Sieur de Roberval, lord of
Norumbega and viceroy of "Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland,
Bell Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, Great Bay, and Baccalaos"; and Cartier
was made "captain-general." The expedition sailed in two divisions,
Cartier commanding the first, which left St. Malo May 23, 1541. Again
he passed a winter of gloom and suffering on the St. Lawrence, and in
June of the following year set out to return.

On the coast of Newfoundland he met Roberval, who had charge of the
second division of the ships and two hundred colonists. The viceroy
ordered him to return, but Cartier slipped past him at night and left
Roberval to hold the country the best he could. Undismayed, Roberval
pursued his way, entered the St. Lawrence, and established his colony
at Quebec. He sent Jean Alefonse to explore Norumbega, a term applied
to the coast of Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland; and he himself
explored the river Saguenay. Lescarbot tells us that in the course of
1543 the king sent out Cartier, who brought home the wretched
survivors of the company.

Then for nearly fifteen years the civil wars in France prevented any
further effort at settlement on the St. Lawrence. Scores of French
vessels, however, visited the region of the northwest for fish and
furs, and as soon as the civil wars were ended the work of
colonization was taken up anew. Failure as of old attended the first
experiments. In 1598 Marquis de la Roche landed forty convicts at
Sable Island, but after seven years the few survivors received a
pardon and returned home. In 1600 Chauvin and Pontgrave promised to
establish a colony on the St. Lawrence, and obtained from King Henry
IV. a grant of the fur trade, but Chauvin died and the undertaking
came to an end.[6]

In 1603 the first systematic effort to found French colonies in
America was made. A company was formed at the head of which was Aymar
de Chastes, governor of Dieppe, who sent over Samuel Champlain. He
visited the St. Lawrence, and after careful exploration returned to
France with a valuable cargo of furs. On his arrival he found De
Chastes dead, but Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, a patriotic
Huguenot, took up the unfinished work. He received from Henry IV. a
patent[7] "to represent our person as lieutenant-general in the
country of Acadia from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree," with
governmental authority, and the exclusive privileges of traffic with
the Indians.

April 7, 1604, De Monts, a