He was greatly respected by Champlain, and was closely associated with
him till 1629. After the English captured Quebec, he appears to have
retired, forced to do so by the infirmities of age.
29. Jean Parmentier, of Dieppe, author of the Discorso d'un gran capitano in Ramusio, Vol. III., p. 423, wrote in the year 1539, and he says the Bretons and Normans were in our northern waters thirty-five years before, which would be in 1504. Vide Mr. Parkman's learned note and citations in Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 171, 172. The above is doubtless the authority on which the early writers, such as Pierre Biard, Champlain, and others, make the year 1504 the period when the French voyages for fishing commenced.
30. Vide Voyage of Iohn Alphonse of Xanctoigne, Hakluyt, Vol. III., p. 293.
31. Compare the result of these inquiries as stated by Champlain, p.252 of this vol and New Voyages, by Baron La Hontan, 1684, ed. 1735, Vol I. p. 30.
32. The Duke of Sully's disapprobation is expressed in the following words: "The colony that was sent to Canada this year, was among the number of those things that had not my approbation; there was no kind of riches to be expected from all those countries of the new world, which are beyond the fortieth degree of latitude. His majesty gave the conduct of this expedition to the Sieur du Mont."—Memoirs of Sully, Philadelphia, 1817, Vol. III. p. 185.
33. "Frequenter, négocier, et communiquer durant ledit temps de dix ans, depuis le Cap de Raze jusques au quarantième degré, comprenant toute la côte de la Cadie, terre et Cap Breton, Bayes de Sainct-Cler, de Chaleur, Ile Percée, Gachepé, Chinschedec, Mesamichi, Lesquemin, Tadoussac, et la rivière de Canada, tant d'un côté que d'aurre, et toutes les Bayes et rivières qui entrent au dedans désdites côtes."— Extract of Commission, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, par Lescarbot, Paris, 1866, Vol. II. p. 416.
CHAPTER III.
DE MONTS LEAVES FOR LA CADIE—THE COASTS OF NOVA SCOTIA.—THE BAY OF FUNDY —SEARCH FOR COPPER MINE—CHAMPLAIN EXPLORES THE PENOBSCOT—DE MONTS'S ISLAND—SUFFERINGS OF THE COLONY—EXPLORATION OF THE COAST AS FAR AS NAUSET, ON CAPE COD
De Monts, with Champlain and the other noblemen, left Havre de Grâce on the 7th April, 1604, while Pont Gravé, with the other vessel, followed three days later, to rendezvous at Canseau.
Taking a more southerly course than he had originally intended, De Monts came in sight of La Hève on the 8th of May, and on the 12th entered Liverpool harbor, where he found Captain Rossignol, of Havre de Grâce, carrying on a contraband trade in furs with the Indians, whom he arrested, and confiscated his vessel.