ccompanied by Champlain, sailed from Havre
de Grace, and May 1 came in sight of Sable Island. They sailed up the
Bay of Fundy and entered a harbor on the north coast of Nova Scotia.
Poutrincourt, one of the leading men, was so pleased with the region
that he obtained a grant of it from De Monts, and named it Port Royal
(now Annapolis). After further exploration De Monts planted his
settlement on the Isle of St. Croix, at the mouth of the St. Croix
River, where he passed the winter; but half the emigrants died from
exposure and scurvy, and in the spring the colony was transferred to
Port Royal. After three years spent in the country, during which time
the coast was explored thoroughly by Champlain and Poutrincourt as far
as Nausett Harbor, the Acadian emigrants went back to France, which
they reached in October, 1607.

The design was not abandoned. Poutrincourt returned in 1610 and
re-established his colony at Port Royal, which he placed in charge of
his son. In 1611 two Jesuit priests, Biard and Masse, came over, under
the patronage of Madame de Guercheville, and in 1613 they planted a
Jesuit station at Mount Desert Island, on the coast of Maine.[8]

Champlain did not return to Port Royal, but was employed in another
direction. In April, 1608, De Monts sent out Champlain and Pontgrave
to establish a colony on the St. Lawrence and traffic with the Indians
of that region. Of this expedition Champlain was constituted
lieutenant-governor, and he was successful in planting a settlement at
Quebec in July, 1608. It was a mere trading-post, and after twenty
years it did not number over one hundred persons. But Champlain looked
to the time when Canada should be a prosperous province of France, and
he was tireless and persistent. Aided by several devout friars of the
Franciscan order, he labored hard to Christianize the Indians and
visited lakes Champlain, Nipissing, Huron, and Ontario. While he made
the fur trade of great value to the merchant company in France, he
committed the fatal mistake of mixing up with Indian quarrels. Between
the Five Nations of New York and the Hurons and their allies, the
Algonquins of the St. Lawrence, perpetual war prevailed, and Champlain
by taking sides against the former incurred for the French the lasting
hatred of those powerful Indians.

The progress of the colony was not satisfactory to Champlain or to the
authorities in France, and in 1627 Cardinal Richelieu dissolved the
company which ha