d mines. The supplementary
commission to De Monts from Montmorency as Lord High Admiral adds a
further consideration, namely, that if Acadia is not occupied by the
French it will {27} be seized upon by some other nation. Not a word of
the route to the East occurs in either commission, and De Monts is
limited in the powers granted to a region extending along the American
seaboard from the fortieth parallel to the forty-sixth, with as much of
the interior 'as he is able to explore and colonize.'

This shows that, while the objects of the expedition were commercial
and political, Champlain's imagination was kindled by the prospect of
finding the long-sought passage to China. To his mind a French colony
in America is a stepping-stone, a base of operations for the great
quest. De Monts himself doubtless sought honour, adventure, and
profit--the profit which might arise from possessing Acadia and
controlling the fur trade in 'the river of Canada.' Champlain remains
the geographer, and his chief contribution to the Acadian enterprise
will be found in that part of his _Voyages_ which describes his study
of the coast-line southward from Cape Breton to Malabar.

But whether considered from the standpoint of exploration or
settlement, the first chapter of French annals in Acadia is a fine
incident. Champlain has left the greatest fame, but he was not alone
during these years {28} of peril and hardship. With him are grouped De
Monts, Poutrincourt, Lescarbot, Pontgrave, and Louis Hebert, all men of
capacity and enterprise, whose part in this valiant enterprise lent it
a dignity which it has never since lost. As yet no English colony had
been established in America. Under his commission De Monts could have
selected for the site of his settlement either New York or Providence
or Boston or Portland. The efforts of the French in America from 1604
to 1607 are signalized by the character of their loaders, the nature of
their opportunity, and the special causes which prevented them from
taking possession of Norumbega.[2]

De Monts lacked neither courage nor persistence. His battle against
heartbreaking disappointments shows him to have been a pioneer of high
order. And with him sailed in 1604 Jean de Biencourt, Seigneur de
Poutrincourt, whose ancestors had been illustrious in {29} Picardy for
five hundred years. Champlain made a third, joining the expedition as
geographer rather than shipmaster. Lescarbot and Hebert came tw