This volume contains a dedication to Charles de Montmorency, admiral of France, a letter in verse from the Sieur de la Franchise, and an extract from the Privilège du Roi, dated November 15th, 1603, signed by Brigard.
The second edition does not differ much from the preceding, and its title bears the date 1604. Purchas's Pilgrims contains an English version of this last edition. We find a synopsis of it in the Mercure François, 1609, in the preface to the former called Chronologie Septennaire de l'Histoire de la paix entre les rois de France et d'Espagne, 1598-1608. This historical part has been borrowed by Victor Palma Cayet for Champlain's Voyage, and its title is: Navigation des Français en la Nouvelle France dite Canada.
CHAPTER II
ACADIA—STE. CROIX ISLAND—PORT ROYAL
Soon after the period mentioned at the close of the previous chapter, Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, Governor of Pont, a native of the ancient province of Saintonge, who had served under Henry IV, obtained a commission as "Lieutenant genéral au pays de Cadie, du 40° au 46°," on the condition that his energies should be especially directed to the propagation of the Catholic faith.
De Monts was a Huguenot; nevertheless he agreed to take with him to America a number of Catholic priests, and to see that they were respected and obeyed. Champlain was not satisfied with the choice of a Protestant to colonize a country which he had intended to make solely Catholic, and he states, "that those enterprises made hastily never succeed."
De Monts was not a stranger to America. He had first visited the country with Chauvin in 1600, but when he left Tadousac he was so discouraged that he determined, in the event of his becoming master of the situation, to attempt colonization only in Acadia, or on the eastern borders of the Atlantic running towards Florida.