hundred and fifty French vessels at Newfoundland, and exchanges with the natives brought good returns.

When, under the mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV., the star of France emerged from the clouds which had long eclipsed her glory, the purpose of founding a French empire in America was renewed, and in 1598 an ample commission was issued to the Marquis de la Roche, a nobleman of Brittany. Sweeping the prisons of France of their inmates, he established them on the desolate isle of Sable. After some years the few survivors received a pardon and were brought back to their native country.

The prospect of gain prompted the next adventure. In 1600, a monopoly of the fur trade, with an ample patent, was obtained by Chauvin; and Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo, shared the traffic. The voyage was repeated, for it was lucrative. The death of Chauvin prevented his settling a colony.

A firmer hope of success was entertained when, in 1603, a company of merchants of Rouen was formed by the governor of Dieppe; and Samuel Champlain, of Brouage, an able marine officer and a man of science, was selected to direct the expedition. By his natural disposition "delighting marvellously in these enterprises," in the last year of the sixteenth century he had for a season engaged in the service of Spain, that he might make a voyage to regions into which no Frenchman could otherwise have entered. He was in Porto Rico and St. Domingo and Cuba, visited the city of Mexico, and foreshadowed the benefits of joining the two oceans by a canal to Panama. He possessed a clear and penetrating understanding with a spirit of cautious inquiry; untiring perseverance with great mobility; indefatigable activity with fearless courage. The account of his first expedition to Canada gives proof of sound judgment, accurate observation, and historical fidelity. It is full of details on the manners of the savage tribes, not less than the geography of the country; and Quebec was selected as the appropriate site for a fort.

In November, 1603, just after Champlain had returned to France, an exclusive patent was issued to a Calvinist, the able, patriotic, and honest De Monts. The sovereignty of Acadia

and its confines, from the fortieth to the forty-sixth degree of latitude, that is, from Philadelphia to beyond Montreal; a still wider monopoly of the fur trade; the exclusive control of the soil, government, and trade; freedom of religion for Huguenot emigrants-these were the privileges which his charter con

ferred.

In March, 1604, two ships left the shores of France, not to return till a permanent settlement should be made in America. The summer glided away, while the emigrants trafficked with the natives and explored the coasts. The harbor called Annapolis after its conquest 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 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 their first attempt at a settlement on the island of St. Croix, at the mouth of the river of the same name. The island proved so ill suited to their purposes that, in spring, 1605, they removed to Port Royal.

For an agricultural colony a milder climate was more desirable; in view of a settlement at the south, De Monts in the same year explored and claimed for France the rivers, especially the Merrimac, the coasts and the bays of New England, as far, at least, as Cape Cod. The numbers and hostility of the savages led him to delay a removal, since his colonists were so few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice, in the spring of 1606, did Dupont, his lieutenant, attempt to complete the dis covery. Twice he was driven back by adverse winds; and, in August, at the third attempt, his vessel was wrecked. Poutrincourt, who had visited France and returned with supplies, himself renewed the design; but, in November, meeting with disasters among the shoals of Cape Cod, he, too, returned to Port Royal.

The possessions of Poutrincourt were, in 1607, confirmed by Henry IV.; in the next year the apostolic benediction of the Roman pontiff followed families which exiled themselves to evangelize infidels; Mary of Medici herself contributed money to support the missions, which the Marchioness de

Guercheville protected; and in 1610, by a compact with De Biencourt, the proprietary's son, the order of the Jesuits was enriched by an imposition on the fisheries and fur trade.

The arrival of Jesuit priests in June, 1611, was signalized by conversions among the natives. In the following year De Biencourt and Father Biart explored the coast as far as the Kennebec, and ascended that river. The Canibas, Algonkins of the Abenaki nations, touched by the confiding humanity of the French, listened reverently to the message of redemption; and, already hostile toward 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 English encroachments.

A French colony was soon established, under the auspices of Madame De Guercheville and Mary of Medici; in 1613 the rude intrenchments of St. Saviour were raised by De Saussaye on the eastern shore of Mount 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.

Meantime the remonstrances of French traders had effected the revocation of the monopoly of De Monts, and a company of merchants of Dieppe and St. Malo had founded. Quebec. The design was executed by Champlain, who aimed not at the profits of trade, but at the glory of creating a state. On the third day of July, 1608, he raised the white flag over Quebec, where rude cottages were soon framed, a few fields cleared, and one or two gardens planted. The next year the bold adventurer, attended by two Europeans, joined a mixed party of Hurons from Montreal, and Algonkins 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. A battle with the Five Nations was fought near Ticonderoga.

The death of Henry IV., in 1610, deprived the Huguenots of their protector. Yet 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 viceroy of New France; through his intercession merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, and La Rochelle, obtained in 1615 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 invaded the territory of the Iroquois in New York. Wounded and repulsed, and destitute of guides, he spent the first winter after his return to America in the country of the Hurons; and, wandering among the forests, carried his language, religion, and influence even to the hamlets of Algonkins, near Lake Nipising.

Religious disputes combined with commercial jealousies to check the progress of the colony; yet in July, 1620, in obedience to the wishes of 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 fut ure;" and in 1624 the castle St. Louis, so long the place of council against the Iroquois and against New England, was durably built on "a commanding cliff."

In the same year the viceroyalty was transferred to the religious enthusiast, Henry de Levi; and through his influence, in 1625, just a year after Jesuits had 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, who had been created Grand Master of Navigation; and, though disasters intervened, Champlain successfully established the authority of the French on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in the territory which became his country. Dying on Christmas day, 1635, "the father of New France" was buried in the land which he colonized. The humble industry of the fishermen of Normandy and Brittany promised their country the acquisition of an empire.

CHAPTER II.

THE SPANIARDS IN FLORIDA AND ON THE PACIFIC COAST.

I HAVE traced the course of events which established France in Acadia and Canada. The same power extended its claims indefinitely towards the south; but the right to Florida, on the ground of discovery, belonged to the Spanish, and was successfully asserted.

No sooner had the New World revealed itself to Castile and Aragon than the Spanish chivalry of the ocean despised the range of Europe as too narrow, and offering to their extravagant ambition nothing beyond mediocrity. Blending avarice and religious zeal, they sailed to the west, as if they had been bound on a new crusade, for which infinite wealth was to reward their piety. America was the region of romance, where the heated imagination could indulge in the boldest delusions; where the simple natives ignorantly wore the most precious ornaments; and, by the side of the clear runnels of water, the sands sparkled with gold. To carve out provinces with the sword; to plunder the accumulated treasures of some ancient Indian dynasty; to return from a roving expedition with a crowd of enslaved captives and a profusion of spoils-became their ordinary dreams. Ease, fortune, life -all were squandered in the pursuit where, if the issue was uncertain, success was sometimes obtained, greater than the boldest desires had dared to anticipate. Is it strange that these adventurers were often superstitious? Or that they indulged the hope that the laws of Nature themselves would yield to men so fortunate and so brave?

The youth of Juan Ponce de Leon had been passed in military service in Spain; and, during the wars in Granada,