d charge of affairs, and instituted a new one with
himself at its head. In the spring of 1628 he despatched to Canada
four armed vessels and eighteen transports laden with emigrants,
stores, and cannon, but war had broken out between the English and
French the year before, and on their way the fleet was intercepted and
the ships and goods confiscated.

The English had not recognized the claims of the French to any part of
the North American continent, and the very year that the Jesuit
station was planted at Mount Desert Island Samuel Argall came twice
from Virginia and burned the houses of the intruding French at all of
their settlements in Acadia: Mount Desert Island, Isle de Croix, and
Port Royal. The French rebuilt Port Royal, and at the death of
Poutrincourt's son Biencourt, about the year 1623, his possessions and
claims fell to his friend and companion Claude de la Tour.

Meanwhile, in 1621, Sir William Alexander obtained a grant from King
James for New Scotland, being that part of Acadia now comprising the
provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick;[9] and he sent over from
time to time a few Scotch emigrants. De la Tour and the French
submitted, and English rule seemed firmly established in Acadia when
war was declared in 1628. In February, 1629, Alexander received a
patent for St. Lawrence River and "fifty leagues of bounds on both
sides thereof," and on both sides of its tributary lakes and rivers as
far as the Gulf of California.[10]

After the failure of the expedition sent by Cardinal Richelieu,
Alexander and his partners despatched an English fleet commanded by
David Kirke, which appeared before Quebec in July, 1629. Champlain and
his small garrison were compelled to surrender, and all New France
fell under English power. Unfortunately for Alexander and Kirke, war
between the two nations had ceased, and the articles of peace provided
that all conquests made subsequent to April 24, 1629, should be
restored to the former owner. This insured the loss of Quebec and was
the forerunner of other misfortunes. In 1632 a treaty was made at St.
Germain by which, despite the protest of Sir William Alexander and a
memorial from the Scottish Parliament, King Charles consented "to give
up and restore all the places occupied in New France, Acadia, and
Canada" by his subjects.[11]

In 1632 Champlain returned to his government at Quebec, and with him
arrived a number of zealous Jesuit priests, who began that adventurous