g.

Like De Chastes, De Monts had associates who joined with him to supply
the necessary funds, though in 1604 the investment was greater than on
any previous occasion, and a {25} larger number were admitted to the
benefits of the monopoly. Not only did St Malo and Rouen secure
recognition, but La Rochelle and St Jean de Luz were given a chance to
participate. De Monts' company had a capital of 90,000 livres, divided
in shares--of which two-fifths were allotted to St Malo, two-fifths to
La Rochelle and St Jean de Luz conjointly, and the remainder to Rouen.
The personal investment of De Monts was somewhat more than a tenth of
the total, as he took a majority of the stock which fell to Rouen.
Apart from Sully's unfriendliness, the chief initial difficulty arose
over religion. The Parlement of Normandy refused to register De Monts'
commission on the ground that the conversion of the heathen could not
fitly be left to a heretic. This remonstrance was only withdrawn after
the king had undertaken to place the religious instruction of the
Indians in the charge of priests--a promise which did not prevent the
Protestant colonists from having their own pastor. The monopoly
contained wider privileges than before, including both Acadia and the
St Lawrence. At the same time, the obligation to colonize became more
exacting, since the minimum number of new settlers per annum was raised
from fifty to a hundred.

{26}

Champlain's own statement regarding the motive of De Monts' expedition
is that it lay in the desire 'to find a northerly route to China, in
order to facilitate commerce with the Orientals.' After reciting a
list of explorations which began with John Cabot and had continued at
intervals during the next century, he continues: 'So many voyages and
discoveries without results, and attended with so much hardship and
expense, have caused us French in late years to attempt a permanent
settlement in those lands which we call New France, in the hope of thus
realizing more easily this object; since the voyage in search of the
desired passage commences on the other side of the ocean and is made
along the coast of this region.'

A comparison of the words just quoted with the text of De Monts'
commission will serve to illustrate the strength of Champlain's
geographical instinct. The commission begins with a somewhat
stereotyped reference to the conversion of the heathen, after which it
descants upon commerce, colonies, an