The Makers of Canada: Champlain | Page 7

year
Sir John Berkeley commanded, but being unable to remain there, he
deserted the place, and joined Clifford near the Azores, when both went
to England, having lost about seven hundred men during their
expedition.
[2] This volume is entitled _Brief Discours des choses plus
remarquables que Samuel Champlain de Brouage A reconneues aux
Indes Occidentalles Au voiage qu'il en a faict en icelles en l'année_
VeIIIJ. XXIX, _et en l'année_ VIeJ, comme ensuit.
This manuscript was discovered by M. Féret, antiquarian, poet and
librarian, of Dieppe. The Hakluyt Society had it translated in 1859, and
published at London. In 1870 the Reverend Laverdière, librarian of the
Laval University, of Quebec, had it printed in French, with the designs,
coloured for the most part, with the complete works of Champlain. This
manuscript is supposed to have been preserved by a collateral
descendant of Aymar de Chastes.
[3] Tadousac means breast, and is derived from the Montagnais
Totouchac. Father Jérôme Lalemant says that the Indians called the
place Sadilege.
[4] This volume is entitled _Des Sauvages ou Voyage de Samuel
Champlain de Brouage, fait en la Nouvelle France, l'an mil six cent
trois ... A Paris ... 1604_.

Extremely rare. The original of the first edition is kept at the
Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; this is the only copy known.
This volume contains a dedication to Charles de Montmorency, admiral
of France, a letter in verse from the Sieur de la Franchise, and an
extract from the _Privilège du Roi_, dated November 15th, 1603,
signed by Brigard.
The second edition does not differ much from the preceding, and its
title bears the date 1604. Purchas's Pilgrims contains an English version
of this last edition. We find a synopsis of it in the _Mercure François_,
1609, in the preface to the former called _Chronologie Septennaire de
l'Histoire de la paix entre les rois de France et d'Espagne, 1598-1608_.
This historical part has been borrowed by Victor Palma Cayet for
Champlain's Voyage, and its title is: _Navigation des Français en la
Nouvelle France dite Canada_.
CHAPTER II
ACADIA--STE. CROIX ISLAND--PORT ROYAL
Soon after the period mentioned at the close of the previous chapter,
Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, Governor of Pont, a native of the
ancient province of Saintonge, who had served under Henry IV,
obtained a commission as "Lieutenant genéral au pays de Cadie, du 40°
au 46°," on the condition that his energies should be especially directed
to the propagation of the Catholic faith.
De Monts was a Huguenot; nevertheless he agreed to take with him to
America a number of Catholic priests, and to see that they were
respected and obeyed. Champlain was not satisfied with the choice of a
Protestant to colonize a country which he had intended to make solely
Catholic, and he states, "that those enterprises made hastily never
succeed."
De Monts was not a stranger to America. He had first visited the
country with Chauvin in 1600, but when he left Tadousac he was so
discouraged that he determined, in the event of his becoming master of

the situation, to attempt colonization only in Acadia, or on the eastern
borders of the Atlantic running towards Florida.
It was well known in France that Acadia was the richest and most
fertile part of the New World. Excellent harbours and good soil were
found there. Fish abounded near its coasts; its forests were numerous
and dense. An opinion existed that there were numerous mines, rich in
copper, coal and gypsum. This country was also the favourite of the
Normans, Britons and Basques, who for a hundred years had pursued
their callings as fishermen or traders without interruption.
De Monts, however, was unable to bear the expense of this undertaking
alone, and he consequently formed a company, composed of merchants
of Rouen, La Rochelle and other towns. To further the enterprise Henry
IV diminished the duty on merchandises exported from Acadia and
Canada, and granted to the company the exclusive privilege of fur
trading for a period of ten years, "from Cape de Raze to the 40°,
comprising all the Acadian coast, Cape Breton, Baie des Chaleurs,
Percé Island, Gaspé, Chisedec, Miramichi, Tadousac and Canada River,
from either side, and all the bays and rivers which flow within these
shores."
Acadia of that day was not confined to the peninsula of our own time,
called Nova Scotia. It included that part of the continent which extends
from the river St. John to the Penobscot. These boundaries were the
cause of long quarrels and fierce and bloody wars between England and
France until they were finally settled by the Treaty of Utrecht. In the
early part of April, 1604, the king's proclamation confining the fur
trade to de Monts and his associates was published in every harbour of
France. Four ships