Favorably as Cartier had been received, the lateness of the season compelled his return to Stadacona. The adventurers wintered in the St. Charles river, and continued to be treated with apparent kindness and hospitality by the Indians in that vicinity, who had, fortunately, laid up abundant stores of provisions. Unaccustomed, however, to the rigor of a Canadian winter, and scantily supplied with warm clothing, Cartier and his companions suffered severely from the cold.

The long and tedious winter at length drew to a close; the ice broke up, and, although the voyage had led to no gold discoveries, or profitable returns in a mercantile point of view, the expedition prepared to return home. They compelled Donacona, and two other chiefs and eight warriors, to bear them company to France, where a greater part of these unfortunate men died soon after their arrival. On reaching home, Cartier reported to the French Court that the country he had discovered was destitute of gold and silver, and that its coast was bleak and stormy.

This sad account had a most disastrous effect upon the energies already awakened in France, and not until four years after Cartier's return was there a single movement in the whole empire looking toward a third expedition. Early in the year 1540, Francis I granted patents covering all the territory north of British occupancy to Francoix de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval. The commission also invested him with supreme power within its bounds.

In the summer of the same year a squadron of five vessels was fitted out for New France. Cartier, who had already twice successfully reached the Western hemisphere, was appointed to the command, and accordingly the fleet set sail, to convey the French flag once more to America. After a very successful voyage, they reached the gulf and river that had received its name from Cartier four years previously, and, proceeding in a westerly course, they subsequently arrived at Stadacona.

He was at first received with every appearance of kindness by the Indians, who expected that he had brought back their chief, Donacona, as well as the other chiefs and warriors who had been taken to France. On learning that some of these were dead, and

that none of them would return, they offered considerable resistance to the formation of a settlement in their neighborhood.

By these and other difficulties Cartier was induced to move higher up the river, to Cape Rouge, where he laid up three of his vessels, and sent the other two back to France, with letters to the King. His next proceeding was to erect a fort, which he called Charlesbourg. Here, after an unsuccessful attempt to navigate the rapids above Hochelaga, he passed a most uncomfortable winter.

The promised supplies not having arrived, another severe winter completely disheartened Cartier, and he accordingly resolved to return home. Putting into the harbor of St. John, Newfoundland, he encountered Roberval, who was now on his way to Canada, with a new company of adventurers, and an abundance of stores and provisions. Cartier refused to return, and, to avoid forcible detention, he weighed anchor in the night. On the following morning the viceroy arose, and observed that his wearied servant had departed. Roberval sailed up the river to Charlesbourg, which he strengthened by additional fortifications, and where he passed the ensuing winter. Leaving a garrison of thirty men behind, he returned the following spring to France, where he was detained by his sovereign to assist in the war against Charles V.

After the Peace of Cressy, Roberval, in company with his brother Achille and a numerous train of adventurers, again set out for this country. The fleet was never heard of after it put to sea, and was supposed to have foundered, to the regret of the people of France, who greatly admired the brothers for the gallant manner in which they had borne themselves in the war.

This loss completely discouraged Henry II, then (1543) King of France, and he made no further efforts to effect a settlement in Canada. It was not, therefore, till 1598 that any noticeable movement was made by the French Government in projects of transAtlantic colonization. In this year the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany, encouraged by Henry, fitted out a large expedition, which convicts were permitted to join, as it was then difficult to find voluntary adventurers, owing to former disasters. Armed with the most ample governmental powers, the Marquis

departed to the new world, under the guidance of Chedotel, a pilot of Normandy. But he lacked the qualities necessary to insure success, and little is recorded of his voyage, with the exception that he left forty convicts on Sable Island, a barren spot off the coast of Nova Scotia. Owing to the failure of this adventure, and his attempts to equip another being thwarted at Court, the Marquis fell sick shortly after his return home, and literally died of chagrin. The unfortunate convicts whom he left behind were entirely forgotten for several years, and suffered the most intense hardships. Their clothes were soon worn out, their provisions exhausted. Clad in the skin of the sea-wolf, subsisting upon the precarious supplies afforded by fishing, and living in rude huts formed from the planks of a wrecked vessel, famine and cold gradually reduced their number to twelve. After a residence on the island of twelve years, these wretched men were found in the most deplorable condition by a vessel sent out by the Parliament of Rouen to ascertain their fate. On their return to France they were brought before Henry, who pardoned their crimes in consideration of the great hardships they had undergone, and gave them a liberal donation in money.

