he establishments in Acadia, at Tadoussac, and
Quebec. But the most discouraging circumstance, which now cut off all
hope of redeeming his losses, was the virtual throwing open of the peltry
trade in the St. Lawrence, of which the traders belonging to French
maritime ports availed themselves in considerable numbers; for when
Champlain and Pontegrave arrived out at Tadoussac, toward the end of May,
they found traders already there doing business with the savages, and
that others had preceded them in the river above, as far as the rapids
near Hochelaga. Champlain hastened to the latter place, with the
determination of establishing there a trading-station for the benefit of
the company. Temporary structures were begun near the site of the future
city of Montreal; ground was cleared, and seeds sown, in order to test
the fruitfulness of the soil. He proposed to erect a fort on an island,
called by him St. Helen's, after the name of his wife.

[1] About the end of 1610 or early in 1611 Champlain, in Paris,
espoused a very youthful lady, named Helene Boulle, daughter of the
King's private secretary. She was a Huguenot, though subsequently
converted by her husband. She visited Canada in 1620, and remained
about four years.

Champlain went to France before winter, and was there detained nearly two
years by the affairs of the company. Although his zeal and his hopes of
founding a colony never flagged, even De Monts retired from participation
in further undertakings, owing to the uncertainties attendant upon the
peltry traffic, and the losses incurred. It appears that Champlain deemed
it indispensably necessary for the colony, and for the trading company
with which it might be connected, to possess, as chief, some personage in
France who had influence and rank at court; therefore, on the retirement
of De Monts, the Count de Soissons was applied to, and afterward the
Prince Henri de Conde. Conde being created viceroy of New France,
Champlain was appointed his lieutenant.[2] Much time was then occupied in
negotiations, with the object of effecting a compromise with the
merchants and traders of Dieppe, St. Malo, Rochelle, and Rouen. In the
end some kind of arrangement was made, securing for the wants of the
colony at Quebec a certain portion of the results of the fur traffic to
be paid by traders; but it seems that no perfectly satisfactory
arrangement was practicable at that time, owing to the state of