eached its close, and
trade was open to all comers. From 1609 until 1613 this unrestricted
competition ran its course, with the result that a larger market was
created for beaver skins, while nothing was done to build up New France
as a colony. On the whole, the most notable feature of the period is
the establishment of close personal relations between Champlain and the
Indians. It was then that he became the champion of the Algonquins
and Hurons against the Iroquois League or Five Nations, inaugurating a
policy which was destined to have profound consequences.

The considerations which governed Champlain in his dealings with the
Indians lay quite outside the rights and wrongs of their tribal wars.
His business was to explore the continent on behalf of France, and
accordingly he took conditions as he found them. The Indians had souls
to be saved, but that was the business of the missionaries. In the state
of nature all savages were much like wild animals, and alliance with one
nation or another was a question which naturally settled itself upon
the basis of drainage basins. Lands within the Laurentian watershed were
inhabited mainly by Algonquins and Hurons, whose chief desire in life
was to protect themselves from the Iroquois and avenge past injuries.
The Five Nations dwelt far south from the Sault St Louis and did not
send their furs there for the annual barter. Champlain, ever in quest
of a route to the East, needed friends along the great rivers of the
wilderness. The way to secure them, and at the same time to widen the
trading area, was to fight for the savages of the St Lawrence and the
Ottawa against those of the Mohawk.

And Champlain was a good ally, as he proved in the forest wars of 1609
and 1615. With all their shortcomings, the Indians knew how to take
the measure of a man. The difference between a warrior and a trader was
especially clear to their untutored minds, they themselves being much
better fighters than men of commerce. Champlain, like others, suffered
from their caprice, but they respected his bravery and trusted his word.

In the next chapter we shall attempt to follow Champlain through the
wilderness, accompanied by its inhabitants, who were his guides and
friends. For the present we must pursue the fortunes of Quebec, whose
existence year by year hung upon the risk that court intrigue would
prevail against the determination of two brave men.

From 1608 till 1611 De Monts had two partners,