as France. Soon after a short peace had terminated the third desperate struggle between Francis I. and Charles V., attention to America was again awakened; men at court deemed it unworthy a gallant nation to abandon the acquisition; and in January, 1540, a nobleman of Picardy, Francis de la Roque, Lord of Roberval, a man of provincial distinction, sought and obtained a commission as lord of the unknown land then called Norimbega, and viceroy, with full regal authority, over the immense territories and islands which lie near the gulf or along the river St. Lawrence. But the ambitious nobleman could not dispense with the services of the former naval commander, who possessed the confidence of the king. Cartier was accordingly in October appointed captain-general and chief pilot of the expedition; he was directed to collect persons of every trade and art; to repair with them to the newly discovered territory; and to dwell there among the natives. To make up the complement of his men, he might take from the prisons whom he would, excepting only those arrested for treason or counterfeiting money. The enterprise was watched with jealousy by Spain.

The division of authority between Cartier and Roberval defeated the undertaking. Roberval was ambitious of power; and Cartier desired the exclusive honor of discovery. They neither embarked in company nor acted in concert. In May, 1541, Cartier sailed from St. Malo. Arrived at the scene of his former adventures, near the site of Quebec, he built a fort; but no considerable advances in geographical knowledge appear to have been made. The winter passed in sullenness and gloom. In June, 1542, he and his ships returned to France, just before Roberval arrived with a considerable re-enforcement. Unsustained by Cartier, Roberval accomplished no more than a verification of previous discoveries. Remaining about a year in America, he abandoned his immense viceroyalty. Perhaps the expedition on its return entered the bay of Massachusetts.

For the next years no further discoveries were attempted by the government of a nation which was rent by civil wars and the conflict with Calvinism. Yet the number and importance of the fishing stages increased; in 1578 there were one

hundred and fifty French vessels at Newfoundland, and exchanges with the natives brought good returns.

When, under the mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV., the star of France emerged from the clouds which had long eclipsed her glory, the purpose of founding a French empire in America was renewed, and in 1598 an ample commission was issued to the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany. Sweeping the prisons of France of their inmates, he established them on the desolate isle of Sable. After some years the few survivors received a pardon and were brought back to their native country.

The prospect of gain prompted the next adventure. In 1600, a monopoly of the fur trade, with an ample patent, was obtained by Chauvin; and Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo, shared the traffic. The voyage was repeated, for it was lucrative. The death of Chauvin prevented his settling a colony.

A firmer hope of success was entertained when, in 1603, a company of merchants of Rouen was formed by the governor of Dieppe; and Samuel Champlain, of Brouage, an able marine officer and a man of science, was selected to direct the expedition. By his natural disposition "delighting marvellously in these enterprises," in the last year of the sixteenth century he had for a season engaged in the service of Spain, that he might make a voyage to regions into which no Frenchman could otherwise have entered. He was in Porto Rico and St. Domingo and Cuba, visited the city of Mexico, and foreshadowed the benefits of joining the two oceans by a canal to Panama. He possessed a clear and penetrating understanding with a spirit of cautious inquiry; untiring perseverance with great mobility; indefatigable activity with fearless courage. The account of his first expedition to Canada gives proof of sound judgment, accurate observation, and historical fidelity. It is full of details on the manners of the savage tribes, not less than the geography of the country; and Quebec was selected as the appropriate site for a fort.

In November, 1603, just after Champlain had returned to France, an exclusive patent was issued to a Calvinist, the able, patriotic, and honest De Monts. The sovereignty of Acadia

and its confines, from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of latitude, that is, from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal; a still wider monopoly of the fur trade; the exclusive control of the soil, government, and trade; freedom of religion for Huguenot emigrants these were the privileges which his charter conferred.

In March, 1604, two ships left the shores of France, not to return till a permanent settlement should be made in America. The summer glided away, while the emigrants trafficked with the natives and explored the coasts. The harbor called Annapolis after its conquest by Queen Anne, an excellent harbor though difficult of access, possessing a small but navigable river which abounded in fish and is bordered by beautiful meadows, so pleased Poutrincourt, a leader in the enterprise, that he sued for a grant of it from De Monts, and, naming it Port Royal, determined to reside there with his family. The company of De Monts made their first attempt at a settlement on the island of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river of the same name. The island proved so ill suited to their purposes that, in spring, 1605, they removed to Port Royal.

