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CHAP. degree of latitude, that is, from Philadelphia to beyond I. Montreal; a still wider monopoly of the fur-trade; the 1603. exclusive control of the soil, government, and trade;

1604.

Mar.

7.

freedom of religion for Huguenot emigrants, these were the privileges which the charter conceded. Idlers, and men without a profession, and all banished men, were doomed to lend him aid. A lucrative monopoly was added to the honors of territorial jurisdiction. Wealth and glory were alike expected.

An expedition was prepared without delay, and left the shores of France, not to return till a permanent French settlement should be made in America. All New France was now contained in two ships, which followed the well-known path to Nova Scotia. The summer glided away, while the emigrants trafficked with the natives and explored the coasts. The harbor called Annapolis after the conquest of Acadia by Queen Anne, an excellent harbor, though difficult of access, possessing a small but navigable river, which abounded in fish, and is bordered by beautiful meadows, so pleased the imagination of Poutrincourt, a leader in the enterprise, that he sued for a grant of it from De Monts, and, naming it Port Royal, determined to reside there with his family. The company of De Monts made 1604. their first attempt at a settlement on the island of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river of the same name, The remains of their fortifications were still visible, when our eastern boundary was ascertained. Yet the island was so ill suited to their purposes, that, in the 1605. following spring, they removed to Port Royal.

1798.

For an agricultural colony, a milder climate was more desirable; in view of a settlement at the south, De 1605. Monts explored and claimed for France the rivers, the coasts and the bays of New England, as far, at least, as Cape Cod. The numbers and hostility of the sav

FRENCH SETTLEMENT AT PORT ROYAL.

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ages led him to delay a removal, since his colonists CHAP were so few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice, in the spring of the following year, did Dupont, his lieu- 1606 tenant, attempt to complete the discovery. Twice he was driven back by adverse winds; and at the third Aug. attempt, his vessel was wrecked. Poutrincourt, who had visited France, and was now returned with supplies, himself renewed the design; but, meeting with Nov. disasters among the shoals of Cape Cod, he, too, returned to Port Royal. There the first French settle- 1605 ment on the American continent had been made; two years before James River was discovered, and three years before a cabin had been raised in Canada.

14.

The possessions of Poutrincourt were confirmed by 1607 Henry IV.; the apostolic benediction of the Roman pontiff was solicited on families which exiled them- 1608 selves to evangelize infidels; Mary of Medici herself contributed money to support the missions, which the Marchioness de Guercheville protected; and by a com- 1610 pact with De Biencourt, the proprietary's son, the order of the Jesuits was enriched by an imposition on the fisheries and fur-trade.

June

The arrival of Jesuit priests was signalized by con- 1611. versions among the natives. In the following year, De 12. Biencourt and Father Biart explored the coast as far 1612. as the Kennebec, and ascended that river. The Canibas, Algonquins of the Abenaki nations, touched by the confiding humanity of the French, listened reverently to the message of redemption; and, already hostile towards the English who had visited their coast, the tribes between the Penobscot and the Kennebec became the allies of France, and were cherished as a barrier against danger from English encroachments.

A French colony within the United States followed, under the auspices of De Guercheville and Mary of 1613.

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CHAP. Medici; the rude intrenchments of St. Sauveur were raised by De Saussaye on the eastern shore of Mount 1613. Desert Isle. The conversion of the heathen was the motive to the settlement; the natives venerated Biart as a messenger from heaven; and under the summer sky, round a cross in the centre of the hamlet, matins and vespers were regularly chanted. France and the Roman religion had appropriated the soil of Maine.

Meantime the remonstrances of French merchants had effected the revocation of the monopoly of De Monts, and a company of merchants of Dieppe and St. 1608. Malo had founded Quebec. The design was executed July 3 by Champlain, who aimed not at the profits of trade, but at the glory of founding a state. The city of Quebec was begun; that is to say, rude cottages were framed, a few fields were cleared, and one or two gar1609. dens planted. The next year, that singularly bold adventurer, attended but by two Europeans, joined a mixed party of Hurons from Montreal, and Algonquins from Quebec, in an expedition against the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in the north of New York. He ascended the Sorel, and explored the lake which bears his name, and perpetuates his memory.

1611, 1612.

The Huguenots had been active in plans of coloniza1610. tion. The death of Henry IV. deprived them of their powerful protector. Yet the zeal of De Monts survived, and he quickened the courage of Champlain. After the short supremacy of Charles de Bourbon, the Prince of Condé, an avowed protector of the Calvinists, became 1615. viceroy of New France; through his intercession, merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, and La Rochelle, obtained a colonial patent from the king; and Champlain, now sure of success, embarked once more for the New World, accompanied by monks of the order of St. Francis. Again he invades the territory of the Iroquois in New York.

PERSEVERANCE OF CHAMPLAIN.

I.

Bo

1616.

to

Wounded, and repulsed, and destitute of guides, he CHAP. spends the first winter after his return to America in the country of the Hurons; and a knight errant among 1615, the forests carries his language, religion, and influence, even to the hamlets of Algonquins, near Lake Nipissing. Religious disputes combined with commercial jeal- 1617 ousies to check the progress of the colony; yet in the 1620 summer, when the Pilgrims were leaving Leyden, in July obedience to the wishes of the unhappy Montmorenci, the new viceroy, Champlain, began a fort. The merchants grudged the expense. "It is not best to yield to the passions of men," was his reply; "they sway but for a season; it is a duty to respect the future;" and in a few years the castle St. Louis, so long the place 1624. of council against the Iroquois and against New England, was durably founded on "a commanding cliff."

In the same year, the viceroyalty was transferred to 1624. the religious enthusiast, Henry de Levi; and through his influence, in 1625, just a year after Jesuits had 1625. reached the sources of the Ganges and Thibet, the banks of the St. Lawrence received priests of the order, which was destined to carry the cross to Lake Superior and the West.

The presence of Jesuits and Calvinists led to dissensions. The savages caused disquiet. But the persevering founder of Quebec appealed to the Royal Council and to Richelieu; and though disasters inter- 1627. vened, CHAMPLAIN successfully established the authority of the French on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the territory which became his country. "The father of

New France" lies buried in the land which he colo

nized. Thus the humble industry of the fishermen of 1635. Normandy and Brittany promised their country the acquisition of an empire.

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CHAPTER II.

SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES.

СНАР.

II.

I HAVE traced the progress of events, which, for a season, gave to France the uncertain possession of Acadia and Canada. The same nation laid claim to large and undefined regions at the southern extremity of our republic. The expedition of Francis I. discovered the continent in a latitude south of the coast which Cabot had explored; but Verrazzani had yet been anticipated. The claim to Florida, on the ground of discovery, belonged to the Spanish, and was successfully asserted.

Extraordinary success had kindled in the Spanish nation an equally extraordinary enthusiasm. No sooner had the New World revealed itself to their enterprise, than the valiant men, who had won laurels under Ferdinand among the mountains of Andalusia, sought a new career of glory in more remote adventures. The weapons that had been tried in the battles with the Moors, and the military skill that had been acquired in the romantic conquest of Granada, were now turned against the feeble occupants of America. The passions of avarice and religious zeal were strangely blended; and the heroes of Spain sailed to the west, as if they had been bound on a new crusade, where infinite wealth was to reward their piety. The Spanish nation had become infatuated with a fondness for novelties; the "chivalry of the ocean" despised the range of Europe,

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