. Ibid., no. viii. 
 
 28th February 1630. A commission prepared to inquire into 
 French claims but Caen not satisfied with it. Sainsbury, op. cit 
 i 108, no. 56. 
 
 5th March 1630. Appointment of a commission to inquire 
 into the amount of furs seized at Quebec. Laverdiere, ojJ. cit. vi, 
 pieces justificatives no. ix. 
 
 2nd April 1680. Order of the Privy Council for the hearing 
 of the matter of Caen's claims before the Lord Mayor. Sains- 
 bury, op. cit. i 112, no. 79. 
 
 7th April 1 630. List of six French captains bound for Can- 
 ada. Ibid. no. 80. 
 
 9th April 1630. 
 Ibid, no 81. 
 
 9th April 1630. 
 of the skins. Ibid. 
 
 15th April 1630. 
 ambassador's application 
 tives no. X. 
 
 Notice of the sale of the skins to Caen. 
 
 Order of the Privy Council for the delivery 
 
 Dorchester to Wake in regard to the French 
 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi, pieces justifica-
 
 THE SOURCES; PART I : OFFICIAL 205 
 
 April 1630. Deposition of the notary as to his search for the 
 keys of the warehouse. Ibid. no. xi (3). 
 
 April 1630. Petition of Caen to the Privy Council for re- 
 dress. Ibid. no. xi (2). 
 
 28th April 1630. The Lord Mayor to the Privy Council as 
 to Caen's demands. Ibid. no. xi (1). 
 
 18th May 1630. Warrant to the Lord Mayor to break open 
 the warehouse. Ibid. no. xii. 
 
 May 1630. Demand of the French ambassador for the arrest 
 and imprisonment of Kirke and his partners. Ibid. no. xiii. 
 
 2nd June 1630. Order for the examination of Fittz the 
 guilty party. Ibid. no. xiv. 
 
 16th June 1630. Order to proceed against Fittz in the Star 
 Chamber for contempt of justice. Sainsbury, op. cit. i 117. 
 
 9th July 1630. Order of the Privy Council to accompany 
 Fittz in search of the stolen skins. Ibid., p. 118. 
 
 14th July 1630. Order for the release of Fittz. Ibid. 
 
 9th September, 1630. The Council of Scotland to Charles I 
 on the title of the French to Nova Scotia. Ibid. p. 119 no. 102, 
 
 9th September 163C. Reasons in defence of the English right 
 to the same. Ibid. no. 102 (1). 
 
 26th February 1631. Petition of the Scottish and English 
 Company for the stay of certain ships bound for Canada. 
 Laverdiere, op. cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. xv. 
 
 29th February 1631. Warrant for the stay of the same. 
 Ibid. no. xvi. 
 
 5th March 1631. Petition of John Smart of Plymouth for a 
 plantation on the north side of the river of Canada. Sainsbury, 
 op. cit. i 129, no. 8. 
 
 2nd May 1631. Declaration of the number of furs brought 
 from Canada. Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. xvii. 
 
 27 th May 1631. Deposition of David Kirke before Sir Henry 
 Martin. Ibid. no. xviii. 
 
 August 1631. Captain Lewis Kirke to Emery de Caen. Ibid. 
 no. xix. 
 
 22nd August 1631. Declaration of Emery de Caen as to his 
 voyage to Quebec. Ibid.
 
 206 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 
 
 14.th October 1631. Order of the Privy Council for the 
 further hearing of the case of the interlopers. Ihid. no. xx. 
 
 5th November 1631. Examination of the interlopers. Ihid. 
 no. xxi. 
 
 November 1631. Report of the commissioners appointed to 
 inquire into the matter. Ihid. 
 
 1st December 1631, Grant of arms to the Kirkes. Sains" 
 bury, op. cit. i 137. 
 
 1631. Petition from Caen to Richelieu. Bibliotheque Nation- 
 ale, Ms. Fr. 16738, fols. 132-133. 
 
 1631. Memorial from the Province of Guipuzcoa to the King of 
 Spain pointing out how owing to the duty on salt no ships left 
 that year for Newfoundland. Coleceion Vargas Ponce v, no. 36. 
 
 31st January — _,. Burlamachi to the Scottish and English 
 Company on the state of ths peace negotiations. Laverdiere, op. 
 cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. xxiii. 
 
 January 1632. Note of such things as the Scottish and 
 English Company has in Canada. Ihid. no. xxii. 
 
 13th February 1632. Agreement between Champlain and his 
 wife as to their goods. Revue des Questions Heraldiques, Paris, 
 Aout 1899, p. 67. 
 
 27th March 1632. Agreement between Razilly and Richelieu 
 for the re-occupation of Port Royal. Collection de Manuscrits 
 relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 85-86. 
 
 29th March 1632. Treaty of St-Germain-en-Laye. Ihid. pp. 
 86-97. 
 
 March 1632, Objections to the agreement as to the payment 
 for Caen's debts. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. 
 xxiv. 
 
 March 1632. King Charles I commands the Scottish and 
 English Company to give up Quebec. Ihid. no. xxv. 
 
 March 1632. Another copy of the same. Ihid. no. xxvi. 
 
 March 1632. Declaration by Champlain as to the arms and 
 other material left at Quebec. Ihid. no. xxvii. 
 
 3rd April 1632. List of vessels which sailed that year from 
 Pasajes for Newfoundland. Coleceion Vargas Ponce v, no. 38. 
 
 24th April 1632. Answer of the Scottish and English Com-
 
 THE SOURCES, PART I : OFFICIAL 207 
 
 pany to a letter from Sir Isaac Wake. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi, 
 pieces justificatives no. xxviii. 
 
 10th May 1G32. Commission to Razilly from Louis XIII to 
 receive Port Royal from the Scots. Collection de Manuscrits 
 relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 110. 
 
 12th May 1632. Receipt thereof acknowledged by Razilly. 
 Ibid. p. 111. 
 
 19th May 1632. Grant of land to Razilly in Acadia by the 
 Company of New France. Memoires des Commissaires du 
 Roi, ii 491. Paris 1755. 
 
 12th June 1632. Order from Charles I to the Scottish and 
 English Company for the surrender of Quebec. Sainsbury, op. 
 cit., i 151, no. 55. 
 
 5th September 1632. Deposition of Solicitor Peacock re 
 Thomson's payment of 400 marks. Laverdiere, op. cit. vi, pieces 
 justificatives no. xxix (2). 
 
 1632. The Attorney General's report to the Privy Council on 
 the interlopers. Ibid. no. xxix (1). 
 
 1632. Petition of the Scottish and English Company. Ibid. 
 no. xxix (3). 
 
 1632. List of goods found in the Mary Fortune taken at 
 Tadoussac, Sainsbury, op. cit. i 143, no, 50. 
 
 1632. Minute with respect to the possession of New Scotland 
 by the French, Ibid. p. 152 no. 56. 
 
 11th May 1633. Patent to Sir William Alexander and others 
 for the sole trade to the river and gulf of Canada. Ibid. p. 165. 
 
 I7th June 1633. Demands of the Scottish and English Com- 
 pany to Caen. Laverdiere, op), cit. vi, pieces justificatives no. xxx. 
 
 25th June 1633. Decret of the Parlement of Rouen relative 
 to the disputes about the fur-trade in Canada. Archives of the 
 Parlement of Rouen, same date. 
 
 25th June 1633. Second decree relative to the same. Ibid. 
 
 12th July 1633. Third decree relative to the same. Ibid., 
 same date. 
 
 27th April 1634. Decree of the Council of State relative to 
 the Company of New France, Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms, Fr. 
 16734, fols. 143 et seq.
 
 THE SOURCES. 
 
 PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 Verrazano. 
 The account of Verrazano's voyage is preserved in two Italian 
 versions! and in an English version.^ The latter is only a trans- 
 lation of one of the former ^ while the short French synopsis 
 given by Belleforesf* and Lescarbot^ is evidently taken from this 
 same Italian version of Ramusio.^ There remain therefore the 
 two Italian versions, which, strange to say, offer considerable 
 differences. Not only is the manuscript version much longer 
 than that given by Ramusio, but in the parts given by both, the 
 Italian is often quite different. Thus while one begins — " Non 
 scrissi a V. Maesta Christianiss. Re dopo la fortuna havuta 
 nelle parti Settentrionale," the other has " Da poi la fortuna pas- 
 sata nelle piagge settentrionale, Serenissimo Re, non scrissi a 
 Vostra Serenissima et Christianissima Maesta," etc. Again lower 
 down the manuscript version has " il resto nudo, il capo simile," 
 which is lacking in the other.7 It should therefore appear that 
 both are translations of the original French version now lost. 
 That such an original existed is proved by the mention of it in 
 
 1 The first exists in a manuscript copy found by Mr. 6. W. Greene in the 
 Magliabecchian Libi-ary at Florence and published with a translation in the Collec- 
 tions of the New York Historical Society, second series, vol. i (New York 1841) 
 pp. 39-67. A corrected version will be found in the Archivio Storico Italiano, 
 tomo ix (Firenze 1853) pp. 37-52. The second Italian version is the one given by 
 Ramusio in his Navigationi et Viagcji, tomo iii, folios 420-422. Venetia 1556. 
 
 2 " The Relation of John Verarzanus, a Florentine, of the lande by him dis- 
 covered in the name of his Maiestie, written in Diepe the eight of July 1524," in 
 Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, pp. 55-71. Publications of the Hakluyt Society, Lon- 
 don 1850. 
 
 ^ Ibid., p. 17: "I have translated the voyage of John Verarzanus," etc. 
 Cf. also p. 24. 
 
 4 Belleforest, Cosmographie Universelle, ii 2175-78. Paris 1575. 
 
 5 Lescarbot, op. cit. (ed. of 1866) i 30-37. 
 
 6 A. de Leon Pinelo, Epitome de la Bihliotheca Oriental y Occidental, Nautica 
 y Geografica, tomo segundo (Madrid 1738), p. 620 : " i esti resumida en Marcos 
 Lescarbot." 
 
 For the other differences vid. De Costa, op. cit. pp. 7 et seq. 
 
 [ 208 ]
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 209 
 
 Pinelo, who distinctly tells us that Ramusio translated it from 
 
 the French.i Let us hope that some day this original may yet 
 
 be brought to light. 
 
 Carli's Letter 
 
 This is a letter2 written by one Fernando Carli to his father 
 from Lyons in August 1524, in which he mentions the voyage of 
 Verrazano to the New World in the Dauphine.'^ It is simply one 
 of those fugitive contemporary notices which the historian is 
 always delighted to discover, as they throw a refreshing light on 
 facts which are often only otherwise authenticated by receipts, 
 marriage contracts or death notices. 
 
 John Rut. 
 
 The information contributed by John Rut may be found in 
 a letter, " in bad English and worse writing," which he sent from 
 St. John's, Newfoundland, to King Henry the Eighth in the year 
 1527. Purchas, who has preserved it for us,^ thought the source 
 from which he obtained it to be the original,^ although he did not 
 copy it until nearly one hundred years after it had been written. 
 This would account however for his description given above. 
 It appears that two ships were sent out in that year to find certain 
 islands in the west, although Hakluyt, coupling this venture with 
 a letter from Seville, written in the same year, thought that their 
 aim was to find a northern passage to the East.^ All that Rut says, 
 however, is that they were about to sail on with all diligence " to- 
 ward . . . that Islands . . . as we were commanded at our 
 departing." In this they were unsuccessful. One vessel, the >S^am- 
 
 1 Pinelo, op. cit. (ed. of 1629) p. 79 : — :" Juan Verrazano. Relacion de lo que 
 deseubrio al Septentrion de la Florida, en Frances. Juan Baptista Ramusio la 
 traduxo en Italiano, i la imprimio en el tomo 3." Alcedo, Bihlioteca Americana, 
 MS. in Carter-Brown Library, vol. ii, p. 890 : " Escrita en Diepa en Frances," 
 etc., cited by De Costa, op. cit., p. 21, note 4. 
 
 2 " Lettera di Fernando Carli a suo padre " in Archivio Storico Italiano, ix 53-55. 
 Vid. Brevoort's Verrazano (New York 1874) pp. 151-153, for English translation. 
 
 3 M. de la Roncitire has been kind enough to point out a reference to this vessel 
 in the Collection Clairambault, vol. 154, fol, 4015, no. 99. 
 
 4 Purchas His Pilgrimes, The Third Part, p. 809. London 1625. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 808 :— " here (as I thinke) given you from the Originall." 
 
 6 Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, p. 54. 
 
 14
 
 210 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 son. foundered not far from Newfoundland in a storm, and Rut's 
 vessel, the Mary of Gilford, after " shaping her course towards 
 Cape Britton and the coast of Norumbega, and oftentimes putting^ 
 their men on land to search the state of those unknowen regions, 
 returned home about the beginning of October."^ In itself the 
 letter contains very little information, but it is important as 
 proving the rapid increase of the fishing trade. On entering the 
 harbour of St. John's they found thirteen vessels all engaged in 
 fishing. Purchas says there was also a letter from the same 
 place addressed to Cardinal Wolsey, but, as it was to the same 
 purport, he deemed it unnecessary to print it.2 
 
 G artier s Voyages. 
 
 Of the four voyages which Cartier seems to have made to the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence at the King's orders, we have accounts of 
 only the first three. 
 
 The original of the first voyage made in 1534 is lost. The 
 manuscript preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in the collec- 
 tion Moreau is only a copy of it.^ This is clearly proved, in the 
 first place because it is dated 1544 and is found in the collection 
 Moreau. Again it has none of the headings except one which 
 the copyist wrote out in a moment of forgetfulness.'* There are 
 also several mistakes, as for instance the omission of the word 
 " main,"5 Rapont for Carpont,'' and fifty degrees for fifty-one and 
 one-half. 
 
 The Italian version of Ramusio,7 the next in date, though it 
 contains the headings which are omitted in the French copy, is 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589), p. 517. cf. also Coleccion de 
 Documentos Iniditos de Indias 1st Series vol. xxxvii, pp. 456-458, vol. xl pp 
 305-354; 2nd Series iv pp. 57-60. 
 
 2 Purchas His Pilgrimes, Third Part, p. 809. 
 
 3 Collection Moreau, vol. 841, fols. 51 et seq. This was published as the 
 original in 1867 at Paris by M. Michelant. 
 
 i Michelant's edition, p. 6: — "Description de la terre dempuis Cap Rouge 
 jucques au hable de Brest, estaut en la baye." 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 6 Ihid., pp. 5, 6 and 7. 
 
 7 Ranmsio, op. cit. iii 435-440 : — " Prima Relatione di Jacques Cartier della 
 Terra Nuova detta la Nuova Francia."
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 211 
 
 not a very careful translation. Thus while it was the Vice- 
 Admiral de Mouy who took the oaths and Cartier who set sail, 
 the Relation is headed " Come messer Carlo da Mouy .... partito." 
 Again, where the French copy reads (p. 8) " Et a deux lieux dudit 
 hable des Buttes est le hable de la Balaine," Ramusio has " et k 
 due leghe dal porto delle ballanze." So on folio 435 verso Brest 
 is put for Bouays, and on folio 436 the number fourteen is left 
 out. There are also other mistakes similar to those which occur 
 in most translations. 
 
 In 1580 Florio published at London an English translation of 
 this version of Ramusio.^ The translation was done at Oxford 
 and is dedicated to Edmond Bray, High Sheriff of that county.2 
 In the preface he says that " if the Marchant Venturer, or skil- 
 full Pilot, or whosoever desirous of newe Discoveries, have the 
 readying and perusing thereof, for whome especially I have done 
 it into Englishe, they will find matter whorthy the looking." His 
 aim in fact was to urge his countrymen to fresh efforts in dis- 
 covery and colonization, for '' althoughe some attemptes have not 
 had as yet suche successe as was wished, they ought not therefore 
 to bee the slower in this entreprise." The translation is fairly 
 well done, mistakes such as that of putting " Come Messer Carlo 
 da Mouy .... partito " being corrected by Florio, who put " How 
 Maister James Carthier departed from the Port of S. Malo." 
 
 In 1598 there appeared at Rouen a French translation of 
 Ramusio's version.^ It appears that the attention of the pub- 
 lisher had been drawn to New France by the publication of 
 
 1 A shorte and hritfe narration of the tivo Navigations and Discoveries to the 
 Northweast partes called Newe Fraunce: First translated out of French into Italian 
 by that famous learned man Gio: Bapt: Ramutius and now turned into English by 
 John Florio. Imprinted at London by H. Bynneman, dwelling in Thames streate, 
 neere unto Baj'nardes Castell, Anno Domini 1580. 
 
 2 " To the Right Worshipful Edmond Bray Esquire From Oxenford the 
 
 25 of June 1580." Dedication. 
 
 3 Discours du Voyage Fait par le Capitaine Jaques Cartier aux Terres-neufves 
 de Canadas, Norembergue, Hochelage, Labrador, et pays adiacens, dite nouvelle 
 France, avec particidieres m^ceurs, langage et ceremonies des habitans d'icelle. A 
 Rouen 1598. This version, which is the one given by Lescarbot (1609, p. 231) 
 was reprinted by M. Michelant at Paris in 1865. It will also be found in H. 
 Ternaux-Compans, Archives des Voyages, i 117-153. Paris 1840,
 
 212 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 La Roche's Letters patent which had been given to himself to 
 print. When therefore a few days later, an account of Cartier's 
 first voyage fell into his hands, he decided to print it as well, 
 though it was in a foreign tongue. The translation was done by 
 one of his friends and the book was published in the year 1598.^- 
 Contrarv to the opinion of M. Michelant the work is simply a 
 translation of Ramusio's version. Thus the mistake in the first 
 heading is again repeated and we have " Comme Messire Charles 
 de Mouy .... partit " etc. The " Nouvelle France " of the original 
 which Ramusio had rendered " La Francese " now becomes " La 
 Fran^oise," which must have been unintelligible to most readers. 
 Other peculiarities present in the Italian version might also 
 be pointed out. 
 
 Two years later Richard Hakluyt gave a fresh English trans- 
 ation in the third volume of his collection of voyages.^ It seems to 
 have been at Hakluyt's suggestion that Florio had made his 
 translation, which Hakluyt had intended to include in his Divers 
 Voyages published in 1582.^ Since then however he has probably 
 seen the French printed edition of 1598 or even the original at 
 Paris,"* for he has improved Florio's translation in several places. 
 Thus, where Florio (p. 5) had put White Sands, Hakluyt (p. 203) 
 gives the French name " Blanc Sablon, " and again where Florio 
 (p. 10) made the mistake of taking " Godetz Isoli " as the name 
 of these birds,Hakluyt (page 205) translates properly with "onely 
 Godetz." For some reason or other Florio put just one half the num- 
 
 1 " Aj'ant ces iours passez imprirae I'Edict du Roy contenant le pouvoir et 
 commission donnee au sieur Marquis de la Roche, il m'est du depuis tombe entre 
 les mains un Discours du voyage fait ausdites terres, par le Capitaine Jaques Car- 
 tier, escrit en langue estrangere que i'ay fait traduire en la nostre, par un de mes 
 amis." Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, PW?i«25«« Navigations {1600), iii 201-212 :—" The first relation 
 of Jaques Carthier of S. Malo, of the new land called New France, newly discover- 
 ed in the j'ere of our Lord 1534." 
 
 3 Hakluyt, Diva's Voyages, p. 17 : — "And the last yeere, at my charges and 
 other of my friendes, by my exhortation,! caused Jaques Cartiers two voyages of 
 discovering the grand Bay, and Canada, Saguinay and Hochelaga, to bee trans- 
 lated out of my Volumes, which are to be annexed to this present." 
 
 * Hakluyt, i)isco?<r,se concerning Westeme Planting, p. 112: — "and in the 
 Frenche originall [of the second voyage] which I sawe in the Kinges Library at 
 Paris."
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 213 
 
 ber of fathoms given in Ramusio (Florio, pp. 3,8,9,12 etc.), and this 
 mistake Hakluyt also corrects. He writes Newfoundland as one 
 word where Florio has " the newe found land." Hakluyt has 
 still retained however several of the Italian terms, and we have 
 Buona Vista (p. 201), Razo(p. 202), Lunario (p. 206)3aia (p. 207), 
 etc., as in Ramusio. 
 
 As to the author of the Relation I should hesitate to say that 
 it was Cartier, as others have done,l on the ground that he would 
 name the best harbour met with after himself. 2 Often indeed 
 the author speaks of Cartier as a third person^ and always 
 with respect as " the Captain". Since, as we shall see presently, 
 the author of the second Relation was a certain Jean Poulet, it is 
 not improbable that he also wrote this first one. He was a sort 
 of secretary to the expedition.and kept the reckoning of the cal- 
 endar, though not always with success. The style of the two 
 accounts is similar and Poulet had formed one of the company on 
 this first voyage. 
 
 Four different French versions of the second voyage have been 
 preserved, but an examination shows that they have all been tak- 
 en from one original which in this case has fortunately survived. 
 it is manuscript No. 5589 of the Bibliotheque Nationale, hitherto 
 known as B. The other versions are two in manuscript known 
 as A4 and C-5 , and the edition published at Paris in 1545^ known 
 as P. 
 
 Lescarbot tells us in 1609 that he took the version given in 
 his work from the original bound in blue satin and then preserv- 
 ed in the Royal Library at Paris.7 The present binding of B 
 
 1 Michelant's edition (1867), p. iv : — "II nous parait resulter non nioins claire- 
 ment du recit lui-meme qu'on pent I'attribuer avec assurance h Cartier " etc. 
 ■^ Ibid., p. 11. 
 
 3 Ihid., p. 2 : — " dudit Cartier." Cf. also p. 38 :^'" qui se assembl^rent sur 
 ledit cappitaine .... et il leur donna", etc. Also p. 41. 
 
 4 Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fr. 5653. 
 
 5 Ibid. Ms. Fr. 5644. 
 
 6 Brief Recit et Succincte Narration, de la navigation faicte es ysles de Canada, 
 Hochelage et Saguenay et autres, avec particidieres meurs, langaige, et ceremonies 
 des habitans d'icelles : fort delectables d, veoir, Paris 1545, 8" ; It was reprinted by 
 M. d'Avezac in 1863. 
 
 7 Lescarbot, op. cit. (1609), p. 231 : — " mais le second ie I'ay pris sur I'original 
 presente au Koy ecrit k la main, convert en satin bleu. "
 
 214 THE SOURCES, PART IT : NARRATIVE 
 
 dates only from the reign of Louis the Fourteenth but the light 
 blue stains on the upper right hand corner of the leaves prove 
 that the first binding was of that colour. It is probable indeed 
 that something was accidentally spilled over the manuscript in the 
 seventeenth century, and that it was then rebound with its pre- 
 sent binding. The work was not well d"ne, for after folio 50 it 
 is difficult to read the last inside word of each line. Internal 
 evidence also supports the view that this was the manuscript 
 copied by Lescarbot. To leave for the moment C quite out of the 
 question, for, as I shall presently show, it is a late copy, as between 
 A and B Lescarbot certainly copied B. In the first place A has 
 neither the dedication nor the chapter headings which are given 
 in Lescarbot. Again Lescarbot^ has " partant" like B (fol. 21) 
 while A (fol. 21 verso) has " partist." So on page 390 Lescarbot 
 has " et nomme " and B (fol. 42 verso) the same, while A (fol. 
 41) has "est nomme." In one place iu B (fol. 15) we have the ab- 
 breviation "Sr"; A (fol. 15 verso) has " Seigneur" while Lescarbot 2 
 has put " sieur." Had he been copying A it is doubtful if he would 
 have put anything ehe but " Seigneur." Not only does B bear 
 greater signs of age than A and C but it has marginal notes and 
 well-thumbed edges which testify to considerable usage 
 
 From this original B was copied the manuscript A, which 
 M. d'Avezac thought was the original. It does not contain either 
 the dedication or the chapter-headings but it is otherwise a 
 carefully executed copy. It is written in a clear hand on clean 
 paper, has no marginal notes and bears every appearance of 
 having been made rather for preservation than for use. In 
 addition to the readings different from B which are given above, 
 the more modern spelling reveals the later date of A Thus it 
 has "riviere" where B has " ripviere," " a ce qui " for "adce que," 
 " veoir " for " veoyr," "saubvete " for " sauf vete," " avec " for 
 " avecques," " horrible " for " orrible," " a tant" for " attant," 
 " eurent " for " heurent," " depuis " for " despuis " and " dempuis," 
 " doibtz " and " doigz " for " doidz," " ballames" for " baillames," 
 " profondz " for " parfondz," " mectre " for " meptre," " avril " 
 for " apvril," " viz " for " vidz," " samedi " for " sabmedi" 
 1 Ibid., p. 350. 2 u^id., p. 336.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 215 
 
 etc. Otherwise B is so closely copied that even the slips 
 are imitated. Thus where B (f ol, 13) has " Agaia " instead 
 of the usual " Agaya," A has also the former. So with 
 " Houchelaga " on folio 14 of both manuscripts. On folio 6 
 of B the words " de la " have been scratched out and 
 " dudict " written after them. The copyist of A (f ol. 4 verso) 
 wrote them both however without noticing this. Again 
 the word ''ont" is inserted above the line in A (fol. 5 
 verso) because it was so in B (fol. 6 verso). So with the word 
 " Addegve " in B (fol. G3) and A (fol. 56 verso). The present 
 binding of A dates from the reign of Charles the Ninth, so it is 
 possible that the copy was made under that monarch. 
 
 From the original B was also taken the version published at 
 Paris in 1.545 and known as P. The transcription was carelessly 
 done, for besides slips of minor importance two whole chapters 
 were left out. As far as one can judge this was accidental, as 
 the pages where the copyist left off and the one where he began 
 again resemble each other closely. It is possible therefore that 
 resuming his work one day he skipped the three or four inter- 
 vening leaves without noticing that he was doing so. Another 
 error was to put " sixth " of July (p. 46 b) instead of sixteenth 
 as the date of Cartier's arrival at St. Malo. Thus the return 
 voyage was only made to occupy seventeen days instead of 
 twenty-seven. We also find inserted in several places (pp. 6 a, 
 89 b and 40 b) the name of a certain " Jehan Poullet," though 
 this name is absent from the original, manuscript B. The only 
 way in which one can account for this insertion is by adopting 
 the hypothesis that this man was the author of the Relation. 
 Cartier was alive at the time and would have protested against 
 any unjustified insertion. It was this Poulet who had had 
 charge of the roll of the company at St. Malo in 1535,1 which 
 
 1 Joiion des Longrais, op. cit., p. 127 : — " Et a celluy Poulet aparu le roUe et 
 norabre des compaignons que led. Cartier a prins pour lad. navigation." I did not 
 see till after I had formed this opinion that such is also the view of M. Joiion des 
 Longrais. Ibid. p. 127 note I : — " L'exageration evidente de son role dans le Brief 
 R^cit peut seulement faire penser qu'il a du participer k sa redaction. Peut-etre 
 meme en est-il I'auteur. On ne le retrouve point dans les registres d'Etat civil 
 de S. Malo, mais il devait etre de Dol comma tous les Poulet."
 
 216 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 indicates that he acted as a sort of secretary of the expedi- 
 tion. He had formed part of the company on the first voyage, l 
 and this time had sailed in the same vessel with Cartier.^ He 
 was evidently a Breton^ who had been to Bordeaux"* and possibly 
 also to Brazil,^ though this does not necessarily follow from the 
 text of his Relation. In any case he was a fervent member of 
 the Roman Church for after having in his manuscript called the 
 Lutherans "meschans" he added in the printed edition the epithets 
 " apostatz et imifcateurs de Mahomet." ^ 
 
 The manuscript C is also a copy, though a bad one, of B, made 
 after the publication in 1o4j of P, of which it shows many 
 traces. Thus we find the epithets " apostates and imitators of 
 Mahomet" as in P, while the last phrase of the dedication in B, 
 " les rottes, dangers et gisemens dicelles terres," is left out be- 
 cause it was not in P. It would seem indeed that the scribe of 
 C set out to copy B but finding that there were divergencies be- 
 tween B and P adopted as a rule the readings of the later version 
 as more likely to be correct. Thus in paragraph one after hav- 
 ing written " audict an mil " etc. as in B, he looked into P where 
 he found " en Ian mil " etc ; so he erased the former and 
 wrote this. Again havinof found in P "Cathedrale de Sainct 
 Malo" he erased the " dudict " which he had copied from B. 
 Traces of these operations are still clearly visible in the manus- 
 cript. In fact all through C we find the same continual endeavour 
 to copy B as far as was compatible with the difi'erent readings of 
 P. Thus on fol. 45 the words " et qu'ilz avoyent menge leurs 
 vivres et estournemens" and on fol. 51 the words " ledit Seigneur 
 et ses compaignons " are left out because they are not in P. On 
 fol. 12 verso C has " nostre Capitaine " like P, though B (fol. 11) 
 
 1 D'Avezac, Bref R6cit, etc. (Paris 1863), p. 8 : — " Lequel cap congnoissons 
 du precedent voyage." Cf. also p. 8 b. 
 
 2 Ibid,, p. 6 b : — " et depuis nous estre entreperduz, avons este avec la nef 
 generalle. " Cf . also p. 13 b and especially pp. 39 et seq. Only Poulet himself could 
 have recounted these facts. 
 
 3 Michelant et Rame, op. cit., p. 19 : — "que jevis oncques en Bretaigne." 
 
 4 D'Avezac, op. cit., p. 12: — " Comme devant Bordeaux de fio et ebbe." 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 30 b : — " Cedict peuple vit en communaulte de biens assez de la 
 sorte des Brisilans." 
 
 6 Ibid. p. 4 b.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 217 
 
 has " le Cappitaine " ; again fol. IG " lors " for " dont " in B (fol. 
 15 verso) ; same folio "jouxte" for "joignant " ; fol. 20 "cinq" 
 for " six "; fol, 37 " divise " for " diet," because P has these. On 
 folio 57 C thought well to add an " aultre " because P had put 
 one in. Sometimes however whole phrases are changed as on 
 folio 16 verso, where C like P (p. 17 b) has " dont tous se retire- 
 rent a grant haste linsi que si les eussions voullu tuer," while B 
 rfol. 16) reads " dont se retirerent tous si a grand haste quil 
 sembloyt que les voulsissious tuer " ; so Sgain on fol. 17 the 
 phrase "lesquelz avoient des cornes aussi longues que le bras," 
 etc., differs considerably from the reading in B (fol. 16 verso) 
 " lesquelz estoient vestuz de chien noirs et blancs," etc. Wher- 
 ever B has blanks, they are filled up from P. Thus on folio 22 
 of C we have the word " marche " taken from P as it is omitted 
 in B (fol. 23) ; so also the word " frotter " (fol. 24 j omitted in B 
 (fol. 26); and finally on folio 55 verso the number " twenty-first" 
 absent from B folio 60. On the other hand C sometimes follows 
 B even at the expense of P. The most notable instance is of 
 course the two chapters omitted in P which C has copied in 
 extenso from B. C also omits the name " Jehan Poullet " which 
 is not found in B. Again in the choice of words C sometimes 
 prefers B to P. Thus on fol. 37 he put " arrivez " as in B 
 although P has ' revenuz " ; again on folio 57 " demeure " as in 
 B, while P (p. 46) has " veismes." On folio 20 verso C has in- 
 serted the words " de partye " as in B (fol. 21), although they are 
 left out by P (p. 21 b) ; so also folio 21 the word " temps " and 
 the heading on folio 24 of C, neither of which is in P. The 
 Indian vocabulary at the end of C not only contains the words 
 given in B and P but has also several new ones. Where C found 
 the names of the Indian villages and the Indian terms for 
 " large house," " come and swim," etc., I have not been able to 
 discover. They constitute the only important point of interest 
 in this manuscript. In fact even against these additions one 
 might cite omissions, as for instance (fol. 9 verso) the words "qui 
 faisoit," which are found both in B and P. Indeed after tiying 
 to make his Indian vocabulary most complete the copyist of C 
 left out the phrase " II y a de groz ratz " etc., given in B (fol. 66).
 
 238 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 
 
 This second Relation was several times translated but always 
 from the version P published at Paris in 1545. In 1556 Ramusio 
 published an Italian translation^ which was in turn translated 
 into English by Florio in 1580.2 The two chapters omitted in 
 P are of course absent from both of these translations. They are 
 in other respects not very exact and in folio 445, for instance, of 
 Ramusio we find " come il Capitano et cinque gentili Ihuomini con 
 venti huomini " instead of " comment le cappitaine et les gentilz 
 hommes avec vingt cinq hommes " as in P (p. 23). The Indian 
 vocabulary is also considerably disfigured by the change. All 
 these mistakes re-appear of course in Florio. In 1600 Hakluyt 
 published a fresh English translation after having examined the 
 original himself at Paris.3 He neither puts in the two omitted 
 chapters however nor corrects all the mistakes. He limits his 
 changes in fact to putting the correct number of fathoms instead 
 of the half as given bj^ Florio, to writing Newfoundland for "the 
 newe found land," and to slight alterations in the text of no 
 great importance. In 1840 M. Ternaus-Compans published a 
 copy of this Relation after the manuscripts B and C,"* and in 
 1843 the Quebec Historical Society published a modernized 
 version of A which the editor thought to be the original.^ 
 
 1 Rarausio, op. cit. iii 441-453: — "Breve et Succinta Narrations della Navi- 
 gation fatta . . . air Isole di Canada," etc. 
 
 2 A shorte and brief e narration of the Navigation caused to he made by the King 
 of France, to the Hands of Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay and divers others, ivhich 
 now are called New France, with a discourse of the particidars, customes and man- 
 ners of the inhabitoures therein. Florio, op. cit., pp. 28-80. 
 
 3 Hakluj't, Discourse on Westeme Planting p. 112: — "and in the Frenche 
 originall which I sawe in the Kinges Library at Paris." Principall Navigations, 
 iii 212-232: — "A shorte and briefe narration of the Navigation made by the 
 commandement of the King of France, to the Islands of Canada, Hochelaga, 
 Saguenay. and divers others which now are called New France, with the particu- 
 lar customes, and miners of the inhabitants therein." 
 
 4 Ternaux-Corapans, op. cit. ii 1-66. "Nous la donnons aujourd'hui d'apr^s 
 les manuscrits 10025 et 10265. 3. de la biblioth^que royale," p. 5 note I. 
 
