er the retirement of the Duc de Sully (1611) he was placed in
charge of the finances of France.] enlisted the sympathy of the king's
almoner, Beaulieu; appealed to the royal council; proposed the office of
viceroy to Soissons; and began the endeavour to organize a new trading
company. Considering that early in 1612 he suffered a serious fall from
his horse, this record of activity is sufficiently creditable for one
twelve-month. Meanwhile the Indians at Sault St Louis grieved at his
absence, and his enemies told them he was dead.

It was not until 1614 that the new programme in its entirety could be
carried out. This time the delay came, not from the court, but from the
merchants. Negotiations were in progress when the ships sailed for the
voyage of 1613, but Champlain could not remain to conclude them, as he
felt that he must keep faith with the Indians. However, on his return
to France that autumn, he resumed the effort, and by the spring of 1614.
the merchants of Rouen, St Malo, and La Rochelle had been brought to
terms among themselves as participants in a monopoly which was leased
from the viceroy. Conde received a thousand crowns a year, and the new
company also agreed to take out six families of colonists each season.
In return it was granted the monopoly for eleven years. De Monts was a
member of the company and Quebec became its headquarters in Canada. But
the moving spirit was Champlain, who was appointed lieutenant to the
viceroy with a salary and the right to levy for his own purposes four
men from each ship trading in the river.

Once more disappointment followed. Save for De Monts, Champlain's
company was not inspired by Champlain's patriotism. During the first
three years of its existence the obligation to colonize was wilfully
disregarded, while in the fourth year the treatment accorded Louis
Hebert shows that good faith counted for as little with the fur traders
when they acted in association as when they were engaged in cut-throat
competition.

Champlain excepted, Hebert was the most admirable of those who risked
death in the attempt to found a settlement at Quebec. He was not a
Norman peasant, but a Parisian apothecary. We have already seen that he
took part in the Acadian venture of De Monts and Poutrincourt. After the
capture of Port Royal by the English he returned to France (1613) and
reopened his shop. Three years later Champlain was authorized by the
company to offer him and his family favoura