Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/103

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1608] First permanent colony. 71 months only. The last unsuccessful attempt at a French Canadian settlement happened to coincide with the first successful planting of a permanent English colony in Virginia. In 1608 the first permanent French colony was planted in Canada; and the New World rivalry began. But as in both France and England the memory of past discovery still lived, educated opinion dated the rivalry yet further back. The French looked back to Verrazzano as the English looked back to Cabot. The direction of French efforts was determined for all time by the discoveries of Cartier, 1534-41 ; by the raising of the royal arms in the mysterious Norumbega, Canada, and Hochelaga; by RobervaPs attempted colony of " New France " ; by the fort erected at Quebec. Powerful to influence the imaginations of English and French alike were the fate of Ribault and Laudonniere's Huguenot colony in " Carolina," 1562-65, and the story of Hawkins' visit to it, of its fate at the hands of the Spaniards, and of the French vengeance. Nor had the fishermen of the two countries waited for politicians to direct them in search of a harvest in the New World. Already a few French traders, undirected by authority, found profit in trading with the natives for their furs in the Tadoussac district on the northern shores of the mouth of the St Lawrence, when in 1598 the Marquis de la Roche, like another Gilbert, decided to renew the letters patent which he had received in 1578 and to settle a colony there, as lieutenant-general of the King in Canada, Hochelaga, the Newfoundlands, Labrador, the river of the Great Bay, Norumbega and the adjacent islands. Backed by a company possessed of the monopoly of trade in this unknown region of many names, a colony of forty men reached Sable Island, a barren sandbank off the coast of what is now Nova Scotia. The Marquis returned, and the colony was not revisited till 1603, when the miserable remnant of twelve came home. But the merchants of Dieppe, Rouen, St Malo and Rochelle, eager to seek a share in the monopoly of the nascent fur-trade, supported the next patentee, the Huguenot de Monts, who in 1603 was styled Lieutenant of the King in New France or La Cadie (said to be the Micmac Akade), between the 40th and 46th degrees. A settlement was made in 1605 at Port Royal, now Annapolis in Nova Scotia, and de Poutrincourt received the first grant of land. In 1607 the colony was abandoned, and de Monts with difficulty got his charter renewed for one year. He then made good use of his time ; Port Royal was re-established, and the explorer Champlain, who had already visited the coasts afterwards to be known as those of New England, extended the range of trade so far that a habitation was built at Quebec. A first winter was successfully passed, and there never again ceased to be French colonists on the St Lawrence. Champlain in the first instance seems to have desired settlement mainly as a means of supporting exploration and missionary work. For these purposes he chose the northern shores of the St Lawrence, The small settlement at Port