red upon the count.[104]
Soissons died soon after, and the Prince of Conde became his successor.
Champlain was wisely continued in the command he had so long and ably
held, but was delayed in France for some time by difficulties on the
subject of commerce with the merchants of St. Malo.

Champlain sailed again from St. Malo on the 6th of March, 1613, in a
vessel commanded by Pontgrave, and anchored before Quebec on the 7th of
May. He found the state of affairs at the settlement so satisfactory
that his continued presence was unnecessary; he therefore proceeded at
once to Montreal, and, after a short stay at that island, explored for
some distance the course of the Ottawa, which there pours its vast flood
into the main stream of the St. Lawrence. The white men were filled with
wonder and admiration at the magnitude of this great tributary, the
richness and beauty of its shores, the broad lakes and deep rapids, and
the eternal forests, clothing mountain, plain, and valley for countless
leagues around. As they proceeded they found no diminution in the volume
of water; and when they inquired of the wandering Indian for its source,
he pointed to the northwest, and indicated that it lay in the unknown
solitudes of ice and snow, to which his people had never reached. After
this expedition Champlain returned with his companion Pontgrave to St.
Malo, where they arrived in the end of August.

Having engaged some wealthy merchants of St. Malo, Rouen, and Rochelle
in an association for the support of the colony, through the assistance
of the Prince of Conde, viceroy of New France, he obtained letters
patent of incorporation for the company (1614). The temporal welfare of
the settlement being thus placed upon a secure basis, Champlain, who was
a zealous Catholic, next devoted himself to obtain spiritual aid. By his
entreaties four Recollets were prevailed upon to undertake the mission.
These were the first[105] ministers of religion settled in Canada. They
reached Quebec in the beginning of April, 1615, accompanied by
Champlain, who, however, at once proceeded to Montreal.

On arriving at this island, he found the Huron and other allied tribes
again preparing for an expedition against the Iroquois. With a view of
gaining the friendship of the savages, and of acquiring a knowledge of
the country, he injudiciously offered himself to join a quarrel in which
he was in no wise concerned. The father Joseph Le Caron accompanied him,
in t