 5 Voyages de Decouverte au Canada entre les annees 1534 et 1542, pp. 24-89. 
 Quebec, 1843. "II existe k la biblioth^que royale de Paris trois exemplaires 
 manuscrits du deuxi^me voyage, qui s'accordent sur tous les faits principaux, et 
 dont I'un parait dater du milieu du 16e si^cle : on croit que celui-ci est Toriginal 
 mSme de Quartier. La Soci^te s'en ^tait procure una copie, qui a ^t^ soigneuse-
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 219 
 
 The account of Cartier's third voyage in 1541 is only pre- 
 served in the English version given by Hakluyt.^ Although 
 this was doubtless translated from the French, no trace of any 
 account of this voyage in that language has hitherto been found. 
 The original therefore is probably lost. This is the more to be 
 regretted as the English version is incomplete and breaks off 
 suddenly after Cartier's return from his visit to the rapids of 
 Lachine. As to the author, it is possible that the original of this 
 Relation was also written by the same Poulet who did the others, 
 but I doubt it. The author had formed one of the company on 
 the former voyage,^ and accompanied Cartier this time again on 
 his visit to the rapids. It strikes one therefore as strange that, 
 had it been Poulet, he should make no mention of Hochelaga or 
 recall his earlier visit. Poulet was evidently alive also in 1545 
 when his name was inserted in the printed version which ap- 
 peared in that year, so that, had he written this Relation, there 
 is no reason why he should have left it incomplete. It would 
 seem more probable that the author was one of those who died 
 during the winter and his Relation 'was therefore never finished. 
 
 Of the voyage made by Cartier to bring home Roberval in 
 the summer of 1543, no account of any sort has been preserved. 
 Even Hakluyt when in Paris appears to have sought for some 
 account of this voyage in vain. Such indeed seems to be the 
 meaning of the following sentence written by Cartier's nephew 
 in 1587 : " I will not faile to informe my selfe, if there be any 
 meane to find out those descriptions which Captaine Cartier made 
 after his two last voyages into Canada. " ^ As there was an 
 interval of five years between the return from the second voyage 
 and the departure for the third this expression evidently relers 
 to those made in 1541 and 1543. Besides, the account of the 
 
 ment collationnee avec les deux autres manuscrits, et ensuite avec Lescarbot et 
 Ramusio " Advertissement p. iii. 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Xavirjations iii 232-236: — "The third voyage of dis- 
 covery made by Captaine Jaques Cartier, 1540 unto the Countreys of Canada, 
 Hochelaga, and Saguenay." 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 233 : — " When in the former voyage we carried him into France," 
 etc. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 236.
 
 220 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 second voyage had already appeared in 1545. A "certaine 
 booke " of Cartier's " made in maner of a sea Chart "l which 
 was then in the possession of a Jan Jocet, sieur de Cremeur, has 
 never again been found. 
 
 Pierre Crignon. 
 
 Ramusio has preserved for us an anonymous " Discourse of a 
 Great French Sea-Captain " 2 which he tells us was written in 
 Frunch in the year 1539.3 Though he himself made consider- 
 able efforts to discover the author's name, he was unable, much 
 to his regret, to do so.'* It appears however that the author of 
 this document is Pierre Crignon, the faithful companion of Jean 
 Parmentier on all his voyages.^ 
 
 Crignon had received a good education and had been given 
 prizes for his verses both at Rouen and at Dieppe. He was 
 also well versed in " astrology and cosmography." A work of 
 his on the variations of the compass-needle, which has not been 
 recovered, was dedicated to Admiral Chabot in 1534.6 He accom- 
 panied Parmentier not only to America but also to the East; and 
 in this Discourse he gives a short description of the various local- 
 ities visited. After an introductory explanation of the terms 
 latitude and longitude, comes a " Summary and Brief Descrip- 
 tion of Newfoundland." The part best known to him is the 
 southern coast to which the French fishermen principally re- 
 sorted. The Portuguese and English seem to have used the east 
 coast. Next follows a short account of the savages and their 
 manner of hunting. After giving the names of those French 
 
 1 Ibid. 
 
 2 Ramusio, op. cit. iii 423-426. The title is " Discorso d'un Gran Capitano 
 di Mare Francese del luoco di Dieppa sopra le navigationi fatte alia terra nuova 
 dell' Indie occidentali chiamata la nuova Francia da gradi 40 fino k gradi 47 sotto 
 il polo artico, et sopra la terra del Brasil, Guinea, Isola di San Lorenzo, et quella 
 di Summatra fino alle quali hanno navigato le caravelle et navi Francese." 
 
 3 Ibid., fol. 417 verso :— " fatto del 1539." 
 
 4 Ibid. " Ma ben ci dolemo di non sapere il nome dell' auttore " etc. 
 
 6 Ch. Schefer, Le Discours de la Navigation de Jean et Raoul Parmentier de 
 Dieppe (Paris 1883), Introduction p. xxiv : — " Je n'h^site pas non plus k lui attri- 
 buer le recit des voj^ages d'un grand capitaine de Dieppe, ins(5r(5 dans le troisi^me 
 volume du recueil de Ramusio." 
 
 6 Ibid,, p. xxi. and note 2.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: XARRATIVE 221 
 
 fishermen who first visited the Banks, he concludes with a descrip- 
 tion of Norumbega, a name given, according to him, to the land 
 from Cape Breton to Florida by the Indians themselves. The 
 remainder of the Discourse which deals with Brazil, Guinea and 
 Sumatra, does not interest us. Besides for the early description 
 of the fishing, this document is important as being the source of 
 our information about the names of the early French navigators 
 to these parts. 
 
 RobervaVs Voyage. 
 
 The only extant account of Roberval's expedition to the St. 
 Lawrence is, like the third voyage of Cartier, preserved to us in 
 English.l It wa>^ doubtless translated from the French, although 
 no sign of any version in that language has hitherto been found. 
 The style difi'ers much from that of Car tier's voyages and has 
 more the air of being a journal kept by some one on board than a 
 full account written at command. It is possible indeed that the 
 phrase "as it is declared in other bookes "2 may refer to other 
 accounts then extant of this expedition, so that this is merely a 
 summary of the voyage taken from some more elaborate narra- 
 tive. The statement of the author after three short paragraphs, 
 that he has already " described the beginning, the middest, and 
 the ende of the Voyage,"^ gives colour to this conclusion. The 
 rest of the account consists of a few statements jotted down by 
 one of those who remained behind in the fort. The frequent 
 repetition of Roberval's titles leads one to infer that the writer 
 occupied a very inferior post and held the leader in great awe. 
 He may even have been one of those who were whipped. 
 
 Jean Mallart. 
 
 In the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris is preserved a manu- 
 script^ by this person entitled Descnption de tons lesportz de mer 
 
 1 " The Voyage of John Francis de la Eoche, knight, Lord of Roberval, to the 
 Countries of Canada, Sagiienai, and Hochelaga etc. begun in April 1542," in 
 Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, iii 240-242. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 241. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 4 Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. fr. 1382. Cf. also Harrisse, Jean et Sebastien 
 Cabot, pp. 222-229. Paris 1882.
 
 222 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 de lunivers, which however turns out upon examination to be 
 nothing more than a rhyming version of the Voyages Avantureux 
 of Jean Alfonse, first given to the public in print in the year 
 1559. This manuscript however is dated 1545, which is not 
 necessarily inexact, for we know that the works of Jean Alfonse 
 were circulated in manuscript some years before they were printed. 
 Mallart may therefore have made a copy or versified the original 
 while it was in his hands. As an example of what was done a 
 few lines will suffice. Thus when jean Alfonse writes^ " Au 
 travers de la Terre neufve sur ledit banch y ha bien quatre 
 vingts brasses, et en approchant de la terre il baisse, de maniere 
 que quand il vient pres de la riviere, il n'y ha que neuf ou dix 
 brasses," the poet sings, 
 
 " Or entendez mes vers 
 Cest quant on vient a passer le travers 
 De terre neufve a sur ce banc vingt braces 
 En approchant la terre et les places 
 De la riviere il nen a plus que dix," etc. 2 
 
 In fact the whole work seems to have been the harmless jeu 
 d'esjprit of one who was still 
 
 " a mon tendre aage 
 Et que ne feiz oncques ung seul voj'age 
 Aux lieux loingtains dont faiz description. "3 
 
 By praising thus in rhyme, not altogether original, the exploits 
 of Cartier and other " tres bons navigateurs," he hoped that his 
 king would 
 
 " subviendra a la mienne indigence. "4 
 
 Though he contributes nothing to increase our knowledge of 
 the times, let us hope that his wish was granted and that some- 
 thing was contributed to relieve his poverty. 
 
 Jean Alfonse. 
 
 Jean Alfonse, whose real name was Jean Fonteneau, was born 
 at a village called Saintonge in the commune of Saint-Meme, 
 canton of Segonzac, arrondissement of Cognac.^ At an early 
 
 1 Voyages Avantureux, p. 27, verso. 2 fol. 39 verso. 
 
 3 fol. 1 4 fol. 3 verso. 
 
 5 G. Musset, Jean Fonteneati, dit Alfonse de Sairitonge, etc., in the Bulletin de 
 Odographie Hist, et Descript., annee 1895, pp. 275-295. Cf. also Harrisse, Jean et
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 223 
 
 age he began to roam the seas and during the course of 
 these rambHngs fell in love with a Portuguese, Valentine Alfonse, 
 whom he married and whose name was afterwards given to him- 
 self.i After this he extended his voyages not only round the 
 Cape of Good Hope to India but also to the coast of North and 
 South America. In April 1537 he was present as witness at the sale 
 at La Rochelle of a share of the Christophe, of seventy tons, which 
 fished on the Newfoundland Banks.2 In March 1541 he signed 
 a power of attorney to his wife when about to set sail to the 
 coast of Guinea.3 Of the success of this voyage we hear nothing, 
 but in the spring of the following year he sailed with Roberval 
 to the St. Lawrence in the capacity of pilot. ^ It is probable 
 therefore that it was not his first voyage thither. When he tells 
 us that in November, December, January and February the 
 snow falls to a great depth in Canada one would think he must 
 have passed the winter there,^ but this seems improbable from 
 the fact that in June 1543 he was again at home and about to 
 set out on a voyage to Madeira.^ This venture proved so suc- 
 cessful that in the following summer he armed a vessel to 
 proceed, with a few others, on a privateering expedition 
 against the Spaniards.^ It was not the first time ^ that he had 
 engaged in such pursuits during the eight and forty years that 
 
 Sdbastien Cabot, pp. 205 et seq. ; Margry, Les Navigations Francaises et la Revolu- 
 tion maritime du XlVe et XVI^ Steele (Paris 1867), Chap, v, pp. 225-341. The 
 £tude sur le Capitaine Alfonse in the Bidletin de la Societ6 Archeologiqiie et Histor- 
 iqiie de la Charente, 4fi serie, tome vi, 2e partie, Angouleme, 1870, pp. 997 et seq., 
 is simply a review of Margry's study and contains nothing new. 
 
 1 Musset, op. cit. p. 276. 
 
 2 Ibid. Documents, etc., p. 286 no. i. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 286 nos. ii and iii. 
 
 4 Hakluyt, Pnncipall XavigaiioTis, iii 237 et seq. 
 
 5 "Etyneige si fort en novembre, decembre, Janvier, febvrier, que la neige 
 monte bien environ la haulteur de six piedz," etc. Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. 
 fr. 676, fol. 183. 
 
 6 Musset, op. cit. pp. 288-294, Documents nos. iv-xv 
 
 7 Hid., Documents nos. xvi-xvii. 
 
 8 " Depuis cest aage (1528) les Barbares et Chrestieus ont souffert beaucoup de 
 maux de Tincursion des Coursaires. . . . Jean Alphonse Xainctongeois de nation 
 s'il estoit en vie, il scauroit bien qu'en dire," etc. Thevet, Grand Insulaire 
 {Bibl. Nat., Ms. fr. 15452, fol. 174 verso.)
 
 224 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 he had roamed the seas ; i and though his only punishment in 
 this case was imprisonment, 2 his next venture proved fatal. 
 For shortly afterwards, we learn, the Emperor sent some ships 
 " to go against Juan Alphonso the Portuguese (who was called 
 the Frenchman by the Spaniards), a Corsair, who had taken near 
 Cape St. Vincent 10 or 12 Biscayan vessels loaded with valuable 
 merchandize." Off La Rochelle they came upon the fleet of Jean 
 Alfonse and having taken live of the vessels pursued him into 
 the harbour where, before the Spaniards were driven off, he 
 received a wound from which he shortly afterwards died.^ 
 
 Jean Alfonse left several manuscripts behind him, and upon 
 these his importance for the historian chiefly depends. It 
 appears to have been shortly after his return from Madeira in the 
 autumn of 1543 that his Cosmographies was begun, although it 
 was not completed until the following May. This however is not 
 the statement of the work itself, which ends as follows : " Faicte 
 et compos^e par nous Jehan Allefonsce et Raulin Secalart, cappi- 
 taines et pillotes de navires, demourant en la ville de la Rochelle 
 en la rue Saint-Jehan-de-Prat, devant I'eglise dudit Saint-Jehan, 
 le vingt-quatriesme jour du mois de novembre I'an mil cinq cens 
 quarante-cinq — Achevay de par moy Raulin Secalart cosemographe 
 de Honnefleur, desirant faire servisce a vostre maigestay reaille 
 qui sera fin de se present libre. 1545." ^ According to the manu- 
 script therefore the work was finished by Raulin Secalart in No- 
 vember 1545. But a careful examination by M. Musset has 
 shown that not only has the date been changed from May 1544 
 
 1 "Car j'ay navigue jusques ^ present (1544) par toutes les mers quarente et 
 huyt ans," cited by Margry, op. cit. p. 269. Cf. Ibid., p. 227. 
 
 2 " Comma je luy [Alfonse] dis, luy estant detenu prisonnier k Poictiers, pour 
 la prinse de quelques navires d'Espaigne." Thevet, Cosmographie Universelle, ii 
 1021 verso. Paris 1575. 
 
 3 Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida, (Madrid 
 1723), fol. .58, cited by Brevoort, op. cit. p. 155. 
 
 4 Biblioth. Nat., Ms, Fr. 676 : " Cosmographie avec espere et regime du Soleil 
 et du Nord en nostre langue fran9oyse composee par Jehan Allefonsce et Raulin 
 Secalart 1545." This Ms. is about to be published by M. Musset of La Rochelle 
 in the excellent Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir a rhistoire de la 
 Oiographie. 
 
 6 Cf. A. P. Paris, Les Manuscrits Fran^ais de la Bihliothique du Roi, v 310 
 et stq. Paris 1842.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 225 
 
 to November 1545, but that wherever the name of Jean Alfonse 
 appears that of Raulin Secalart has been added. In reality 
 therefore the work was finished by Jean Alfonse himself shortly 
 before his death. Raulin Secalart, or Raulin le Tallois as his 
 name really was, probably had it in his possession at that time 
 and sought to gain fame by inserting his own name, i 
 
 So much for the author ; now as to the subject-matter. This 
 is divided into five parts, the tirst four of which are as follows : — 
 Treaty of the sphere fols. 4-1;' ; explanation of the mer- 
 idians, fols. 16-20 ; the solar calendar, fols. 20-37 ; theory of the 
 astrolabe, fols. .S7-40. It is only from folio 40 onwards, where he 
 gives a description of the different known parts of the world, 
 that the document is of interest for us. After dealing with the 
 islands of the Atlantic, the coast of Africa from Morocco to Aden, 
 the three Indies, Malacca and Java, " whence to Peru in the East 
 the distance is perhaps at the utmost nine hundred or a thousand 
 leagues," he turns his attention to America. Of the three parts 
 into whicli he divides the coast, viz. from the South Pole to the 
 River Marignan, from thence to Cape du Feguier in Yucatan, 
 " and Cathay," the third alone from Cape du Feguier northward 
 is of importance for U'^. 
 
 After mentioning; that Cape de Ratz is six hundred leagues 
 north of the island of Fez he describes in some detail the region 
 about Newfoundland, " which is mostly high land without any 
 profit except the fishing." Having in a few words depicted the 
 nature of the coast of Labrador and of the Frozen Sea in the 
 North " whence come the icebergs that reach Newfoundla,nd," he 
 gives a description of the course up the St. Lawrence as far as 
 Roberval's fort, three leagues above Quebec, although one gathers 
 that he himself had gone as far as the rapids of Lachine, While 
 most of the names of places and headlands, as Ascension, Sag- 
 uenay. Isle des Lievres, Isle d'Orldans, St Pierre, etc., are taken 
 from Cartier'"s nomenclature, the bearings, latitude and longitude 
 seem to have been made from his own observations. He also 
 carefully points out sunken rocks or shoals and also states where 
 
 1 For notices of this Raulin le Tallois called Secalart vid. Breard, op.cit. pp. 46- 
 48 ; Lefevre-Pontalis, Correspondance Politique de Odet de Selve (Paris 1888), pp. 
 84 and 86 ; of. also Joiion des Longrais, Jacques Cartier, p. 133. 
 
 15
 
 226 THE SOCTRCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 good anchorage was to be found. His notes in fact must have 
 been of great assistance to the fishermen and whalers who entered 
 the Gulf. 
 
 This portion of the Cosmographie has been pubhshed by 
 Hakluyt, i but the translation is badly done and there are many 
 omissions. Mr. Justin Winsor reproduced the sketch maps of those 
 regions given in the manuscript in one of his works.2 In 1547 
 Jean de Marnef of Poitiers began to print Les Voyages Avan- 
 tureux du Capitaine Jan Alf once, hut the work, which is simply 
 an abridgment of the Cosmographie was not finished until 1559.^ 
 Such then was Jean Alfonse and his work. Although the 
 historian can glean few political facts from such a production, 
 yet it is of importance in showing that the intercourse between 
 the old France and the new was not so unusual as is commonly 
 supposed and that even at this time a considerable amount of 
 interest was taken in the regions of the St. Lawrence.* 
 
 Anthony Parkhurst's Letter. 
 
 Anthony Parkhurst of Bristol seems to have been a merchant 
 who regularly sent his vessels to fish on the Newfoundland Banks. 
 In the year 1578 Richard Hakluyt of the Middle Temple, the 
 uncle of the famous preacher, wrote to him for some account of 
 " the state and commodities of Newfoundland." His reply ,5 dated 
 
 1 " The course from Belle Isle, Carpont, and the Grand Bay in Ne^vfoundland 
 up the River of Canada for the space of 230 Leagues, observed by John Alphonse of 
 Xanctoigne chiefe Pilote to Monsieur Roberval 1542," in Principall Navigations 
 iii 2.S7-240. 
 
 ■2 Justin Winsor, Cartier to Frontenac, pp. 42-43. London 1894. 
 
 3 Les Voyages Avantureux du Capitaine Jan Alf once Sainctongeois. A Poi- 
 tiers. 1559. On page 68 verso we read " Fin du present livre, compose et ordone 
 par Jan Alfonce pilote experimente es choses narrees en ce livre, natif du pays de 
 Xainctonge, pres la ville de Cognac. Fait a la requeste de Vincent Aymard, 
 marchant du pays de Piedmont, escrivant pour luy Maugis Vumenot, marchant 
 d'Honfleur," Cf. Harrisse, Notes siir la Nouvelle France, pp. 6 et seq. 
 
 4 " Et toutes ces terres de Canada par raison doivent estre appellees la 
 nouvelle France par ce qu'elles sont en une mesme haulteur et si elle estoit aussi 
 bien peuplee que France, mon advis est qu'elle seroit aussi attemperee," etc. 
 Cosmographie, fol. 182. 
 
 5 Hakluyt, Principall Navigation.^ (1589) pp. 674-677: — "A letter written 
 to M. Richard Hakluyt of the middle Temple, eonteining a report of the true 
 state and commodities of Newfoundland 1-578 "
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 227 
 
 at Bristol in November of the same year, throws great light upon 
 the state of the fishing trade at that date, the most important 
 results of which have already been embodied in the text. He 
 advised that the island of Belle Isle at the mouth of the straits 
 of the same name should be fortified, for it would make the Eng- 
 lish " lordes of the whole fishing in small time." He also wished 
 to see Anticosti inhabited and " the river searched, for that there 
 are many things which may rise thereof " and one would then 
 know whether it was true that Frenchmen and "Portingals" were 
 in that river as he had read. He had intended to search the 
 river himself, had he not been defrauded by some " vile Portin- 
 gals, descending of the Jewes and Judas kind," who had forced 
 him to return home with great loss. If however Hakluyt thought 
 him a man of suflBcient credit to " seek the Isle of S. John or the 
 river of Canada " he was willing to undertake the task even if 
 it should necessitate leaving his own affairs. Unfortunately how- 
 ever he seems never to have undertaken this search. 
 
 Carlyles Discourse. 
 
 It would appear at first sight as if a discourse written " for 
 the better inducement to satisne such Merchants of the Moscovian 
 companie and others, as in disbursing their money towards the 
 furniture of the present charge of the intended voyage to the 
 hithermost parts of America, doe demaund forthwith a present 
 returne of gaine,"i could contain little of interest with regard to 
 the trade of New France. It so happens however that towards 
 the close of it, after a short summary of Cartier's earl}- voyages, 
 Carlyle gives an account of the resumption of trading relations 
 between St. Malo and the upper St. Lawrence. The seizure of 
 Donnacona and the disputes both during Cartier's second winter 
 and during Roberval's stay had " put the whole Countrey people 
 into such dislike with the French, as never since they would ad- 
 mit any conversation, or famiiiaritie with them, untill of late 
 yeeres, the olde matter beginning to growe out of minde, and be- 
 ing the rather drawen on by giftes of many trifling thinges, 
 which were of great value with them, they are, within these two 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589) pp. 718-723. Cf. also Sainsbury, 
 Calendar oj Colonial State Papers, Addenda, no. 23 p. 20.
 
 228 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 or three yeeres content againe to admit a trafique, which two 
 yeeres since (i.e. 1581) was begonne with a small barke of thirtie 
 tunnes, whoso returne was founde so profitable, as the next yeere 
 following, beins; the last yeere, by those Merchants, who meant 
 to have kept the trade secret unto themselves, from any others 
 of their owne Countrey men, there was hired a shippe of four 
 score tunnes out of the Isle of Jersey, but not any one Mariner 
 of that place, saving a shipboy. This shippe made her returne in 
 such sort, as that this yeere (1583) they have multiplied three 
 shippes, to wit. one of nine score tunnes, another of an hundreth 
 tunnes and a third of foure score tunnes." These statements 
 were obtained from " very substantiall and honest men of Plim- 
 moutb, who sawe the saide shippes in readiuesse to depart and were 
 aboord of some of them." There was then present also a man 
 f lom Guernsey, " Lewis de Vicke, who reporteth to have credibly 
 heard that by this last yeeres voyage the Frenchman gotte foure- 
 teene or fifteene hundreth for every one hundreth." This was 
 douV)tless the beginning of that company of merchants which 
 afterwards sought to gain a monopoly of the trade under the 
 names of Jannaye and Nouel.^ 
 
 Gilberfs Voyage. 
 
 The principal account preserved to us of the voyage of Sir 
 Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland in 15^3 is that written by 
 Edward Hayes, Captain of the Golden Hinde? The " True 
 Report" published by Sir George Pecham is only a diluted edi- 
 tion oi' the facts gleaned from Hayes.3 The four vessels, the 
 Delight, Golden Hinde, Swallow, and Squirrel, set sail from Causet 
 Bay on the 11th of June 1583, and after a stormy passage, dur- 
 
 1 Cf. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. pp. 149 et -seq. 
 
 2 " A report of the voyage and successe thereof, attempted in the j'eere of 
 our Lord 1583 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert knight . . . written by M. Edward 
 Haies Gentleman, and principal actor in the same voyage, who alone continued 
 imto the end, and by Gods speciall assistance returned home with his retinue 
 safe and entire," in Hakluyt, Principall Nain(jation« (1589) pp. 679-697. 
 
 3 " A true Report of the late discoveries and possession taken of the New- 
 found Lands by that valiant and worthy Gentleman, Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
 Knight. Written by Sir George Pecham Knight," London, 1585 ; printed 
 in Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1589) pp. 701-718.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 229 
 
 ing which they became separated, finally reached Newfoundland 
 at the end of July. The Swalloiu, the crew of which consisted 
 of impressed pirates, at once attacked the first " Newlander " 
 met with and rifled her of " tackle, sailes, cables, vitailes, and 
 the men of their apparel ; not sparing by torture (winding cords 
 about their heads) to drawe out else what they thought good." 
 On the 3rd of August they all met off the harbour of St. John's, 
 but " the English marchants that were and alwayes be Admirals 
 by turnes interchangeably over the fleetes of fishermen within 
 the same harbour " would not permit them to enter. When at 
 length the nature of tlie voyage was known, no farther opposi- 
 tion was ofi'ered, and on the Delight running on a rock at the 
 harbour's mouth all the vessels, of which there were thirty-six, 
 gave aid in getting her ofi". Moreover soon after the fleet cast 
 anchor guns were fired in token of welcome. On Sunday the 
 4th of August nothing was done but to take a walk with the Eng- 
 lish merchants " to a place they cal the Garden." On Monday a 
 tent was set up, and before it was read Gilbert's commission in 
 virtue of which he took possession of the harbour of St. John's 
 and 200 leagues everv vvav. A rod and turf of the same soil 
 were given to him in token of possession for him and his heirs 
 and assignees for ever. Three laws were at once siven out to 
 the effect that public worship should be according to the Church 
 of England, that pirates or trespassers should be executed as in 
 case of high treason, and finally that any one uttering words dis- 
 honourable to the Queen should not only lose his ears but also 
 his ship and goods. Gilbert also granted "in fee farme divers 
 parcels of land lying by the water side convenient to dresse and 
 drie their fish," for which was to be paid a " certaine rent and 
 service unto Gilbert, his heires or assignes for ever," At this 
 point the narrative is interrupted by a " Briefe Relation of the 
 Newfound land and commodities thereof " upon which it was 
 unnecessary here to dwell. During this time not only had many 
 of the company deserted, but some even took possession of ves- 
 sels in neighbouring harbours and sailed away in them. Several 
 had died and many were still ill. Gilbert determined there- 
 fore to leave the Swalloiu for these people to return in, and on
 
 230 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 
 
 the 20th of August the Delight, Golden Hind, and Squirrel set 
 sail for Sable Island and Cape Breton with the intention of 
 examining also the coast of the mainland. They came upon 
 Sable Island, however, so suddenly one morning that the Delight 
 was wrecked. Of the manner in which sixteen of the cvew 
 escaped, an account has been left for us by the master, Richard 
 Clarke.^ The Golden Bind and Squirrel having got out of the 
 shallows in safety, Gilbert at once determined, in view of the loss 
 of the Delight and the scarcity of their provisions, to return home 
 to England. About half way across, the Squirrel, which was 
 only of tsn tons and on board of which after leaving Newfound- 
 land Gilbert had gone in order the better to run close in and 
 view the coast, suddenly went down with all on board. Captain 
 Hayes managed to bring the Golden Hind safely to Weymouth 
 about the middle of September. Whether the Swallow had 
 already reached home from Newfoundland is not recorded. So 
 ended the unfortunate expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The 
 accounts both of Hayes and Clarke seem authentic, and throw 
 considerable light upon the customs and manners of the fisher- 
 men at that date. 
 
 There have also been preserved two letters written during 
 the stay of the fleet in Newfoundland, but neither contains any- 
 thing of importance. From the first, dated St. John's the sixth 
 of August, we simply learn that Hakluyt had intended to accom- 
 pany the expedition ; 2 while the second is an even shorter letter 
 written in great haste by Gilbert himself. ^ 
 
 Jacques JS'oel. 
 
 This Noel, who was a nephew of Jacques Cartier's, appears 
 to have acted as pilot on board some vessels of St. Malo trading 
 in the St. Lawrence.^ It is possible therefore that for many 
 
 1 " A relation of Richard Clarke of Weymouth, master of the shippe called 
 the Delight, going for the discoverie of Norumbega, with Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
 1583. Written in excuse of that fault of casting away the shippe and men 
 imputed to his oversight," in Hakluyt, Principall Navigatioit,i (1589) pp. 700-701. 
 
 2 Hakluyt, Principall Nadgafions (1589) pp. 697-698. 
 
 3 Purchas His Pi/grimes, Third Part, p. 808. 
 
 4 Michelant et Rame, op. cit. (1865) 2« par tie, p. 34 :— " ledict Nouel en
 
 THE SOURCES, PAET II : NARRATIVE 231 
 
 years he had already plied the same trade before becoming 
 familiar with the navigation of the river. Hakluyt has for- 
 tunately preserved for us two letters sent by him to his friend 
 Jean Grout of St. Malo then studying in Paris.^ From the first 
 of these we learn that he had been to the top of Mount Royal 
 and that the savages had assured him that the journey westward 
 to Lake Ontario only occupied ten days, while in the second he 
 stated that there then existed a " certaine booke made in maner 
 of a sea Chart, which was drawne by the hand of my said uncle 
 [Cartier], which is in the possession of Master Ciemeur," and 
 that his own sons Michael and John were then in Canada, no 
 doubt also as pilots or sailors. These letters written in Fiench 
 were probably secured by Hakluyt during his residence in Paris 
 as chaplain at the British Embassy, a post which he occupied 
 from the year 15<S4 until the year 1590. 
 
 Andre T/ievet.^ 
 
 Born of humble parents at Angouleme in the year 1502, 
 Andr^ Thevet early en^'ered the order of St. Francis where he 
 soon found that theology alone was unable to satisfy a mind 
 bent rather upon geography and travels. This his superiors 
 seem also to have discovered, and the new recruit was soon on 
 the march to preach the Gospel abroad. At Plaisance in the 
 south of France Thevet was lucky enough to be presented to the 
 Cardinal Jean de Lorraine,^ who, taken with the naive curio>ity 
 of the Franciscan, voluntarily supplied him with funds for a 
 journey to the Orient. Embarking at Venice he spent five or 
 six years in the East, during which period he visited not only 
 Greece, Constantinople, Rhodes, Alexandria and Arabia but also 
 
 quesquel voiages a faict oflBce de pillotte," etc. Cf. also p. 36 and Hakluyt, 
 Principall Navigations (1589) p. 723. 
 
 1 Hakluyt, Principall Navigations (1600) iii 236-237. For this Jean Grout 
 cf. Joiion des Longrais, op. cit. 144. 
 
 2 The only study of Thevet I have found is that of M. Gafifarel in his intro- 
 duction to the edition of the Singularitez published in 1878. The same notice 
 also appeared as an article in the Revue de Geographie, Tome iii, pp. 177-192, and 
 with additions in the Bulletin de Gdographie historique, 1888, pp. 166-201. 
 
 3 " Auquel ie dois attribuer la cause de mon premier voyage Levantin." Les 
 Vrais Pourtraits et Vies des Homines Illustres, p. 355 b. Paris 1584, Folio.
 
 232 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 Palestine, Cyprus and Malta.i The results of these travels were 
 embodied in his Gostnographie du Levant, first printed at Lyons 
 in 1554.2 
 
 About this time Villegaignon was prepa,ring for his expedition 
 to Brazil, and Cardinal Claude de Lorraine, the nephew of his 
 former protector, proposed Thevet as almoner to the expedition. 
 Having been accepted he embarked at Havre on the sixth of 
 May 1555. Passing down the coast of Spain they sailed via 
 Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands southward 
 along the west coast of Africa.^ On the 26th of < October they 
 reached the island of Ascension wh^re they obtained their first 
 view of the southern constellations.'* They continued further 
 towards the south and it was not, according to Thevet, until they 
 were almost in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, that they 
 at length turned westward and headed for South America, which 
 was sighted according to the chronology of our author on 
 the last day of October or four days after leaving the island of 
 Ascension. ! -.sting northward past Macaheh and Cape de 
 Frie they at length cast anchor in the river Ganabara on the 
 tenth of November.6 Here on the He aux Fran^ais the expedi- 
 tion was landed and the settlement established. Thevet how- 
 ever did not remain in the country but reimbarked in the return 
 vcsse. ^hich set sail two and one-half months after their arrival, 
 that is, in January 1556.^ After being driven hither and thither 
 by bad weather and having taken two months to round the Cape 
 St. Augustine, they finally crossed the equator in the first week 
 of j^pril.^ Sailing past Hayti and Cuba, they were driven by 
 
 1 "Ah demourant vous trouverez en ce mien petit euvre, non tant seule- 
 raent la peregrinacion faite en la terre sainte . . . mais aussi le discours du 
 voyage de la Greee, de la Turquie, d'Egj'pte, raont de Sinay, Judee, jusques 
 en Antioche et Armenie, et plusieurs isles tant fertiles que steriles." Cosmo- 
 graphie du Levant, Dedication p. 5. Lion 1554, 4**. 
 
 2 For a misfortune which befell Thevet on this voyage, vid. Ronsard,(^ lii^res, 
 vi 430. Paris 1893. 
 
 3 Les Singidaritez de la France Antarctique, pp. 79 et set]. Paris 1878. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 103 and 105. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 110. 
 
 6 Ibid., pp. Ill, 120 and 126. 
 1 Ibid., pp. 127 and 312. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 356.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART TI : NARRATIVE 233 
 
 further contrary winds not only towards Florida but also " fort 
 pres de Canada," which expression doubtless means the region 
 north of the Carolinas.^ At length the weather cleared and by 
 means of the trade winds they were able to sail for France by 
 way of the Azores and Cape Finisterre.2 
 
 Since Brazil was at that time exciting a good deal of interest 
 in France and merchants were anxious to hear of its resources 
 The vet was induced by the Cardinal de Sens to publish a 
 description of his voyage. On account of a fever contracted in 
 South America this seems to have taken him some time for it was 
 only in 1557 that there appeared his Sivgularitez de la France 
 Antarctique autrement nonfiraee Artieriquefi He had even been 
 prevented from correcting the proofs by a fresh attack of fever. 4 
 Instead of giving an account of Brazil and his voyage thither, 
 this work deals with almost everything else except these points. 
 Not only are there long chapters on all the places touched at 
 both going and coming, but there are others on Africa in Particu- 
 lar, Africa in General, Madagascar, Ethiopia and any other region 
 which could possibly be brought in. He even took advantage of 
 the fact that in sailing home they coasted South America to 
 describe Peru, Mexico, Florida, Canada and Newfoundland, but 
 since he visited none of these countries any more than Mada- 
 gascar, his information is all second-hand. 
 
 He states that he had been induced to write about Canada 
 because no one had described it properly ; yet the narrative of 
 Cartier's second voyage had appeared in 1545. With the excep- 
 tion of a few facts about snowshoes, hunting and the medicinal 
 preparations of the savages, he tells us absolutely nothin;^ new. 
 This extra information was obtained from a Portuguese pilot,^ who 
 
 1 Ibid., pp. 391 and 395. 
 
 2 lUd., p. 445. 
 
 3 Les Singidaritez de la France Antarctique autrement nommie Amirique et de 
 phisieurs Terres et Isles ddcouvertes de nostre temps, Paris 1.557, 4°. For another 
 account of the same voyage vid. Barry's letters in Ternaux-Compans, op. cit. i 
 102-116. 
 
 4 " La fiebvre a tellement detenu I'Autheur depuis son retour qu'il n'a pas eu 
 loysir de revoir son livre avant que le bailler a I'Imprimeur" etc. Advertisement 
 au Lecteur, pp. Ixi et seq. 
 
