To their insane charge Smith replied by taking the accusers
into custody, and by the first vessel he sent them for trial to England.
By his courage, his address, and his firmness he now wielded great
influence with the Indians, and proved the salvation of the settlement.
FOUNDING OF QUEBEC
CHAMPLAIN ESTABLISHES FRENCH POWER IN CANADA
A.D. 1608
H. H. MILES
From the period of Cartier's and Roberval's expeditions nearly fifty
years elapsed before France renewed her efforts to colonize the New
World. About the year 1598 the lucrative fur trade began to be
encouraged by Henry IV, of France, who in the brief respite from
religious wars was turning his attention to colonization and
commerce. In 1603 Samuel de Champlain, a French naval officer of high
character and chivalrous instincts, made his first voyage to Canada
in company with M. Pontegrave, a merchant of St. Malo, and together
they pushed their way up the St. Lawrence as far as the rapids above
Montreal, which Champlain named Lachine (_a la Chine_), for he
thought he had at last found a waterway to China. In 1608 he
proceeded to found at Stadacona (Quebec) a fixed trading-post of the
Merchant Company, in whose service he had again come to the country.
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