had gone home from Port Royal to France. De Monts now
succeeds in obtaining a fresh monopoly for one year on the St.
Lawrence, and sends out two ships in 1608 under his old friends,
Pontgrave, who is to attend to the bartering, Champlain, who is to
explore. With them come some of the colonists from Port Royal, among
others Louis Hebert, the chemist, first colonist to become farmer at
Quebec, and Abraham Martin, whose name was given to the famous plains
where Wolfe and Montcalm later fought.

Pontgrave arrived at the rendezvous of Tadoussac early in June. Here
he found Basque fishermen engaged in the peltry {45} traffic with
Indians from Labrador. When Pontgrave read his commission interdicting
all ships but those of De Monts from trade, the Basques poured a
fusillade of musketry across his decks, killed one man, wounded two,
then boarded his vessel and trundled his cannon ashore. So much for
royal commissions and monopoly!

[Illustration: TADOUSSAC (From Champlain's map)]

At this stage came Champlain on the second boat. Two vessels were
overstrong for the Basques. They quickly came to terms and decamped.
Champlain steered his tiny craft on up the silver flood of the St.
Lawrence to that Cape Diamond where Cartier's men had gathered
worthless stones. Between the high cliff and the river front, not far
from the market place of Quebec City to-day, workmen began clearing the
woods for the site of the French habitation. The little fort was
palisaded, of course, with a moat outside and cannon commanding the
river. The walls were loopholed for musketry; and inside ran a gallery
to serve as lookout and defense. Houses, barracks, garden, and
fresh-water supply completed the fort. One day, as Champlain {46}
worked in his garden, a colonist begged to speak with him. Champlain
stepped into the woods. The man then blurted out how a conspiracy was
on foot, instigated by the Basques, to assassinate Champlain, seize the
fort, and stab any man who dared to resist. One of Pontgrave's small
boats lay at anchor. Champlain sent for the pilot, told him the story
of the plot, gave him two bottles of wine, and bade him invite the
ringleaders on board that night to drink. The ruse worked. The
ringleaders were handcuffed, the other colonists awakened in the fort
and told that the plot had been crushed. The body of Duval, the chief
plotter, in pay of the Basques, swung as warning from a gibbet; and his
head was exposed on a