 5 "lequel visita deux ou trois villages et les loges ou habitoient ceux du 
 pais." Singidaritez, etc. (1878) p. 406.
 
 234 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 may have been Jean Alfonse, and from Cartier himself, his 
 "grand et singulier amy," with whom he spent nine days at his 
 home in St. Malo.i From them he doubtless drew his facts about 
 children in chapter Ixxviii and the manner of making war in the 
 following chapter. His statements about minerals were corol- 
 laries from Koberval's expedition, while those about earthquakes 
 came out of his own head. Altiiough he had never been near 
 Newfoundland he added a chapter upon it, based on accounts 
 given him by fishermen.2 Thus the information about these 
 regions is not first hand but came to him from books or persons 
 who had been there. Later on however, as we shall see, he 
 declares that it was all first hand. 
 
 Not long after the publication of the Singularitez Thevet was 
 appointed, by means of the influence of his protectors. Almoner 
 to the Queen mother Catherine de Medicis.^'^ Yet since his 
 interest in geography still outran his devotion to theology, he 
 soon secured the additional titles of Historiographer and Cosmo- 
 grapher Royal, posts which he continued to occupy under both 
 Henry the Second and his brother Charles the Ninth. These new 
 titles were, in his eyes, of immense importance, for no one could 
 be so named who had not a sound knowledge not only of 
 geography but also of geometry, chorography, topography, poli- 
 graphy and prosography.4 What his duties were as guardian of 
 the King's curiosities or cosmographer royal is not quite clear, 
 but he seems to have been kept busy principally in clearing up 
 diflScult points of geogru,pl)y for his royal masters.^ It was 
 
 1 " Et ainsy m'en fit le recit le Capitaine Jaques Cartier estant log^ en sa 
 maison a S. Malo en I'lsle" etc. Biblioth^que Nationale, Ms. Fr. 15452, fol. 157; 
 cf. ibid. fol. 151 and Co.syyiographie Universelle, tome ii, fol. 1014 b. 
 
 2 "Ainsi que disent les habitants de Terre neuve et les pecheurs ordinaires." 
 Singularitez, etc., (1878) p. 441. 
 
 3 "Catherine de Medici, ma tres-honoree Dame et maistresse, qui a daigne 
 m'honnorer de I'estat d'Aumosnier ordinaire de sa maison. Vrais Pourtraits, 
 etc., p. 223. 
 
 4 Dedication of Vrais Pourtraits. 
 
 5 " Quant aux rares bons, et curieux espris, ie puis tesmoigner qu'il [Charles 
 IX] en a est^ fort amoureux : ie recognois . . . souvent avoir est^ mande par 
 sa Maiestd pour luy esclaircir les difficultez qu'il avoit sur le fait des cartes et des 
 pays estrangers." Ibid., p. 228 b.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 235 
 
 doubtless these services which procured him the Abbey of 
 Masdoin in Saintonge, although he continued to reside at Paris. 
 His Discours de la Bataille de Dreux published in 1563 does not 
 interest us here any more than does his failure to accompany 
 Montluc to the Canaries in 1566.1 
 
 It is otherwise however with iiis Cosmographie Universelle, 
 published in two large folio volumes some nine years later. Each 
 of the four parts of the globe occupies half a volume and America 
 is described in the second half of volume two, folios 903 to 1025 
 A map was also added which is extremely important as being 
 the first one which makes America one large continent with no 
 passage in the north to the Pacific but with a strait between Asia 
 and the north-west corner of North America. The statements 
 about Canada and the region of the St. Lawrence contained in 
 this work are a mere repetition of those made in his Singularitez. 
 This is not the impression however which The vet seeks to 
 convey ; for although in the former work he had only been " fort 
 pres de Canada "2 he asserts now, some twenty years later, that 
 he both landed in Canada and spent twenty days there examining 
 the country .3 One must regret therefore that he only saw what 
 Cartier and others had already seen and described. In fact, but 
 for the story of Roberval's niece (Chap, vi, fols. 1019-1020b), 
 there is nothing not given in his Singularitez except the engraving 
 of a dead whale being stripped by Basque fishermen (fol. 1017). 
 
 In 1584 appeared Lf-s Vr ens Pour traits et Viesdes Homntcslllus- 
 tres, also in two folio volumes, which are usually found however 
 bound in one.* While it is said to contain the lives of the great men 
 
 1 " L'an mil cinq cens soixante six, quand le vaillant seigneur de Montluc y 
 arriva, k la compagnie et embarquement duquel je fus prie d'aller ; mais, Mon- 
 sieur Bourdin procureur general de la Cour de Parlement de Paris, avec lequel je 
 demeurois, ne le voulut permettre." Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. fr. 15454, fol. 
 158. 
 
 2 Singularitez, etc. (1878) p, 395. 
 
 3 " durant lesquels i'euz bon loisir de me pourmener et rechercher ce qui 
 estoit de i^are et singulier par le pajs." Cosmographie Universelle, Tome ii, fol, 
 1009b. 
 
 4 A letter in which Thevet calls this ridiculous work " un torn beau qui eter- 
 nise k tout jamais " will be found in Milangts de Litterature et d'Histoire recueillia 
 et publiespar la Soct6t6 des Bibliophiles Franqois, Paris 1877.
 
 236 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 of the New World, Canada appears to be weak in this respect, for a 
 " King of Florida " is the onl}' important personage north of the 
 Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps had Thevet really voyaged beyond this 
 point he would have found other Indians worthy of being 
 included. 
 
 Such then are Thevets published writings. One maj^ call 
 them tremendous compilations resting on very slight foundations 
 of fact. The manuscripts which he left at his death, now pre- 
 served in the Bibliotheque Nationale, are perhaps even worse in 
 this respect. Five ot these manuscripts have usually been taken, 
 after their titles, for four distinct works ; an examination dis- 
 closes the fact that they really consist of only two, borh of little 
 or no value. 
 
 Ms. fr. 17175, entitled Second Voyage (V Andre Thevet dans 
 les Terres Australes et Occidentales, is a sixteenth century manu- 
 script of 3 78 leaves divided into forty-eight chapters. Folios 1 
 and 2 contain a " Petit Dictionnaire de la langue des Canadiens " 
 and also " Aultre Petit Dictionnaire du royaume d'Ochelaga, 
 Canada et autres pais " which on examination prove to be both 
 similar to the vocabulary given in the Grand Tnsulaire (Tome i, 
 folios 158 and 159) of which I shall speak presently Folios 3 to 
 10 contain an alphabetical index to something but of what it is im- 
 possible to discover. The account of the voyage itself then occu- 
 pies folios 11 to 17S with 36-38 blank. It is an account written 
 in 1587- of two voyages which Thevet declares he made to 
 America in 1550 and 1555. Of the former voyage we have hither- 
 to heard nothing ; let us see then where he went. He does not 
 tell us how or whence he set out but merely that he arrived in 
 America in the year 1550 with a certain Captain Te.stu,2 who had 
 already made several voyages thither.'^ Having passed under the 
 equator on the thirtieth of July* he mentions their visits to the 
 
 1 " L'annee passee mil cinq cens quatre ^-ingtz et six " etc., fol. 148 verso; 
 also fol. 156: " rannee passee mil cinq cens quatre vingtz six". 
 
 2 " J'arrivay en I'Amerique en I'an mil cinq cens cinquante qui fut men pre- 
 mier voyage soubz la conduite de ce valeureux pilots et capitaine Testu," fol. 54 
 verso ; cf. also fol. 128. 
 
 3 Fol. 34. 
 
 ■1 " Le penultiesme jour de juillet ayant double I'Equator," fol. 42.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 237 
 
 islands of Margajas^ and St. Dominique 2 and their arrival upon 
 the coast of Brazil where one of the islands was named after him.^ 
 All this region seemed so fertile that he thought his country- 
 men would do better to send colonists there, than to waste their 
 energies in Canada.'* Early in December they found on this coast 
 the remains of a European settlement and a placard was set up 
 to record the fact.5 After visiting the Three Islands and a lake 
 called after his friend Nicholas Barre, they finally reached the 
 Portuguese settlement at Cape St. Vincent, which greatly excited 
 The vet's admiration.^ Near Trinity Island they rescued three 
 Moors and two Portuguese who had been slaves for more than 
 fifteen years.7 After touching in succession at Rats Island,^ Car- 
 thagina, Cuba, St. Christopher's and St. Dominique^ they reached 
 Hayti, where Testu captured a Spanish vessel but at once released 
 her again.io Forced by a st-rm as in his second voyage to anchor 
 near Florida, they finally made the Madeira group and thence 
 sailed to Dieppe, which was reached on the twenty-second of July 
 about noon after being absent just a year.n The second voyage is 
 the one made with Villegaignon in 1555 and which he had already 
 
 1 " Isle noiumee des Margajas devant laquelle nous fusmes mouiller I'ancre," 
 fol. 62. 
 
 2 Fol. 47. 
 
 3 Fols. 104 et seq. On the 22nd of August they were at the river La Pa- 
 raide. Cf. fol. 48 verso. 
 
 4 "C'est en cest endroit ou les princes et grand seigneurs curieux d'habiter 
 et se fortifBer, pour laisser memoire perpetuelle d'eux deveroient envoyer sans 
 s'amuser au fripponnage des terres Canadiennes et autres qui ne sont plus voisins 
 ou sont tant mortz de bons soldatz," etc., fol. 109 
 
 5 Fol. 111. Here is the inscription " VII Decemb. MDLI Franci hunc portum 
 appulsi vagum invenere, cuius nomine Nane Francus Turonensis hoc insigne 
 erexit !" 
 
 6 Fol. Ill verso et seq. 
 
 7 Fol. 130. 
 
 8 Fol. 131 verso. 
 
 9 Fol. U3etseq 
 
 10 " Testu avec lequel j'estois prist un navire d'Hespagnols, I'aiant pris, 
 
 leur donna conge sans autrement les offenser encores que la prise fust de bonne 
 guerre," fol. 148 verso. 
 
 11 " environ midi de laquelle rade estions partis un an auparavant qui 
 
 fust mon premier voyage," fol. 178 verso ; cf. also fols. 154 and 163 for Florida 
 and Madeira.
 
 238 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 described at great length in his Singularitez. Although in that 
 work he did not hesitate to say that he had only been in the 
 country a few months since he arrived in November and sailed 
 in January, yet he now solemnly informs us that he remained 
 there several years and that any one who doubts his word is tell- 
 ing untruths.i He refers in this work to crossing the equator, 2 
 to the arrival at Cape de Frie in November^ and to coasting the 
 island of Hayti.^ According to its title of " Second Voyage " 
 this account should describe the voyage in 1555. It does nothing 
 of the kind, but mixes certain facts of this voyage with a larger 
 number taken from a supposed earlier voyage. ^ In my opinion 
 the first voyage in 1-5.50 riever was made, for without such a 
 voyage the contents of this manuscript are easily explicable. 
 It was easy in 1587 to speak of a voyage which took place thirty- 
 six years previously without much danger of contradiction. To 
 a modern mind it would seem peculiar that this voyage, which 
 took place even before his book on the East was published, 
 should not have been mentioned, if not in it, at least in his 
 Singularitez which dealt principally with America. The whole 
 contents however are, as is not surprising, taken bodily from his 
 earlier works. Thus the first chapter is an almost exact reprint 
 of the first chapter of the Singularitez with the dates changed ; 
 most of the second chapter conies from chapter ten of the same ; 
 the third chapter is chapter twelve of the same ; the fourth is 
 taken from both thirteen and fourteen, and so on. The thirty- 
 second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth 
 chapters (folios 121-138) are simply chapters five to eight of 
 
 1 " L'an cinq cens ciuquante cinq je feis un autre voyage et accompagnaj- le 
 Seigneur de Villegagnon, avee lequel je demeuray quelques annees. Je scay bien 
 que ce menteur Leri s'est persuade que je retournay en France la mesme ann^e,' 
 etc, fol. 54 verso. Cf. Lerj^, Histoire d'un Voyage faict en la terre de Bresil, i 15 
 et seq., Paris 1880. 
 
 '^ Fol. 39. 
 
 3 Fol. 49 verso 
 
 4 Fol. 148. 
 
 5 " Pourquoy il m'a semble bon par mesme moien de discourir mon premier 
 et'second voyage et remarquer les choses plus rares qu'il m'a semble bon d'iceulx. 
 Car ce que j'aurois veu et observe en I'un, je ne I'aurois pas advanture en I'autre," 
 etc, fol. 178 verso.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 239 
 
 Book xxi of his Cofiviographie Universelle. Sometimes as in 
 the thirty-seventh and forty-seventh chapters he drew from his 
 Grand Insidaire, which he had begun some three years before.^ 
 In that part which more especially concerns us, the source of 
 his information is only too apparent. Thus the forty-second 
 chapter entitled " Canada and Newfoundland " (fol. 157) is a 
 repetition of the seventy-fifth chapter of the Singularitez with 
 a bit of the third chapter of Book xxii of the Cosmographie 
 Universelle thrown in. The next chapter, on the " Route and 
 Dangers of Canada " (fol. 159, verso), is a copy of that part of the 
 Cosmographie of Jean Alfonse which deals with the St. Law- 
 rence. Thevet's visit to Canada also advances a step, for he now 
 tells us how during the twenty days spent there he conversed 
 with a savage and also christened one of the islands near at 
 hand after himself. 
 
 Ms. fr. 15454 is an autograph copy of the above 
 although there are several divergencies, mostly unimportant. 
 Thus on folio 2 there are several sentences not in the former 
 manuscript. Often also the chapters of the former are subdi- 
 vided into smaller ones with new headings (e. g. fol. 14 verso, 
 fol. 25 etc.). Although therefore this manuscript is a copy of 
 the former work it was evidently not taken from the former 
 manuscript, but rather from one made in the following year 
 1588. Thus where, in the former, the past year is always 1586, 
 here it is 1587 (folios 142 and 148). 
 
 Three of the remaining manuscripts left by The vet contain his 
 Grand Insulaire or description of all the known islands of the 
 globe, and on this he was evidently engaged from about the year 
 1584 until his death in 1590. In fact the two Mss. 15452 and 
 15453 still remain just as he left them. Since however, as will 
 easily be seen from what has already been said, Thevet's work is 
 of very slight value, it will be sufficient to discuss briefly the 
 sources of his information on the islands about the St. Law- 
 rence. The description of Newfoundland (Ms. fr. 15452 fol. 143 
 et seq.) is the same as in his Cosmographie Universelle, book. 
 
 1 " Ainsi que, Dieuaydant, j'espere monstrer quelque iour dans mon Grand 
 Insulaire." Vrais Pourtraits, etc., p. 482.
 
 240 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 xxiii, chapter v, to which indeed he in this case refers the reader, 
 though he calls it chapter xx. The island of Roberval (fol. 145 
 verso) called also Isle des Demons where Roberval put his niece 
 ashore, had already been similarly described in chapter vi of the 
 same book of this fonrier woi'k. He here rambles on about ap- 
 paritions in general and the negligence of his countrymen in not 
 peopling it to drive the spirits away. On folio 148 he began a 
 description of the island of Bcdle Isle which he saj^s was so named 
 by Cartier after the one on the coast of Brittany. According to 
 Thevet deer and hinds roamed there.^ Any one who has passed 
 this barren rock on a steamer will understand from this one 
 instance the value of Thevet's statements. He places St. Julien 
 Island (fol. 149) between Anticosti and the Straits of Belle Isle. 
 The former island (fol. 151) is full of mountains, forests and 
 bears, which rob tht- huts of the fishermen. At the end of the 
 manuscript (fol. 403) he again continues the description, copying 
 with great care the Gosmographie of Jean Alfonse. In this addi- 
 tion, however, he neglected to correct divergencies, so that while 
 we had been formerly told that the island was mountainous, one 
 now learns that it is "so flat that there was no hill which a 
 horse and cart could not pass over." He also states that it lies 
 in 48|- to 50 degrees, not in 51 to 53 as before. The description 
 of Saguenay and the entrance to the river St. Lawrence is also 
 supplied by Jean Alfonse. There is one story of Cartier's visit 
 which is new and which he perhaps heard from Cartier himself. 
 The Indian vocabularies on folios 1 58 and 159 fire from Ramusio's 
 third volume and from the printed edition of Cartier's second 
 vovage. So much then for the fresh information contained in 
 these reams of manuscript. 
 
 Ms. fr. 17174, entitled a " Description of several Islands," is 
 an autograph manuscript of 145 leaves, containing portions 
 of the Grand Insulaire and of the Second Voyage. Thus the 
 description of the ishmd of Solochi is from the Grand Insulaire, 
 Ms. 15452 fol. 11; that of Zeland from the same, fol. 31; Greenland 
 from the same, fol. M.S etc. So the description of the islands of 
 Mule, Man, Wight, Rusline, Rosa and Skie are simply recopied 
 
 1 " Les cerfs et biches y faonnent k outrance " etc., fol. 148 verso.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 241 
 
 from the folios 42-62 of his Grand Insulaire (Ms. fr. 15452), 
 while the Second Voyage supplies the accounts of Bayonne, the 
 Canaries, Isle des Neiges and Gelledin. Finally Ms. fr. 19031 
 contains fragments of several unimportant works composed or 
 translated by him.i 
 
 Thevet (lied at Paris in November 1590 and was buried in 
 the church of the Cordeliers, where for some weeks previously 
 he had been daily superintending the completion of his own 
 tomb. It was finished indeed just in time to receive his body. 
 L'Estoile calls hira a noted liar and a great ignoramus.^ De Thou 
 says that having gained a smattering of learning he employed 
 his time in fantastic voyages wherein he soon acquired a moder- 
 ate reputation. Thereupon he began to write books in which he 
 incorporated extracts from other works as well as descriptions 
 taken from guide-books and other similar compilations. " In 
 fact," says the same writer, "ignorant beyond all belief, he put in 
 his books the uncertain for the certain, the false for the true with 
 an astonishing complacency."^ Even at the present day one's 
 estimate of Thevet cannot be other than this. 
 
 Only cne of Thevet's works was translated. That was the 
 Singularitez, which appeared at London in 1568 under the title 
 of " The New found world or Antarctike, wherin is contained 
 " wonderful and strange things, as well of humaine creatures, as 
 " Beastes, Fishes, Foules and Serpents, Trees, Plants, Mines of 
 " Golde and Silver : garnished with many learned aucthorities , 
 " travailed and written in the French tong, by that excellent 
 
 1 Mss. fr. 4941 and oC46 do not interest us here. 
 
 2 P. de I'Estoile. Jl&moires-Jom'naux, v 61-62. Paris 1878. Cf. also tome iv, 
 p. 381. 
 
 3 De Thou, Hl-itoire Universelle, (Londres 1734) ii 651 : — " 11 employa le tems 
 de sa jeunesse a faire des pelerinages, et d'autres voyages de fantaisie. S'etant 
 acquis par ce moj'en une espece de reputation, il s'appliqua par une vanite ridicule 
 a ecrire des Livres, qu'il vendoit a de miserables Libraires : apres avoir compile des 
 extraits de differens auteurs, il y ajoiitoit tout ce qu'il truu\'oit dans les Guides 
 des chemins, et autres Livres semblables, qui sont entre les mains du peuple. En 
 ellet, ignorant au-dela de ce que Ton peut s'imaginer, et n'aj'ant aucune connois- 
 sance ni des belles-lettres, ni de Tantiquite, ni de la chronologic, il mettoit dans ses 
 livres I'iucertain pour le certain, et le faux pour le vrai, avec une assurance eton- 
 nante," etc.
 
 242 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 " learned man, master Andre we The vet. And now newly translated 
 ' into Englishe wherein is reformed the errours of the auncient 
 " Cosmographers. Imprinted at London, by Henrie Bynneman, 
 " for Thomas Hacket. And are to be sold at his shop in Poules 
 " Church yard, at the sign of the Key." In the dedication, ad- 
 dressed to Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales, Thevet is 
 spoken of as a " worthy traveller " while the book is called " a 
 thing very rare, and of such exquisitie doing, as before this time 
 the like hath not ben heard of." The whole work is translated 
 in a fairly exact and accurate manner. An Italian translation 
 also was published at Venice in 1561. 
 
 Richard Hakluyt. 
 
 Unlike Thevet, his contemporary, Hakluyt never visited the 
 New World, yet he has bequeathed to us much more important 
 information than the former author who boasted that he had 
 made two voyages to those parts. Several of the documents 
 preserved by Hakluyt have been spoken of elsewhere but there 
 are others due more or less to his own pen. Born near London 
 about the year 1553, Hakluyt was educated at Westminster 
 School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 
 1574.1 When only a school-boy his uncle, a barrister in the 
 Temple, had aroused his interest in the new discoveries, and it 
 appears that after taking his degree he actually delivered lectures 
 at Oxford on the geographical discoveries of the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries. In the autumn of 1583 he went to Paris as 
 chaplain to Sir Edward Stafford the English ambassador there. 
 On his return to England in 1590 he was given the living of 
 of Wetteringsett cum Blochford in Suffolk. In the year 1605 he 
 was made a prebendary of Westminster, a post which he con- 
 tinued to hold until his death in 1616. 
 
 His first work, entitled Divers Voyages touching the discover - 
 
 1 For his life vid. J. W. Jones' Introduction to the Hakluyt Society's reprint 
 of his Divert Voyages, London, 1850 ; the address to the same Society by Sir 
 Clements Markham, the President, in 1896 ; the article Hakluyt in the Dictionary 
 of National Biography and Dr. Woods' Introduction to the Discouvfte on Wenterne 
 Planting in the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, second series, vol ii, 
 Cambridge, 1877, pp. xxv-lxi.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 243 
 
 ies of Amierica and the Islands Adiacent, was published at Lon- 
 don in 1582. Of the English translation of Verrazano's voyage 
 therein contained mention has already been made. In 1584 at 
 the request of Sir Walter Ralegh he wrote A particuler dis- 
 course concerning the greats necessitie and manlfolde comody- 
 ties that are like to groive to this Realme of Englande by the 
 Westerne discoveries lately attempted. Of this interesting pam- 
 phlet, which was never printed, only four copies were made. One 
 fortunately came to light in the year 1868 and was finally pub- 
 lished in 1877.^ In the course of the twenty chapters in which 
 these " comodyties ", which range from the spreading of the Gos- 
 pel to the bridling of the King of Spain and the discovery of a 
 northwest passage to Cathay, are set forth, we get a good deal of 
 incidental information about the early voyages to the New 
 World. Here for instance 2 is the only reference to the first 
 voyage of La Roche in 1584 as well as to the exploring expedi- 
 tion of Bellinger of Rouen in the previous suminer.^ 
 
 In 1589 appeared Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voiages 
 and Discoveries of the English Nation .... within the 
 compasse of these 16G0 yeeres, in which are contained the 
 accounts of several unpublished voyages to Newfoundland. Of 
 a voyage said to have taken place in the year 1527, he was not 
 able to give much additional information except that one of the 
 ships was named the Dominus Vobiscum and that a canon of St. 
 Paul's " did much advaunce the action and went therein himself e 
 in person.""* In conclusion he blames the " great negligence of 
 the writers of those times, who should have used more care in 
 preserving the memories of the worthie actes of our nation." 5 
 About the voyage of Master Hore ^ to the same region in the 
 year 1536 he was able to obtain fuller information from one of 
 
 1 Collections of the Maine Historical Society, second series, ii 1-167 
 
 2 Ihid, p. 26 
 
 3 Ihid. 
 
 Pnncipall Navigations (1589) p. 517. 
 
 * Ibid. Cf. also Coleccion de Docnmentos iniditos de Indias, 1st series vol. 
 xxxvii, pp. 456-458, vol. xl, pp. 305-354 and second series vol. iv, pp. 57-60. 
 
 6 Ibid., pp. 517-519 : — " The voyage of Master Hore and divers other Gentle- 
 men to Newfoundland and Cape Breton, in the year 1536."
 
 244 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 the survivors, Thoraas Buts of Norfolk, to whom he " rode 200 
 miles onely to learne the whole trueth of this voyage from his 
 owne mouth ; " for this man was the sole member of that expedi- 
 tion then living. Part of his information however he obtained 
 from his uncle, the barrister of the Middle Temple, who had 
 received it from one Davvbeny, another member of the expedi- 
 tion. It appears that this " master Hore of London, a man of 
 great coura;^e and given to the sludie of Cosmographie," induced 
 thirty gentlemen of the Inns of Court and of Chancery and 
 others "desirous to see the strange things of the world" to 
 embark in two tall ships which set sail from Gravesend in April 
 1586. After visiting Cape Breton and Penguin Island they sailed 
 northward to Newfoundland where liovvever provisions began to 
 run short. Just when all their stores were exhausted and one 
 man had actually killed aud begun to eat another, "such was the 
 mercie of God, that there arrived a French shippe in that port 
 well furnished with vittaile, and such was the policie of the 
 English that they became masters of the same and changing 
 ships, set sail to come into England," where they arrived safely 
 at the end of October. Some months later when the poor 
 Frenchmen appeared and begged for relief. King Henry VIII, 
 grieved at the tale of his countrymen's sufferings, made good the 
 damage due out of his own pocket. This voyage, which took 
 place in the same year as that in which Cartier returned from 
 wintering on the St. Lawrence, is important as showing that 
 English voyciges continued to be made from time to time, and 
 also for tiie mention of the French fishing vessel. 
 
 It is probable that the examination of David Ingram, who in 
 the year 1569 wandered with two companions from the Gulf of 
 Mexico northward to the coast of Acadia whence they were 
 taken home by a French trader, was also carried out by Hakluyt 
 or at his request.! After his defeat in the harbour of San Juan 
 
 1 ♦' The Relation of David Ingram of Barking, in the Countie of Essex Sayler, 
 of sundry things which he with others did see in traveiling by land from the most 
 Northerly partes of the Bale of I^Iexico .... through a great part of 
 America, untill he came within fiftie leagues or there abouts of Cape Britton." 
 Ihid., pp. 5o7-oG2. Cf. also Sainsbury, op. rit. vol. i, no. 2, and Addenda no.';. 25 
 and 26, p. 21.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 245 
 
 de Ulloa in the autumn of 1568 John Hawkins had been obliged, 
 through lack of all stores and by the condition of his boats, to 
 put one hundred men ashore near the mouth of the Mississippi 
 Three of these, David Ingram, Brown and Twide, " travelled by 
 land two thousand miles towards Cape Britton und never con- 
 tinued in any one place above three or foure dayes." Unfortu- 
 nately however the value of this document is greatly weakened 
 by the fact that one never knows to what portion of this great 
 extent of territory the various statements refer. Yei; for us the 
 fact that these men were taken off by a Freoch vessel in a 
 region where fishing was abundant and white bears common, 
 is of considerable importance. After passing the Baye Ste. Marie, 
 which I take to be the Bay of Fundy, he states that they came 
 to the " maine sea upon the Northside of America," and having 
 travelled in sight of this for two days they were informed when 
 a', the head of a river, sixty leagues west from Cape Breton, that 
 a ship was on the coast at the mouth of it. Repairing thither 
 they found a French vessel trading in furs, leaves for dyeing and 
 rude silver. In this vessel they were taken to Havre, and thence 
 they made their way to England. Not only is this a good proof 
 of the early rise of the fur-trade, Vut the savages of that region 
 said " they had seene shippes on that coast and did draw upon 
 the ground the shape and figure of shippes and of their 
 sailes and flagges." Some of these were doubtless fishing 
 vessels. 
 
 In 1599 and 1600 Hakluyt published a new and much en- 
 larged edition of his Principall Navigations, in the third volume 
 of which are printed several important papers relating to the St. 
 Lawrence. The translations of Cartier's and Roberval's voyages 
 have been discussed elsewhere as well as those not written by 
 Hakluyt himself. There is however an anonymous account of 
 the discover}^ of the island of Ramea which was doubtless trans- 
 lated from the French by Hakluyt."!- It had been found on a 
 
 1 " Relation of the first voyage and discoverie of the Isle Ramea made by 
 for Monsieur de La court Pre Ravillon, and Grand Pre, with the 
 
 ship called the Bonaventure, to kill and make Traine oyle of the beasts called the 
 Morses with great teeth, which we have perfourmed by Gods helpe this yeere 
 1591." Principall Naviyation.'^ (IGOO) iii 189-190.
 
 246 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 French vessel when she was brought into Bristol as a prize,^ and 
 through his friends in that town Hakluyt doubtless obtained 
 possession of the document. Soon after leaving St. Malo " with 
 the fleete that went for Canada " this vessel lost the others in a 
 violent storm and reached Newfoundland alone. As she was 
 about to enter hei- usual fishing harbour, a fresh storm forced her 
 to sail up and down for eleven days. When the weather at 
 length cleared, the crew discovered this island of Ramea, which 
 during the months of April, May and June turned out to be the 
 home of innumerable walruses. They were able therefore to 
 ship, instead of cod, some forty casks of train oil, though unfor- 
 tunately for the owners these were unloaded at Bristol instead of 
 at St. Malo. This document is merely the pilot's account of the 
 course to be held in order to return to Ramea, It is interesting 
 as a ray of light thrown upon the yearly operations of the 
 French Newfoundland fishermen. Besides leading English ves- 
 sels to sail to this island, the mention of walruses induced Hak- 
 luyt to add "A briefe note of the Morsse and the use thereof " 2 in 
 which he informs us that one of his friends had used the teeth of 
 these animals in administering medicine to his patients and " had 
 found it as souveraigne against poyson as any Unicornes home." 
 
 Richard Fisher. 
 
 Our sole information about Fisher consists in the statement 
 made by himself that he was " Master Hilles man of RedrifFe." 
 As the author of an account 3 of a voyage to Cape Breton in the 
 year 1593 he becomes for us rather an important personage, 
 although the voyage itself turned out a failure. On the first of 
 June 1593 the Marigold of seventy tons departed out of Fal- 
 mouth in company with another ship for the island of Ramea 
 
 1 Ibid., p. 191 : "to advertise your honour of the discovery of an Island 
 made by two smale shippes of Saint Malo ; the one 8 daies past being prised near 
 Silley bj' a ship called the Pleasure .... which prise is sent backe to this Port 
 with upwards of fortie tunnes of Traine," etc. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 191. 
 
 3 " The voj'age of the ship called the Mariijold of M. Hill of Redrife unto 
 Cape Briton and beyond to tlie latitude of 44 degrees and an half, 1593," in Hak- 
 luyt, Principall Navigations, (1600) iii 191-193.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 247 
 
 where the Bretons caught the walruses. On the way out they 
 lost one another, but keeping her reckonings well the other ves- 
 sel sailed directly to the island, where she found a vessel from 
 St. Malo already three quarters full of oil. This vessel in fear 
 of seizure " being of a Leaguer towne tied so hastily that present 
 night " that she left half her crew and three boats which the 
 English vessel captured. Only a moderate cargo was now 
 secured however, as the season was almost at an end. On the 
 other hand the Marigold overshot the island and reached Cape 
 Breton. Here the crew landed and took in water. They were 
 approached by a savage, but when a musket accidentally went 
 off he fled. Again setting sail, tbey beat up and down to the west 
 and south-west of Cape Breton for eleven weeks but finding no 
 trace of Ramea they finally sailed for home. 
 
 Silvester Wyet. 
 
 In his position of master of the Grace of Bristol, a barque of 
 thirty tons, this man wrote an account of her voyage to the island 
 of Anticosti in the year 1594, which the diligence and care of 
 Hakluyt have preserved for us/' She was sent to this island in 
 the belief that " Whales which are deadly wounded in the Grand 
 Bay, and yet escape the fisher for a time, are woont usually to 
 shoot themselves on shore " there. Finding however, after wait- 
 ing some time, that this did not seem to be the case, the Grace 
 set sail for Newfoundland, and on arriving at the Bay of Placentia, 
 where it was intended to load cod, the crew found themselves 
 well used by " the fishermen of Saint John de Luz and of Sibi- 
 buro and of Biskay, which were to the number of threescore 
 and odde sayles, whereof eight shippes onely were Spaniardes." 
 After fishing here for a time with two pinnaces lent them by the 
 men of St. Jean-de-Luz and Ciboure, they crossed the bay to the 
 harbour called Pesinarck where they made a stage and " fished 
 so long, that in the ende the Savages came, and in the night cut 
 both our pinnesse and our shippes boate away." Fearing further 
 
 1 " The voyage of the Grace of Bristol of M. Rice Jones, a Barke of thirtj' 
 five Tuniies, up into the Bay of Saint Laurence to the Northwest of Newefound- 
 land, as farre as the Isle of Assumption or Natiscotec, for the barbes or fynnes of 
 Whales and traine Oyle," in Hakluyt, Principal/. Navigations (1600) iii 194-19.5
 
 248 
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 annoyance they sailed to Farrillon where they found two and 
 twenty English vessels. Here they quietly " made up their 
 fishing voyage to the full " and then sailed for home. 
 
 Charles Leigh. 
 
