vals during the next century, he continues: 'So many voyages and
discoveries without results, and attended with so much hardship and
expense, have caused us French in late years to attempt a permanent
settlement in those lands which we call New France, in the hope of thus
realizing more easily this object; since the voyage in search of the
desired passage commences on the other side of the ocean and is made
along the coast of this region.'

A comparison of the words just quoted with the text of De Monts'
commission will serve to illustrate the strength of Champlain's
geographical instinct. The commission begins with a somewhat stereotyped
reference to the conversion of the heathen, after which it descants upon
commerce, colonies, and mines. The supplementary commission to De Monts
from Montmorency as Lord High Admiral adds a further consideration,
namely, that if Acadia is not occupied by the French it will be seized
upon by some other nation. Not a word of the route to the East occurs
in either commission, and De Monts is limited in the powers granted to a
region extending along the American seaboard from the fortieth parallel
to the forty-sixth, with as much of the interior 'as he is able to
explore and colonize.'

This shows that, while the objects of the expedition were commercial
and political, Champlain's imagination was kindled by the prospect of
finding the long-sought passage to China. To his mind a French colony in
America is a stepping-stone, a base of operations for the great quest.
De Monts himself doubtless sought honour, adventure, and profit--the
profit which might arise from possessing Acadia and controlling the fur
trade in 'the river of Canada.' Champlain remains the geographer, and
his chief contribution to the Acadian enterprise will be found in
that part of his Voyages which describes his study of the coast-line
southward from Cape Breton to Malabar.

But whether considered from the standpoint of exploration or settlement,
the first chapter of French annals in Acadia is a fine incident.
Champlain has left the greatest fame, but he was not alone during
these years of peril and hardship. With him are grouped De Monts,
Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, Pontgrave, and Louis Hebert, all men of
capacity and enterprise, whose part in this valiant enterprise lent it a
dignity which it has never since lost. As yet no English colony had
been established in America. Under his commission De Monts could have
selected