V. SECT. of the colonists had died, and forty of them only were left alive. These considerations determined 1605. De Monts to remove his colony across the bay to Port Royal. The buildings at St. Croix were left standing, but all the stores, &c. were removed. New houses were erected at the mouth of the river L'Equille, which empties itself into the basin of Port Royal, and here the people and stores were lodged. These incidents, however induced De Monts to look out for a more comfortable situation in a warmer climate. With that view he sailed southwardly along the coast to Penobscot, Kennebec, Caseo, Saco, and ultimately to Malebarre, *The river in which L'isle de St. Croix lies, is called the Scoodich, which was the original name given it by the natives, but it is also called the St. Croix ; and being part of the boundary between the territory of the United States and the British province of New Brunswick, it has become a stream of considerable importance. After the treaty of 1783, by which the river St. Croix was made a boundary, it became a question which was the real St. Croix; whether the river known by the name of Scoodich, or that known by the name of Magaguadavick. It has, however, been satisfactorily determined, by commissioners appointed for that purpose, that the Scoodich is the river, originally named St. Croix, and the line has been settled accordingly. Professor Webber, who accompanied the commissioners in 1798, informed Mr. Holmes, that they found an island in this river, corresponding to the French descriptions of the island St. Croix, and near the upper end of it, the remains of a very ancient fortification, overgrown with large trees, that the foundation stones were traced to a considerable extent; and that bricks (a specimen of which he showed Mr. Holmes,) were found there. There is no doubt that these were the reliques of De Monts's fortification. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 149. V. 1605. which was at that time the French name of Cape SECT. Cod. He explored divers of these rivers, bays, and harbours: particularly the Kennebec, up which he went a considerable distance. But the natives appearing numerous and unfriendly, and his company being small, he returned to St. Croix, and then to Port Royal, where he found Pontgravé, in a ship from France, with supplies, and a reinforcement of forty men. Having put his affairs into good order, he embarked for France in September, 1605, leaving Pontgravé as his lieutenant, with Champlain and Champelore to perfect the settlement and explore the country. revoked. M. de Monts, on his arrival in France, found, His patent that endeavours had been made to prepossess the French court against his views. The masters of the fishing vessels, who frequented the coast of Acadié and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which fishery is said to have been the best trade the French then had, represented to the ministry, that De Monts, on pretence of preventing the fur trade with the natives, to which by his patent he had an exclusive right, kept them from the necessaries fit for fishing, and that they were upon the point of abandoning the fisheries. They succeeded so far that De Monts's patent was revoked. This did not, however, entirely discourage him. He entered into new engagements with Pontrincourt, who was then likewise in France. Pontrincourt sailed again for America, in year 1606, in an armed vessel from Rochelle. colony which had been left at Port Royal under care of Pontgravé, was, by the time of the ૨ the 1606. Pontrin The court's endeavours the to fix a set tlement at arri- Port Roy V. al, Nova Scotia. SECT. val of Pontgrave off Cape Canso, reduced to such difficulties, that Pontrincourt was obliged to reem1606. bark all the inhabitants but two, whom he left to -take care of the effects he could not carry off. However, before he got out of the Bay of Fundy he heard of Pontrincourt's arrival at Canso, upon which he returned to Port Royal, where, about the same time, Pontrincourt arrived. The relief which Pontrincourt brought to this infant colony, came so -seasonably, that it again held up its head; but its prosperity is said to have been in a great measure owing to the spirit and abilities of Le Carbot, a French lawyer, who, partly from friendship to Pontrincourt, and partly through curiosity, had accompanied him in this voyage. It would seem also, that about this time Pontgravé, said to be the ablest -man by far of any concerned in these projected settlements, resigned his command. 1607. De Monts In the next year, 1607, Pontrincourt returned to The Sieur. France, and the king, induced probably by his faobtains a vourable representations of the country, either contion of his firmed or regranted to the Sieur De Monts his forgrant, mer exclusive privilege for the fur trade with the restora. natives, for the purpose, as it is said, of enabling him to establish his colonies in New France. De Monts accordingly sent over, in the year 1608, three ships with families, to commence a permanent settlement. Champlain, who took the charge of conducting this colony, after examining all the most eligible places for settlement in Acadié, and the river St. Lawrence, selected a spot at the confluence of this river and the St. Charles, another small river emptying into the former, about three V. blishes hundred and twenty miles up the river St. Lawrence, SECT. from the sea. Here, on the third of July, 1608, he began to erect barracks for lodgings for his peo- 1608. ple, and to clear the ground, which he sowed with And esta wheat and rye, and on this spot laid the foundation the first of Quebec, the present capital of Canada.* succeeding events relative to Acadié and Canada, ada, under appertain to the histories of those countries. now our business to return to the at last successful attempts of the English at colonisation. perma. The nent colo It is * Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408, 412. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 148, 163. ny in Can Cham plain. |