 In the summer of 1597 Charles Leigh, a London merchant 
 made a voyage on board of one of his vessels, " bound unto the 
 river of Canada." On his return he compiled an account of their 
 adventures which gives one a more vivid idea of the lawlessness 
 which then existed on the coast of New France than any docu- 
 ment hitherto discovered. ^ On Friday morning the 8th of 
 April the Hopewell of 120 tons and the Chancewell of 70 tons set 
 sail together from Gravesend for the St. Lawrence. Near New- 
 foundland they lost sight of one another but came together again 
 on the following day in the Bay of Assumption, where the Hope- 
 well contrary to her captain's wish fought with a French vessel. 
 On the way to the island of Ramea they once more became separ- 
 ated, so that on the 18th of June the Hopewell arrived alone. 
 Here she found two vessels from St Malo and two from St. Jean- 
 de-Luz who also said they were Frenchmen. Doubting the truth 
 of this, Leigh asked them to hand over their povv^der and ammuni- 
 tion, promising, if they turned out to be really French, to keep it 
 in safety without diminution. On their refusal it was taken from 
 theni by force but again restored when an examination of the 
 masters showed that they had spoken the truth. This high- 
 handed proceeding of a single Engli-^h vessel so angered the 
 foreigners that on the following morning the crew of the Hope- 
 ivell were treated to the spectacle of three pieces of cannon direct- 
 ed against them from the shore, while two hundred Frenchmen, 
 collected out of the neighbouring harbours, and three hundred sav- 
 ages shot at them fi'om the woods. After a short skirmish a 
 parley was arranged, but when Ralph Hill and the boatswain's 
 mate appeared on shore they were straightway seized. Fearing 
 further treachery'- and being the weaker side the Hopeiuell cut 
 
 1 " The voyage of M.Charles Leigh, and divers others to Cape Briton and the 
 Isle of Ramea," in Hakluji;, Principall Navigations (1600) iii 195-201. For his 
 voyage to South America vid. Purchas, part iv, pp. 1250-62 and Sainsbury, op. cit. 
 vol. i p, 5.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 249 
 
 her cable, and left her anchor on shore. On the way out of the 
 harbour the two missing men were again sent on board. Being 
 warned away from Tsle Blanche by a cannon shot,she headed up the 
 western coast of Newfoundland. Soon a bad north-easter set in, 
 whereupon the master said that they could not keep that course. 
 Leigh "then asked how farre they had to the river of Cape 
 Briton : he sayd a little way. Then, said he, If it be not farre, 
 we were best to go thither to trade with the Savages while the 
 wind is contrary." Finding however that it was further out of 
 their course than he had thought, Leigh ordered the master to 
 turn again and head for the Straits of Belle Isle. But " within 
 one halfe houre afterwards the gunner and company presented 
 me and the master with a request in writing to returne for Eng- 
 land or to goe for the Islands of A9ores for a man of war, for they 
 would not proceed on their voyage; and therefore do what 
 I could, they turned the helme homewards." On the twenty- 
 seventh of June when taking water at Cape Breton they came 
 upon a boat belonging to their consort the Cltancevjell which had 
 been cast away in a harbour near at hand and robbed by some 
 Frenchmen ; the very shirts of the crew had been taken from 
 them. Upon information that this had been done by a great 
 Biskaine of 300 tons, a search was made for her and she was 
 finally discovered in the English Port "with two Biskainers more, 
 and two ships of Rochel." The admiral of the harbour, when ap- 
 plied to, at once ordered the stolen goods to be returned, and most 
 of the lost property was actually recovered. Since however Leigh 
 threatened to use violence if the remainder were not given up, 
 the admiral kept him a prisoner until the Hopeivell got under 
 way, when Leigh was put on board. "The next morning we pur- 
 posed if the winde had served our turne,tohave made them to re- 
 pent their evill dealing or els to have suncke their ships if we 
 could. But the winde caried us to sea: so that wee tooke our course 
 toward the bay of S. Laurence in Newfoundland : where wee 
 hoped to find a Spanish ship, which as we had intelligence, did 
 fish at that place." Her capture was easily effected by the ship's 
 boat, which surprised the Spaniard in the night. But before the 
 Hopewell could arrive, for it was foggy, the vessel was again re-
 
 250 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 taken by some Basques from a neighbouring harbour, who had 
 been summoned by one of the fugitive crew. Foiled in this at- 
 tempt they next laid their course for the harbour of Cape St. 
 Mary where it was reported that certain Leaguers were fishing. 
 Only one was discovered but she was at length taken after a 
 close fight during which they "played upon us with shot and pikes 
 out at two ports, between which we entred very dangerously." 
 A vessel from La Rochelle which was close at hand merely looked 
 on at the fun. In this prize Leigh at once set sail for England 
 while the master of the Hojieiudl was ordered " to go for the Is- 
 lands of the Azores and there to spend his victuals for (as) a man 
 of warre." What success he met with is not recorded. 
 
 From an account such as that condensed above, one realizes 
 what the life in the fishing harbours was like. In reality it 
 seems to have differed little from sheer piracy, though had the 
 crew not mutinied when on the way up the west coast of New- 
 foundland, it is possible the voyage might have passed off" 
 quietly. 
 
 Bertrand's Letter. 
 
 Of the author of the Lettre Missive^ to the Sieur de la Tron- 
 chaie we know very little indeed. From the statements contain- 
 ed in it one would suppose that he was a merchant of Paris who 
 had gone out to New France for the first time in the year IGIO 
 to take some share in the fur-trade, a very agreeable occupation 
 as he assures us.2 Lescarbot, who calls him an honest man, and 
 a native of Sesane^, tells us that although at Paris he had suffer- 
 ed from the gout, he was quite free from it at Port Royal.4 The 
 
 1 Lettre Mis-nve, Touchant la Converdon et Baptesme du grand Sagamo>i <h la 
 nouvelle France, qui en estoit axiparavant I'arrivie des Francois le chef et sotirerain. 
 Envoyie du Port Royal eri la nouvelle France au Sieur de la Tronchaie, dattee du 
 28 Juin IGIO, Paris, 1610. Printed in the Jenuit Relatione and Allied Documents, 
 i 118-12.3. Cleveland 1896. 
 
 2 " Vous asseurant qu'il fait beau trafiqiier par de9ii et faire un beau gain." 
 Ibid., p. 122. 
 
 3 Ibid, ii 156 : — " M. Bertrand natif de Sesane." 
 
 4 Ibid, ii 182 : — " Tesmoin un honete personnage nomme Bertrand, leqnel k 
 Paris estoit journellement tourmente de la goutte, de laquelle il a est^ totalement 
 exempt par dela, etc."
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 251 
 
 letter is extremely short and not of very s^reat value except for 
 
 the hint given as to the gains to be derived from the fur- 
 
 trade.i 
 
 Marc Lescarbot. 
 
 Born at Vervins 2 of a good family between the years 1560 
 and 1570, Lescarbot, after receiving a good education, took up 
 the study of law. He had not however been called to the Bar 
 when in 1598 he pronounced in his native town an oration of 
 thanksgiving before the Papal Legate on the conclusion of peace 
 with Spain.3 In the following year he published a translation 
 of a Latin work by Cardinal Baronius on the origin of the 
 Russians.^ Shortly afterwards he was called to the Bar and 
 among his first briefs seem to have been several law-suits in 
 which the Seigneur de Poutrincourt was involved. On the de- 
 parture of the latter with Monts in 1604 Lescarbot was given the 
 charge of all his private affairs until his return, when those, he 
 informs us, who during his absence had given trouble became 
 most silent and affable.^ During the year 1605 he doubtless 
 
 1 " Quant ail paj-s, iamais ie n'ay veu rien de si beau, meilleur ny plus fertile, 
 et vous dis avec verite, et sans meiitir que si i'avois trois ou quatre Laboureurs 
 maintenant avec moy, et pour les nourrir una annee, et du bled pour ensemencer le 
 labourage qii'ils pourroient faire de leurs bras seulenient, du surplus qui me 
 reviendroit apres leiir nourriture, i'espererois faire trafiq tons les ans de sept ou 
 huict mille livres en Castors et Pelleterie," etc. Ihid. i 120. 
 
 ^ Histoire de la Nonrelle France (1866) iii 768; "Veivin lieu de ma nais- 
 sance," etc, Vid. Demarsy, Notes siir Marc Lescarbot avocat Vervinois, Verrins, 
 1868, passim. 
 
 3 Lescarbot, op. cit. iii 768 : "A Vervin, oil je fis deux actions de graces en 
 forme de panegjTique a Monseigneur le Legat Alexandre de Medicis, Cardinal 
 de Florence, depuis Pape Leon XL" Copies of this are preserved in the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris under the titles Actio GrcUiarum pro Pace per 
 Marcum Scarbotium, I. V. L.. Lutetise, MDIIC, (Lb ^^33), and Harangue 
 d' Action de Graces jwiir la Paix, prononcee en la ville de Vervin, le dernier iour de 
 May, 1598, etc. , par Man; Lescarbot, Licentier es Droicts, Paris. MDXCVIII, 
 (Lb %32). 
 
 * Discours de VOrigine des Russiens, et de leur miraculeuse conversion : et de 
 quelques actes memorables de letirs Rois ; en outre comme par laps de terns ilz ont 
 quitl4 la verite coneue : et maintenant une grande jxirtie d'tceux se sont rangez A la 
 eomm,union du S. Siege Apostolic. Traduit en Francois du Latin du Cardinal Cesar 
 Baronius par Marc Lescarbot advocaf, Paris 1599, 8'"'. 
 
 5 " Certains qui le poursuivoient rigoureusement absent. . . . devindrent 
 soupples et rauets a son retour." Histoire, ii 484-485.
 
 252 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 continued his practice at Paris, for it was from here that he set 
 out in the spring of 1606 to accompany Poutrincourt to the New 
 World. The latter had agreed, at Monts' request, to take charge 
 of the settlement at Port Royal, while Lescarbot's excuse for 
 going was his desire " to examine the land with his own eye and 
 to flee a corrupt world." It appears that he had received personal 
 disfavours from several judges, i Embarking on the Jonas at La 
 Rcchelle in May 1606 they did not reach Port Royal until the 
 end of July. 2 On the 30th of the following July Lescarbot left 
 Port Royal for France so that he spent just twelve months in the 
 New World. ^ He saw very little of it except the region about 
 Port Royal, having only visited beyond this the River St. John 
 and the island of Ste. Croix. 4 Reaching home in the autumn of 
 1607, Lescarbot did not turn his attention towards the produc- 
 tion of a fresh work until the Easter law vacation of 1608 when 
 he determined at the instance of his friends to write the history of 
 the attempts so far made to establish a French empire. The 
 accounts of the voyages of Verrazano, Cartier, Laudonniere, and the 
 others were thus incorporated in his work, which in his own words 
 was also to be a record of the chief events of the voyages of 
 Monts and of Poutrincourt. ^ 
 
 This work published in the following year under the title of 
 Histoire de la Nouvelle France is divided into three books, 
 
 1 "Desireux de reconoitre la terre oculaireraent et fuir iin monde corrorapu ; 
 estant ra^me induit par Tinjustice que m'avoient pen auparavant faite certains 
 Jujes Presidiaux," etc. Ibid. p. 485. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 518. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 575. A letter dated Port Royal '22nd August 1606 is in the Ministere 
 des Affaires Etrangeres, Amerique, Vol. iv, fols 49-50. It was published by 
 M. Marcel in the Beriie de Geographic Tome 16 pp. 65-69. Paris 1885. 
 
 4 Histoire p. 569. 
 
 5 " Je veux done faire un recueil general de ce que i'ay leu en divers petits 
 traitez et memoires que j'ay pris tant en la Bibliotheque du Roj' qu'ailleurs : en- 
 semble ce que ledit sieur de Monts a fait et exploite au voyage qu'il y fit en I'an 
 mil six cens trois : et finalement ce que j'y ay veu en I'espace de deux etes et un 
 hiver que nous avons este en ladite province, en la compagnie du sieur de Poutrin- 
 court. . . tant pour contenter I'honnete desir de plusieurs qui des long temps 
 requierent cela de moy que pour emplo^^er utilemeut les heures que je puis avoir de 
 loisir durant ce temps que Ton appelle des Vacations " Dnd., pp. 5-6, He adds 
 in 1617 "des vacations en I'an 160S."
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 253 
 
 in the first of which are described the voyages of Verrazano, Vil- 
 legaignon, Ribaut, Laudonniere and Gourgues. The accounts of 
 the expeditions of Cartier, Roberval, La Roche, Monts and Pout- 
 rincourt occupy the second book, while in the third and last he 
 gives an account of the manners and customs of the savages of 
 the New World. Of his summary of V'errazano's voyage which 
 is copied from Belleforest, mention has already been made. The 
 sources of his version of Cartier's voyages, which are given in 
 full, are easily traceable. The first is takeu from the Rouen 
 edition of 1598 while, as he himself tells us, the second was copied 
 from the original manuscript preserved in the King's Library, i 
 This as I have shown elsewhere is now Ms. fr. 5589, known as B. 
 He also reprinted some verses " Sur le voyage de Canada " which 
 he found in the Rouen edition of the first voyage.2 In copying 
 this first voyage he has put the first of August for the 25th of 
 July and having once committed himself continues his error. 3 
 The spelling of the second relation is also frequently modernized 
 and he suppressed some of the dedication which seemed to be 
 rather bigoted.^ He did not retain the original order of the nar- 
 rative but broke it up into sections, between which he inserted 
 portions of Champlain's account of his voyage to the St. Law- 
 rence in 1603. The only valid reason for this seems to be jea- 
 lousy of Champlain, who, he says, gives one the impression that 
 no person had ever gone beyond Quebec before he went there. ^ 
 Some descriptive portions of Cartier's second relation are reserv- 
 ed for his third book on the manners and customs of the savages. ^ 
 
 1 " Ainsi j'ciy laisse en leur entier les deux voyages dudit Capitaine Jacques 
 Quartier, le premier desquels estoit imprime ; mais le second je I'ay pris sur 
 I'original presente au Roj' ecrit k la main '" etc. Ihicl, pp. 204-20.5 (edition of 16(9 
 p. 231.) 
 
 - " Au surplus, ayant trouve en tete du premier voyage. . . cjuelques vers 
 Frangois qui me semblent de bonne grace, je n'en ay voulu frustrer I'autlieur, du- 
 quel j'eussemis le nom s"il se fust donne a conoitre." Ibid., p. 205, 
 
 3 Edition of 1609 pp. 278 et seq. Michelant et Rame op. cit., pp. 36 et neq. 
 
 i " Pour rOrthographie i'ay sviivi la plus simple qu'il m'aeste possible, rejett- 
 ant a peu pres touttes lettres superflues." Au Lecteur, edition of 1609. It seems 
 odd in view of this to speak of Lescarbot's version of Carciei-'s voyages. 
 
 5 " Si bien que le sieur Champlain peusoit estre le premier qui en avoit gaigne 
 le prix," etc. Edition of 1866, ii, 309. 
 
 6 Ibid., iii 662 et seq.
 
 254 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 His accounts of the voyages of Roberval and La Roche are 
 very scanty indeed, for no French version of the former's voy- 
 age seems to have been then preserved and Lescarbot was igno- 
 rant of that given by Hakluyt some nine years earlier. It ap- 
 pears as if his whole information on this subject was derived from 
 the slight mention of Roberval in the Letters patent of La Roche 
 and from a conversation with one of Roberval's descendants. It is 
 not astonishing therefore that his account is quite wrong. He 
 makes no mention of Cartier's third voyage nor of his descen- 
 dants' attempt at a monopoly. A very summary account is given 
 of the expedition of La Roche, which he states to have taken 
 place in the year 1596. Since his attention had not been turned 
 to the New "World before 1606, in which year La Roche died, he 
 was doubtless only able to glean a few facts from Champlain or 
 others who had heard of the expedition at the time. The copy 
 of the Letters patent was evidently taken from the edition of 
 them printed at Rouen in 1598.1 The remainder of Book II is 
 taken up with an account of the settlement established by Monts 
 first at Ste. Croix and then transferred to PortRoj^al. After giv- 
 ing in full copies of Monts' commissions taken from a small print- 
 ed edition which appeared in 1605 and a copy of which is still to 
 be seen in the archives of the French Foreign Office,^ he goes on 
 to describe the voyage out and the establishment of the settle- 
 ment at Ste. Croix. For all this portion of his account up to his 
 own arrival at Port Royal in July 1606, he was of course depen- 
 dent on information gathered from others, among whom Poutrin- 
 court seems to have held the chief place. Thus we have a very 
 minute and detailed narration of the latter's voyage out and home 
 again, while the events of the year 1605, when he was absent, are 
 treated much more summarily. For this period therefore Cham- 
 plain is a much better source.^ It is the remainder of Book II 
 (chapters 39-48) which forms the most valuable portion of Les- 
 carbot's history. Here he is recounting events at which he was 
 
 1 Edition of 1609, pp. 434-450 ; cf. Michelant et Rame, Voyage de Jaques 
 Cartier p. S : — " Ay ant ces cours passez imprime I'Edict du Roj' contenant le 
 pouvoir et commission donn^e par sa Majeste an sieur Marqnisde la Roche," etc. 
 
 2 Am^'rique, vol. iv, fols. 3-22. 
 
 3 Laverdi^re, (Emrres de Chaviplain, Tome iii, chaps, ii-xi.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 255 
 
 personally present and in many of which he took a not unimpor- 
 tant part. Thus we have a lon^ account of the voyage of the 
 Jonas from La Rochelle to Port Royal as well as an interesting 
 narrative of the events at the latter place during the winter and 
 spring of 1607. In comparing him with Champlain, who was 
 also present during the same period, one sees that while each is 
 correct in his own way their points of view are so different that 
 they seldom touch upon the same matters. Champlain is above 
 and beyond all a discoverer and geographer, while Lescarbot's in- 
 terests lie more in the system of government of the colony and in 
 the customs of the savages. To one brought up on the classics 
 these strange peoples offered a most interesting field for compara- 
 tive study. Book III gives the results of his inquiries into In- 
 dian customs and as a study of their habits deserves much 
 more attention than has hitherto been paid to it. In 
 addition to his own observations Lescarbot draws on the 
 writings of Jean Alfonse, Thevet, Cartier's narratives, an 
 English History of Virginia (doubtless Hariot's), Champlain, 
 Lery and others. 
 
 Immediately upon its appearance Lescarbot's work met with 
 a good reception. It was written in an easy style by one who 
 was not too much of a pedant to enjoy a good story and who 
 took an intelligent interest in the events recorded ; his book is 
 pleasant reading even to this day. It is not surprising then that 
 an English and a German translation soon appeared. The first 
 was done at Hakluyt's request by P. Erondelle, whom tradition 
 holds to have been a Huguenot pastor in London.^ He only 
 translated however that portion of the work which described the 
 settlements at Ste. Croix and Port Royal together with the last 
 book on the customs and manners of the Indians. The work was 
 dedicated to Prince Henry the " Bright Starre of the North " and 
 was published " to the end that comparing the goodnesse of the 
 lands of the Northerly parts with Virginia, greater encourage- 
 ment might be given to prosecute that generous and godly 
 
 liVoro. Francia or the De-'icriptioii of that part of New France, lohich it one 
 continent with Virginia. Trandated out of French into English by P. E. Londini 
 1609. Also printed in a condensed form in Purchas, op cit. the Fourth Part, pp 
 1619-1641.
 
 256 THE SOURCES, PAET II : NARRATIVE 
 
 action."l The chapters 31-48 of Book II form the first part while 
 Book III is^kept entire except that the French verses in the 
 oriirinal are omitted. The ti-anslation itself seems to be well 
 done and the work must have been of great value at the time of 
 its appearance. The German translation which appeared at 
 Augsburg in 1613 gives only a brief summary in some eighty 
 pages of the whole of the original.^ The work was done by a 
 nobleman for the benefit of his Catholic co-religionists.^ He even 
 promised them similar translations of the Jesuit relations, but 
 these seem never to have appeared. 
 
 Shortly after the publication of his history Lescarbot was 
 thrown into prison for a time on the charge of having written a 
 book against' the Jesuits.* Whether innocent or guilty, he did not 
 remain thereHong for in the following year appeared his Conver- 
 sion des 8auvages]yf hich contained a short account of the return 
 of Poutrincourt to make his home at Port Royal and of his efforts 
 to convert the natives.^ Saint- Just had been sent home to France 
 in the summer of 1610 with a load of furs, and it was doubtless 
 he who furnished Lescarbot wath the facts herein recorded.*^ In 
 the year 1611 Lescarbot brought out a new edition of his history 
 in an enlarged and corrected form. Thus he inserted a new ded- 
 ication, to King Louis XlIT instead of to his father, and also 
 placed ths voyage of La Eoche in the year 1598 instead of 1596. 
 
 1" To the Reader." 
 
 2 Marc Lescarbot, J^ova Frauria. Grundliche History von Erfundviif/ dtr 
 grossen Land^ichafft Nova Francia odtr Ntw FranlTeich genaunt . . ausz eiiiem zn 
 Parisz gedrnckfen Franzosischen Buck in Tdif-sch gehrachf. Aiigspurg : Clnj'sos- 
 tomo Dabertzhofer, 1613. 
 
 3"Also"''hat .sich ein Fiirncmer Edler . . . Icichtlich erbetteu lassen, den 
 Catholischen zu guteni vorgemeldtes Euch in das Teutsch zn bringen." Preface. 
 
 * L'Estoile, Memoires-Journaux, x S8 : — " Un advocat denies amis, ncmnie 
 Lescarbot, en peine et en prison, pour le Mastigophore de Fuzy, h la suscitation, 
 ainsi qu'on disoit, et par la trahison d'un imprimeur, nomni6 Langlois." Cf. also 
 ibid, , pp. 87 et seq. 
 
 5 La Com'eriiion des Saiivage-s qui ont e-ste baptizes tn la Konvdle France, cette 
 annie IGIO. Avec un Bref Recit du voyage da Sieur De Poutrincourt, Paris, n. d., 
 but the privilege for printing is dated 9th September of that year. This rare 
 tract has been printed in Thvvaites, Jesuit Relations and Allied Donimeiits, i 52- 
 113. 
 
 6 Saint- Just had only reached liome on the 2Ist of August. Cf. ibid, ii 140.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 257 
 
 The additions are considerable for the whole now formed six 
 books instead of three, though the first extra one (i. e. Bk. II) is 
 simply formed of chapters 21 to 30 of the edition of 1609. By- 
 means of the statement of Cartier's expenditure,^ communicated 
 to him by a Samuel Georges of La Eochelle, the same who had 
 been a member of Monts' Company, he was able to add a few 
 facts about Roberval. He also gave for the first lime the com- 
 mission granted to Cartier for his third voyage^ and a chapter 
 was inserted on the attempt of Jannaye and Nouel to obtain a 
 monopoly of the fur-trade in 1588, which he had not mentioned 
 in the first edition.^ Chapters 1 to 30 of Book II of the old 
 edition become Book III of this edition. The remaining chapters 
 of Book II (i. e. 31-48) of the edition of 1609 now form Book IV 
 but there are no changes in the text. These four books therefore 
 of the second edition cover the ground gone over in Books I and 
 II of the first edition. He now adds an account in six chapters 
 of Champlain's operations in the St. Lawrence since the year 
 1608 and of Poutrincourt's return to Port Royal, and these con- 
 stitute Book V. As to the sources of the latter account the facts 
 are the same as given in his Conversion des Sauvages ; the events 
 in the St. Lawrence he doubtless heard of from Champlain him- 
 self,* for no other narrative of them was published until the year 
 1613. Book VI of the new edition is the old Book III on the 
 manneis and customs of the savages. He also added to the book 
 of poems called Les Muses de la Nouvelle France three new ones 
 to Champlain, to Captain Gourges and to a savage from 
 Florida.^ The edition of the History published in 1612, which 
 was reprinted at Paris in 1866, only difiers from the former in 
 the correction of the errata given in the table at the end of the 
 edition of 1611 and in the consequent absence of this table. Of 
 this edition Book Valone was translated into English by Purchas. ^ 
 
 1 This will be found in Michelant et Rame, op. cit. pp. 24-29. 
 
 2 Histoire (Edition of 1866) ii 387-391. 
 
 3 Ihid. ii 393-395. 
 
 4 " Ce qu'ayant entendu de la bouche dudit Champlain" . . . " Selon que 
 m'a recite ledit Champlein " . . . " II nous promet," etc. /6irf. iii 605-607. 
 
 5 Ibid, iii, 2nd part, pp. 52-56. 
 
 6 Op. cit. Fourth Part, pp. 1642-1645. 
 
 17
 
 258 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 
 
 The year 1612 saw no abatement to Lcscarbot's literary ac- 
 tivity for in that year appeared his Relation Derniere.^ This 
 is a small pamphlet of forty pages containing an account of 
 Pouti'inconrt's return to Port Royal in the year 1610 and of the 
 principal events which had taken place there since that date. Al- 
 though he had already given some statement of these events in his 
 Conversion des Saivvages, as well as in the fifth chapter of the 
 fifth book of his History as published in 1611, he now goes over 
 the same ground again, though he relates in addition the story 
 of Saint Just's departure in the spring of 1611 and the events at 
 Port Royal until Poutrincourt set off for France in June of that 
 year. It was from the latter indeed that all his information was 
 obtained and doubtless also it was at his request that special 
 stress was laid on the number of savages converted, in order to 
 make an impression upon the Court and to obtain, if possible, 
 some financial aid. A long list is thus given of the savages who 
 had been baptized, and among the names conferred figure those 
 of the Prince and Princess of Conde, of the Comte de Soissons and 
 of other persons afterwards connected with New France. The 
 publication was doubtless intended to show that before the ar- 
 rival of the Jesuits the spiritual welfare of the savages had not 
 been neglected. 
 
 During the years 1612 to 1614 Lescarbot was in Switzer- 
 land2 in the suite of Pierre de Castille, the French ambassador 
 to that Republic, so that it was not until the year 1617 that he 
 brought out a third and still more enlarged edition of his History. 
 These three editions, succeeding each other in such rapid succes- 
 sion, show that the book must have been widely read. Although 
 in the edition of 1611 he had pointed out the necessity of the 
 maintenance of a monopoly if the colony was to be peopled, ^ he 
 
 1 Relation Demiere de ce qui s'est pass6 au vuyage du sieur de Poutrincourt en 
 la Nouvelle- France depuis 20 mois enca. par Marc Lescarbot A dvocat en Parlement. 
 Paris MDCXII. This has been reprinted in Thwaites, Jesuit Relations ii 122-191, 
 and it will also be found in the Archives Curieuses de VHistoire de France xv 
 377-406. 
 
 2 Edition of 1617, p. 678 : " Moy ^tant en Suisse." Cf. also p. 684. 
 
 3 " On dit qu'il ne faut point emp^cher la liberte naturelleraent acquise a 
 toute personne de traffiquer avec les peuples de delk. Mais je demanderay volon-
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 259 
 
 now went a step further and urged the King to use his authority 
 to prevent such illegal revocations of grants as had taken place 
 in the past.i^ The tirst four books of the new edition are similar 
 to those of the edition of 1611 as is also the last book (VI) on the 
 manners and customs of the savages, except that chapters 3 and 
 4 are rolled into one and the numbers thereby changed. Book 
 V, which in the edition of 1611 contained only six chapters now 
 has fifteen and into these are worked some fresh material as well 
 as portions of the Relation Derniere. In some cases the increas- 
 ed number of chapters is nothing more than a sub-division of an 
 old chapter. Thus chapter 3 of the old Book V now make 
 chapters 3 and 4 in the new edition, while the old chapter 4 
 has become chapters 5, 6, and 7. The new chapters 9 and 10 
 contain the substance of his Relation Derniere, but the following 
 five chapters, giving a history of the disputes with the Jesuits, 
 the founding of St. Sauveur and the destruction of both places 
 by Argall, are quite new. He drew part of his material from 
 Biard's Relation which had appeared in the previous year and 
 which he cites, 2 but most of it was probably obtained from 
 Poutrincourt before the latter's death some two years before. 
 
 He also uses some letters written to him in 1614 by Poutrin- 
 court^ and a proces-verbal'^ drawn up at La Rochelle in July of 
 that year. The Factum against the Jesuits was also not un- 
 known to him.5 In continuing his account of the operations in 
 the St. Lawrence he uses not only the edition of Champlain's 
 voyages published in 1613^ but also whatever could be gleaned 
 
 tiers qui est plus k preferer ou la Religion Chretienne et I'amplification du nom 
 Francois, ou le profit particulier d'un marchant qui ne fait rien pour le service deDieu 
 ni du Roy ?" He goes on to state that beaver-skins which in 1588 were sold at 2^ 
 livres then brought 8^ livi-es each for the monopolists. Edition of 1611, p. 419. 
 
 1 " Mais, Sire, il faut vouloir et commander, etne permettre qu'on revoque ce 
 qui aura ete une fois accorde, comme on a fait ci-dev^ant a la ruine d'une si belle 
 enterprise," Edition of 1617, pp. 5-6. 
 
 2 " Le meme pere Biart passe sous silence sept mois de temps," etc. Ibid. 
 p. 676. 
 
 3 Ihid., pp. 678, 684-685. 
 
 4 Ibid., pp. 687-690. 
 
 5 Ibid., pp. 677-678. 
 
 6 " M'etant quelquefois servi, au regard des derniers temps, de ce que Samuel 
 Champlein en a donne au public." Ibid., Liv. I, p. 5.
 
 260 THE SOURCES, PART II: NARRATIVE 
 
 from people who had been there. Thus he states that he bad 
 received many of the facts related from a Norman gentleman who 
 was on his way to Italy.^^ 
 
 In the year 1618 Lescarbot published a volume in Switzer- 
 land 2 as well as a small pamphlet on the fall of Concini from 
 power.3 He took occasion in this latter to inform the King that 
 if the French did not take possession of Newfoundland, which 
 was worth a million in gold a year to the country, some other 
 power would do so.^ After his marriage in the following year, 
 doubtless a result of his appointment to the post of naval com- 
 mis'^ioner,^ we hear nothing more of him until the year 1629 
 when he published a small volume of verses on the defeat of the 
 English at La Rochelle ^ This seems to have been the last pro- 
 duction from his pen but when he died is not yet known. 
 
 Such then are the life and works of this clever, witty and 
 pleasing writer who did so much to preserve in an agreeable 
 form the ups and downs of the little colony of French settlers on 
 the shores of the Bay of Fundy. As the friend of Poutrincourt 
 he seems to have been anxious to preserve some account of his 
 actions, and without Lescarbot's labours the early annals of New 
 France would have lacked the only writer who lifts those times 
 in any degree out of the commonplace. 
 
 Ennemond Masse. 
 
 Masse, who was born at Lyons in 1574, is only a small con- 
 tributor to the historical literature of early Canada. At the age 
 of twenty-three he entered the Society of Jesus and made such 
 progress that, like Biard, he was appointed to a chair in their 
 college at Lyons. From there he went to Paris as assistant to 
 
 1 " Les particularites. . . . m'ayans ete recit^es par un Gentil-homme 
 Norman qui alloit en Italic." Ibid., p. 647. 
 
 2 Le Tableau de la Suisse et autres alliez de la France 6s hautes Allemagnes. 
 Auquel sont descrites les sirigulariUs des Alpes," etc. Paris, 1618, 8°. 
 
 3 Le Bout de I' An or le Franc Gaulois au Roy. Paris, 1618 (Biblioth^que 
 Nationale Lb.36 1118 and 1119) 
 
 4 " Qui vaille tous les ans un million d'or k la France." Ibid., p. 15. 
 
 5 Annates des Voyages, Paris, 1869, Tome i, pp. 76-81. 
 
 6 La Chasse aux Anglois en Vile de Rez, et an Siege de la Rochelle et la reduc- 
 tion de ladite ville a Vobeissance du Roy. Paris 1629, 8"
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATJVE 261 
 
 Father Cotton, the confessor of King Henry IV, and was thus a 
 likely man to be appointed to go to New France in the spring of 
 1610. A letter dated at Port Royal in June of that year simply 
 informed the General of the Order of his safe arrival in the New 
 World and of the prospects for a successful harvest.^ On the 
 29th of February, 1612, he addressed a letter to a M. L'Abbe at 
 Dieppe praising the qualities of a son of his who commanded a 
 vessel trading to Port Royal. 2 In the following March he sent 
 a letter to Madame de Guercheville in which he informed her 
 that since their work at Port Royal was being ruined through 
 disputes, their only hope of success lay in her generosity. If she 
 would take over this colony or begin a new one, all would go 
 well.3 Ifc was this letter and doubtless one of a similar purport 
 from Biard which led to the establishment of St. Sauveur. 
 Nothing more came from Masse's pen, as far as is known, until 
 the Recollects invited the Jesuits to assist them in their mis- 
 sionary labours on the St. Lawrence He reached New France 
 in 1625 and before his deatb at Sillery, in 1046, had translated 
 several prayers into the Montagnais dialect.* 
 
 Father Biard. 
 
 Pierre Biard who was born at Grenoble in the year 1557 
 entered the Jesuit Order at a date unknown. Being a good 
 pupil he soon rose in the ranks and some time about the end of 
 the century was given the chair of scholastic theology at Lyons. 
 While occupying this post he was summoned in the year 1608 to 
 take charge of the mission about to be sent to Acadia.-^ It was 
 however not until the spring of 1611 that he was finally able to 
 set sail accompanied by another Jesuit, Ennemond Masse.^ Before 
 
 1 Thwaites, The Jestiit Relations and Allied Docnments, i 184-186. Cf. also 
 p. 314, note 39. 
 
 2 Factum du Proces entre Jean de Biencourt, Sieur de Poutrincourt et les Peres 
 Biard et Masse, Jisuites, reprint of M, G. Marcel, pp. 62-63. Paris 1887. 
 
 ^Ihid. pp. 59-60. 
 
 * Laverdi^re, (Euvres de Champlain, tome vi, Appendix pp. 16-20. " L'Oraison 
 Dominicale, traduite en langage des Montagnars de Canada par le R. P. Masse de 
 la Compagnie de Jesus." 
 
 5 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations, iii 162. 
 
 6 lUd. pp. 162 and 166.
 
 262 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 leaving Dieppe he sent to the General of his Order at Rome a 
 letter in which he gave an account of their troubles with the 
 Huguenot merchants there, whose share in the vessel they them- 
 selves were obliged finally to buy.i About a fortnight after 
 their arrival at Port Royal, he despatched another letter to the 
 Provincial in France giving an account of the voyage and his 
 first impressions of the country. He was of the opinion that 
 missionary work among such people would be difficult, but hoped 
 much from the King's aid and from the kindness of the Sieur 
 de Poutrincourt and his son.2 In a second letter to the General 
 of the Order dated the following day he merely referred him for 
 information to the letter just written to the Provincial.^ During 
 the remainder of the year he was busy learning the Indian 
 language so that it was not until January, 1612, that he again 
 wrote home. In a second letter to the Provincial of the Order 
 in France, dated in that month, he gives him an account of what 
 had since taken ]jlace and of the difficulties met with in trying 
 to master the Indian dialects, although Saint- Just gave him as 
 much help as he was able.4 He also related how be accompanied 
 Saint- Just on a voyage along the coast and of their discovery of 
 the fort abandoned by the northern branch of the Virginia 
 Company in 1608. His third letter to the General of the Order 
 dated the same day, except for the few additional paragraphs at 
 the beginning in which he describes the country, might be called 
 a Latin translation of the former, as it doubtless was.^ 
 
 During the spring, a good deal of dissension arose between 
 him and Saint-Just, who had been left in charge of the colony 
 by his father, and an attempt was actually made by the Jesuits 
 to sail for home in the vessel of one L'Abbe. This however 
 Saint-Just refused to permit, and since the Jesuits thereupon ex- 
 
 i/6irf. i 126-137. 
 
 2/6iU pp. 138-183; cf. p. 180 :— " M. de Poutrincourt, Seigneur doux et 
 Equitable, vaillant, etc., ... etM.de Biancourt son fils, imitateur des vertus 
 et belles qualitez de son pere, tous deux zeMs au service de Dieu. . . . nous 
 donnent aussi grand courage de nous employer en ceste ouvrage," etc. 
 
 ^Ihid. pp. 188-190. 
 
