Champlain, with characteristic fortitude, made the best of his difficulties. But he was most uneasy about the English at his doorway. And well he might be!
As early as 1620 Sir George Calvert, English Baron of Baltimore, had adventured a plantation in Newfoundland. Three years later King James granted him quasi-regal proprietorship of the southeastern peninsula of that island between Trinity and Placentia Bays. In 1627 he came out with his family, built a fine house at Ferryland, and showed every intention of establishing a great fur trading and fishing colony in the form of a British dominion at this strategic gateway to New France.
Still more alarming were the activities of a Scotsman, Sir William Alexander, who had been stirred by accounts of the founding of New Spain, New France, New Netherland and New England to attempt the founding of a New Scotland. In 1621, with complete disregard for French claims, the English king had granted to him all the vast peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of St. Lawrence! Today that would be Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Quebec Province. This princely domain was to be divided into feudal-type Scotch baronies complete with a hierarchy of hereditary titles.
Alexander’s attempts to establish permanent trading posts in New Scotland, or Nova Scotia, were failures until 1628. That year seventy-two of his colonists managed to set up for business at Poutrincourt’s old quarters at Port Royal in the Bay of Fundy. There they found themselves to be the near neighbors of a young French fur trader at Cape Sable named Charles de la Tour who was under the impression that the country belonged to him.
Monsieur La Tour had inherited his rights from Saint Just after that pioneer finally returned to France in 1623. Since then he had been living the independent life of a wilderness lord with French retainers and aboriginal subjects, and he had no intention of yielding his estate or fur-trading privileges to anyone, much less foreigners.
La Tour did not immediately attempt to oust Alexander’s Scots from Port Royal as he was on much the weaker side at the time, but he did stand firm and unsubmissive at Cape Sable and he resisted all efforts of the English to bring him over to their side. This was not easy, for nearly all of New France was soon in the hands of the enemy.
In 1628 a French colonizing fleet sent out by the Company of New France under the aegis of Cardinal de Richelieu was captured by privateers boldly operating in the Gulf of St. Lawrence with English letters of marque. In another year Champlain’s worst fears were realized when this same fleet of privateers, under the leadership of the Kirke brothers, appeared before Quebec in force enough to insure its capitulation.
Champlain himself was taken prisoner at Quebec. But under the terms of the surrender he marched out of the fort with his arms and all of his own furs, as did other head men. The factors, servants and workmen were allowed to take but one beaver skin each before the English took over the factory. Then, after running up the English flag, the Kirkes were said to have driven an immediate trade with Indians and others remaining about the fort for some 2,000 skins in addition to those they found in the storehouse. They even ended up with the pelts they had allowed the starving garrison under the terms of surrender, taking them in trade for food.
Sir William Alexander, uniting his interests with the Kirkes to form the Scottish and English Company for the peltry trade of New France, sent out a second fleet to Port Royal in 1629 under the command of his son. When the fleet arrived nearly half the people who had been left at Port Royal the year before were found to have died from one cause or another. But young Alexander relieved the survivors, strengthened the fort, and put new life into the colony. His vessels managed to acquire a satisfactory number of pelts in the Bay of Fundy during that summer. He also captured a French ship. And as further proof of the substance of New Scotland he took back on his return voyage an Indian chief of the region who wanted to conclude an alliance with the English king.
In the meantime it developed that shortly before Champlain’s capitulation a treaty of peace had been signed between England and France. But, although King Charles agreed very soon to restore Quebec to the French under the terms of the treaty, the negotiations dragged on for three years. During that time the Scottish Company continued to drive a great trade for pelts on the St. Lawrence and elsewhere, while the French pressed not only their claims to furs appropriated from stores at Quebec after the actual signing of the peace treaty but insisted also upon the return of all of New France. That included Acadia of course and the evacuation of the fort at Port Royal.