his son participated, and after it had been destroyed by Argall,
they remained with Biencourt and his companions. In the course of
time, the elder La Tour established a trading post on the peninsula at
the mouth of the Penobscot--in Acadian history a prominent place, as
often in possession of the English as the French.

{94} Biencourt and his companions appear to have had some accessions to
their number during the years that followed the Virginian's visit.
They built rude cabins on the banks of the Annapolis, and cultivated
patches of ground after a fashion, beside raising a fort of logs and
earth near Cape Sable, called indifferently Fort Louis or Lomeron. It
has been generally believed that Biencourt died in Acadia about 1623,
after making over all his rights to Charles La Tour, who was his
personal friend and follower from his boyhood. Recently, however, the
discovery of some old documents in Paris throws some doubt on the
generally accepted statement of the place of his death.[1]

It is quite certain, however, whether Biencourt died in France or
Acadia, young La Tour assumed after 1623 the control of Fort St. Louis
and all other property previously held by the former. In 1626 the
elder La Tour was driven from the Penobscot by English traders from
Plymouth who took possession of the fort and held it for some years.
He now recognised the urgent necessity of having his position in Acadia
ratified and strengthened by the French king, and consequently went on
a mission to France in 1627.

About this time the attention of prominent men in England was called to
the fact that the French had settlements in Acadia. Sir William
Alexander, afterwards the Earl of Stirling, a favourite of King James
the Fourth of Scotland and First of England, and an author of several
poetical tragedies, wished {95} to follow the example of Sir Frederick
Gorges, one of the promoters of the colonisation of New England. He
had no difficulty in obtaining from James, as great a pedant as
himself, a grant of Acadia, which he named Nova Scotia. When Charles
the First became king, he renewed the patent, and also, at the
persuasion of the ambitious poet, created an order of Nova Scotia
baronets, who were obliged to assist in the settlement of the country,
which was thereafter to be divided into "baronies." Sir William
Alexander, however, did not succeed in making any settlement in Nova
Scotia, and did not take any definite measures to drive the