 4 Ihid. ii 4-55. 
 
 5 Ihid. ii 60-105. The date 1611 seems a misprint.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 263 
 
 communicated him, no further intercourse took place between 
 them until August when peace was again restored.l Early in 
 the spring of 1613 however, the vessel sent out by Madame de 
 Guercheville called at Port Royal for the Jesuits and they set off 
 in her to found the new settlement of St. Sauveur. When Argall 
 captured their settlement he took Biard with him to Virginia. 
 On account of his anger against Saint- Just, Biard appears to have 
 informed the Governor there that those at Port Royal had not 
 only captured an English vessel but that they were also about to 
 fortify themselves with thirty large cannon.2 A.s a result of this 
 information A-rgall's second expedition was directed against Port 
 Royal and Ste. Croix. On the return voyage to Virginia the ves- 
 sel on board of which Biard sailed was driven by a storm so far 
 out to sea, that after touching at the Azores the course was set 
 for England where they did not arrive until the winter was 
 well-nigh spent. Biard was at once freed and made hif^ way to 
 Amiens in France whence he addressed his fourth and last letter 
 to the General of his Order. He therein gave an account of his 
 misfortunes, of his safe arrival in England and of his immediate 
 return to France.^ 
 
 Between May 1614 and January 1616 when the license to 
 print it was issued, Biard was engaged on hi:^ Relation which 
 was published at Lyons in the course of that year.4 Before ex- 
 amining the contents of this work it will be well to say a few 
 words about the general aims of these Relations of the Jesuits 
 and of the particular circumstances under which that of Biard 
 was produced. According to Xavier, the ideal missionary in 
 whose steps the others strove to follow, nothing which might 
 justly offend any one or which did not breathe in every word the 
 
 1 Lescarbot, Histoire de la Nouvelle France (1617) pp. 676-677 ; Factum du 
 Frocks, etc., pp. 42 et seq. 
 
 2 ' ' Lui ayans fait croire que nous avions pris un navire Anglois : que ie viendrois 
 avec trente canons pour me fortifier sur le Port-Royal." Lescarbot, Histoire, etc. 
 (1617) pp. 684-685. Cf. also the Proces-verbal in the same, pp. 687-690. 
 
 3 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations iii 3-19. 
 
 4 Relation de la Nouvelle France, de se.s Terres,Naturel du Pais, et de ses Habi- 
 tans, item du voyage des Peres Jesuites atisdictes contries et de ce quHls y ont fai 
 iusques a leur prinse par les Anglois. Lyon 1616, 12ino.
 
 264 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 gloriticKtion and service of God should be inserted. " Let your 
 account be of such sort," he said, " that, being taken to Europe, 
 and passed from hand to hand, they may even be communicated 
 to the public in print. Since they are thus to come not only into 
 the hands of friends but also into those of ill- affected and often 
 unjust and jealous persons, they must give no legitimate occasion 
 for blame or for unfavourable interpretation."! They were in 
 fact to be written in such a manner as to please every one. In 
 reading them one must remember therefore that they depict only 
 the pleasant and sunny side of colonial life, which, under the 
 spiritual guidance of these faithful priests, appears to be ap- 
 proaching nearer and nearer to the divioe perfection. The 
 church services were always full, savages were being daily 
 brought into the fold and were making manifest in a wonderful 
 manner the powers of the saints in Heaven. Among the people, 
 old and young, instead of frivolity or gaiety, all was prayer, fast- 
 ing and religious exercises. In truth however there was another 
 side to that life and in using these Relations as soui'ces for its 
 history, one must bear this point in mind continually. In so far 
 as they deliberately chose to depict the better and pleasanter 
 side for the edification of the faithful at home, the writers chose 
 no doubt the right means to that end ; but we of a later age who 
 seek to find in them the true story of the times must remember 
 what the end was for which they were written. Murders, rapes, 
 blasphemies, robberies and other crimes might be and often were 
 of frequent occurrence,^ but no retiection of such a state of 
 affairs is ever mirrored in this peaceful stream of pietistic litera- 
 ture. In the case of Biard's Relation, one must also bear in 
 mind, that shortly after his return there had appeared an anony- 
 mous pamphlet setting fonh his past conduct in no favourable 
 
 1 Lettres de Saint Franrois-Xavier traduites par Pag^s, ii 51 and 117, Paris 
 1855 ; cited by Rochemonteix, Les J^suites et la Nouvelle France au X Vile siecle, 
 tome i, Introduction p. ix. Paris 1895. 
 
 2 " II est grandemeut necesssaire que la iustice soit exercee avec plus de 
 puissance pour ne permettre qu'il se comraette des voleries, raeurtres, assassinats, 
 paillardise, blasphemes et autres crimes desia par trop familiers entre quelques 
 Frangois habitans en ladite terre " etc. Sagard, Histoire dii Canada, p. 89. Cf. 
 Le Tac, Histoire Chronologiqne de la Nouvelle France, p. 135. Paris 1888.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 265 
 
 light. 1 Fault was not only found with him for becoming a fur- 
 trader and buying half the vessel but he was also accused of get- 
 ting drunk on the voyage out, of throwing the books of the 
 Huguenots into the sea, of seeking to obtain control of the colony 
 on his arrival, of excommunicating Saint-Just without cause and 
 finally of leaving the colony without any spiritual n;inistration 
 for a period of six months. It was his aim therefore in publish- 
 ing this Relation not only to give a favourable account of their 
 missionary labours but also to clear himself from the various 
 charges publicly set forth iu the Factum. 
 
 As we have seen, Biard reached France in May 1614, but his 
 Relation was cot published until two years later. He seems 
 however to have set to work upon it directly after his return 
 and to have lived during these two j-ears at Paris.2 For its com- 
 position he made use of Lescarbot^ and the works of Champlain 
 then published* as well as of his own letters previously sent 
 home of which he evidently had kept or then procured for him- 
 self copies. It is from these materials that he constructed the 
 first eight chapters, in which he set forth the situation, climate, 
 soil, and natural features of the country as well as the govern- 
 ment, customs and manner of life of the savages. In chapter 
 viii we find the first mention of the Factum, but it is not until 
 chapter ix that he breaks out against his former friends. 
 Although on his first arrival'at Port Royal he had praised the 
 kindness both of the Sieur de Poutrincourt and of his son Saint- 
 Just, who on the voyage out had shared his cabin with him and 
 on their arrival had helped him with the Indian language, ^ he 
 now speaks of them in the following terms: " It is," hesays'^ "ab- 
 
 1 Factum du Proeez entre Messire Jean de Biencourt Chevalier Sieur de Pout- 
 rincourt et Pierre Biard, Evemond Masse et Consorts, soy disans Prestres de la 
 Sociiti de Jesus, 1614. This was reprinted by M. Gabriel Marcel at Paris in 
 1887. Cf. infra Anonymous Sources No I. 
 
 2 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations, etc. iii 54 : — " Ceste presente annee 1614;" 
 " ceste dicte annee icy k Paris" etc. 
 
 3 Ihid. p. 52. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 50, 56, 68, 70 and 160. 
 
 5 Ibid- i 148 and 180 ; ii 8, 28 and 90, 
 
 6 Ihid. iii 137-138 : — " Or comment est-ce que s'y pourroit dresser, fournir, et 
 entretenir ceste colonic, et peuplade ? Ce n'est point icy le lieu d'en minuter, et
 
 266 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 solute folly for a few unimportant persons to imagine that by- 
 spending for example three or four thousand crowns they can 
 secure baronies and I don't know what big fiefs in this new land. 
 The case would be worse if this foolish vanity should be found in 
 people who flee the ruin of their own homes in France ; for the 
 fate of such covetous persons would invariably be this, not as the 
 one-eyed to rule the blind but as blind people tt) fall headlong 
 into the slough of misery and set up possibly instead of a castle 
 of Christians, a den of thieves, a nest of brigands, a retreat for 
 pirates, a refuge for cut-throats, a house of scandal and of every 
 sort of evil." If god-fearing people, he continues, should find 
 themselves in such a company, strife would necessarily result, but 
 the blame would all lie on these wicked persons. Such was the 
 result of their disputes. His defence, in chapter x, of the charge 
 that he had unnecessarily prolonged the probationary period of 
 the neophytes is simply a repetition of what he had already 
 written to the Provincial soon after his arrival at Port Royal. 
 
 Chapters xi to xxix, in which he gives an account of their 
 arrival at Port Royal, of the chief events during their stay, of 
 their departure for St. Sauveur and of Argall's arrival, form an 
 important source for the history of Acadia during the years 1611 
 to 1614. In the first of these, in which he gives an account of 
 the troubles at Dieppe, he evidently had Lescarbot and the Fac- 
 tum under his eye ; the former for the facts about Saint-Just, 
 the latter for the events at Dieppe when he had retired to Eu. 
 His defence of the unfortunate agreement about the fur-trade is 
 extremely weak. The investment would, they had hoped, pro- 
 vide them with a regular source of income whereby no burden 
 would be cast on Poutrincourt and no collections need be made 
 in France for their support. Instead, he continues, of the profits 
 
 articuler les chefs. Seulement advertiray-ie, que c'est une grande folie k des petits 
 compagnons, que de s'iniaginer des Baronnies, et ie ne sgay quels grands fiefs, et 
 tenements en ces terres, pour trois ou quatre niille escus, par exemple, qu'ils 
 auront k y foncer. Le pis seroit, quand ceste folle vanite arriveroit ci gens qui 
 fuyent la ruine de leurs maisons en France : car k tels convoiteux infailliblement 
 adviendroit, non que, borgnes ils regneroient entre les aveugles, ains qu'aveugles 
 ils s'yroient precipiter en la fosse de misere, et possible feroient-ils au lieu d'un 
 chasteau Chrestien, une caverne de larrons, un nid de brigands, un receptacle 
 d'escumeurs, un refuge de pendarts, un attelier descandale, et toute meschancet^."
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 267 
 
 from the fish and fur-trades " being lost in the hands of the 
 merchants," it would, under the new arrangement, be used by the 
 Jesuits for the maintenance of Port Royal. He even makes the 
 astounding statement at the head of the following chapter, that 
 it was very lucky for Robin that the Jesuits had been able to 
 free him from his embarrassments, though it is perfectly clear 
 that had the Jesuits not insisted on being taken against the wish 
 of the two Huguenot merchants, there would have been no 
 difficulty of any sort, much less a question of lack of funds. In 
 fact after his arrival at Port Royal Biard admitted as much and 
 wrote home that on the first refusal of the merchants it had been 
 agreed to leave them, the Jesuits, out of the question and des- 
 patch the vessel as originally arranged.! To excuse their action 
 now on the ground that if they had not bought out the Hugue- 
 not merchants, the vessel would not have been able to set sail is 
 therefore no defence at all, for the merchants would have been 
 only too glad to send the vessel without them. He makes no 
 attempt to defend himself from the charges made against him 
 personally.2 
 
 His account of events at the Port des Etechemins can be called 
 neither clear nor satisfactory. Lescarbot bad stated in 1612 that 
 a vessel from St. Malo was seized for being without her charter- 
 party but released again with a warning not to come to sea in 
 future without it.^ The Factum however accused Biard of unduly 
 interfering to secure her release.* Biard himself admits that al- 
 though he was ignorant for what cause the vessel was seized, she 
 was released at his solicitation, w^hich seems to mean, as the 
 Factum asserts, that he interfered in a matter which he neither 
 understood nor in which he had any concern.^ On the other hand 
 his account of the troubles at the river St. John is much more rea- 
 
 1 Ibid i. 142 : — '• Seulenient fut accorde que, laissant a part la question des 
 Jesuites, on chargeroit promptement le vaisseau, de peur que cet embarras et 
 dispute n'apportast du retardement au secours qui promptement debvoit estre 
 donn^ k Monsieur de Potrincourt. " 
 
 2 Ibid, iii 180-182. In vol. ii, p. 84, he even admits the disputes : — " inter- 
 dum nonnullae cum hsereticis disputationes," etc. 
 
 3 Ibid, ii 178. 
 
 4 Facttim (1887) p. 20. 
 
 5 Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations iii 188 and 190.
 
 268 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 sonable than the exaggerated statements given in the Factum 
 where he is accused of making no effort to check an attempt to 
 murder Saint- Just.i He makes no mention of the troubles in the 
 spring of 1612 when he launched his excommunication against 
 Saint- Just, doubtless because the existence of that document^ and 
 the deposition of H^bert^ placed the matter beyond dispute.'^ For 
 the history of the colony after peace was concluded and for the 
 foundation of the new colony at Saint-Sauveur, Biard is for the 
 present our sole source though in the Archives at Rouen there 
 appears to exist an account of the capture of the latter by Captain 
 Fleury.5 Here he of course seeks to defend himself from the 
 charge of having led the English back to Port Royal but one is 
 bound to choose between this half-hearted defence and the state- 
 ments made on oath by Poutrincourt and his son before the Ad- 
 miralty officers at La Rochelle. According to their statements 
 Argall had been misinformed as to the intended fortification of 
 the colony in order that its destruction might be the more speedily 
 effected, and they also swore that on shore Biard acted as the 
 guide of the English.^ Of the remaining chapters, numbers thirty 
 to thirty-three contain an account of the long sea voyage to Eng- 
 land via the Azores and the Relation is then brought to a close 
 with one chapter on the missionary work of the colony and two 
 others on the French right to those regions and the necessity of 
 colonizing them. In reading the latter it is necessary to bear in 
 mind the general aim of these Relations as already set forth above. 
 An undated letter in which Biard informs Poutrincourt that peace 
 had again been made at Port Royal will be found in the Factum. 7 
 Such then are Biard's writinors. 
 
 As to h is particular point of view, it may be noticed that he 
 
 1 Ibid, iii 212 et seq. ; Fachim, pp. 23 and 24. 
 
 2 Factum pp. 43-47. 
 
 3 Ihid. p. 54. Cf. also iJnd. pp. 48-52 and 55-57, where the letters of Saint- 
 Just to his father are printed. 
 
 4 Lescarbot pointed this out in 1617, vid. Histoire, etc., (1617) p. 676 :— " Le 
 meme pere Biart passe sous silence sept mois de temps s9avoir depuis Janvier jus- 
 ques k la fin d'aoust duranc lequels y eut un divorce entre eux " etc. 
 
 5 Gosselin, Nouvelles Glanes Historiques Normcmdes, pp. 41 et seq. 
 
 6 Lescarbot, Histoire, etc. (1617), pp. 687-690, 
 
 7 Factum, pp. 58-59.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 269 
 
 believed in the existence of the Lord of Darkness against whom 
 he of course ranged himself with the Angels of Light. On his 
 arrival in New France, he insisted that every neophyte should 
 have a good knowledge not only of the Lord's prayer but also of 
 the ten Commandments, the Sacraments and the other articles of 
 the Christian faith. ^ As this was rather a large demand upon the 
 untutored savage, the work of conversion proceeded slowly and 
 many complaints arose in consequence. Consequently, when the 
 number of converts greatly increased, Biard seems to have been 
 led to the conclusion that " God inwardly supplemented the 
 defects of his external instruments."^ To encourage Madame 
 de Guercheville to continue to supply them with funds, she was 
 one day informed that " her name was already known in Heaven," 
 as a young girl called after her had just died and gone there. 3 
 Through Biard's instrumentality, or rather by the help of a 
 bone of St. Lawrence, a former archbishop of Dublin, miracles 
 took place at Port Royal, though after the excommunication was 
 given out these dwindled.^ Still the mere act of hanging crosses 
 round the necks of sick savages seemed to cure them.^ To Biard 
 the Northern Lights were the' finger of God and it was only by His 
 help that a furious band of blood-thirsty air-spirits was restrained 
 from bringing about the massacre of a few Christians.^ Although 
 the propagation of the faith was slow, all the forms and cere- 
 monies were introduced and it was not unusual to see young 
 Indians carrying candles, bells, holy water, etc., in the proces- 
 sions on Saints' days or at funerals.7 
 
 From this somewhat cursory view of his life and works, it 
 will be easily seen that the most valuable portion of Biard's writ- 
 ings is that which he sent home from New France before his 
 departure for St. Sauveur. After the destruction both of St. 
 Sauveur and of Port Royal and especially after the Factum had 
 been published, his writings betray a tone of animosity and 
 hatred which weakens their eftect for us to a considerable degree. 
 In the letters sent home from Port Royal no such feeling is 
 
 i,Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations, i 162. 2 Ihid. ii 12. 
 
 3 Ihid. ii 14. 4 Ibid, ii 18. 
 
 5 Ibid, ii 50. 6 Ibid, ii 26-28. 
 7 Ibid, ii 52.
 
 270 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 apparent and his statements, as those of an educated man on the 
 spot, are entitled to the recognition which such productions usu- 
 ally receive. After the publication of his Relation he seems to 
 have spent some time in Italy as a parish priest but returned to 
 France again shortly before his death, which took place at Avig- 
 non in November 1622.^ 
 
 LalleTnanfs Letters. 
 
 Of the life of the Jesuit priest Charles Lallemant very little 
 is known before his departure for Quebec in the spring of 1625 
 to take charge of the mission sent out on the invitation of the 
 Recollects. About the time that the vessels were preparing to 
 return to France he despatched two letters home in which he 
 told how in default of all other quarters, the Recollects had final- 
 ly taken them into their building.2 During the winter efforts 
 were made to learn the Montagnais language so that in the fol- 
 lowing summer Lallemant could inform their General at Rome 
 of considerable progress in this respect.^ The woi'kmen arrived 
 that summer and the work on the new buildings was soon well 
 advanced. Another letter written at this time to his brother 
 Hierosme Lallemant was afterwards published as the Relation 
 for the year 1626.* In this letter he tells us that Quebec was 
 totally dependent on the mother country for all its provisions 
 and that in case an accident should happen to the vessels, one 
 could not foretell what would take place. His chief complaint 
 however is that the coureurs de hois and the interpreters who 
 lived among the Indians only confessed once a year. Of the fur- 
 trade he speaks as follows : " Before the present Company, to 
 whom the King has given the trade for a certain time, the sav- 
 ages were visited by so many people that one of the old men told 
 
 1 Ihid i 196-198. 
 
 2 Sagard, Histoire du Canada (1636) pp. 868-870. 
 
 3 Lettre du t". Charles Lallemant au T.R.P Mutio Vitelleschi, General de la 
 Compagnie de J6sus a Rome, printed in Caraj'on, Premiere Mission des Jisuites au 
 Canada, no. viii, pp. 117-121, Paris 1864. 
 
 4 Mercure Franr^oit, Tome xiii, pp. 12 el seq. Relations des Jismites, (Quebec, 
 1858) vol. i pp. 1-9 of the second Relation. I have been unable to see the new 
 edition.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 271 
 
 me he had seen so many as twenty vessels in the port of Tadou- 
 ssac though now one only sees two belonging to this Company. 
 These two vessels bring out all the goods traded with the savages, 
 namely cloaks, blankets, night-caps, hats, shirts, clothes, axes, 
 iron arrow-heads, hooks, swords, knives, pots, prunes, raisins, 
 wheat, peas, biscuits, as well as provisions for the French ; in 
 return they take back the skins of the elk, the wolf, fox, marten, 
 muskrat, but principally the beaver which brings in the best 
 return. 1 have been told that for one year the number reached 
 22,000. The usual number is from 15,000 to 20,000 at one 
 pistole each."- He then goes on to show that in view of the 
 expenses incurred this does not leave a very great surplus. The 
 remainder of the letter relates in the usual dry manner the story 
 of the numerous conversions effected during the year. Cham- 
 plain has also preserved for us 2 a letter sent from Bordeaux in 
 November, 1629, in which Father Lalleuiant tells the story of the 
 shipwreck at Cape Breton in that year of the vessel under Father 
 Noyrot which was taking provisions to the Jesuits at Quebec. 
 He relates his escape from drowning, his return to Spain in a 
 Basque fishing vessel which in turn was also wrecked near St. 
 Sebastian, and how after having been again saved, he finally 
 reached Bordeaux in safety whence this letter was written to 
 the Superior of the Jesuit College at Paris. 
 
 Daniel and Malapart. 
 
 In the summer of 1629 Captain Charles Daniel, who was in 
 charge of the fleet of the Company of New France, captured the 
 fort of Lord Ochiltrie on Cape Breton Island and took him and 
 his company prisoners. The report of this capture, drawn up 
 for Richelieu at Paris on the 12th of December following, was 
 published in the next year at Rouen by one of his men Andr^ 
 Malapart.3 This man, who had lost an eye and a bit of his 
 
 1 Relations des Jdsuites (Quebec, 1858) vol. i, Relation II p. 5. 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit, vi 304-311. 
 
 3 La Prise (Tun Seigneur Escossois et lie ses Gens qui pilloient les Navire 
 pescheurs de France. Ensemble le Razement de leur Fort et Vestal lissement d^un 
 autre pour le service du Roy et Vasseurance des Pescheurs Francois en la Nouvelle 
 France. Par Monsieur Daniel de Dieppe .... Dedie a Monsieur le President de
 
 272 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 hand in the skirmish,^ had at first intended to write his own 
 account of these events, but coming across Daniel's report, he 
 decided to publish it with a few additional remarks.2 The 
 report takes up six pages of the volume while his own additions 
 cover thirteen. Daniel's report, which was also published by 
 Champlain,3 is a simple account of the manner in which he had 
 discharged the orders given him. These had been to wait for 
 Razilly at La Rochelle and then to revictual Champlain at 
 Quebec. Razilly however was in the end ordered elsewhere and 
 so the fleet of the Company of New France set sail alone. On 
 the way across the Atlantic the vessels became separated and 
 Daniel reached Cape Breton alone. He asked the French fisher- 
 men there for news of affairs at Quebec, but they gave him 
 interesting information of a different sort. This was to the efltect 
 that a Scottish nobleman had taken up his quarters close at hand 
 and was demanding one-tenth of their fish from all the French 
 vessels in the neighbourhood. On receipt of this information, 
 Daniel at once attacked the place and took Lord Ochiltrie and 
 his people prisoners. The fort was razed to the ground and 
 with the old material a new one was constructed by the French 
 in one of the neighbouring harbours. Here a garrison was left, 
 and all idea of succouring Quebec having been abandoned, 
 Daniel once more returned to France. Forty- two of the prison- 
 ers were landed at Plymouth while the remaining eighteen were 
 locked up at Dieppe. Such was Daniel's report. To the reprint 
 of 1881 M. Felix has added Lord Ochiltrie's account of his 
 
 Lauzon, Intendant de la Compagnie dudit Pais. Par le Sieur Malapart Parisien 
 soldat dudit Sieur Daniel. A Rauen, MDCXXX. It was reprinted at Rouen in 
 1881 by the Societe des Bibliophiles Normands with an introduction bj'^ M. J. 
 F«51ix. 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 23: — " ie perdis . . . iin ceil et quasi une de raes mains," etc. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 5: — " Mon dessein premier estoit de dresser un petit discours de 
 tout ce que i'en sgavois et avois veu, mais ayant heureusement rencontre 
 une copie de la mesme relation que mon Capitaine avoit presentee a Monseigneur 
 le Cardinal .... i'ay creu qu'elle seroit plus agreable en sa propre forme, qu'en 
 celle que ie luy eusse voulu donner. C'est pourquoy tout ce que ie feray en cet 
 escrit, ce sera de suppleer ce que la pudeur de celuy qui I'a donn^e ec la briefvet^ 
 deue k un rapport, luy ont faict retranchei et tenir dans le silence." 
 
 3 Laverdi^re, op. cit. vi 299-304.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 27S 
 
 capture which is preserved in the papers of the Public Record 
 OfEceA According to him the French were received as friends, 
 both parties knowing that peace had been made between the 
 Crowns, but when they entered the fort, they suddenly seized 
 all the inmates. He also complained that they turned most of 
 his people, including the women and children, out of doors in 
 the rain and wind and that on board ship all were packed in the 
 hold like sardines.2 It is possible that his month's detention in 
 the prison at Dieppe may have unduly soured Lord Ochiltrie 
 against his captors,"^ though doubtless the treatment of himself 
 and his people at the hands of Daniel and his men was by no 
 means gentle. 
 
 Malapart's additions to Daniel's account cannot be called im- 
 portant. He says they sent a petition to Daniel to induce him 
 to attack the Scots, and that all confessed and took communion 
 before the engagement began. His only other important state- 
 ment is to the effect that over two hundred French fishermen 
 now yearly visited the coast and that the whole industry both 
 at home and abroad gave employment to over 100,000 men. 4 
 In an adulatory address to the Company of New France he says 
 that if it produces no other result than to have caused such a 
 glorious action, it will not have been created in vain.5 He 
 brings the work to a close with some insipid verses addressed to 
 Captain Daniel. 
 
 1 Colonial Papers, vol. v, no. 46, 
 
 2 Reprint of 1881, Appendix A pp. 10-11: — " They wer all imbarkpcl in the 
 said . . . ship, fyfty men, wemen and childrein being inclosed in the hold of the 
 schipe in so little bound that they wer forced to Ij' upon other as they hayd 
 beein so mony fisshis, lying in thair awin filhe and fed upon bread and water 
 that by famine and the pestiferus smell of thair awin filth many of them wer 
 throwin in the sea." 
 
 3 Ibid, p YI: — " being keepit close prisoner in Deepe for ane monthe." 
 
 4 Ibid. p. 13 : — "et maintenir k quelque cent mille Fran9ois la liberte de gaigner 
 leur vie. I'ay dit, cent mille, mais c'est pour le moins. Car il va tons les ans en 
 ce Pais quelques deux cents grands Navires ti la pesche tant de moUue et de 
 saulmon, que de petites baleines du lard desquelles on faict de I'huylle. " 
 
 5 Ibid. p. 21 : — " Quand vostre pieuse Compagnie n'apporteroit iamais autre 
 bien que celuy qu'a produit Taction heroique de Monsieur Daniel, il ne sera iamais 
 que la France n'aye suject de benir tous ceux qui Font erigee," etc. 
 
 18
 
 274 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 ChaTYiplain. 
 
 Samuel Champlain, who was born at Brouage in France about 
 the year 1567, seems to have received his early sea training 
 under his father who was a naval captain.^^ We are first able 
 to trace his career definitely about the close of the century when 
 he served for several years as quartermaster in the royal army 
 in Brittany. At the conclusion of hostilities by the peace of 
 Vervins in the year 1598, he set sail for Spain with his uncle, a 
 captain in the Spanish navy, and in the spring of the following 
 year was himself given charge of this same vessel to convey 
 troops to the Spanish Main.2 After visiting Porto Rico, Mexico 
 and Havana he returned to Seville in March 1601, having been 
 absent just two years and two months. He has left an account 
 of this voyage which however does not concern us here.^ 
 
 In the spring of 1603 he set off with Dupont-Grave to make 
 an examination of the river St. Lawrence preparatory to the 
 despatch thither of a colony.^ On their return from this voy- 
 age, an account of which is given in a little work called Des 
 Sauvages published at Paris in the same year, it was found that 
 Chaste, the former head of the Company, had died, so the direc- 
 tion of the colony was placed in the hands of Monts.^ The years 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, (Euvres de Champlain, tome iii, p. v : — " Entre tous les arts 
 celuy de naviger m'a tousiours sembl^ tenir le premier lieu. C'est cet art qui m'a 
 des mon bas aage attire a I'aimer." On Champlain consult: — Memoir of Cham- 
 plain by Rev. E. F. Slafter in vol. i, pp, 1-204, of the Prince Society's translation 
 of his works, published at Boston in 1880 ; Laverdiere's life in vol. i, pp: ix-lxxvi 
 of his edition of Champlain's works, published at Quebec in 1870 ; N. E. Dionne, 
 Sanmel Champlain, vol. i. (all published), Quebec, 1891 ; and G. Gravier, Vie de 
 Samuel Champlain, Paris, 1900. 
 
 2 Laverdi^re, op. cit. i, pp. i et seq.: — " Ayant est^ employe en I'armee duRoy 
 en Bretaigne en qualite de Mareschal des logis jusques ... en I'ann^e 1598, 
 je me resolu pour ne demeurer oysif, de faire ung voiage en Espaigne," etc. 
 
 3ILaverdi6re, op. cit. tome i : Brief Discours des Choses plus remarquables 
 . . . reconneues aux hides Occidentalles, etc. An English translation was pub- 
 lished by the Hakluyt Society in 1859. 
 
 4 Ibid, v 45 et seq. 
 
 5 Des Sauvages, ou Voyage de Samuel Champlain de Brotiage fait en la France 
 Nouvelle, Van mil six cens trois, Paris, n. d. , reprinted in vol. ii of Laverdiere's 
 edition of his works. One of the three copies of the original known to be in 
 existence is in the Biblioth^que Nationale. An English translation was published 
 by Purchas (The Fourth part pp. 1605-1619) in 1625.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 275 
 
 1604 to 1607 were spent by Champlain in the two settlements of 
 Ste. Croix and Port Royal, whence he made minute explorations 
 of the surrounding coasts. Being a fair draftsman he drew up 
 rough plans both of the coast line and of the harbours visited. 
 He even produced a sketch of the buildings which com- 
 posed the two settlements. When the monopoly of Monts' 
 Company was revoked, he returned to France, and it was doubt- 
 less due to his suggestion that in the following year the centre 
 of French trade and colonization was transferred to the valley of 
 the St. Lawrence. His voyage in the year 1603 had not only 
 shown him that the fur-trade was good there and possibly better 
 than elsewhere, but he also entertained hopes of finding in this 
 region the long-sought passage to the East. 
 
 From the summer of the year 1608 until his death at Quebec 
 on Christmas day, 1635, Champlain devoted all his energies to 
 the development of the colony on the St. Lawrence and to the 
 search for a passage to the East. He spared himself no pains in 
 order to examine the country, to search for mines, to bring home 
 samples of wood, and to plant all sorts of seeds as a test for the 
 soil. He also made a long voyage up the Ottawa in the hope of 
 finding Hudson's Bay and he spent the winter of 1615-16 among 
 the Hurons in order to gain information about a reported water- 
 course to the Southern Sea. In the autumn of 1609, after his 
 first expedition against the Iroquois, he returned to France, but 
 only to set sail anew in the spring of the following year. This 
 plan he pursued also the year after. During the summer of 1612 
 he remained in France, doubtless occupied in the formation of 
 the new Company for trade in the St Lawrence. In the summer 
 of 1613 however he again returned to Quebec and it was in the 
 autumn of that year, not long after his return to France, that he 
 published his second work.l In the first part he gives an account 
 
 1 Les Voyages cbi Sieur de Champlain Xaintongeois, Capitaine ordinaire pour 
 le Roy en la marine, ou Journal tres-fidele des observations /aites es descouvertures de 
 la nouvelle France : tant en la description des terres, costes, rivieres, ports, havres, 
 leurs hauteurs, et plusieurs declinaisons de la guide-aymant ; qu'en la creance des 
 peuples, leurs superstitions, facfln de vivre et de guerroyer : enrichi de quantiti de 
 figures. Ensemhle deux cartes geografiques . . . . a laquelle est adioust6 le voyage 
 du d^troict qu'o7it trouv6 les Anglois au dessus de Labrador, depuis le 53e degr6
 
 276 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 of events at Pox't Royal and Ste. Croix during the years 1604 to 
 1G07 as well as of his voyages of discovery along the coast of the 
 Atlantic. Part II is a history of the foundation of Quebec, and 
 of his yearly voyages to the rapids of Lachine as well as that to 
 Lake Champlain during the summer of 1009 when he and his 
 Indian allies defeated the Iroquois. The " Voyage towards the 
 strait found by the English " was added after the index of the 
 former parts had been completed and tells the story of his expe- 
 dition up the Ottawa, when lured thither by the false tale of 
 Nicholas de Vignau. 
 
 Although Champlain did not sail to the St. Lawrence in the 
 year 1614, he returned thither in the spring of 1615 and spent 
 the winter of that year and the following spring among the 
 Hurons at their home near the Georgian Bay. During this visit, 
 he was able not only to obtain a practical acquaintance with 
 their country, habits and mode of life but also to gather consider- 
 able information about the regions lying farther to the west 
 The results of these explorations and of his voyage to the St 
 Lawrence in the summer of 1618, for during the previous year 
 he seems to have remained at home.i are embodied in a third 
 volume which he was able to finish in the spring of 1G19.2 In 
 this as in his two previous works he does little more than de- 
 scribe events of which he himself was an eye-witness and in 
 which indeed he usually took a very prominent part. In order 
 to reproduce so faithfully incidents which had taken place years 
 
 de latitude, kisques cm 63e en Van 1613 cerchans un chemin par le Xord pour aller 
 d la Chine, Paris 1613, 4to, printed in Laverdiere, op. cit. Tome iii. 
 
 1 I very much doubt whether he visited the St. Lawrence in that summer 
 notwithstanding his assertion to the contrary some fifteen years later. Although 
 he tells us (Laverdiere, op. cit. v 313) that he went out in that year when nothing 
 remarkable occurred, I am inclined to think we should have had a mention of it in 
 1619. had it been the case. 
 
 2 Voyages et Descouvertures faites en la Nouvelle France, depuis Vannie 1615 
 iusques a la fin de l'ann4e 16 IS par le Sieur de Champlain, Cappitaine ordinaire 
 pour le Roy en la Mer du Ponant. Oil sont descHts les mieurs, coustumes, habits, fa- 
 cons de guerroyer, chasses, danses,festins, et enterrements de divers peuples Sauvages, 
 et de phmeurs chases remarquahles qui luy sont arrivees audit pais, avec nne de- 
 scription de la beautd, fertility et temperature d'iceluy. Paris, 1619, printed in 
 Laverdiere, op. cit. , Tome iv.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 277 
 
 before, he must have kept a diary, and in several places in his 
 works the existence of some such source is betrayed. Thus at 
 the end of the last chapter of the first part of the edition of 161 o 
 there is an account of what occurred almost day by day during 
 the month of September 1607.^ This could not have been given 
 unless he had kept a diary of what took place and in fact he calls 
 the edition of l(il3 "a very faithful journal of observations made" 
 etc 2 Similar examples might be cited from the volume published 
 in 1619,3 of which a second edition appeared in 1627. This new 
 edition differed in no way from the original however a'* he him- 
 self was absent in New France at the time. 
 
 In the spring of 1618 Champlain, whose voyage to the Huron 
 country in the winter of 1615-1616 had given him some idea of 
 the immoisity of these new regions, presented to the Chamber of 
 Commerce at Paris a report on the possibility of increasing the 
 trading relations between Old and New France.'^ After exam- 
 ining this report and summoning Champlain and others who had 
 been to New France before them, the Chamber of Commerce 
 recommended that funds be advanced for sending out three 
 hundred families a year as long as Champlain wished. The King 
 should be urged to despatch three hundred soldiers, while the 
 Company, which then enjoyed the monopoly of the fur-trade, 
 should be forced to fulfil the stipulation as to colonists.^ Pleased 
 with this encouragement Champlain presented to the King and 
 his Council a list of the advantages which would accrue to the 
 kingdom if this advice were f ollowed,^ but nothing seems to have 
 resulted from all these efforts. In the year 1G19 Champlain was 
 prevented from returning to Quebec by the intrigues of one 
 Boyer, but an order from the King soon put matters right and 
 from the spring of 1620 till the autumn of 1624 he remained 
 permanently at Quebec with his wife. After enjojnng a year's 
 
 1 Tbid. iii 132 et seq. : — "Le 3 Septembre partismes de Campseau ; le 4 estions 
 le travers de I'isle de Sable, le 6 arrivasmes sur le grand banc, le 26, le 28 " etc. 
 
