as Pointe-a-Callieres, on a portion of which the hospital of
the Grey Nuns was subsequently built. It was not, however, until
thirty years later that the first permanent settlement was made on the
island, and the foundations laid of the great city which was first
named Ville-Marie.

During the next twenty-four years Champlain passed some months in
France at different times, according to the exigencies of the colony.
One of the most important changes he brought about was the formation of
a new commercial association, for the purpose of reconciling rival
mercantile interests. To give strength and dignity to the enterprise,
the Count de Soissons, Charles of Bourbon, one of the royal sons of
France, was placed at the head, but he died suddenly, and was replaced
by Prince de Conde, Henry of Bourbon, also a royal prince, best known
as the father of the victor of Rocroy, and the opponent of Marie de'
Medici during her intrigues with Spain. It was in this same year that
he entered into an engagement with a rich Calvinist, Nicholas Boulle,
to marry his daughter Helen, then a child, {77} when she had arrived at
a suitable age, on the condition that the father would supply funds to
help the French in their Canadian experiment. The marriage was not
consummated until ten years later, and Champlain's wife, whose
Christian name he gave to the pretty islet opposite Montreal harbour,
spent four years in the settlement. The happiness of a domestic life
was not possible in those early Canadian days, and a gentle French girl
probably soon found herself a mere luxury amid the savagery of her
surroundings. Helen Champlain has no place in this narrative, and we
leave her with the remark that she was converted by her husband, and on
his death retired to the seclusion of an Ursuline convent in France.
No child was born to bear the name and possibly increase the fame of
Champlain.

On his return to Canada, in the spring of 1613, Champlain decided to
explore the western waters of Canada. L'Escarbot, who published his
"New France," soon after his return from Acadia, tells us that
"Champlain promised never to cease his efforts until he has found there
[in Canada] a western or northern sea opening up the route to China
which so many have so far sought in vain." While at Paris, during the
winter of 1612, Champlain saw a map which gave him some idea of the
great sea which Hudson had discovered. At the same time he heard from
a Frenchman, Ni