Crusaders of New France | Page 9

beyond the Saguenay. Some schemes of
colonization, without official support, were launched during this
interval; but in all such cases the expeditions set forth to warmer lands,
to Brazil and to Florida. In neither direction, however, did any marked
success attend these praiseworthy examples of private initiative.
The great valley of the St. Lawrence during these six decades remained
a land of mystery. The navigators of Europe still clung to the vision of
a westward passage whose eastern portal must be hidden among the
bays or estuaries of this silent land, but none was bold or persevering
enough to seek it to the end. As for the great continent itself, Europe
had not the slightest inkling of what it held in store for future
generations of mankind.

CHAPTER III
THE FOUNDING OF NEW FRANCE
In the closing years of the sixteenth century the spirit of French
expansion, which had remained so strangely inactive for nearly three
generations, once again began to manifest itself. The Sieur de La Roche,
another Breton nobleman, the merchant traders, Pontgravé of St. Malo
and Chauvin of Honfleur, came forward one after the other with plans
for colonizing the unknown land. Unhappily these plans were not easily
matured into stern realities. The ambitious project of La Roche came to
grief on the barren sands of Sable Island. The adventurous merchants,
for their part, obtained a monopoly of the trade and for a few years
exploited the rich peltry regions of the St. Lawrence, but they made no
serious attempts at actual settlement. Finally they lost the monopoly,
which passed in 1603 to the Sieur de Chastes, a royal favorite and
commandant at Dieppe.
It is at this point that Samuel Champlain first becomes associated with
the pioneer history of New France. Given the opportunity to sail with
an expedition which De Chastes sent out in 1603, Champlain gladly

accepted and from this time to the end of his days he never relaxed his
whole-souled interest in the design to establish a French dominion in
these western lands. With his accession to the ranks of the voyageurs
real progress in the field of colonization was for the first time assured.
Champlain encountered many setbacks during his initial years as a
colonizer, but he persevered to the end. When he had finished his work,
France had obtained a footing in the St. Lawrence valley which was not
shaken for nearly a hundred and fifty years.
Champlain was born in 1567 at the seaport of Brouage, on the Bay of
Biscay, so that he was only thirty-six years of age when he set out on
his first voyage to America. His forbears belonged to the lesser gentry
of Saintonge, and from them he inherited a roving strain. Long before
reaching middle manhood he had learned to face dangers, both as a
soldier in the wars of the League and as a sailor to the Spanish Main.
With a love of adventure he combined rare powers of description, so
much so that the narrative of his early voyages to this region had
attracted the King's attention and had won for him the title of royal
geographer. His ideas were bold and clear; he had an inflexible will and
great patience in battling with discouragements. Possessing these
qualities, Champlain was in every way fitted to become the founder of
New France.
The expedition of 1603 proceeded to the St. Lawrence, where some of
the party landed at the mouth of the Saguenay to trade with the Indians.
The remainder, including Champlain, made their way up the river to
the Indian village at Hochelaga, which they now found in ruins, savage
warfare having turned the place into a solitude. Champlain busied
himself with some study of the country's resources and the customs of
the aborigines; but on the whole the prospects of the St. Lawrence
valley did not move the explorers to enthusiasm. Descending the great
river again, they rejoined their comrades at the Saguenay, and, taking
their cargoes of furs aboard, the whole party sailed back to France in
the autumn. There they found that De Chastes, the sponsor for their
enterprise, had died during their absence.
The death of De Chastes upset matters badly, for with it the trade

monopoly had lapsed. But things were promptly set right again by a
royal act which granted the monopoly anew. This time it went to the
Sieur de Monts, a prominent Huguenot nobleman, then governor of
Pons, with whom Champlain was on friendly terms. To quiet the
clamors of rival traders, however, it was stipulated that Monts should
organize a company and should be bound to take into his enterprise any
who might wish to associate themselves with him. The company, in
return for its trading monopoly, was to transport to the new