 2 " Journal tres-fidele des observations faites es decouvertures " etc. Title. 
 
 3 Laverdiere, op. cit. iv 107. 
 
 4 Archives Historiques de la Saintomjt et de VAunis, tome vi, Paris, 1879, pp. 
 387-390. 
 
 5 Ihid. pp. 390-394. 6 Ibid. pp. 378-387.
 
 278 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 rest in France he returned to Quebec in the spring of 1626 and 
 did not leave it until it was captured by the English in the 
 summer of 1629. Having on his arrival in England urged 
 Chateauneuf the French ambassador to press for the restoration 
 of the colony, he made his way back to France where he remained 
 until the year 1633. 
 
 During these years however his pen was not idle. In 1630 
 he presented to King Louis a petition for the continuance of his 
 pension which at the time of the capture of New France seems 
 to have been discontinued. i He prepared at the same time a new 
 edition of his voyages. In this work, which appeared in the 
 year 1632, he not only gave a full and detailed account of the 
 events in which he had taken part since the year 1620 but he 
 also added a short synopsis of the early voyages to North 
 America as well as a resume of all his earlier works.2 It should 
 seem indeed as if the continued demand for his books had induced 
 him, instead of continuing to issue new editions, to combine the 
 kernel of them with an account of the occurrences of the last ten 
 years. Though the events of these years received considerable 
 attention, we have also a great amount of historical matter 
 relating to the earlier years of the colony. It is to this volume 
 indeed that one^must turn for most of the facts known about 
 Chauvin and La Roche, as well as for the history of the country 
 between 1620 and 1629. The numerous official documents 
 embodied in this volume are cited elsewhere,^ but he also printed 
 the voyage of Captain Daniel after the edition of 1630,4 an 
 undated letter from one Marsolet,^ and finally a letter from 
 
 1 Biblioth^que Nationale, Ms. Fr. 9097, fols. I et seq. This was reprinted 
 by M. Gabriel Marcel in 1886 under the title of M6moire en reqtbete de Ckamplain 
 pour la continuation du Paienient desa Pension, Paris, MDCCCLXXXVI. 
 
 2 Les Voyages de la Noui^elle France Occidentale, dicte Canada, /aits par le Sr 
 de Champlain Xainctongeois, Capitaine pour le Roy en la Marine du Ponant, et 
 toutes les Descouvertes qiCil afaites en ce pais depuis Van 1603 iusques en Van 1629 . 
 A Paris, 1632, 4" . 
 
 3 Sources, Part I : Official. 
 
 4 La Prise d'un Seigneur Escossois et de ses gens qui pilloienf les Navires 
 pescheurs de France par le Sieur Malapart Parisien. A Rouen, MDCXXX. Re- 
 printed at Rouen in 1881 by the Socidt^ des Bibliophiles Normands. 
 
 6 Laverdi^re op. cit. vi 269-270.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II NARRATIVE 279 
 
 Father Lallemant to the Superior of the Jesuits College at 
 Parish All these documents are of very great value, and since 
 Champlain rarely related an incident at which he was not per- 
 sonally present or of which at least he received the news from 
 an eye-witness, the remainder of this work, giving the history 
 of New France from 1620 to 1629, is also of very great import- 
 ance. In fact Ohamplain's writings are a source of the first 
 value and however much one may regret the years he passes over 
 in silence, yet this very loss enhances the value of the remainder 
 by proving that it contains nothing but what was actually seen 
 or experienced by himself. 
 
 As to the theory which has been advanced that the Jesuits 
 had a hand in the production of this edition,^ I cannot find any 
 grounds for accepting it. The few mistakes cited by the Abb^ 
 Laverdiere^ are apt to occur in any large work of the kind and 
 are doubtless chiefly printer's errors. That the portion of the 
 volume published in 1619 which spoke of the arrival of the 
 Recollects is curtailed was only natural, and this for two reasons. 
 In the first place Champlain was giving a resume of his earlier 
 works and wished to leave out what he judged unimportant. He 
 did not mean however to detract from the merits of the work done 
 by the Recollects and in the dedication to Richelieu he expressly 
 mentions the missionary work carried on " by divers Religious 
 orders" and the progress they have made in converting the sav- 
 ages.4 The second reason for the summary remarks about the 
 Recollects is that he no longer bore towards them the same 
 friendly feelings as formei'ly. When indeed Father Georges was 
 sent home in 1621 to petition the King on behalf of the colony, 
 he seems to have so far exceeded his powers as to make unjust 
 complaints against Caen and to have sought to substantiate these 
 by forging letters from the inhabitants. This proceeding angered 
 
 1 Ihid., pp. 304-311 
 
 2 Ibid, tome v p. vi: " Non-seulement quelqu'un a revu,ou meme retouche le 
 rdcit de Champlain, mais on peut affirmer que ce travail a et(5 fait soit par un 
 j^suite, soit par un ami des religieux de cat ordre." 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. v-vi. 
 
 i Ibid. p. 4: " La mission .... faite de divers Ordres de Religieux, 
 leur progrez en la conversion de plusieurs Sauvages," etc.
 
 280 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 Champlain extremely and he wrote a severe letter to Father 
 Georges on the subject, i It is by no means surprising therefore 
 that his feelings towards the Recollects were no longer the same 
 and that in this work published in 1682 he gave preference to 
 the Indian translations by members of the Company of Jesus.2 
 
 Although New France was restoied in the suiniDer of 1632, 
 Champlain did not return to Quebec until the following year 
 when the Company of New France entered into possession. He 
 seems to liave felt that he might never again see the motherland 
 and before fcailing made his last will in which he left all his pro- 
 perty to his wife.'' He died at Quebec on Christinas day 1635, 
 thus bringing to a peaceful end a life of which, as he himself 
 said, the gain was small but the glory great. In the previous 
 August he had despatched a letter to Kichelieu in which he asked 
 for a hundred soldiers to check the ravages of the Iroquois.'* It 
 was the failure of his successors to adopt this policy which 
 brought such ruin and disaster on the colony in later years. This 
 was the last writing of the great pioneer of New France. Not 
 only with his pen — and his written productions are numerous — 
 but also with his hands and mind had Champlain laboured since 
 the year 1603, first of all to tind out the geography and riches of 
 
 1 Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Fs. 16738, fol. 143 et seq. " Quatre autres Let- 
 tres missives, signees Champlain, et autres escrites au Roy, au feu sieur de Mont- 
 morency, au feu sieur Chancellier de Sillery, et au sieur de Villemenon sur I'avis 
 qu'ils avoient que ledit Pere Georges avoit presents au Roy I'annee precedente cer- 
 taines Lettres qu'il disoit venir de leur part, par lesquelles ils se plaignoient dudit 
 de Caen et declarent que telles Lettres sont suppos^es, dequoy ils croyoient estre 
 obligez pour la decharge de leur conscience en advertir sa Majesty et de ce qu'ils 
 avoient receu dudit de Caen toutes sortes de courtoisies, lesdites Lettres datees du 
 25 aoust 1622. Autre Lettre missive escrite de Quebec le dernier aoiist audit an 1622 
 par ledit sieur de Champlain audit Pere Georges, par laquelle il I'accuse d'avoir 
 fabrique lesdites Lettres et se plaint de son procede." 
 
 2 Laverdiere, op. cit. tome vi Appendix: "Doctrine Chrestienne, du R. P. 
 Ledesme de la Compagnie de Jesus. Traduicte en Langage Canadois . . . par 
 le R. P. BrebcBuf de la mesme Compagnie" and also " L'Oraison Dominicale, tra- 
 duite en langage des Montagnars de Canada par le R. P. Mass^ de la Compagnie 
 de Jesus." 
 
 3 Reime des Questions Hiraldiques Archeologiqiies et Historiques, no. 14, Paris, 
 25 aout 1899, pp. 67-68. 
 
 4 Laverdiere, op. cit. tome vi, pieces justificatives no. xxxii ; Collection de 
 Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 112-113.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 281 
 
 this region, and then to set them before his countrymen. That his 
 success was not greater was due to the absence of any desire on 
 the part of the French to emigrate rather than to lack of energy 
 on his side. 
 
 As sources for the early history of Canada his writings are of 
 inestimable value. Naturally of a calm and judicious frame of 
 aiind he was able to take a clear and unpartisan view of most 
 events. His measured and careful language shows that the 
 statements made are not given haphazard. But not only is he 
 the faithful historian of the early life of New France, he is also 
 one of the first Europeans who, knowing the language of the 
 Indians, had studied their life with attention during many years. 
 On this account his writings, especially the volume published in 
 1619, must always be considered of very great value. 
 
 Champlain's wife, Helen Boulle, (their marriage contract has 
 been presei'ved i) survived him many years and finally entered 
 the order of the Ursulines.2 Their married life seems to have 
 been an extremely happy one but an agreement for the hire of a 
 servant in 1617 is the only document which throws any light 
 upon it.3 Indeed, outside of the facts given in his works, we 
 know very little of the doings of Champlain and even less of 
 those of his wife. 
 
 Gabriel Sagard. 
 
 Our information about the life of the Recollect Father Sagard 
 is extremely scanty.'^ Entering the order of St. Francis at an 
 early age he seems to have spent some time in one of their houses 
 at Metz^ and subsequently to have visited Luxembourg^ before 
 
 1 Laverdi^re, op, cif. tome vi, pieces justificatives no. xxxi. 
 
 2 E. Charavay, Documents Inedits aur Samtid de Champlain, pp. 7-8. Paris 
 1875. 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. 4-5. 
 
 4 In the introduction to Tross' reprint of Sagard's Histoire du Canada, (Paris 
 1866) tome i, p. liii, M. Chevalier remarks : " J'ai cherehe, scrute, fouille, remue, 
 ressasse livres, manuscrits, papiers, et de lui je ne sais que son cBuvre." 
 
 ^ Histoire du Canada (1636) p. 968: — " L'annee suivante, estant de commu- 
 naut^ en nostre Convent de Mets " etc. 
 
 6 Ibid. p. 969 : — " Je fus un iour bien estonne qu'entrant en une maison de 
 condition au Duche de Luxembourg " etc.
 
 282 THE SOURCES. PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 taking up his residence near Paris about the year 1614.''- Being 
 a friend of Father Chapoin, who in the following year sent off 
 the first Recollects to Canada, his attention was drawn to this 
 new missionary field and a longing soon seized him to go there. 
 In the spring of 1624 this wish was gratified, and on his arrival 
 at Quebec in the summer he was at once sent on to the Huron 
 mission. He only spent one winter there however for on returr- 
 ing to Quebec in the following spring he received word to repair 
 at once to France and was never again allowed to continue his 
 labours in the New AVorld. 
 
 On what work he was engaged on his return we do not 
 know ; but it was not until the summer of 1632 that he published 
 an account of his voyage to the Huron mission.'-^ On leaving 
 Dieppe he had kept a diary of his journey but on the way from 
 Quebec to the Huron country this was unfortunately lost.^ It is 
 probable however that he continued it and that this record of his 
 daily life formed the principal source from which he drew the 
 materials for his work. After a few preliminary remarks, an 
 account is given in chapter ii of the voyage to New France which 
 differs only slightly from that given by Lescarbot in his History. 
 Chapter iii describes Quebec, while in chapters iv and v we have 
 an interesting account of the difiSculties and dangers of the long 
 and trying journey up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers and 
 across the Nipissing chain of lakes to the homes of the Hurons on 
 the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. In the remaining seventeen 
 chapters of Part i and in the first four of Part ii he gives a descrip- 
 tion of the Huron manners and customs as he had observed them 
 during his stay in the country. Chapter v of Part ii narrates 
 his return to Quebec and the voyage back to France. At the end 
 
 1 Ihid. p. 614: — "II y a quelques ann^es que demeurant de comraunaut^ en 
 nostre Convent de S. Germain en Laye." Cf. also p. II: — " J'eusse bien d6sir(5 
 desloi's d'estre de la partie " etc. 
 
 2 Le Orand Voya(je du Pdys des Hurons dtue en rAmirique vers la Mer douce, 
 6s derniers confiufi de la Nouvellt- France dite Canada, etc. Paris 1632. It was 
 reprinted by Tross at Paris, 1865. 
 
 3 " Ce fut en ce village ou par niesgard ie perdis . . . tous les memoues 
 que i'avois faits des pays, chemins, rencontres et choses remarquables que nous 
 avions veues depuis Dieppe en Normandie jusques-h\." Grand Voyage, p. 74.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE -283 
 
 of the volume he printed a dictionary of the Huron language^ as 
 far as he had been able to learn it during his stay of six months. 
 If however, as he tells us himself, the Huron language was 
 rapidly altering, his labours must have soon become useless for 
 practical purposes.^ 
 
 It was not until four years later, in 1636, that he published 
 an enlarged edition of this Grand Voyage under the title of His- 
 toire da Canada.^ On the restoration of Canada to France in 
 1632 the Recollects had been forbidden to return, while the 
 Jesuits, whom they themselves had invited to share their labours, 
 were given the monopoly of this missionary held. In order how- 
 ever that the work of his Company from 1615 to 1629 might be- 
 come more widely known Sagard re-published his Voyage with 
 some account of the first missionaries sent out and of their subse- 
 quent invitation to the Jesuits to aid them in their labours. In 
 doing this, he embodied some fresh documents in extenso and in 
 other cases, when only portions of them are given, he mentions 
 whence they are taken. The most important documents thus 
 preserved for us are, in Book I, the Papal Nuncio's commission 
 to the Company j** the King's commission,^ a letter from Father 
 Jamet dated Quebec 1620,^ the reply of the Sieur des Boues,'' a 
 petition of the colony and one from the Recollects to the King 
 in 1U21.8 Books II and III are a repetition of the two parts of 
 his Grand Voyage w ith a few additions from unindicated sources 
 of which we shall speak presently. In Book IV he has Jigain 
 preserved for us some important documents such as the two 
 letters of the Jesuit Lallemant dated ai Quebec in 16 25,^ and a 
 copy of a letter from Father Joseph describincr his stay among 
 
 1 Dictionaire de la Langue Huronne necessaire a ceux 'lui n'ont Vintelligence 
 d'icelle, et ont d trailer avec les sauvages du Payn. Paris 1632. 
 
 2 ' 'Nos Hurons, et generallement toutes les autres Nations ont la mesme insta- 
 bility de langage, et changent tellement leurs mots, qu'a succession de temps 
 i'ancien Huron est presque tout autre que celuy du present, et change encore" 
 etc. Dictionaire, p. 9. 
 
 3 Histoirt du Canada et Voyages que les Fr'eres Mineiira Recollects y ont f aids 
 jtour la Converdon des Infidelle-s. Divisez en quatre Ldvres. Paris, 1636. Another 
 volume was promised. (Cf. pp. xix-xx). 
 
 * Ihid. pp. 12-17. = Ihid. pp. 17-21. 6 Und. pp. 57-65. 
 
 7 Ihid. pp. 66-71. 8 Ihid. pp. 73-90. 9 Ihid. pp. 868-870.
 
 284 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 the Neutral Nation.! There is also a orreat deal in Books I and 
 IV which was doubtless given to him by eyewitnesses, as for in- 
 stance the account of Father Iren^e's voyage in chapters viii 
 and ix of the former.2 The substance of chapters ix and x of 
 Book IV was also contributed by those who had taken part in 
 the events lelated.^ 
 
 Although it would at first appear that a great deal had been 
 added to the GtomcL Voyage which now forms Books II and III, 
 this turns out on examination not to be the case. Sometimes it 
 is the old material broken up into shorter chapters, as for instance 
 chapter ii of the Grand Voyage which forms the first four 
 chapters of Book II in the History, or chapter iv of the same 
 which becomes chapters vi and vii of Book II in the History. 
 This seems to have been done to n^ake the reading easier.* Be- 
 sides this there is however some really fresh material both 
 authenticated and unauthenticated. Of the former, there is the 
 letter sent by his Superior to summon him home,5 and an account 
 of the reception of two Iroquois prisoners given to him by Brother 
 Gervais.6 The story of the Indian women in chapters xliii and 
 xliv of Book II must have been gleaned from some one who had 
 been there, as the events took place after his reiurnT In the 
 last chapter of Book III in describing the return voyage to 
 France he has added an account oi the usual style of conversation 
 on board, which is not without a certain interest. With the 
 exception of the account of the Indian languages, given in chapter 
 xxi of Book II, the rest of the new material is rather unimport- 
 ant. It consists either of anecdotes from the Old Testament and 
 the clas.sics (e. g. Book II, chaps, xiv and xxvii) or of a more 
 minute account of certain events (Book II, chap, xi) or of a de- 
 
 1 Ihid. pp. 879-892. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. Ill : — " Le Pere Irenee aj^ant appiis que ie revenois des Hurons, 
 vint au devant de moy dans un canot " etc. 
 
 3 Ihid, p. 961 : — " Comme elles m'ont dit mainte fois " etc. 
 
 4 Cf. pp. 502-503. 
 
 5 Ihid. p. 835. 
 
 6 Ihid. p. 470 : — " Fr^re Gervais m'a appris" etc. Cf. also p. 27 :— " De la 
 fa9on qu'il fut traicte en son voyage . . . ie n'en scay pas les particularitez 
 pour ne m'y estre pas trouve mais il m'a asseure " etc. 
 
 " " Une histoire arrivee en Canada environ Tan 1626 ou 27 '' etc. Ibid. p. 681.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 285 
 
 scviption of the missionary labours of the Recollects in other parts 
 of the world (Book II, chaps, xxxviii and xxxix). 
 
 In describing events prior to and later than his arrival in New- 
 France, Sagard used the works of Lescarbot i and Champlain as 
 well as those of the Jesuit fathers whom he blames for thus pub- 
 lishing their virtues. There are other sections of his work for 
 which his sources are not and cannot well be known, as for 
 instance his account of events in the summer of 1617, for which 
 he is our unique source. Besides thus often throwing light into 
 hidden corners he occasionally adds anecdotes and tales not given 
 by others, and these qualities in addition to the importance of his 
 work in preserving for us the valuable documents mentioned 
 above will always make him read by those who seek a detailed 
 knowledge of early Canadian history. His point of view is of 
 course exceedingly ecclesiastical and he has no eye for the trade 
 or the system of government of the colony. Thus it was only 
 with great reluctance and because he had been continually pes- 
 tered to do so, that he finally stated, and in an extremely sum- 
 mary manner, the chief commodities sent from the colony.2 He 
 delights much more in expatiating on the miraculous effects of 
 the sign of the cross -^ or holy water •* or in relatinij in great 
 detail how Satan strapped a monk to a cross before which he had 
 been praying ; it was only when help arrived through the win- 
 dow, for the devil had locked the door, that the man's life was 
 saved.5 However with all his faults Sagard adds to our know- 
 ledge of the times and even these very points in which he betrays 
 his character enable us to understand better the minds of the 
 early missionaries oF New France. 
 
 1 lUd. pp. 488 and 665. 
 
 2 " Au retour de mon voyage, lors que ie m'efforgois de faire entendre la neces- 
 site que nos pauvres Sauvages avoient d'un secours puissant, qui favorizast leur 
 conversion, plusieurs mal-devots me demandoient s'il y avoit [non cent mille ames 
 mais]cent mille escus a gaigner. Voicy donc,o mal-devots les thresors et richesses 
 ausquelles seules vous aspirez avec tant d'inquietudes. Elles consistent princi- 
 palement en quantite de Pelleteries, de diverses especes d'Animaux terrestres et 
 amphibies. II y a encore des mines deCui\T.'e desquelles on pourroit tirer du profit 
 s'il y avoit du monde," etc. Grand Voyage, pp. 334-335. Cf. also Hutoire, pp.. 
 786-789. 
 
 3 Histoire, pp. 550 et seq. * Ibid. p. 559. 5 Ihid. pp. 525 et seq.
 
 286 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 Le Jeunes Relation. 
 
 Paul Le Jeune was born at Chalons-sur-Marne in July 1591, 
 and though his parents were Huguenots he himself became at the 
 age of twenty-one a member of the Society of Jesus. After 
 studying at La Fleche and Clerment he was appointed lecturer 
 at Rennes and Bourges and later professor of rhetoric at Nevers 
 and Caen where he spent the years 1629 and 1630. During the 
 two following years he held the post of Superior at Dieppe and 
 it was here that the order reached him in the spring of 1632 to 
 repair to Havre and embark for New France as head of the 
 Jesuit mission there. By the terms of the treaty of St. Germain- 
 en-Laye the Scottish and English Company were to retire in that 
 summer and Caen was to take possession until the following year. 
 With Le Jeuiie also sailed Father de Noiie and Brother Gilbert. 
 On the eighteenth of June the vessel cast anchor at Tadoussac. 
 After spending two weeks here they moved on up the river to 
 Quebec. This Relation, dated at Quebec the 28th of August, 
 gives an account of the voyage out and of the results of their 
 missionary labours during the two months and ten days they 
 had been in the country.! 
 
 In the first six pages he describes the sea voyage, the short 
 stay at Gaspe and their safe arrival at Tadoussac. During their 
 stay here he was able to get his first sight of the savages and 
 even to visit them in their wigwams. To him they seemed like 
 the masks in carnival time or western types of John the Baptist. 
 Even the cruelties inflicted on three Iroquois prisoners did not 
 diminish his hope that one day they might be civilized, for he 
 assures us that Germany, Spain and England were inhabited by 
 just such creatures before the Gospel reached those countries. 
 The proper method to evangelize them was in his opinion to 
 build seminaries ; for once the childi-en were taught, they would 
 instruct their parents. On their arrival at Quebec the fort was 
 
 1 Brieve Relation du Voyage de la Nouvelle France Fait ati moisd' A vril dernier 
 par le P. Paul le Jeune de la Compagnie de Jesufi. Envoyee au R. P. Barthelemy 
 Jacquinot Provincial de la mesme Compagnie en la Province de France, Paris, 
 1632, printed in Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations, v pp. 8-75. A garbled copy was 
 published in the Mercure Frnn<;ois, xviii 56 et seq., and in the Collection de Manu- 
 acrits relatifs a la Nouvelle France, i 97-108.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 287 
 
 given over to Caen and the English at once retired, leaving how- 
 ever the college of the Jesuits in ruins. The warm welcome of 
 the Hebert family helped to cheer them and in that house was 
 held their first Mass. The remainder of the Relation consists of 
 a description of the evils wrought by the English in sellino- fire- 
 water to the savages, of the faith of these latter in the Jesuit 
 missionaries, of the first lessons given to the young savao-es, and 
 of the baptism of a boy four years old belonging to the Fire Na- 
 tion. Although he had never been beyond Quebec, Le Jeune 
 signs his Relation " from the midst of a forest more than 800 
 leagues in extent," which would lead one to suppose that the 
 whole of the surrounding country was covered for that distance 
 with a thick forest. Champlain however has told us that there 
 were plenty of meadows and openings all along the river. Pie- 
 tistic as this Relation undoubtedly is, even to an exaggerated 
 degree, yet, as our only account of the re-occupation of the coun- 
 try by the French, it is of considerable importance. The fact 
 that it was written at the end of August, and published in the 
 following November speaks well for the energy of those to whom 
 it was sent. 
 
 Pere Le Trie. 
 
 The Hlstoire Chronolog'ique de la Xouvelle Fro nee throws no 
 fresh light upon the early history of Canada. The author 
 intended to divide the work into three parts, the first extending 
 from 1504 to 1632, the second from 1632 to 1670, and the third 
 from 1670 to 1689.1 Only the first part and a few pages of the 
 second part were finished. ^ The manuscript, which is not signed, 
 is now preserved in the Archives at YersaiUes,^ where it was dis- 
 
 1 " Je me suis propose de reduire cette hiatoire en troi-s partie.s. La premiere 
 traitte de ce qui s'est passe depuis que les Francois ont commence de banter le 
 Canada, jusques a ce que les Anglois les en ayent chasse qui fut I'an 1629, et meme 
 je la pousse juques en 16.32, que les Francois y sont rentrea. La seconde depuis 
 16.32 juques en 1670, que les PP. Recollects y sont revenus, et la troisieme depuis 
 1670 juques a cette presente annee." Lettre de I'autheur a un de ses Amys, p. o. 
 
 2 " Je n'ay pu achever que la premiere partie " etc. Ihid. 
 
 3 Catalogue, des Mo.nuscrits conserves flans les Depots fj/ Archives Departemen- 
 tales, Com.muTioJ.es et Hospitalihres, p. 282. Paris 1886.
 
 288 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 covered by M. Eugene Reveillaud who published it in 1 888. i 
 From a comparison of the original with some entries in the 
 parish registers at Three Rivers, M. Reveillaud has concluded 
 that the author of the work is a certain Pere Le Tac who wont 
 out to Canada in 1676. After spending a year at Lharlesbourg 
 near Quebec he was transferred to Three Rivers where he re- 
 mained until 1.683. In the following year he was appointed 
 Tnaitre des novices in the Recollect convent at Quebec. In 1689 
 he was sent to found a mission at Plaisance in Newfoundland 
 but not being able to get along peacefully with the governor he 
 returned to France in September of that year. He seems to have 
 gone out to New France again in 1690 or 1691 and to have died 
 there in July 1699.2 
 
 A work written in the year 1689 ^ could not of course con- 
 tain much fresh information for the period from 1504 to 1632. 
 Indeed all the author sought to do, as he himself tells us, was to 
 give a short and concise account of a period which had been 
 hitherto treated too diffusely."* In other words he has simply 
 made a chronological synopsis for the period of Lescarbot, 
 Sagard and Champlain.^ Though he mentions Du Creux, whom 
 he calls Le Creux, it is only to refute him.^ Of the sixteen 
 
 1 JUitoire Chronologique de la Nouvelle France ou Canada depuis sa dicouverte 
 (mil cinq cents qnatre) juques en Van mil six cents trente deux par le Pere Sixte Le 
 Tac, Recollect. Puhliie pour la premitre fois d'apres le mamiscrit original de 1689 et 
 accompagnie de Notes et d'nn Appendice tout compose de documents originaux et 
 inidits par Eng. Reveillaud. Paris, 1888, 8". 
 
 2 These facts are taken from the Notice Biographique published by M. Reveil- 
 laud who in turn took them from the Repertoire du Clergi Canadien of the Abb^ 
 Tanguay. 
 
 3 Histoire Chronologique, p. 32 ; " Cette annee 1689." Cf, also pp. 34 and 38. 
 
 4 Tbid. pp. 4-.5 : " Je me suis contents de faire un abbrege et de passer quan- 
 tity de choses que je n'ay pas eru devoir estre marquees." 
 
 5 Ihid. pp. 2-3 : " Lescarbot avocat, Fr. Gabriel Sagard, Recollect, le Sr 
 Samuel de Champlain, le P. Lecreux jesuitte. J'ai trouve ces autheurs si 
 obscurs .... lis sont remplis d'histoires de voyages, de rivieres, de lacs, de 
 caps, d'anses. J'ay neglige toutes ces choses qui ne font qu'embrouiller et n'en 
 fais mention que de quelques uns dont je ne puis me dispenser de parler " etc. 
 
 6 Ibid. p. 129 " J'a}' remarque que les PP. .Jesuittes n'ont pas rendu aux PP. 
 Recollects la justice qui leur est deiie, lorsqu'ils ont fait imprimer une histoire de 
 Canada en latin sous le nom du P. le Creux, du college de Bourges. Cet autheur, 
 dans sa preface, pour donner plus de gloire aux missionnaires et Jesuittes du Can-
 
 THE SOURCES PART II : NARRATIVE 289 
 
 chapters into which the first part is divided, chapters i and ii 
 are merely introductory. They contain however, besides a brief 
 mention of the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots, an inter- 
 esting description of New France and New England in the year 
 1689. The next three chapters resume the voyages of Verra- 
 zano, Cartier, Roberval, Ribaut, Laudonniere, Gourgues, La Roche 
 and Chauvin. Chapters vi to xvi then give a brief account of 
 the history of New France from 1604 to 1632. 
 
 Though adding nothing to our knowledge of the period 
 treated, the work of Father Le Tac is a defence of the Recollects 
 during the year.s they passed in the colony. He recognizes this 
 himself and pleads in excuse that his aim is only to bring to 
 public notice the injustices committed by a few Jesuits who 
 mixed religion with politics.^ This and the other religious com- 
 munities in the colony were banded against the Recollects, who 
 in his opinion bore all this abuse very silently. " I have tried to 
 imitate," he says, " this same moderation in giving expression to 
 that which, as I have seen, causes them so much suffering. But 
 since the truth engenders hate, I do not deem it expedient to 
 make myself known."2 Because, in other words, " a Bishop, a 
 Governor and an Intendant acted together and laboured unceas- 
 ingly to overthrow and pull down the poor Recollects " about the 
 year 1689, ^ a member of that oppressed Order thought it his duty 
 
 ada, supprime d'abord la connoissance que le public devoit avoir des travaux que 
 les PP. Recollects ont soufferts a jetter les fondenients de la Religion dans les 
 habitations fran9oises et sauvages." 
 
 1 Ihid. pp. 5-6 " Au reste pour ce qu'en parlant des PP. Recollects et des PP. 
 Jesuittes vous pourriez juger que je le fais trop avantageusement des premiers 
 et des autres avec trop de bile et peut-etre trop d'eraporteraent, je crois qu'il est 
 necessaire que je vous avertisse que je ne pretends point blesser ny ma conscience 
 ny un Ordre de I'Eglise que je reconnois pour ma mere ; mon but n'est que de 
 faire connoitre les injustices que quelques politiques Jesuittes font pat la voye de 
 la puissance seculiere qu'ils tournent de la maniere la plus adroite, mais la plus 
 injuste du monde." 
 
 2 Ihid, p. 8 : '• J'ay tasche d'imiter cette raeme moderation pour exprimer une 
 
 partie de ce que j'ay reconnu en cevix qui les font tant gemir Mais 
 
 parce que la verite engendre la haine, je ne ci'ois pas qu'il soit expedient que je 
 me fasse connoitre au Public." 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 6: "Un Eveque, un Gouverneur, un Intendant agissent unanime- 
 ment, et travaillent sans cesse k renverser et terrasser ces pauvres Religieux. 
 C'est ce qu'ils ont fait depuis 20 ans " etc. 
 19
 
 290 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 
 
 to re-write the history of Canada in the light of this event. His 
 statements of fact, which are not verified by Lescarbot, Sagard 
 or Champlain must therefore be taken cum grano sails. Thus 
 when he tells us that the idea of sending the Jesuits to the St. 
 Lawrence originated with that Order who induced the Viceroy 
 to propose the same to the Recollects, i he is deliberately falsify- 
 ing history ; for Sagard distinctly tells us that the idea originat- 
 ed with the Recollects themselves who were even blamed by their 
 friends for proposing it.2 In short, except for the interesting 
 description of New France in the year 1689, the work is of little 
 
 or no value. 
 
 Le Glercq's History. 
 
 Although he did not publish his Premier Etahlissement de 
 la Foy until the year 1691,^ the Recollect Father Christian Le 
 Clercq has preserved for us several important documents con- 
 cerning the early history of the colony, which are not given by 
 any of the earlier writers. He seems indeed to have had access 
 to the Archives of the Recollects/^ Thus he has preserved for us 
 a letter from Father d'Olbeau dated at Quebec in July 1615,^ Le 
 Caron's account of his voyage to the Hurons in IGIG,*^ and that 
 
 1 Ibid. p,p. 122-12.3: — "Les poursuites des PP. Recollects [de quelque secours 
 pour etablir des seminaires] reveillerent la pensee qu'avoient eu les PP. Jesuites 
 de venir faire mission dans le grand fleuve Saint-Laurent. Le P. Noyrot de la 
 Compagnie de Jesus confesseur de Mgr. de Ventadour detourna son penitent de 
 rien faire pour les PP. Recollects et le porta k y envoyer plutot des Religieux 
 de la Compagnie. Mgr. le Viceroy ainsi inspire conseilla aux PP. Recollects 
 
 . . . de mener avec eux des PP. Jesuites." 
 
 2 Sagard, HUtoire du Caw a cZa (1866), iii 783 : — " Entretous les Religieux nous 
 proposames les RR. PP. Jesuites, lesquels comme personnes puissantes pouvoient 
 beaucoup k ces peuples indigens." Cf. also p. 784. 
 
 3 Premier Etahlimement de la Foy dans la Noiivdle France, contenant la Pub- 
 lication df, VEvangile, rJHifitoire des Colonies Francoises, et les fametises dicouvertes 
 dep'ds le F'eam de Saint Laurent la Louisiane et le Fleuve Colbert jusqu^au 
 
 Golphe Mexiqne, achevtes sou-'i la conduite de feu Monsieur de la Salle, 2 vols. 
 12", Paris 1691. An English translation was published at New York by Mr. 
 J. G. Shea in 1881 in two volumes. 
 
 4 Shea's Translation p. 109: " the following articles set out more at length 
 in our memoirs still extant." Cf. also ibid, pp. 106, 114, 143, 155, 183, 184, 198 
 and .303. 
 
 s Ibid. pp. 87-90. 
 6 Ibid. pp. 95-96.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART II : NARRATIVE 291 
 
 to the Montagnais two years later,l an account of a missionary- 
 conference held in Quebec in 1620,2 the fragments of a letter 
 From Father Poullain,^ and those of a memoir written by Le 
 Caron in 1624.4 In addition to these he sometimes gives us ac- 
 counts of events relating to this early period of Canadian history 
 which he declares he had received from eye-witnesses.^ 
 
 Although we must be grateful to Le Clercq for having pre- 
 served these documents, he sometimes takes liberties with the 
 old material which greatly weaken the value of his statements. 
 Thus he gave to the Letters patent of Louis XIII, which he 
 copied from Sagard, the date 2()th March, 1615, although neither 
 the copy in Sagard ^ nor the one in the Archives of the Recol- 
 lects^ really bore this date. He also appears to have let his 
 imagination run away with him in his account of the discussion 
 in the King's Council as to the advisability of demanding the 
 restoration of Canada.^ No evidence to support these statements 
 has so far come to light. In conclusion one can only regret that 
 he thought it would be tiresome to the reader should he insert 
 all the Acts drawn up in 1621.^ 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 134-137. 
 1 Ibid. pp. 109-112. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 187. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 214-224. 
 
 ^ IJiid. p. 180: — "I have often heard this adventure related by Madame 
 Couillard who was then in the fort " etc. 
 
 6 Sagard, Histoire du Canada (1636) p. 21. 
 
 7 Le Tac, Hisfoire Chronologique de la Nouvelle France, edition of Reveillaud, 
 appendix pp. 173-176. 
 
 8 Shea's translation, pp. 310-318. 
 
 9 Ibid. p. 174.
 
 THE SOURCES 
 
 PART III : ANONYMOUS 
 
 The Factum. 
 
