mychael Smyth, the making of a road to the Pacific through the
wilderness by means of convicts. The plan, however, failed, though
attempted by the Marquis De la Roche, who actually left on Sable Island
forty convicts drawn from the French prisons. A company of merchants
having been formed for the purpose of making settlements, Champlain
accepted the command of an expedition, and accompanied by Pontgrave,
sailed for the St. Lawrence in 1603. They arrived safely at Tadousac,
and proceeded in open boats up the St. Lawrence; but did nothing. The
effort at settlement was subsequently renewed. In 1608, Champlain, a
second time, reached Stadacona or Quebec, on the 3rd July, and struck
by the commanding position of Cape Diamond, selected the base of the
promontory as the site of a town. He erected huts for shelter;
established a magazine for stores and provisions; and formed barracks
for the soldiery, not on the highest point of the headland, but on the
site of the recently destroyed parliament buildings. There were then a
few, and only a few, Indians in Stadacona, that Indian town being
situated rather on the St. Charles than on the St. Lawrence. Few as
they were, famine reduced them to the necessity of supplicating food
from the strangers. The strangers themselves suffered much from scurvy,
and after an exploration of the lake which yet bears the name of its
discoverer, Champlain returned to France. Two years later the intrepid
sailor set out for Tadousac and Quebec with artisans, laborers, and
supplies for Nouvelle France, the name then given to Canada, or the
Great "Pass" to China. He arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay on the
26th of April, after a remarkably short passage of eighteen days. He
found his first settlers contented and prosperous. They had cultivated
the ground successfully, and were on good terms with the natives.
Champlain, however, desirous of annexing more of the territory of the
Indians, stirred them up to strife. He himself joined an hostile
expedition of the Algonquins and Montagnais against the Iroquois. What
success he met with is not now to be ascertained. Deficient in
resources, he again returned to France, and found a partner able and
willing to assist the Colony in the person of the Count de Soisson, who
had been appointed Viceroy of the new country--a sinecure appointment
which the Count did not long enjoy, inasmuch as death took possession
of him shortly afterwards. The honorary office of Viceroy