the information that Cartier had given of
Canada and the country around the Gulf. When the expedition reached
France, Aymar de Chastes was dead, but two months had hardly elapsed
after Champlain's return when a new company was formed on the usual
basis of trade and colonisation. At its head was Sieur de Monts,
Pierre du Guast, the governor of Pons, a Calvinist and a friend of the
King. After much deliberation it was decided to venture south of
Canada and explore that ill-defined region, called "La Cadie" in the
royal commission given to De Monts as the King's lieutenant in Canada
and adjacent countries, the first record we have of that Acadia where
French and English were to contend during a century for the supremacy.
For a few moments we must leave the valley of the St. Lawrence, where
France was soon to enthrone herself on the heights of Quebec, and visit
a beautiful bay on the western coast of Nova Scotia, where a sleepy old
town, full of historic associations, still stands to recall the efforts
of gentlemen-adventurers to establish a permanent settlement on the
shores of the Atlantic.

{51}

V.

THE FRENCH OCCUPATION OF ACADIA AND THE
FOUNDATION OF PORT ROYAL.

(1604-1614.)

In the western valley of that part of French Acadia, now known as Nova
Scotia, not only do we tread on historic ground, but we see in these
days a landscape of more varied beauty than that which so delighted the
gentlemen-adventurers of old France nearly three centuries ago. In
this country, which the poem conceived by Longfellow amid the elms of
Cambridge has made so famous, we see the rich lands reclaimed from the
sea, which glistens a few miles to the north, and every day comes
rushing up its estuaries. There to the north is dark, lofty
Blomidon--whose name is probably a memorial of a Portuguese
voyager--with its overhanging cliff under which the tumultuous tides
struggle and foam. Here, in a meadow close by, is a long row of
Lombardy poplars, pointing to another race and another country. There,
on a slight acclivity, among the trees, is a pile of white college
buildings, there a tall white spire {52} rises into the pure blue sky.
We see cottages covered with honeysuckle and grapevine; with their
gardens of roses and lilies, and many old-fashioned flowers. In the
spring, the country is one mass of pink and white blossoms, which load
the passing breeze with delicate fragrance; in autumn the trees bend
beneath rosy and