the works in
progress should be prosecuted with the utmost vigor, especially the
completion of the Fort St. Louis.

These preparations being made, he set sail on August 15, 1624,
accompanied by his wife and the two Recollet deputies.

Champlain, having accomplished all that seemed at that time attainable in
France, returned to Quebec in the summer of 1626, accompanied by the
priest Le Caron, and his brother-in-law, Boulle, as his lieutenant.

He found the works scarcely advanced beyond the condition in which he had
left them two years before. His people also were in a somewhat enfeebled
condition. They had been ill-supplied with necessaries the preceding
season, owing to the neglect of the company to furnish what was requisite
for their comfort and plentiful support during the winter of 1625.

Notwithstanding the exertions which had been made by Champlain to prevent
a recurrence of the former sufferings of the colony owing to the neglect
of the company, he and his people were doomed to struggle on precisely as
heretofore. Scarcely any land had been cleared, so that it was impossible
by means of agriculture alone to provide against famine in the winter.
Nevertheless, the requisite supplies were furnished by the company's
agents in the most niggardly manner. Its neglect became worse and worse,
until, in the winter of 1626, there was an actual dearth of provisions at
Quebec. In the spring of 1627 De Caen's vessels brought out, as usual, a
certain supply of necessaries. But when the summer had passed away, and
autumn came, although the season of traffic had been very profitable, the
ships departed, leaving the establishments in the colony very
insufficiently provisioned. The colony contained but one farmer--Louis
Hebert[5]--who could maintain himself and those dependent on him by the
cultivation of the ground. But about fifty persons had to endure the
rigors of the winter of 1627 on short allowance; and such became their
plight that even Champlain's patience and powers of endurance were
severely exercised. When at length the arrival of spring afforded some
sources of relief, derived from hunting and fishing, Champlain and his
unfortunate colonists at Quebec were amazed to find that De Caen's ships
came not as usual with succors. With infinite anxiety they contrived to
subsist until the month of July, when it became known that the river
below the Island of Orleans was in possession of the English, at that
time enemies to