left
alive.

For the story of Champlain it is not necessary to touch upon the
relations of the French government with traders at a date earlier than
1599. Immediately following the failure of La Roche's second expedition,
Pierre Chauvin of Honfleur secured a monopoly which covered the
Laurentian fur trade for ten years. The condition was that he should
convey to Canada fifty colonists a year throughout the full period of
his grant. So far from carrying out this agreement either in spirit
or letter, he shirked it without compunction. After three years the
monopoly was withdrawn, less on the ground that he had failed to fulfil
his contract than from an outcry on the part of merchants who desired
their share of the trade. To adjudicate between Chauvin and his rivals
in St Malo and Rouen a commission was appointed at the close of 1602.
Its members were De Chastes, governor of Dieppe, and the Sieur de
la Cour, first president of the Parlement of Normandy. On their
recommendation the terms of the monopoly were so modified as to admit to
a share in the privilege certain leading merchants of Rouen and St Malo,
who, however, must pay their due share in the expenses of colonizing.
Before the ships sailed in 1603 Chauvin had died, and De Chastes at once
took his place as the central figure in the group of those to whom a new
monopoly had just been conceded.

[Footnote: The history of all the companies formed during these years
for trade in New France is the same. First a monopoly is granted under
circumstances ostensibly most favourable to the Government and to the
privileged merchants; then follow the howls of the excluded traders, the
lack of good voluntary colonists, the transportation to the colony of
a few beggars, criminals, or unpromising labourers; a drain on the
company's funds in maintaining these during the long winter; a steady
decrease in the number taken out; at length no attempt to fulfil this
condition of the monopoly; the anger of the Government when made aware
of the facts; and finally the sudden repeal of the monopoly several
years before its legal termination.--H. P. Biggar, 'Early Trading
Companies of New France,' p. 49.]

We are now on the threshold of Champlain's career, but only on the
threshold. The voyage of 1603, while full of prophecy and presenting
features of much interest, lacks the arduous and constructive quality
which was to mark his greater explorations. In 1603 the two boats
equipped by De C