ce to Three Rivers, at which place, in the presence of
Champlain, it was intended to agree upon and ratify a general treaty. On
the way to this rendezvous they were joined by twenty-five canoes bearing
the Iroquois deputies and thirteen of the Algonquins. The preliminaries
having been arranged, happily without the occurrence of quarrels so
likely to take place in such a concourse of individuals belonging to
different nations, the ceremonies and customary distribution of presents
were followed by a mutual interchange of stipulations, rendered
intelligible to all by means of interpreters. The final result was a
treaty of peace, to which the chief contracting parties were the French,
the Hurons, the Algonquins, and the Iroquois, who agreed thenceforward to
remain on peaceable terms with each other. The peace thus established was
not of long duration.

In the mean time the improvements projected by Champlain in 1620 were
steadily prosecuted. Very extensive repairs and additions to former
structures, and a number of new ones, were completed or in progress. The
De Caens and the Governor, notwithstanding the difference of their
religious views, continued throughout to discharge their respective
functions in a manner that denoted mutual respect and personal
friendship. Yet, from whatever cause, the number of inhabitants,
exclusive of a few factors or agents at the trading-posts, and the
Frenchmen who from choice had taken up their abodes among the Indian
tribes, remained less than sixty. In fact, every person who bestowed a
transient thought upon Canada placed a very low estimate upon it as a
country fit for settlement, excepting Champlain himself, whose faith in
the future of his colony seems never to have wavered.

In August, 1624, Champlain made arrangements for revisiting France, where
fresh dissensions had arisen in regard to the company's rights and
privileges. His chief purpose was to again urge at home an appeal for a
more generous support in behalf of his undertakings. The Recollets, also,
having found themselves utterly unequal to the occupation of their
immense and constantly increasing field of missionary work, had
determined to appeal for aid to some of the religious communities of
France, and, with this view, deputed Sagard and a priest to sail for
Europe in the suite of the Governor.

Before his departure Champlain nominated the younger De Caen commandant
at Quebec during his absence, and gave instructions that