 The value of an anonymous source depends to a great extent 
 on the number of authentic documents which the author embodies 
 in his work and on the comparison of his statements with those 
 of known writers on the same subject. The number of authentic 
 documents contained in the Factum published anonymously and 
 doubtless at Paris in the year 1614 is considerable.^ Some of 
 these have already been mentioned elsewhere.^ Of the remain- 
 der the following are the most important : a letter from the Mar- 
 quise de Guercheville to Poutrincourt dated at Paris the 29th of 
 September 1610,3 one from Father Cotton to the same dated the 
 6th of October,4 a letter from Saint-Just to his father dated the 
 loth of March 161 2,^ another letter written on the following 
 day ,6 and finally a letter from Du Thet to Aubigny dated the ]st 
 of March in the same year.7 Extracts from two undated letters 
 of Saint-Just to his father have also been incorporated in the 
 work.8 Although we have no positive evidence that these docu- 
 ments are genuine, yet as their authenticity was never called in 
 question by the writers on the other side, probability points to 
 their being faithful copies of the originals. They form indeed a 
 valuable addition to our knowledge of a period otherwise not 
 well known. 
 
 To the remainder of the Factum however nothing like the 
 same value can be attributed. Written in a moment of great 
 irritation and with an evident intention of exciting animosity 
 
 1 Factum, du Procez Entre Messire Jean de Biencourt chevalier sieur de Pout- 
 rincourt, Baron de S. Just, appelant d'une part, et Pierre Biard, Evemond Massi 
 et ronsorff, >ioy difian-s Prestres de In Societe de Jiaiis, intimez. n. p., MDCXIIII. 
 The copj' preserved at the Bibliotheqiie Nationals [4° Fm. 2965] was repx'inted 
 with an introduction by M, Clabriel Marcel at Pai-is in 1887. 
 
 2 Sources, Part I : Official. 3 ;Ma.rcprs reprint, pp. 7-S. 
 4 Ihid. pp. 8-9. 5 ihid. pp. 48-50. 
 
 6 /6i"rf. pp. 50-54. "t Ihid.^. iil. 8 /?>,>/. pp. 25-29 and 55-57. 
 
 [292]
 
 THE SOURCES, PART III • ANONYMOUS 293 
 
 against those attacked, for the most part it either distorts or 
 interprets unfavourably the events recorded. Before the facts as 
 given can be accepted, they must be corroborated from other 
 sources which here are usually wanting unfortunately. Thus 
 of Biard's personal habits we know nothing, so that whether 
 at a banquet on the voyage out he drank more than was good 
 for himi must remain a matter of conjecture. In any case the 
 fact is one of extremely slight importance. The whole strength 
 of the case against the Jesuits lies in the fact that in becoming 
 partners in the enterprise they lowered the dignity of their 
 spiritual office ; the act of excommunication against their fellow- 
 shareholders only made the matter more ridiculous. 
 
 In conclusion a word as to the author of this document. 
 That it was not Lescarbot seems almost certain, for he was 
 doubtless still in Switzerland and the style is not that of the 
 author of the History of New France. If one might hazard 
 an hypothesis, I should be inclined to name Simon Imbert, one 
 of Poutrincourt's agents and according to Biard an old Parisian 
 publican. 2 It is singular indeed that this man was present at 
 nearly all the incidents related. On the voyage out he was not 
 only on board but gave up his room to Masse.^ He was therefore 
 fully aware of all that had taken place at Dieppe and was also a 
 spectator of Biard's interference at Port St. John and Port 
 Royal.4 It seems doubtful whether he was present at Ste. Croix 
 and the river St. John,^ unless the vessel had not yet returned to 
 France, for he seems to have been on board on the return voyage 
 to Port Boyal in order to report so faithfully the conversation of 
 Du Thet.6 He is thus able also to give full particulars as to the 
 dispute about the cargo. Moreover certain incidents are related 
 in the Factum of which Imbert alone could have had knowledge. 
 Thus we are told what he said in confession to Father Masse. ^ 
 
 1 lUd. p. 14. 
 
 'i Thwaites, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, iii 242. 
 
 3 Marcel's reprint, p. 39. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. n et seq. 
 
 6 Ibid. pp. 22 et seq. 
 Ibid. pp. 34 et seq. 
 
 7 Ibid. p. 37.
 
 294 THE SOURCES, PART III : ANONYMOUS 
 
 Again an account is given of a private conversation between this 
 Imbert and Saint-Just, in such minute detail and with remarks 
 as to the changes observed in Saint-Just's countenance such that 
 only Imbert himself could have written the passage.^ It was 
 doubtless on the way back to France with Captain L'Abbe that 
 copies were obtained of the letters of tlie Jesuits sent by this 
 vessel to their friends in France.^ It is also noteworthy that 
 while the Factum is silent as to what took place at Port Royal 
 after the vessel's departure, we have a full account of events at 
 Dieppe on her arrival until the moment when the vessel of the 
 Jesuits set sail to found a colony at St. Sauveur.^ The account 
 of the capture of this place by Argall was doubtless obtained 
 from an eye-witness or by hearsay."* 
 
 La Plainte de la Nouvelle France. 
 
 Although this pamphlet^ is not dated it was evidently written 
 by Father Georges on his arrival in France in the autumn of 1621 
 in order to help his campaign against the Huguenot Caen.6 It is 
 in fact a long lamentation of the country over the evil days on 
 which she had fallen when heretics were openly allowed to mock 
 at her altars and to threaten her priests "with irons and chains." 7 
 This insolent heretic indeed had both abused the priests and also 
 used violence against Champlain the Father of the colony. Fault 
 was also found with the small number of colonists which this 
 Company had stipulated to take out each year.^ From evidence 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 38-39, 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. 58-63. 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. 14 ei seq. 
 
 4 Ibid. pp. 70 et -seq. 
 
 5 Plainte de la Nouvelle France dicte Canada, a la France sa Germaine, Pour 
 servir de Factum en une cause pandente av Conseil, n.p.,n.d. The lawsuit was the 
 one between Caen's Companj' and that formed by Champlain in 1614. 
 
 6 Plainte etc., p. 9 : " Si tost que ses desseins me furent congneus je depute 
 vers toy un des prestres que tu m'as donne poiir representor I'interest que nous 
 deux avons de nous opposer h ces iniustices." cf. Sagard, Histoire du Canada, 
 pp. 77-78. 
 
 7 Plainte etc., p. 6. 
 
 8 Ibid, p. 11.
 
 THE SOURCES, PART III: ANONYMOUS 295 
 
 which has just been discovered we see that this complaint is 
 greatly exaggerated. Not only did Georges make up this and 
 other documents out of his own bigoted head but he seems to 
 have forged certain letters to the same end, for which he was 
 afterwards severely reprimanded by Ohamplain.^ 
 
 Au Roy 8ur la Nouvelle France. 
 
 This pamphlet is a complaint published in the year 1626 
 against the United Company and its monopoly of trade in the 
 St. Lawrence.2 Instead of being, like the former pamphlet 
 against Caen, a mere Jeremiad without fact or figure, it contains 
 several statements which it substantiates by quoting a letter and 
 an agreement. The former was written by Monts to Louis He- 
 bert in the spring of 1617 to urge him to carry out his intention 
 of returning to New France and assuring him of a welcome from 
 the Company ; 3 the latter is a copy of the agreement which 
 on his arrival with his family at Honfleur Hebert was obliged to 
 sign before they would allow him to embark.* Besides giving 
 these two important documents the pamphlet goes over the 
 articles of Caen's Company and seeks to prove either their use- 
 lessness or the total absence of all effort to carry them out. The 
 author lays particular stress on the wrongs inflicted upon the 
 Heberts not only by the old Company but more especially by 
 Caen himself, who had sought in every way to render their exist- 
 ence in the New World most unhappy. The pamphlet, which 
 was brought out in order that the King and Council should no 
 longer be ignorant of the actual state of affairs in the colony, 
 closes by urging that the Viceroy should either reside there him- 
 self or send a representative who would render unto Caesar the 
 things that were Csesar's, and unto God the things that were 
 God's. Each vessel which traded along the Atlantic coast should 
 also be forced to pay 100 crowns for this privilege, while if they 
 entered the river the duty should be raised to three hundred. 
 
 1 Cf. p. 278, note 1, supra. 
 
 2 Au Roy sur la Nouvelle France, n. p. 1626. 
 
 3 Ihid. pp. 11-12. 
 
 4 Ihid. pp. 14-15.
 
 296 THE SOURCES, PART III : ANONYMOUS 
 
 The author remains unknown, though he was evidently some 
 one who had occupied a high spiritual position at Court.l 
 
 1 " Sire. Ce ne m'est peu d'honneur d'esbre cogneu de vostre Majeste et loiie 
 grandement vostre bon naturel de vous resouvenir des petits services Je vous puis 
 avoir rendu, qu'i Messieurs et Dames vos Fr^res et Sceurs . . . . Et S9ait 
 corabien de fois i'ay invoque la benediction du Ciel sur vous, la main et I'estoUe 
 sacerdotale sur vostre chef," etc. Ibid, preface.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abalia, Antonio de, 182. 
 
 Acadia, 42, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 60, 73, 82, 
 113, 121, 123, 125, 130, 143, 149, 191, 
 194, 197, 198, 199, 200, 207. 
 
 Admiralty, 52, 113, 150, 151, 154. 
 
 Agramonte, Juan de, 175. 
 
 Aides, Cour des, 191. 
 
 Aigues Mortes, 11. 
 
 Alexander, Sir William, afterwards Vis- 
 count Stirling, charter granted to, 
 121, 122 ; sends out first vessel, 122; 
 vessel reaches St. John, 123 ; sends 
 out colony, 141 ; institutes baronetcy 
 to raise funds, 141, 142 ; appointed 
 Secretary for Scotland, 142 ; unites 
 with Kirke and forms Scottish and 
 English Co., 143; proposed new 
 grant to, 156 ; supported by Scottish 
 Parliarauit, 163; made Viscount 
 Stirling, 164 ; death of. in 1640, 164; 
 other references, 201, 202, 203, 207. 
 
 Alexander, William, the Younger, brings 
 colonists to Cape Breton, 143 ; 
 brings home Indian chief, 144 ; 
 leaves Lord Ochiltrie at Cape Breton, 
 146 ; fleet under, 148, 151 ; places 
 Razilly at Port Royal, 165. 
 
 Alfonse, Jean, 29, 31 ; critical estimate 
 of, 222-226. 
 
 Algonquins, 47, 70, 71, 72, 74, 80, 82, 83, 
 89, 90, 99, 100, 101, 120, 128, 129. 
 
 Allumettes, Lac des, 90. 
 
 Ambassador, French, 148, 150, 152, 155, 
 159, 
 
 Ambassador, Spanish, 123. 
 
 Amsterdam, 63. 
 
 Andrieu, Charles, 188. 
 
 Anglesea, Island of, 122. 
 
 Annates de Bretagne, 175. 
 
 Anticosti, 6, 7, 36, 148. 
 
 Archives of the Chdteau de Boberval, 178, 
 179. 
 
 Archives D6partemenlales de la Gironde, 
 192. 
 
 Archives Rationales, 177, 179, 192. 
 
 Archives du Parlement de Rouen, 187, 
 196, 197, 207. 
 
 Archives, Secretes, 187, 196. 
 
 Archives de St. Malo, 197, 199. 
 
 Archives de la Seine- Infirieiire, 179, 190. 
 
 [29' 
 
 20 
 
 Argall, attacks Jesuit settlement, 92 ; 
 destroys French vessels, 93 ; at Port 
 Royal, 93 ; expedition of, 122, 147, 
 198. 
 
 Armada, Spanish, 25. 
 
 Aubert, Thomas, 19. 
 
 d'Aubign(5, 103. 
 
 Augier, 160. 
 
 Au Roy siir la Nouvelle France, 199 ; 
 critical estimate of, 295. 
 
 Austria, 133. 
 
 Auxilhon, Paul de, 178, 180. 
 
 Avalon, 202. 
 
 Avranches, 57, 192, 
 
 Azores, 46. 
 
 Baie de Chaleur, Cartier reaches, 6 ; 
 Cartier meets savages and trades 
 at, 30. 
 
 Baie des Chateaux, Newfoundland, Car- 
 tier at, 7. 
 
 Baie des Morues, 194. 
 
 Baltimore, Lord, sends out colony, 130 ; 
 removes to Virginia, 154 ; 202, 
 
 Barre, Guillaurae, of Fecamp, 181, 
 
 Barter, 28, .32, 43, 47, 48, 55, 69, 77, 90, 
 106, 109, 120, 123, 127, 128, 144. 
 
 Basque, vessel, 102 ; prizes, 147 ; fisher- 
 men, 158. 
 
 Basques, in St. Lawrence, 23, 29, 32. 
 
 Bassompierre, sent to make peace, 138 ; 
 insulted in London, 138. 
 
 Bastille, 103. 
 
 Bataille, 202. 
 
 Batiscan (liver), 71, 72. 
 
 Bayonne, 69, 188. 
 
 B4ard, Father, settles at Mount Desert, 
 91, 
 
 Beaumaris, ships from, 122. 
 
 Beaumont, Castle of, 61. 
 
 Beauport, Monks of, 175. 
 
 Belle Isle, Straits of, 6, 7, 21, 181. 
 
 Bellinger, Stephen, 33. 
 
 Bellois, 63. 
 
 Benedictines, 78. 
 
 Berry, 103. 
 
 Bertrand's Letter, Critical estimate ot, 
 250. 
 
 Betourn^, 200. 
 
 Biard, Pierre, Critical estimate of, ^91- 
 270. 
 
 7]
 
 298 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Biarritz, 183. 
 
 Bibliothtque de VArstncd, 178. 
 
 Bihliotheque Nationah, Collection Colbert 
 
 Cinq Cents, 185, 193, 201. 
 BihliotMque Nationah, Collection Clair- 
 
 amhault, 177, 197. 
 Bibliothtque Rationale, Collection Duchesne 
 
 el Oihenart, 185. 
 Bibliotheqne Nationale, Ms. Fr., 185, 191, 
 
 192, 193, 194, 200, 206, 207. 
 Bibliotheque Nationale, Ms. Latin, 177. 
 Bibliothtque Nationale, Pitcps oriqincdes, 
 
 176, 177, 183, 186, 188, 194, 196, 198 
 Bidassoa, 65, 192. 
 Biscay, Bay of, 23, 65. 
 Blundell, 203. 
 Bonrepos, Abbey of, 39. 
 Bordeaux, 97, 125, 138, 152, 153, 158, 178. 
 Boulain, Jacques, 182, 
 BoulM, Helen, 80, 195, 
 BoulM, 203. 
 
 Bourbon, Cardinal de, 33. 
 Bourbon, Charles de, Comte de Soissons. 
 
 See Soissons, 
 Bourbon, Henri de. Prince de Cond^. See 
 
 Cond^. 
 BouthiUier, examines English wrongs, 
 
 161 ; defends King's conduct, 162 ; 
 
 with Chateauneuf draws up treaty, 
 
 163. 
 Bouvier, 83. 
 B03W, 112. 
 Briiard, Ch. et P., Documents relatifs d 
 
 la Marine Normande, 186, 187, 188, 
 
 191. 202. 
 Brehat, Island of, 175. 
 Brest, 6, 21,39. 
 
 Breton, Cape. See Cape Breton. 
 Breton, Thomas le, 181. 
 Brion's Island, 27. 
 Bristol, 19, 28, 29, 35, 36. 
 Brittany, 15, 19, 20, .39, 40, 52, 98, 1.34, 
 
 178, 180, 184, 186, 190, 191, 192, 193, 
 
 193, 196, 197-200. 
 Brittany, Estates of, 34, 107. 
 Brouage, 39, 40. 
 
 Brouet, Jehan, 188. 
 
 Brownists, 187. 
 
 Brussels, 87. 
 
 Buffon of St. Male, 180. 
 
 Buisseaux, Sieur de, 198. 
 
 Bulletin de G6ographie historiqne et de- 
 scriptive, 179, 181, 182. 
 
 Bulletin et Mimoires de la Soriiti arcMolo- 
 (jique d'llle-et-Vilaine, 183. 
 
 Burlamachi, reaches Paris, 159 ; pre- 
 sented at Court, 160 ; writes for 
 Company's papers, 161 ; responsi- 
 
 bilitj' of, 161 ; disgusted with French 
 King, 162 ; receives securitj^ for 
 dowry, 163, 206. 
 
 Cabot, John, 18. 
 
 Caens Company, 115-132; conditions of, 
 115 ; servants of, murdered, 121 ; 
 vessels of, 121 ; other references to, 
 200, 201, 202, 204, 205, 206,207. 
 
 Caen, Emery de, 115 ; vessels in charge 
 of, 147 ; appears at Quebec, 157 ; 
 forbidden to trade b}' Lewis Kirke, 
 158 ; returns to France, 158 ; 205. 
 
 Caen, William de, granted monopol}', 
 115; at Tadoussac, 117 ; vessels of, 
 118 ; seizes Dupont-G rave's vessel, 
 118; trades in beaver skins, 118; 
 returns to France, 118 ; flouts King's 
 authority, 119 ; monopoly extended 
 to, 119 ; \inites with old company, 
 120; quarrels with Catholics, 126; 
 hinders Champlain, 130 ; negligence 
 of, 131 ; in London, 150, 152 ; re- 
 fuses commission, 154 ; obtains furs, 
 154, 155 ; exorbitant demands ot, 
 160, 163, 162 ; statement of, ac- 
 cepted, 163, 165. 
 
 Calais, 151. 
 
 Calvert, Sir George, 201. 
 
 Canada, 7, 8, 12, 34, 40, 86, 98, 178, 179, 
 180, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 193, 
 195, 196, 198, 199, 201,203,204,205, 
 206, 207. 
 
 Canada (river of), 100, 143. 
 
 Cancale, 23. 
 
 Canso, 63, 65. 
 
 Cape Breton, 26, 35, 36, 54, 55, 60, 79, 
 93, 106, 122, 123, 143, 146, 147, 153, 
 158, 165. 
 
 Cape Ray, 6, 
 
 Cape Royal, 21. 
 
 Cape Sable, 123, 142, 148, 1.52, 153, 158, 
 165. 
 
 Cape Tourmente, 127, 139. 
 
 Cai'cassonne, 182. 
 
 Carli, Fernando, critical estimate of, 209, 
 
 Carlyle, Critical estimate of, 227. 
 
 Catholic faith, 53, 61, 78, 126, 128, 138. 
 
 Cartier, Jacques, first voyage, 6, 7 ; 
 second voj'age, 7-10; third voj^age, 
 11-14 ; sums due to, 33 ; nephews of, 
 receive monopoW, 34 ; critical estim- 
 ate of writings, 210-220 ; other refer- 
 ences to, 20, 21, 36, 43, 47, 70, 107, 
 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 
 183. 
 
 Carvajal, Luis de, 181, 182, 
 
 Chabot, Admiral, 176. 
 
 Chaleur, Baie de, 47, 101.
 
 INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 Chamberlain, Mr., 150. 
 
 Champdare, 55, 60, 66, 73. 
 
 Champlain, Samuel de, object of life of, 
 46 ; official exploiting expedition of, 
 47, 48 ; urges necessit}' of coloniza- 
 tion, 49 ; establishes trading connec- 
 tions, 58 ; made official geographer, 
 60 ; builds factory at Quebec, 67 ; 
 winters at Quebec, 68, 69 ; promises 
 to assist Alontagnais against Iroquois, 
 70 ; first expedition of against Iro- 
 quois, 70; meets Hurons at 8t. Eloi, 
 72 ; defeats Iroquois, 73 ; invited by 
 Hurons to visit them, 73 ; returns to 
 France, 73 ; Indian guides refuse to 
 accompany, 75 ; again defeats Iro- 
 quois, 76 ; trades with Algonquins, 
 
 76 ; takes young Huron to France, 
 
 77 ; at Tadoussac, 79 ; at Quebec, 
 
 80 ; at Lachine, 81 ; names island 
 near Lachine, 81 ; dissatisfaction of, 
 
 81 ; confers with Hurons, 81 ; re- 
 turns to France, 82 ; accident of, 83; 
 effect of report of death of, 84 ; urges 
 appointment of Conde) 86 ; brings 
 home oak, 88 ; sails up the Ottawa, 
 89, 90 ; reassures savages, 90 ; salary 
 of, 94 ; absence of, 95 ; before As- 
 sembly, 98 ; spends winter with 
 Hurons, visits Lake Sinicoe, Bay of 
 Quinte, and part of New York State, 
 99 ; contracts alliances with tribes, 
 99 ; seeks passage to the east, 100 ; 
 returns to Lachine, 100 ; promises to 
 build fort at Rapids, 100 ; returns 
 to France, 100 ; at Harfleur, 103 ; 
 reproves factors, 105 ; fruit of la- 
 bours of, 106 ; lieutenant of The- 
 mines, 107 ; presents statement rela- 
 tive to trades in New France, 108; 
 requests King to fortify colony, 108; 
 plans of, for St. Lawrence valley, 
 108 ; tightens reins of control at 
 Quebec, 109 ; decision of, about In- 
 dian murderers, 110; stirs up share- 
 holders about colonization, 110 ; 
 authority of, weakened, 1 12 ; pre- 
 sents case to King, 112 ; justice of 
 claims of, acknowledged, 112; 
 apology of Boyer to, 112 ; assists 
 Dolu in examination of company, 
 113 ; sends bad reports to Dolu, 114; 
 salary of, 115 ; receives news of 
 withdrawal of monopoly and forma- 
 tion of new company, 116; allows 
 old company alone to trade, 116 ; 
 opposes Dupont-Grav^, 117 ; an- 
 novxnces Caen's arrival, 117; at Ta- 
 
 doussac, 118 ; complains of colonists, 
 118; Company of, unites with new 
 Company, 120 ; makes peace be- 
 tween tribes, 120 ; pardons Indian 
 murderer, 121 ; builds new factory, 
 121 ; sails for home, 124 ; position 
 of, maintained, 126 ; returns to Que- 
 bec, 127 ; builds larger fort, 127 ; 
 sends back Iroquois prisoners, 129 ; 
 reports Caen's negligence, 131 ; re- 
 inses to surrender, 132 ; ordered by 
 Kirke to surrender factory, 139 ; 
 answer of, 140 ; pinnace of, cap- 
 tured, 144 ; surrenders to Kirke, 
 145 ; in London, 148 ; urges Lauson 
 to come to England, 148 ; critical 
 estimate of, 274-281; other references 
 to, 51, 55, 59, 65, 66, 93, 94, 97, 98, 
 150, 195, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 
 206. 
 
 Champlain's Company, 94-114 ; articles 
 of, 94 ; allowance of, to Conde, 94 ; 
 factory at Quebec the property of, 
 95 ; trade of, 95 ; infringement of 
 monopoly of, 96 ; proposal to repeal 
 monoply of, 98 ; maintains Recollect 
 Fathers, 99 ; enemies of, 103 ; The- 
 mines's demands from, 104 ; Conde 
 threatens, 104 ; fresh agreement of, 
 104, 105 ; induces Hebert to emi- 
 grate, 104 ; failed to fulfil agree- 
 ment, 104, 105 ; extent of mission 
 work of, 107 ; monopoly of, endan- 
 gered, 107 ; monopoly confirmed to, 
 107 ; notified about colonization, 109; 
 servants of, murdered by Indians, 
 109 ; treatment of Hebert by, 111 ; 
 shareholders' views on colonization, 
 111 ; commerce of, hindered. 111 ; 
 hands over charge of factory to Du- 
 pont-Cirave, 112 ; investigated by 
 Dolu, 113 ; threatened by Dolu, 114 ; 
 monopoly of, cancelled, 114 ; appeals 
 to Dolu for protection, 116 ; appeals 
 to King for justice, 116, 117. 
 
 Champlain, Lake, 73, 129. 
 
 Charles I, makes trouble with French, 
 
 138 ; sends fleet to French coast, 
 
 139 ; offers to help Alexander, 141 ; 
 confers knighthood on baronets of 
 New Scotland, 142 ; proclamation of, 
 142 ; desires peace, 146 ; assists 
 lames Stewart, 147 ; promises re- 
 storation of Quebec, 149 ; at Coni- 
 piegne, 156 ; presses for payment of 
 wife's dowry, 156 ; offers baronies, 
 158 ; discusses treaty, 159 ; sacrifices 
 Port Royal, 160 ; complains to Fon-
 
 300 
 
 INDEX 
 
 tenay, 160 ; wants fresh colony, 164 ; 
 displeased with treaty, 164 ; pays 
 French claim, 164 ; other references 
 to, 151, 155, 163, 202, 205, 206, 207. 
 
 Charles of England, Prince, 133. 
 
 Charles V, Emperor, 175. 
 
 Chaste, Sieur de, early life of, 46 ; suc- 
 ceeds Chauvin, 46 ; official exploring 
 expedition under, 47 ; death of, 48 ; 
 other references to, 49, 51. 
 
 Chateauneuf, M. de, 148 ; demands sur- 
 render of Quebec and Port Royal, 
 148 ; urges an enquiry, 151 ; suc- 
 ceeded by M. de Fon tenay, 155 ; 
 trade regulations of, 157 ; made 
 Keeper of the Seals, 157 ; demands 
 treaty, 157 ; reply of, to De Vic, 
 159 ; with Bouthillier draws up 
 treaty, 163. 
 
 Chateau Thierry, 162. 
 
 Chaton, Stephen. See Sieur de la Jan- 
 naye. 
 
 Chauvin, Pierre, Sieur de Tonnetuit, 
 obtains monopoly, 42 ; takes colon- 
 ists to Tadoussac, 42 ; profits of, 43, 
 44 ; King's confidence in, 43 ; traders 
 oppose monopoly of, 43 ; monopoly 
 of, withdrawn, 44 ; death of, 46 ; 
 other references to, 49, 51, 58, 64, 
 68, 74, 133, 136, 186, 187, 188, 189, 
 192. 
 
 Chefdostel, 40, 186, 187, 188. 
 
 Cibourre, 185. 
 
 Civille, 179. 
 
 Coleccion de Doc.umenfos InAditos relati- 
 vo.s al Descubrimiento, Conquesta y 
 Organizacion de las Posesiones Es- 
 panolaa de. America y Oceania, 
 175. 
 
 Coleccion Munoz, 183, 
 
 Coleccion NaxKirrete, 184. 
 
 Coleccion Vargas Ponce, 181, 182, 183, 
 184, 185, i86, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 
 197, 198, 199, 202, 206. 
 
 Collection de Manvscrits relntifs d la 
 Nouvelle France, 177, 181, 190, 191, 
 201, 202, 203, 206, 207. 
 
 Columbus, 15, 18. 
 
 Coulombier, Captain, 46, 47, 190. 
 
 Coman, Louis, 191. 
 
 Company of Morbihan, place and failure 
 of, 134. 
 
 Company of New France, replaces United 
 Company, 135 ; started by Chevalier 
 de Razilly, 135 ; monopoly gi-anted 
 to, 136 ; St. Lawrence valley ceded 
 to, 136; Constitution of, 137 ; sends 
 out colonists, 137 ; servants of, mur- 
 
 dered, 140 ; vessels of, overpowered 
 by Kirke, 141, 145 ; excluded from 
 New France, 147 ; loses second fleet, 
 147, 150 ; despatches ships, 158 ; 
 takes over Fort at Port Royal, 164, 
 165 ; posts of, 165 ; lands colonists, 
 165 ; instals itself at Quebec, 165 ; in 
 power till 1663, 166. 
 
 Compiegne, 156, 160. 
 
 Conde, Henri de Boubon, Prince de. Vice- 
 regency and monopoly of Soissons 
 transferred to, 86 ; early life of, 87 ; 
 at Court, 87 ; marriage of, 87 ; in- 
 fatuation of king for wife of, 87 ; 
 troublesome at coui't, 87 ; grants 
 passports to traders, 88 ; monopoly 
 of extended, 94 ; receives allowance 
 from Champlain's Company, 94 ; 
 trouble between, and Champlain's 
 Company, 96 ; treaty with, 97 ; 
 forced to leave Orleans, 97 ; recon- 
 ciliation of, 97 ; monopoly of, opposed, 
 98 ; illness of, 103 ; popularity of, 
 103 ; imprisonment of, 103 ; threats 
 of, 104 ; re-instated as Viceroy of 
 New France, 113; resigns Viceroy- 
 ship and receives recompense, 113; 
 other references to, 107, 111, 195, 
 196, 197. 
 
 Conde-sur-Noireau, 56, 191. 
 
 Convicts, 12, 15, 40. 
 
 Coo, Captain, 20. 
 
 Cooper's Cove, or Cuper's Cove, 82. 
 
 Corte-Reals, 18, 
 
 Cortez, 9, 11. 
 
 Couillard Henry, 189. 
 
 Cour, Sieur de la, 45. 
 
 Crenay, 185. 
 
 Crignon, Pierre, Critical estimate of, 220. 
 
 Dahouet, 19. 
 
 Dampville, Sieur de, Admiral of France, 
 45. 
 
 Daniel, Captain Charles, 146 ; attacks 
 colonists, 147 ; constructs fort, 147 ; 
 takes prisoners home, 147 ; fort of, 
 153 ; at Cape Breton, 158 ; at Mis- 
 cou, 158 ; sails for home, 15S, 204 . 
 Critical estimate of, 271-273. 
 
 Darien, Isthmus of, 67. 
 
 D'Aubign(5, 103. 
 
 Dauphin, 193. 
 
 De Costa, Verraza7io the Explorer, 176. 
 
 De Vic, English agent, 156 ; complains to 
 Chateauneuf, 159, 160. 
 
 Denmark, 103. 
 
 Desamaison, Jehan, 192, 
 
 Deschamps, L,, 188 ; Isaac de Razilly 
 202.
 
 INDEX 
 
 301 
 
 Dieppe, 19, 22, 33, 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 78, 
 79, 110, 117, 137, 139, 140, 147, 151, 
 158, 160, 179, 188, 202, 203. 
 
 Dieres, Gion, 188, 192. 
 
 Dijon, 156. 159, 178. 
 
 Dionne, N. E., La Nouvelh France de 
 Cartier a Champlain, 176, 187. 
 
 Dobel, Guillaurae, 175. 
 
 Dognon, 103. 
 
 Dolbeau, Father, 107. 
 
 Dohi, Sieur, performs duties of viceroy, 
 113 ; threatens Company, 114 ; can- 
 cels Company's monopoh% 114; new 
 Companj^ appointed by, 114, 201. 
 
 Donacona, taken to France, 10. 
 
 Dorchester, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 151, 155, 156, 159, 160, 161, 204. 
 
 D'Orville, Monsieur, 55. 
 
 Dover, 148. 
 
 Dumbarton, 142. 
 
 Dupont-Grave, 42 ; seeks suitable spot for 
 settlement, 47 ; in charge of settle- 
 ment at Port Royal, 60 ; returns to 
 France, 73 ; in charge of fur-trade, 
 75 ; at Tadoussac, 80 ; superintends 
 transfer of factory to Monts, 83 ; at 
 Rapids, 101 ; confers with Champlain, 
 110; given charge of factory, 112; 
 other references to, 48, 51, 67, 70, 
 76, 81, 98, 113, 117, 118. 191, 193, 
 194, 195, 203. 
 
 Dupont-Grave, the younger, 101, 106, 
 110. 
 
 Duro, Cesareo Fernandez, Lihro Sexto de 
 Disqtiisiciones ^aiificas, 182. 
 
 East, the, passage to, 66, 83, 100, 108. 
 
 Eberhard, Jehan, 182. 
 
 Edinburgh, 142. 
 
 Edmondes, Sir Thomas, 198. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 184, 187. 
 
 England. 18, 19, 23, 65, 101, 102, 119, 
 122, 137, 138, 143, 145, 148, 152, 154, 
 156, 1.59, 161, 162, 163, 187. 
 
 English Channel, 20, 35. 
 
 Etechemins, country of, 71 ; Port des, 
 195. 
 
 Factum, The, Critical estimate of, 292- 
 293. 
 
 Factum du Proces, 195. 
 
 Fagundes, 7, 20. 
 
 Falmouth, 138, 147. 
 
 Farida, Martin, 186. 
 
 Felix, Voyage a la No^ivelie France du 
 Capitaine Charles Daniel, 202, 204. 
 
 Ferry land, colony in, 130. 
 
 Fisher, Richard, Critical situation of, 
 246. 
 
 Fishing Industry, Cabot's discovery, 18 ; 
 
 tax laid on cod, 18 : Henry VII 
 grants Letters patent for trade in 
 new land, 19 ; extent of in 1510, 19 ; 
 protection for returning ships, 20 ; 
 extent of, 22 ; regular export trade, 
 23 ; Parkhurst's statistics in 1578, 
 24 ; cod fishing, 25 ; whale fishing, 
 27 ; other references to, 33, 35, 36, 
 49, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 65, 73, 84, 
 93, 98, 101, 102, 108, 110, 119, 121, 
 125, 128, 146, 153, 154, 158. 
 
 Fittz, Thomas, 154, 155, 205. 
 
 Fitz- William, 20. 
 
 Fleuryot, 178. 
 
 Florida, 12, 29, 
 
 Fontainebleau, 49, 161, 162. 
 
 Fontarabia, 65. 
 
 Fontena}', Monsieur de, 155, 159, 160, 161. 
 
 Fougeres, castle of, 39, 185. 
 
 Fournier, 179. 
 
 France, 11, 14, 17, 18, 19, .33, 34, 36, 
 39, 41. 43, 45, 48, 52, 55, 56, 57, 64, 
 6.5, 101, 10.3, 101, 102, 105, 108, 114, 
 115, 116, 125, 126, 127, 129, 134, 137, 
 138, 141, 146, 148, 148, 158, 162, 166. 
 
 Francis I, assists Cartier with support of 
 Indian guide, 10 ; sends Cartier on 
 second voyage, 11; sends Sanneterre 
 back to Roberval, 16 ; other refer- 
 ences to, 177, 178, 180. 
 
 Franciscans, 78. 
 
 Fre\alle, Memoires sur le Commei ce Mari- 
 time de Rouen, 176. 
 
 French and Dutch Company, 134, 
 
 Fundy, Bay of, 45, 48, 54, 56, 59, 65, 71, 
 73, 75, 82, 93, 144, 148. 
 
