French Pathfinders in North America

t Visit to the New World.-His Second, and the Determination to which it led.-The Bitter Winter at St. Cro

bate the activity of Frenchmen on

their attention was drawn to the skins worn by the natives. What prices they would bring in France! Here was a field that would m

fter party perished miserably. The story of one of these is singularly romantic. When Sable Island[1] was reached, its leader, the Marquis de la Roche,

swept his little craft out to

n jail like a common malefactor. Meanwhile what of the forty promising colonists on Sable Island? They dropped for years out of human knowledge as completely as Henry Hudson when dastardly mutineer

e survivors of his party. What a story they told! When months passed, and La Roche came not, they thought they were left to their fate. They built huts of the timbers of a wreck which lay on the beach-for there was not a tree on the island-and so faced the dreary winter. With trapping

escaped the notice of the thrifty skipper who brought them home, and he had robbed them. But the King not only compell

e effort to colonize New France. Cold and scurvy as effectual

erves the title of the "Father of New France," since his courage and indomi

John Smith, of Virginia. He came to manhood in time to take part in the great religious wars in France. After the conflict was ended, when his master, Henry the Great, was seated on the throne, Champlain's adventurous spirit led him to the West Indies. Since these were closed to Frenchmen by the jealousy of the Spaniards, there was a degree of peril in the undertaking which for him was its chief charm

de Ch

vé, who was interested in the fur-trade, crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence. When they c

for France, however, a great purpose was formed in Champlain's mind. What he had gathered from the Indians

d leave to plant a colony in Acadia (Nova Scotia). With a band of colonists-if we can apply that name to a motley assemb

two faiths were still full of bitter hatred. It is easy, therefore, to believe Champlain's report

in vain. There was no reply but the echo of the ancient forest. Then suspicion fell upon a certain Huguenot with whom Aubry had often quarreled. He was accused of having killed the missing priest. In spite of his strenuous denial of the charge, many persons firmly believed him guilty. Thus matters stood for more than two weeks. One day, however, the crew of a boat that had been sent back to t

ited for defence, and these Frenchmen, reared in war-time, seem to have thought more of that single advantage than of the far more pressing needs of a colony. Cannon were landed, a battery was built, and a fort was erected. Th

and from their supplies of wood and water. The terror of those days, the scurvy, soon appeared, and by the spring nearly half of the seventy-nine men lay in the little cemetery. Of the sur

on a voyage of discovery. They followed the shores of Maine closely, and by the middle of July were off Cape Ann. Then they entered Massachusetts Bay. The islands of Boston Harbor, now so bare, Champlain describes as covered with tree

the same which, fifteen years afterward, welcomed the brave Pilgrims. The shore was at that time lined with wigwams and garden-patches. The inhabitants were very friendly. While som

rbor. Here misfortune met the party. As some sailors were seeking fresh water behind the sandhills, an Indian snatched a kettle from one of them. Its owner, pursuing him, was killed by his comrades' arrows. The French

scarcity of provisions, decided the voyagers to

Champlain and Monts began to look across the Bay of Fundy,

ic beauty, and he will note the tide rushing like a mill-race, for this narrow passage is the outlet of a considerable inland water. The steamer, passing thro

ngeline, and here was made the first settlement of Fren

mined to remove thither. In their vessels they transported their stores and even parts of their buildings across the Bay of Fundy and

severe in the project of planting a colony, if possible, in a warmer r

rough the dark hours of the night dusky warriors gathered at the meeting-place, until they numbered hundreds. Then they stole silently toward the camp-fire where the unsuspecting Frenchmen lay sleeping. Suddenly a savage yel

of their comrades. They charged, and the dusky enemy fled into the woods. Mournfully the voyagers buried their dead, while the barbarians, from a safe distance, jibed and jeered at them. No sooner had the little party ro

, they turned homeward and, late in November, the most o

to find a lodgment on the New England coast. But

loom. There were jolly times around the blazing logs in the rude hall, of winter evenings. They had abundant food, fine fresh fish, speared through the ice of the rive

red. This arrangement put each one on his mettle to lay up a good store for the day when he would do the honors of the feast. The Indian chiefs sat with

h, except the Five Nations, and these chiefly because their sworn enemies, the Algonquins of the St. Lawrence, were hand in glove with the French. None came into contact with the Spaniards who did not execrate them. But the sons of France mingled freely with the dusky children of the soil, made friends of them and quickly won numbers of them

ttle suffering. Only four men died. With the coming of spring all began t

. The merchants of various ports in France, incensed at being shut out from a lucrative traffic, had used money freely at

the fair promise of a permanent colony must wither. It was a cruel blow to Champlain and his associ

one hundred miles southeast of

orld's Discove

Spaniards in Nort

and the Iroquois. This fact accounts for the disappearance of the thrifty Iroquois village, wi

ing and fishing, they lived in permanent villages and were largely an agricultural people, growing considerable crops. At the time of the co