ve
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.
Champlain brought with him among the colonists a number of artisans,
who, on the magnificent headland of Quebec, erected a fort which was
to become the refuge of the sadly menaced little European colony, and
was long the centre of French influence and dominion in the New
World.

The rivalries of various commercial companies and the conflicting
colonial policy of France seriously retarded settlement and were a
great vexation to Champlain. Moreover, his quarrels with the powerful
Iroquois Indians, as here related by Dr. Miles, secretary of the
Quebec Council of Instruction, long prevented the southward extension
of French power in America.

In 1627 Cardinal Richelieu, prime minister to Louis XIII, cancelled
the old trading-charters, and established the Company of One Hundred
Associates, with power to trade throughout New France from Florida to
Hudson Bay. By the terms of the charter the "Hundred Associates" were
given the sole right to engage in the fur trade, with control over
the shore and inland fishing and of all commerce with the French
settlements in the country. In return for this monopoly the company
agreed to carry out mechanics and tradesmen to the colony, to settle
within a specified period some six thousand colonists, and to make
provision for the support of a certain number of Catholic clergy. The
French King, at the same time, made Champlain governor, so that he
finished his life in the service of the colony he had founded.

Samuel de Chaplain, who must be regarded as the real founder of the
Canadian colony, was already a noted man when invited by De Chates (or
De Chastes), commandant of Dieppe, to take part in the enterprise for
colonizing New France. He had served in the French marine at the
Antilles, and also in the South of France against the Spaniards, and
De Chates had met him at court. He was a man of noble and virtuous
disposition, chivalrous, and inspired with a deep sense of religion,
and at that time about thirty-six years of age. It will also be seen
that Champlain was gifted with qualities which endeared him both to his
own