 Fur trade, commencement of, 28; growth 
 of, 29 ; trading ships in 1497, 29 ; 
 extent of, oO ; in Newfoundland, 33; 
 monopoly of, granted to Jannaye and 
 Nouel, 34 ; grant revoked, 34 ; 
 traders complain, 43 ; on Atlantic 
 coast, 45 ; decision of commission 
 concerning, 45 ; with Algonquins, 
 72 ; Chauvin engaged in, 74 ; in 
 charge of Dupont-Grave, 85 ; free- 
 dom of, 75 ; with Algonquins, 76 ; 
 Poutrincourt's account of, 77 ; Du- 
 pont-Grave's difficulties in, 80 ; at 
 Lachine, 81 ; open to all comers, 
 1609-1612, 85 ; area of reserved, 90 ; 
 Jesuits, partners in, 91 ; competi- 
 tion in, 93 ; extent of, 94 ; restric- 
 tions of, 94 ; at Mount Desert, 96 ; 
 at Manhattan, 96 ; at La Rochelle, 
 100 ; Dutch engaged in, 130 ; mon- 
 opolized by Company of New France, 
 135 ; monopoly of, granted to Scot-
 
 302 
 
 INDEX 
 
 tish and English companj', 143 ; 
 other references to, 31, 32, 42, 43, 
 53, 54, 63, 66, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 90, 
 
 93, 101, 106, 108, 110, 118, 121, 125, 
 128, 129, 144, 148, 153, 154, 155, 157, 
 158, 165. 
 
 Cxadois, 191. 
 
 Gaillon, Michael, hanged, 16. 
 
 Galloway, Barony of, 122. 
 
 Gandon, Perrine, 182. 
 
 Gaspe, 7, 45, 48, u2, 55. 73, 75, 90, 93, 
 
 94, 95, 121, 122, 140, 143, 144, 145, 
 146, 148, 
 
 Gaude, 158. 
 Geneva Lake, 99. 
 George, Father, 118. 
 Georgian Bay, 47, 71, 99. 
 Germany, 160. 
 
 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 184 ; critical 
 estimate of narrative of his voyage, 
 228-230. 
 Girot, Jehan, 41, 187, 189, 190. 
 Gobien, Jean de, 183. 
 GodeSiroy, Adam, 176. 
 Gohorel, 188. 
 Gomez, Estevan, 30, 175. 
 Gordon, Robert of Lochinvar, 122, 123, 
 
 201. 
 Gorges, Sir Ferdinand, 122, 200. 
 Gosselin, Nouvelles Glanes Historiques 
 
 Normandes, 179, 191. 
 Grainer, Matthew, 60. 
 Grave, Fran9ois, Sieur du Pont. See 
 
 Dupont-Grav^. 
 Gravey, Robert, 200. 
 Gua, Pierre du, Sieur de Monts. See 
 
 Monts. 
 Guehemenc, Pierre, 179. 
 Guerard, Pierre, 202. 
 Guercheville, Marquise de, 79, 84, 85, 91, 
 
 95, 198. 
 Guipuzcoa, 181, 183, 185, 190, 199, 206. 
 Guy, Governor, 82, 195. 
 Guyenne, 52, 192, 196, 197. 
 Hakluyt, Richard, gives account of fur 
 trade, 33 ; on dangers from foreign 
 occupation, 36 ; mentions King's 
 furriers, 60 ; Principal Navigations, 
 181, 184; critical estimate of, 242 
 246. 
 Hallard, 201. 
 Harfleur, 22. 
 
 Harrisse, Henry, Notes mir la Nouvelle 
 
 France ; Collection de Manuscrits re- 
 
 latifs d la Nouvelle France, 178; 179, 
 
 180, 191. 
 
 Hatters' Company, 63, 64. 
 
 Havre, 21, 45, 48, 49, 54, 55, 58, 188, 190. 
 
 Hawkins, 24. 
 
 Hubert, Louis, 105, 110, 111, 144; depo- 
 sition of, 195, 199. 
 
 Henrietta Maria, 133, 138, 143. 
 
 Henry III, grants monopolv to Jannaye 
 and Nouel, 34; 38"; 184; 185, 
 186. 
 
 Henry IV, receives petition from traders, 
 43 ; 44 ; favours colonization, 49 ; 51 ; 
 53 ; 57 ; Poutrincourt esteemed by, 
 61 ; grants new monopoly, 66 ; re- 
 fuses monopolj^ to Monts, 74 ; widow 
 of, 78; murder of, 78; 186; 187; 190; 
 191 ; 192. 
 
 Henry VII, grants Letters Patent, 19. 
 
 Henry, second Duke of Montmorencj', 
 appointed Admiral in 1612, 113. 
 
 Hochelaga, 8, 9, 14, 40, 187. 
 
 Holland, 192. 
 
 Honfleur, 14, 22, 42, 43, 51, 103, 105, 112, 
 179, 200. 
 
 Hudson, trades with Indians, 73 ; non- 
 return of, 89, 96. 
 
 Hudson Bay, 75. 
 
 Hudson, River, 106, 114. 
 
 Huguenots, against Jesuits, 78 ; exclusion 
 of, desired, 119; shareholders dispute 
 with Catholics, 126 ; crews disobey 
 Vicerov, 128 ; other references to, 
 42, 51,'53, 103, 112, 115, 133, 138. 
 
 Hunandaye, Seigneur de la, 184. 
 
 Huron, Lake, 99. 
 
 Kurons, Country of, 70; retreat to (Tcor- 
 gian Bay, 70 ; meet Champlain at 
 St. Eloi, 72 ; defeat Iroquois, 73 ; 
 invite Champlain to visit them, 73 ; 
 barter of, 77 ; take French boy, 77 ; 
 at Lachine, 81 ; afraid of white faces, 
 81 ; agents winter among, 83 ; Cham- 
 plain spends winter with, 99 ; expe- 
 dition of against Iroquois, 99 ; other 
 references to, 47, 71, 74, 75, 80, 82, 
 85, 100, 101, 103, 106, 120, 124, 128. 
 
 Ibaceta, Jacobada, 181. 
 
 Iceland, 18. 
 
 He Percee, 47, 48, 54, 55, 73, 77, 128. 
 Indians, brought home by Cartier, 7 ; 
 baptized, die, 11 ; act as guides, 14 ; 
 Cartier trades with, 30 ; of Norum- 
 bega, 31 ; colonists with, 44 ; trade 
 with French, 73 ; at Lachine, 81 ; 
 trust Champlain, 84 ; Champlain 
 distrusts, 109 ; other references to, 
 85, 43, 45, 47, 48, 59, 66, 70, 75, 89, 
 99, 120, 128, 144, 145, 158. 
 Ingram, David, 31, 45. 
 Ireland, traveller from, visits Cartier, 11. 
 Irenee, Father, 124.
 
 INDEX 
 
 303 
 
 Iroquois, burn Hochelaga, 14 ; country 
 of, 70 ; defeated by Hurons and 
 Montagnais, 73; again defeated, 76; 
 attacked by Hurons, 99 ; conclude 
 alliance with Dutch, 106 ; treaty 
 with, 124 ; quarrel with Dutch, 127 ; 
 war with, 129 ; massacre embassy, 
 129 ; other references to, 47, 74, 80, 
 90, 95, 98, 101, 130. 
 
 Italian, envoy, describes Cabot's voyage, 
 18. 
 
 Italy, 65, 102. 
 
 Jalobert, 182. 
 
 James I, 95, 122, 194, 198, 201, 202. 
 
 Jamestown, settlement of Virginia Com- 
 pany at, 91 ; vessel from captures 
 colonists from Mount Desert, 92 ; 
 100. 
 
 Jannaye, Sieur de la, 34, 
 
 Jeannin, President, 64, 193. 
 
 Jersey, 32. 
 
 Jesuits, offered to Saint Ju?t, proposal 
 accepted, 78 ; at Dieppe, 78 ; collec- 
 tion for, 78 ; luade part owners of 
 vessel, 78 ; share in fur trade, 91 ; 
 quarrel with Saint Just, 91 ; request 
 funds for new colony, 91 ; settlement 
 of at Mount Desert, 91 ; taken by 
 English, 91 ; help asked from, 124 ; 
 accept invitation of Recollects, 126 ; 
 order of, 126; 127; send home work- 
 men, 131 ; stores captured by Kirke, 
 139; other references to, 79, 85, 144, 
 146, 153, 194, 195, 196. 
 
 Joseph, Father, 99, 101. 
 
 Joyeuse, Due de, 33. 
 
 Juana, Queen Dona, 175. 
 
 Jumieges, 23. 
 
 Kaulek, Corrtspondance politique de AIM. 
 de Casti/lon et de. Marillac, 180. 
 
 Kirke, David, 139, 144, 203, 204, 205, 
 
 Kirke, James, 139, 
 
 Kirke, Jarvis, applies for letters of mar- 
 que, 139; demands surrender of fac- 
 tory, 139 ; sends vessels to Gulf, 140 ; 
 overcomes French, 141 ; sails towards 
 England, 141 ; unites with Alexander 
 and forms Scottish and English 
 Company, 143 ; takes Quebec, 145 ; 
 trades, 145, 147 ; vessels of reach 
 Dover, 148 ; proceedings against, 154, 
 155 ; other references to, 162, 163, 
 205, 206, 
 
 Kirke, John, 139. 
 
 Kirke, Lewis, sent to Quebec with letter 
 to Champlain, 139, 140, 145; in com- 
 mand of factory, 148 ; forbids Emery 
 de Caen to trade, 158 ; leaves New 
 
 France, 165 ; other references to, 
 
 203, 205, 206, 
 Kirke, Thomas, 139 ; at Quebec, 145 ; 
 
 leaves New France, 165, 
 La Bouille, 23, 
 La Compagnie de la Nacelle de St. Pierre 
 
 fleurdelisee, 134 ; plan of proposed 
 
 and abandoned, 135. 
 La Jannaye, 184, 185, 186, 
 La Marck, 11. 
 
 La Normandie, Revue MeTisuelle, 195. 
 La Plainte de la Nouvelle France, critical 
 
 estimate of, 294. 
 La Ralde, 128, 2(»2, 
 La Roche, rise of, 38 ; expedition under, 
 
 36; early history of, 38, 39; agreement 
 
 between, and Chefdostel, 40 ; made 
 
 King's lieutenant, 40 ; death of, 41 ; 
 
 other references to, 183, 184, 185, 
 
 186, 187. 
 La Rochelle, 14, 20, 21, 22, 43, 53, 54, 
 
 62, 82, 94, 95, 96, 98, 101, 103, 111, 
 
 113, 128, 137, 146, 180, 186, 188, 197, 
 
 198. 
 La Tour, Sieur de, 143, 152, 153, 158. 
 La Tour, the younger, 123, 142, 148, 152, 
 
 153, 158. 
 Labrador, 21. 
 Lachine, 8, 16, 47, 67, 80, 81, 85, 90, 98, 
 
 106, 
 Laing, D, Royal Letters, Charters and 
 
 Tracts relating to the coloni7Mtion of 
 
 New Scotland, 201, 202, 
 Lallemant, Charles, critical estimate of, 
 
 270. 
 Lauson, president. Company of New 
 
 France, 148, 150, 151. 
 Laverdiere, CEuvres de Champlain, 192, 
 
 195, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 
 
 205, 206, 207. 
 Le Clercq, Father Christian, critical 
 
 estimate of, 290. 
 Le Gac, Sieur de CoUespel, 187. 
 Le Jeune, Paul, critical estimate of, 286. 
 Le Liepvre, 187, 189, 191. 
 Le Lou. Martin, 187. 
 Le Pillois, 189. 
 Le Roux, 188. 
 Le Tac, Pere, critical estimate of, 287- 
 
 290. 
 Leforsonney, Mathieu, 200. 
 Leghorn, 191, 192. 
 Legoupil, Robert, 180. 
 Leigh, Charles, critical estimate of, 248- 
 
 250. 
 Lescarbot, 25, 28, 29, 187, 190, 191, 198, 
 
 Histoire dela Nouvelle France, 177 ; 
 
 critical estimate of, 251-260.
 
 304 
 
 INDEX 
 
 L<5vis Henri de, Due de Ventadour, 125. 
 
 Li5v}% Point, 105. 
 
 Limoges, 45. 
 
 Lochinvar, 201. 
 
 London, 29, 138, 139, 157, 159, 161, 202. 
 
 London and British Company, 194. 
 
 Longrais, Joiion des, Jacques Cartier, 
 
 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182. 
 Loudron, Peace of, 103. 
 Louis XIIL, 94, 102, 107, 108, 116, 117, 
 
 119, 118, 127, 133, 136, 137, 138, 156, 
 
 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 
 
 207. 
 Love, John, 204. 
 Ludovica, proposed city, 108. 
 Lumber trade, see Timber. 
 Luxembourg, Marie Liesse of, 125. 
 Luz, St. Jean de, 185. 
 Magdaillan, Guillaume de, 178, 179. 
 Magdalen Islands, 6. 
 Maingard, 182. 
 Malapert, Andr^, critical estimate of, 
 
 271-273. 
 Mallart, Jean, critical estimate of, 221. 
 Mallebarre, 59. 
 Mallorthie, 188. 
 Manet, Biographie des Malouins cdUhres, 
 
 181. 
 Manhattan, 93, 96. 
 Mantanne, 94, 197- 
 Marcel, Factum du Proces, 194. 
 Marck, Marechal de la, 176. 
 Marie Liesse of Luxembourg, riches of, 
 
 125 ; religious life of, 125. 
 Marrillac, French ambassador, 180. 
 Martel, of Dieppe, 158. 
 Martin, Eustache, 201. 
 Martin, Pierre, 179. 
 Martin, Sir Henry, 205. 
 Masse, Father Ennemond, settles at 
 
 Mount Desert, 91 ; critical estimate 
 
 of, 260, 261. 
 Massawomeckes, 100. 
 Matignon, Madame de, 186. 
 Maubuisson, Prince of, 125. 
 Medicis, Catherine de, 38, 46, 104. 
 Medicis, Marie de, orders Saint Just to 
 
 receive Jesuits, 78 ; plan resorted to 
 
 by, 78; advances against Conde, 97; 
 
 other references to, 133, 158. 
 Melrose, Lord, 142. 
 M6moire del/a Societd Geographica Itali- 
 
 ano, 176. 
 Mimoires des Commissaires du Boi, 207. 
 Mercower, Due de, 39, 185. 
 M^ry-sur-Seine, 96. 
 Mesgouez, Troilus de. Sec La Roche. 
 Metz, 162. 
 
 Mexico, 11, 17, Gulf of, 31. 
 
 Michelant et Rame. Voyage de Jacques 
 Cartier an Canada en 1534, 176, 177, 
 178, 180, 184, 185, 186, 188, 190, 192, 
 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200. 
 Relation Originale du Voyage de Car- 
 tier, 184, 186, 188, 189. 
 
 Milan, 18. 
 
 Miscou, 128, 139. 
 
 Moluccas, 175. 
 
 Monceaux, 160, 161. 
 
 Monsler, Thomas, 179. 
 
 Montagnais, Territorj' of, 70, 71 ; re- 
 exchange French goods, 71 ; defeat 
 Iroquois, 73 ; assist Champlain, 76 ; 
 100, make peace with Iroquois, 124 ; 
 other references to, 72, 129. 
 
 Montagu, Lord, 156. 
 
 Montchretien, 24, 103. 
 
 Monts, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de, mon- 
 opoly of, 51-68 ; succeeds Chaste, 51 ; 
 conditions of Co. of, 51, 52; mon- 
 opoly of opposed by Sully, 52, 53 ; 
 objections to, 53; constitiition of Co. 
 of, 53 ; cajjital of Co. of, 53 ; 1st ex- 
 pedition of Co. of, 54 ; difficulties of, 
 54, f>5, 63 ; sends Rolleau to France, 
 56 ; trouble of, about import duty, 
 56, 57 ; monopoly of assured, 57 ; 
 takes out colonists, 58 ; transports 
 colony to Port Royal, 59 ; returns to 
 France, 60 ; withdrawal of monopoly 
 of, 61, 64 ; suggests change of settle- 
 ment, 62 ; affairs of Co. of wound up, 
 65 ; losses of, 65 ; new scheme of, 66 ; 
 annoiinces plan at court, 66 ; fresh 
 monopoly granted to, 66 ; at Quebec, 
 67 ; finances of, improve, 68 ; mon- 
 opoly of, withdrawn, 69 ; com- 
 pensation to, 69 ; applies for fresh 
 monopoly, 74 ; grants Port Royal 
 to Poutrincourt, 75 ; representa- 
 tives of, 75, 77 ; interests of, 76 ; 
 work of, 81 ; 83 ; patriotism of, 83 ; 
 85; unable to obtain monopolj', 85 ; 
 rights of transferred to Madame de 
 Guercheville, 91 ; at Quebec, 95 ; 
 other references to, 42, 49, 186, 188, 
 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 
 198. 
 
 Montmorenc}', Duke of, takes viceroy- 
 ship, 113; instructs Dolu, 113; sal- 
 ary of, 115; resigns viceroyship, 
 125 ; other references to, 189, 190, 
 198, 201. 
 
 Morbihan, Co. of, 134. 
 
 Morin, 194. 
 
 Morlaix, 22.
 
 INDEX 
 
 305 
 
 Motrico, 188, 192. 
 
 Mount Desert, Jesuit settlement at, 91 ; 
 colonists from captured, 92 ; Argall 
 attacks settlement at, 92; destruction 
 of settlement at, 92, 93 ; fur-trade 
 at, 95, 96, 108. 
 
 Mount Royal, Cartier at, 8, 9. 
 
 Murphy, The Voyage of Verrazano, 176. 
 
 Nantss, Estates of, 38 ; castle of, 39. 
 
 Nantes, John of, 16. 
 
 Navarre, Henry of, 61. 
 
 Navarrete, Coleccion de los viages, etc., 
 175. 
 
 Neufville, Thomas, 193. 
 
 Neutrals, 128. 
 
 New Brunswick, 122. 
 
 New England, 25, 37, 119, 121, 122, 164 ; 
 166. 
 
 New France— 17, 42, 45, 47, 49, 53, 55, 
 56,61, 65, 69, 70, 75, 78, 82, 88; 
 91,93,98, 104, 108; 113; 115, 121, 
 124, 125, 129, 139, 143, 146, 149, 150- 
 166, 190, 191, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203. 
 
 New France, Co. of, see Company of 
 New France. 
 
 New Holland, 121, 166. 
 
 New Scotland, 122, colony to, 141 ; bar- 
 onetcy of, 141 ; knighthood for, 142; 
 baronies for, 158 ; title to, 163 ; 207. 
 
 New Spain, 121. 
 
 New York State, 99. 
 
 Newburgh, Lord, 203. 
 
 Newfoundland, 7, 10, 13, 20, 22, 26, 31, 
 33, 36, 38, 40, 55, 60, 65, 82, 101, 
 110. 
 
 Newfoundland, Banks of, 17, 19-24, 41, 
 49, 55, 60, 73, 84, 106, 126, 140, 
 154. 
 
 Niagara Peninsula, 128. 
 
 Nice, 11. 
 
 Nipissing, Lake, 99, 128. 
 
 Normandy, 40, 45, 52, 86, 127, 192. 
 
 Norumbega, 31, 40. 
 
 Norway, 198. 
 
 Nouel, Jacques, obtains monopoly, 34, 
 185, 186 ; critical estimate of, 230. 
 
 Nova Scotia, 122, 141, 142, 201, 205. 
 
 Ochiltrie, James Stewart, Fifth Lord, 
 143, 147, 204. 
 
 Ontario, Lake, 47, 70, 99, 128. 
 
 Orleans, Island of, 8, 15, 97. 
 
 Ottawa, River, 47, 70, 71, 89, 99, 101. 
 
 Paimpol, 175. 
 
 Paris, 11, 28, 33, 60, 63, 103, 105, 108, 
 110, 134, 137, 137, 151, 152, 155, 
 159, 162, 163, 178, 181, 191. 
 
 Parkhurst, Anthony, 24 ; critical esti- 
 mate of, 226. 
 
 21 
 
 Parlement of Paris, 134 ; 137. 
 
 Parlement of Rouen, 138, 179. 
 
 Parliament, Lords Barons of, 142 ; re- 
 fuses to grant subsidies, 160 ; 
 Scottish, supports Alexander, 163. 
 
 Pasajes, 183, 192, 197, 202, 206. 
 
 Pasdalot, 181. 
 
 Paul V. 199. 
 
 Peacock, 207. 
 
 Pentagoiiet, 165. 
 
 Peppin, Jean, 179. 
 
 Peru, 10, 17. 
 
 Picardy, 52, 196. 
 
 Picquerayans, land of, 10. 
 
 Pierre, Sieur de la, 189. 
 
 Pilgrim Fathers, 93, 119, 130. 
 
 Pinzon, 15. 
 
 Pizarro, 11. 
 
 Placentia, Bay of, 36. 
 
 Plastrier, Capt. , at Ste Croix, 82 ; seized 
 by English, 84 ; 92. 
 
 Plymouth, 93, 119. 
 
 Plymouth Co., 122. 
 
 Poitiers, 97. 
 
 Poitou, 178. 
 
 Point Levy, 145. 
 
 Pons, 51, 196, 197. 
 
 Pontgrave. See Dupont-Grave. 
 
 Pont I'Eveque, 189. 
 
 Poole, Mayor of, 202. 
 
 Pope, the, 87. 
 
 Popham, Sir Francis, 96. 
 
 Portugal, 18, 19, 20, 126. 
 
 Portuguese, 102. 
 
 Port Royal, 56 ; Ste. Croix settlement 
 transported to, 59 ; privations at, 
 62 ; Champdore at, 66 ; Poutrincourt 
 at, 75 ; Saint Just at, 96, 101 ; 
 Poutrincourt at, 142 ; other refer- 
 ences to, 60, 61, 64, 65, 73, 77, 78, 
 104, 108, 123, 143, 144, 146, 148, 
 151, 153, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 
 160 ; 163, 164 ; 165 ; 198, 206, 207. 
 
 Poullain, Vincent, 188. 
 
 Poutrincourt, Sieur de, in France, 56 ; dis- 
 tinguishes himself in civil wars, 61 ; 
 esteemed by Henry IV, 61 ; takes 
 colonists to Port Royal, 61 ; priva- 
 tions of, 78 ; helped by Madame de 
 Guercheville, 84 ; losses of, 85 ; re- 
 turns to France, 96 ; death of, 96 ; 
 other references to, 59, 62, 65, 67, 
 79, 92, 93, 104, 142, 194, 198. 
 
 Poyet, Chancellor, 179. 
 
 Prevert, Capt., 46, 47, 48. 
 
 Prince Edward Island, 6, 122. 
 
 Prowse. History of Newfoundland, 181, 
 184, 187, 191, 202.
 
 306 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Quebec, post at, 67 ; Champlain builds 
 factory at, 67, Champlain winters at, 
 68 ; deaths at, 69 ; route to, 71 ; Al- 
 gonquins at, 71 ; Chauvin in charge 
 at, 73 ; trading boats at, 75 ; Cham- 
 plain at, 80 ; Recollect Fathers at, 
 99, 101 ; colonists at, 104 ; Hebert 
 at, 105 ; bad management at, 105, 
 109; Dupont Grave in charge at, 112; 
 Champlain at, 115; new factory at, 
 121 ; college at, 126 ; assembly at, 
 129 ; reduced to starvation, 144 ; 
 surrender to Kirke, 145 ; deaths at, 
 153 ; Caen leaves goods at, 158; sur- 
 render of, by English, 164 ; Co. of 
 New France at, 165 ; United Co. 
 retires from, 165 ; other references 
 to, 56, 66, 70. 74, 78, 81, 82, 83, 85, 
 86, 88, 90, 94, 95, 106, 108, 114, 117, 
 118, 119, 122, 125, 127, 130, 131, 132, 
 133, 138, 140, 141, 144, 146, 147, 148, 
 150, 154, 155, 157, 159, 163, 166, 197, 
 200, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207. 
 
 Quimpre, 22, 
 
 Quints, Bay of, 99. 
 
 JRaccolta di Dociiriienti e Studi puhblicati 
 dalla B. Commissione Columbiana, 
 175. 
 
 Ramea, .35, 36. 
 
 Ramsgate, 20. 
 
 Ravend, Guillaume, 186. 
 
 Razilly, Isaac, Chevalier de, father of 
 Co. of New France, 135 ; urges need 
 of reform, 135; plan of, 135; re- 
 ceives possession of Port Royal, 165 ; 
 other references to, 136, 137, 202, 
 206, 207. 
 
 Recollect Fathers, at Quebec, 99 ; erect 
 chapel at Tadoussac, 106 ; object of, 
 115 ; want money to build Seminary, 
 119; go with savages, 121 ; Father 
 Iren^e, 124 ; order of, 124 ; other 
 references to, 108, 125, 126, 128, 153, 
 199, 200, 201. 
 
 Rennes, Senechal at, 178, 186, 192, 195. 
 
 Renteria, Syndic of, 184. 
 
 Revue Critique, 176. 
 
 Revue de Bretagne et de Vendie, 182. 
 
 Revue des Questions Heraldiques, 206. 
 
 Richelieu, Armand du Plessis, Cardinal 
 de, political work of, 133 ; enters 
 the council, 133 ; influence of, 133 ; 
 Grand Master of Navigation, etc., of 
 France, 133, 134; starts French and 
 Dutch Co., 134; carries out Razilly's 
 plan, 136 ; buys office of Viceroy, 
 1.36 ; annuls monopoly of United Co., 
 136 ; makes terms about dowry, 157, 
 
 160 ; grants United Co. trade in St. 
 Lawrence, 164 ; other references to, 
 135, 137, 146, 148, 150, 152, 202, 203, 
 206. 
 
 Richelieu, River, 72, 76, 120. 
 
 Roberval, Jean Francois de la Roque, 
 Seigneur de. Voyage of, to France, 
 11-17; niece rescued, 23; other re- 
 ferences to, 34, 36, 40, 166, 177, 178, 
 179, 180, 181, 182. 
 
 Roberval's Voyage, critical estimate of, 
 221. 
 
 Robin, 195. 
 
 Rolleau, 56. 
 
 Roque, Jean Frangois de la. See 
 Roberval. 
 
 Roscoff, 183. 
 
 Rouen, 20, 24, 40, 44, 45, 46, 49, 53, 54, 
 56, 60, 66, 74, 94, 95, 107, 115, 
 137, 138, 155, 159, 178, 179, 180, 187, 
 189, 190, 196, 197, 207. 
 
 Rouen, Archives de la Tournelle, 187. 
 
 Routier, 195. 
 
 Royeze, 16. 
 
 Russia, 103. 
 
 Rut, John, of Bristol, 20 ; critical estim- 
 ate of, 209. 
 
 Sable Island, settlement at, 24 ; colonists 
 reach, 40, 41 ; other references to, 
 38, 122, 186, 187. 
 
 Sagard, Gabriel, Histoire du Canada, 
 199 ; critical estimate of, 281-285 ; 
 other references to. 111, 200, 
 201. 
 
 Saguenay, Kingdom of, 9, 10, 16, 178. 
 
 Saguenay, River, 6, 8, 9, 40, 43, 47, 71, 
 106. 
 
 Sainsbury, Calendoir of Colonial State 
 Papers, 187, 195, 197, 198, 201, 202, 
 203, 204, 205, 206, 207. 
 
 St. Catherine, 6. 
 
 St. Charles, 8. 
 
 Ste. Croix, settlement at, 55, 56 ; priva- 
 tions at, 58 ; deaths at, 58 ; settle- 
 ment transported to Port Royal, 59 ; 
 Plastrier at, 82 ; Monts' losses at, 
 
 83 ; Plastrier seized by Englisli at, 
 
 84 ; other references to, 60, 61, 62, 
 66, 73, 77, 84, 93, 122. 
 
 St. Denis, 108. 
 
 St. Eloi, Champlain meets Huron at, 72. 
 
 St. Germain, Chateau of, 87. 
 
 St. Germain-en-Lave, Treaty of 149, 163, 
 
 206. 
 St. Helen's Island, 80. 
 St. Jean d'Angely, 87. 
 St. Jean de Luz, 53, 54, 58, 65. 
 St. John, Lake, 71.
 
 INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 St. John, Newfoundland, Roberval at, 
 14 ; Rut, at, 20 ; Alexander reaches, 
 123. 
 
 St. John, River, 54, 82, 84, 101. 
 
 Saint- Just, Sieur de, reaches France, 77 ; 
 asked to take out Jesuits, 78 ; Vice- 
 Admiral of Acadia, 82 ; discovers old 
 fort, 84, 92 ; has trouble with Jesuits, 
 91 ; at Port Royal, 96, 101 ; urges 
 colonization, 110; returns to France, 
 123 ; other reierences to, 84, 123, 
 
 143, 195. 
 
 St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 7, 8, 10, 20, 23, 35, 
 36, 52, 63, 122, 139, 140, 143, 144. 
 
 St. Lawrence (River), 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 
 15, 16, 17, 22, 33, 35, 38, 42, 43, 44, 
 
 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 54, 56, 57, 62, 
 63, 65, 66, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 
 79, 83, 85, 88, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 
 100, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107, 111, 112, 
 185, 189, 192, 202, 203. 
 
 St. Lawrence Valley, exploration of, 74 ; 
 
 description of, 108 ; plans for, 108; 
 
 ceded to Co. of New France, 136 ; 
 
 149. 
 St. Malo, 6, 13, 23, 32, 33, 35, 43, 44, 45, 
 
 47, 49, 53, 54, 58, 64, 69, 85, 88, 94, 
 95, 98, 106, 137, 176, 177, 178, 180, 
 181, 182, 183, 185, 186, 188, 189, 190, 
 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 
 199, 200, 202. 
 
 St. Maurice River, 171. 
 
 Sainte-Menehould, Treaty of, 97. 
 
 St. Pierre, 8, 22, 141. 
 
 St.-Pol-de-Lt^on, 183. 
 
 St. Sauveur, 196. 
 
 Saint-Thomas-des-Maritz, 202. 
 
 Saintonge, 51. 
 
 Sanneterre, 15, 16, 17. 
 
 Schomberg, Marechal de, 161. 
 
 Scotland, barons of, 142 ; Secretary for, 
 142. 
 
 Scottish and English Co. formed, 143 ; 
 granted monopoly, 143 ; fleets of, 
 143 ; send representatives to Quebec, 
 151 ; capital of, 151 ; aim of, 151 ; 
 fleet of, 152 ; other references to, 
 
 144, 145, 146, 148, 151, 153, 155, 157, 
 158, 161, 162, 163, 165. 
 
 Scurvy, 10, 15, 16, 58, 61, 62, 64, 128. 
 
 Sebastian, San, 183, 184, 185, 188, 193. 
 
 Secart, 182. 
 
 Sedan, Capt. de, 177. 
 
 Seine, 24. 
 
 Sillery, Chancellor de, 97. 
 
 Silveira, Joao da, 175, 176. 
 
 Silvestre, 188. 
 
 Simcoe Lake, 99. 
 
 Simon, Jacques, 196. 
 
 Smart, John of Plymouth, 205. 
 
 Smith, Capt. John, 96, 100, 101. 
 
 Soissons, Charles de Bourbon, Comte de, 
 fought under Henry IV, 86 ; chara- 
 ter of, 86 ; made Viceroy of Canada, 
 86 ; granted monopoly, 86 ; death of, 
 86 ; 195. 
 
 Southampton, 32. 
 
 Southern Sea, 9, 10, 67. 
 
 Spain, 14, 18, 56, 65, 135, 181, 188, 192, 
 198, 206. 
 
 Spanish, spy, 12, 22 ; ambassador, 123. 
 
 Spices, 12, 29. 
 
 Stadacona, 9, 10, 13. 
 
 States-General, 97, 98. 
 
 Sterling, Viscount. See Alexander, Sir 
 William. 
 
 Stewart, James. See Ochiltrie, Lord. 
 
 Sully, Maximilian de Bethune, Due de, 
 52 ; 53, 64 ; 74 ; 87, 193, 
 
 Superior Lake, 100. 
 
 Suza, 146, 150, 160. 
 
 Sweden, 103. 
 
 Tadoussac, 27, 29, 32, 42-44 ; 47, 48, 54, 
 55, 58, 60, 63, 66, 71, 75, 76, 77, 79, 
 80, 83, 90, 94, 98, 105, 106, 108, 114, 
 116, 116, 193. 
 
 Taureau, 38. 
 
 Tessoiiat, 90. 
 
 Themines, Monsieur de, 103 ; obtains 
 viceroyship, 104 ; disputes with 
 Conde, 113. 
 
 Thevet, Andre, 23, 24, 31, 33; critical 
 estimate of, 231-242. 
 
 Thomson, 207. 
 
 Thou, obtains liberty for Conde and his 
 mother, 87. 
 
 Timber, trade, 53, 88, 102, 103, 108. 
 
 Toulouse, 178. 
 
 Touraine, 135. 
 
 Tours, 183. 
 
 Trappists, 78. 
 
 Tresories, 190. 
 
 Trinity Harbour, Newfoundland, 31. 
 
 Troyes, 161. 
 
 Ulster, colonization cf, 141, 147 ; baronets 
 of, 141. 
 
 United Co., formed, 120 ; monopoly guar- 
 anteed to, 120 ; replaced by Co. of 
 New France, 135 ; monopoly of an- 
 nulled, 136 ; goods of seized at 
 Quebec, 150 ; exorbitant demands of, 
 160 ; takes possession of Quebec, 
 164 ; granted trade in St. Lawrence, 
 164 ; retires from Quebec, 165 ; re- 
 ceives compensation, 165 ; other 
 references to, 125, 131, 133, 162.
 
 308 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ushant, 39. 
 
 Valer5', 87. 
 
 Vatteville, 23. 
 
 Venice, 1-46. 
 
 Ventadour, Due de, gazetted to viceroy- 
 ship, 125 ; religious life of, 125 ; 
 Riciielieu buys viceroyship from, 
 136 ; 202. 
 
 Verrazano, 29, 175, 176; critical estimate 
 of, 208. 
 
 Vizcaya, 183. 
 
 Vic, 156. 
 
 Vienne, 110. 
 
 Vignau, statements of, 89 ; deceit of 
 exposed, 90. 
 
 Villemenon, Sieur de, 113. 
 
 Virginia, prisoners taken to, 92, 93 ; 
 
 Lord Baltimore removes to, 154. 
 
 Virginia Co., .settlement of, 91 ; charter 
 of, 91 ; council of 92; 95, 96. 
 
 Voulte, Comte de la, 125. 
 
 Wade, Thomas, 204. 
 
 Wake, Sir Isaac, takes charge of nego- 
 tiations, 160 ; examines grievances, 
 161 ; difficulties of, 162 ; other refer- 
 ences to, 163, 204, 207. 
 
 Whitbourne, Richard, 31 ; 102. 
 
 Winwood, Secretary, 198. 
 
 Wolfe, 67. 
 
 Wyet, Silvester, critical estimate of, 247. 
 
 Xivrey, Berger de, Lettres Missives de 
 Henry IV, 192. 
 
 Yon, Roberval, 181.
 
 Longitude 
 
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 ■ort Lamox 
 
 Aioany i 
 
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