The Founder of New France : A chronicle of Champlain | Page 8

De Chastes, with
Champlain aboard, spent the summer in the St Lawrence; while during
the same season Martin Pring took a cargo of sassafras in
Massachusetts Bay. From 1604. to 1607 the French under De Monts,

Poutrincourt, and Champlain were actively engaged in the attempt to
colonize Acadia. But they were not alone in setting up claims to this
region. In 1605 Waymouth, sailing from Dartmouth, explored the
mouth of the Kennebec and carried away five natives. In 1606 James I
granted patents to the London Company and the Plymouth Company
which, by their terms, ran athwart the grant of Henry IV to De Monts.
In the same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges sent Pring once more to
Norumbega. In 1607 Raleigh, Gilbert, and George Popham made a
small settlement at the mouth of the Sagadhoc, where Popham died
during the winter. As a result of his death this colony on the coast of
Maine was abandoned, but 1607 also saw the memorable founding of
Jamestown in Virginia. Equally celebrated is Champlain's founding of
Quebec in 1608. In 1609 the Dutch under an English captain, Henry
Hudson, had their first glimpse of Manhattan.
This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed which
governments could not ignore. The colonial movement was far from
being a dominant interest with Henry IV or James I, but when their
subjects saw fit to embark upon it privately, the crown was compelled
to take cognizance of their acts and frame regulations. 'Go, and let
whatever good may, come of it!' exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt as
Joan of Arc rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate France. In much
the same spirit Henry IV saw De Monts set sail for Acadia. The king
would contribute nothing from the public purse or from his own. Sully,
his prime minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished
to concentrate effort upon domestic improvements. He believed, in the
second place, that there was no hope of creating a successful colony
north of the fortieth parallel. Thirdly, he was in the pay of the Dutch.
The most that Henry IV would do for French pioneers in America was
to give them a monopoly of trade in return for an undertaking to
transport and establish colonists. In each case where a monopoly was
granted the number of colonists was specified. As for their quality,
convicts could be taken if more eligible candidates were not
forthcoming. The sixty unfortunates landed by La Roche on Sable
Island in 1598 were all convicts or sturdy vagrants. Five years later
only eleven were left alive.

For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch upon the
relations of the French government with traders at a date earlier than
1599. Immediately following the failure of La Roche's second
expedition, Pierre Chauvin of Honfleur secured a monopoly which
covered the Laurentian fur trade for ten years. The condition was that
he should convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the full
period of his grant. So far from carrying out this agreement either in
spirit or letter, he shirked it without compunction. After three years the
monopoly was withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to fulfil
his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants who desired
their share of the trade. To adjudicate between Chauvin and his rivals in
St Malo and Rouen a commission was appointed at the close of 1602.
Its members were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and the Sieur de la
Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On their
recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so modified as to
admit to a share in the privilege certain leading merchants of Rouen
and St Malo, who, however, must pay their due share in the expenses of
colonizing. Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De
Chastes at once took his place as the central figure in the group of those
to whom a new monopoly had just been conceded.
[Footnote: The history of all the companies formed during these years
for trade in New France is the same. First a monopoly is granted under
circumstances ostensibly most favourable to the Government and to the
privileged merchants; then follow the howls of the excluded traders, the
lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation to the colony of a
few beggars, criminals, or unpromising labourers; a 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.--H. P. Biggar, 'Early Trading
Companies of New France,' p. 49.]
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