For an agricultural colony a milder climate was more desirable; in view of a settlement at the south, De Monts in the same year explored and claimed for France the rivers, especially the Merrimac, the coasts and the bays of New England, as far, at least, as Cape Cod. The numbers and hostility of the savages led him to delay a removal, since his colonists were so few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice, in the spring of 1606, did Dupont, his lieutenant, attempt to complete the discovery. Twice he was driven back by adverse winds; and, in August, at the third attempt, his vessel was wrecked. Poutrincourt, who had visited France and returned with supplies, himself renewed the design; but, in November, meeting with disasters among the shoals of Cape Cod, he, too, returned to Port Royal.

The possessions of Poutrincourt were, in 1607, confirmed by Henry IV.; in the next year the apostolic benediction of the Roman pontiff followed families which exiled themselves to evangelize infidels; Mary of Medici herself contributed money to support the missions, which the Marchioness de

Guercheville protected; and in 1610, by a compact with De Biencourt, the proprietary's son, the order of the Jesuits was enriched by an imposition on the fisheries and fur trade.

The arrival of Jesuit priests in June, 1611, was signalized by conversions among the natives. In the following year De Biencourt and Father Biart explored the coast as far as the Kennebec, and ascended that river. The Canibas, Algonkins of the Abenaki nations, touched by the confiding humanity of the French, listened reverently to the message of redemption; and, already hostile toward the English who had visited their coast, the tribes between the Penobscot and the Kennebec became the allies of France, and were cherished as a barrier against English encroachments.

A French colony was soon established, under the auspices of Madame De Guercheville and Mary of Medici; in 1613 the rude intrenchments of St. Saviour were raised by De Saussaye on the eastern shore of Mount Desert isle. The conversion of the heathen was the motive to the settlement; the natives venerated Biart as a messenger from Heaven; and, under the summer sky, round a cross in the centre of the hamlet, matins and vespers were regularly chanted.

Meantime the remonstrances of French traders had effected the revocation of the monopoly of De Monts, and a company of merchants of Dieppe and St. Malo had founded Quebec. The design was executed by Champlain, who aimed not at the profits of trade, but at the glory of creating a state. On the third day of July, 1608, he raised the white flag over Quebec, where rude cottages were soon framed, a few fields cleared, and one or two gardens planted. The next year the bold adventurer, attended by two Europeans, joined a mixed party of Hurons from Montreal, and Algonkins from Quebec, in an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in the north of New York. He ascended the Sorel, and explored the lake which bears his name. A battle with the Five Nations was fought near Ticonderoga.

The death of Henry IV., in 1610, deprived the Huguenots of their protector. Yet De Monts survived, and he quickened the courage of Champlain. After the short supremacy of Charles de Bourbon, the prince of Condé, an avowed protector

of the Calvinists, became viceroy of New France; through his intercession merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, and La Rochelle, obtained in 1615 a colonial patent from the king; and Champlain, now sure of success, embarked once more for the New World, accompanied by monks of the order of St. Francis. Again he invaded the territory of the Iroquois in New York. Wounded and repulsed, and destitute of guides, he spent the first winter after his return to America in the country of the Hurons; and, wandering among the forests, carried his language, religion, and influence even to the hamlets of Algonkins, near Lake Nipising.

Religious disputes combined with commercial jealousies to check the progress of the colony; yet in July, 1620, in obedience to the wishes of Montmorenci, the new viceroy, Champlain began a fort. The merchants grudged the expense. "It is not best to yield to the passions of men," was his reply; "they sway but for a season; it is a duty to respect the future;" and in 1624 the castle St. Louis, so long the place of council against the Iroquois and against New England, was durably built on "a commanding cliff."

In the same year the viceroyalty was transferred to the religious enthusiast, Henry de Levi; and through his influence, in 1625, just a year after Jesuits had reached the sources of the Ganges and Thibet, the banks of the St. Lawrence received priests of the order, which was destined to carry the cross to Lake Superior and the west.

The presence of Jesuits and Calvinists led to dissensions. The savages caused disquiet. But the persevering founder of Quebec appealed to the royal council and to Richelieu, who had been created Grand Master of Navigation; and, though disasters intervened, Champlain successfully established the authority of the French on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the territory which became his country. Dying on Christmas day, 1635, "the father of New France" was buried in the land which he colonized. The humble industry of the fishermen of Normandy and Brittany promised their country the acquisition of an empire.