rge of their {66} duty; and that the Spaniards and
Basques, of whom there were large numbers in the country, might not
glory in the event.'

It will be seen from the recital of Duval's conspiracy that Champlain
was fortunate to escape the fate of Hudson and La Salle. While this
_cause celebre_ was running its course to a tragic end, the still more
famous _habitation_ grew day by day under the hands of busy workmen.
As fruits of a crowded and exciting summer Champlain could point to a
group of three two-storeyed buildings. 'Each one,' he says, 'was three
fathoms long and two and a half wide. The storehouse was six fathoms
long and three wide, with a fine cellar six feet deep. I had a gallery
made all round our buildings, on the outside, at the second storey,
which proved very convenient. There were also ditches, fifteen feet
wide and six deep. On the outer side of the ditches I constructed
several spurs, which enclosed a part of the dwelling, at the points
where we placed our cannon. Before the habitation there is a place
four fathoms wide and six or seven long, looking out upon the
river-bank. Surrounding the habitation are very good gardens.'

Three dwellings of eighteen by fifteen feet each were a sufficiently
modest starting-point {67} for continental ambitions, even when
supplemented by a storehouse of thirty-six feet by eighteen. In
calling the gardens very good Champlain must have been speaking with
relation to the circumstances, or else they were very small, for there
is abundant witness to the sufferings which Quebec in its first twenty
years might have escaped with the help of really abundant gardens. At
St Croix and Port Royal an attempt had been made to plant seeds, and at
Quebec Champlain doubtless renewed the effort, though with small
practical result. The point is important in its bearing on the nature
of the settlement. Quebec, despite such gardens as surrounded the
_habitation_, was by origin an outpost of the fur trade, with a small,
floating, and precarious population. Louis Hebert, the first real
colonist, did not come till 1617.

Lacking vegetables, Quebec fed itself in part from the river and the
forest. But almost all the food was brought from France. At times
there was game, though less than at Port Royal. The river supplied
eels in abundance, but when badly cooked they caused a fatal dysentery.
The first winter was a repetition of the horrors experienced at St
Croix, with even