In 1599, another expedition was resolved on by Chauvin, of Rouen, a naval officer of reputation, and Pontgrave, a sailor merchant of St. Malo, who, in consideration of a monopoly of the fur trade granted them by Henry, undertook to establish a colony of five hundred persons in Canada. In the spring of 1600, two vessels were equipped, and Chauvin, taking a party of settlers with him, arrived safely at Tadoussac. He erected a fort at this place, and during the summer he obtained a considerable stock of very valuable furs, for the most trifling consideration. Being anxious to dispose of these to advantage, he returned to France on the approach of winter, leaving sixteen settlers behind. These were slenderly provided with provisions and clothing, and in the cold weather were reduced to such distress that they had to throw themselves completely on the hospitality of the natives. From these they experienced much kindness, yet so great were the hardships they endured that several of them died before succor arrived from France. Chauvin's death, in 1603, left Canada without a

permanent white settlement; yet the spirit of enterprise that had taken firm hold of the more adventurous did not become weakened.

After two more unsuccessful expeditions, one under the direction of De Chaste, and the other under De Mots, the latter obtained, in 1607, a commission from King Henry for one year, and, owing to the representations of Samuel Champlain, who had conducted the expedition under De Chaste, he now resolved to establish a French settlement on the St. Lawrence. Fitting out two vessels, he placed them under the command of Champlain, a bold and experienced navigator. The expedition set sail from Harfleur on the 13th of April, 1608, and arrived at Tadoussac on the 3d of June. Here Pontgrave remained to trade with the Indians, while Champlain proceeded up the river to examine its banks, and determine upon a suitable site for the settlement he was to found. After a careful scrutiny, he fixed upon a promontory, distinguished by a luxuriant growth of vines and shaded by some noble walnut trees, called by the natives "Qubio" or "Quebec," and which was situated a short distance from the spot where Cartier had erected a fort and passed a winter sixty-seven years before. Here, on the 3d of July, 1608, he laid the foundation of the present city of Quebec. Rude buildings of wood were first erected on the high grounds, to afford a shelter to his men. When these were completed an embankment was formed, above the reach of the tide, where Mountain street now lies, on which the house and battery were built. With the exception of Jamestown, in Virginia, this was the first permanent settlement established in North America.

Having followed the French in their repeated journeys across the ocean, and left them in their first successful settlement, we will next trace their footsteps in those western voyages of discovery and adventure that secured the early settlement of the Peninsular State.

CHAPTER II.

CHAMPLAIN AND HIS INFANT COLONY-A PLEASANT WINTER IN THE NEW FORT-CONDITION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS THE NATIVES-NEW FRANCE CEDED TO ENGLAND IN 1629-CHAMPLAIN RETURNS TO FRANCE.

SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN, as already observed, founded the settlement of Quebec in 1608. This was the first permanent foothold of civilization in Canada. The little garrison passed the winter of 1608 without suffering any of those extreme hardships which, during the same period of the year, had distinguished the residence of former adventurers in Canada. Their dwellings being better protected from the cold, their persons more warmly clothed, more abundantly supplied with provisions, and with a greater amount of experience than their predecessors possessed, they discovered that a winter existence among the snows of the North was not only possible, but even had its pleasures.

Winter gradually merged into spring without producing any incident of very great importance to the infant colony. Meanwhile, everything had been done to preserve a good understanding with Indians who visited the fort. Champlain wisely perceived that the success of the settlement of the country depended upon. their friendship. Nor were the Indians themselves, who belonged to the Algonquin nation, averse to the cultivation of a friendly understanding with the French.

The spring of 1609 seems to have been an early one with the colony, and no sooner had the weather become sufficiently warm to make traveling agreeable, than Champlain prepared to ascend the river, and explore it above Mount Royal. He spent the summer in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence, and made many valuable discoveries. In the autumn a disarrangement in affairs in France caused his return home. In the spring of 1610 he again visited