The Makers of Canada: Champlain | Page 7

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 Jér?me 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 Fran?ois_, 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 Fran?ais 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 were lying at anchor at Havre de Grace, ready to sail, and one hundred and twenty passages had been secured in two of the ships. Pont-Gravé commanded one of the vessels of one hundred and twenty tons burthen, and another vessel of one hundred and fifty tons was under the charge of de Monts, who had taken on board Jean de Biencourt, Sieur de Poutrincourt, a gentleman of Picardy, Samuel Champlain, some Catholic priests and some Protestant ministers. Poutrincourt was going to America with the intention of