o be buried with his
forefathers, but the arguments of his priestly advisers overcame his
superstition, and his remains were finally laid in consecrated ground.

Matters looked very gloomy by the end of February, when a ship arrived
very opportunely from France with a small store of supplies. The news
from Poutrincourt was most discouraging. Unable to raise further funds
on his own responsibility, he had accepted the proffer of assistance
from Mme. de Guercheville, who, in her zeal, had also bought from De
Monts all his claims over the colony, with the exception of Port Royal,
which belonged to Poutrincourt. The King not only consented to the
transfer but gave her a grant of the territory extending from Florida
to Canada. The society of Jesuits was therefore virtually in
possession of North America as far as a French deed could give it away.
But the French king forgot when he was making this lavish gift of a
continent, that the British laid claims to the same region and had
already established a colony in Virginia, which was then an undefined
territory, extending from Florida to New France. Both France and
England were now face to face on the new continent, and a daring
English adventurer was about to strike in Acadia the first blow for
English supremacy.

Such was the position of affairs at the time of the {63} arrival of the
new vessel and cargo, which were under the control of Simon Imbert, who
had formerly been a servant to Poutrincourt. Among the passengers was
another Jesuit father, Gilbert Du Thet, who came out in the interests
of Mme. de Guercheville and his own order. The two agents quarrelled
from the very day they set out until they arrived at Port Royal, and
then the colony took the matter up. At last the difficulties were
settled by Du Thet receiving permission to return to France.

A few months later, at the end of May, 1613, another French ship
anchored off Port Royal. She had been sent out with a fine supply of
stores, not by Poutrincourt, but by Mme. de Guercheville, and was under
the orders of M. Saussaye, a gentleman by birth and a man of ability.
On board were two Jesuits, Fathers Quentin and Gilbert Du Thet and a
number of colonists. Poutrincourt, it appeared, was in prison and ill,
unable to do anything whatever for his friends across the ocean. This
was, indeed, sad news for Biencourt and his faithful allies, who had
been anxiously expecting assistance from France.

At Port Royal th