A Sketch of the History of Maryland During the Three First Years After Its Settlement

of Port Royal, which grant was afterwards, in the SECT. year 1607, confirmed to him by Henry IV. It has since been known by the name of Annapolis Royal. 1604. From Port Royal or Annapolis, De Monts sailed still further up the Bay of Fundy, in search of a copper mine, then said to lie at the head of that bay. While De Monts was thus engaged in his coasting voyage, Champlain, who had been despatched in a long-boat, immediately after their arrival at Cap de la Hêve, to search for a proper place for a settlement, in examining the Bay of Fundy, pursuant to the instructions of De Monts, came to a large river on the northwest side of the bay, which he called St. John's, originally called by the natives Ouy-gondy. From this river, Champlain coasted the bay southwestwardly twenty leagues, until he came to another river, in exploring which he met with a small island, in the middle of that river, and about half a league in circumference, to which he gave the name of L'Isle de St. Croix. This island he deemed to be a proper situation on which they might begin a settlement. He was soon followed thither by De Monts, who resolved to build a fort, and pass the winter there. This they did, but from their account they must have endured great hardships. The inşular situation of the settlement precluded them from many advantages. When the winter came on, which was said to have been severe, they found themselves without fresh water, without wood for firing, and without fresh provisions. These inconveniences soon filled the little colony with diseases, particufarly the scarvy. By the ensuing spring thirty-sis

SECT. of the colonists had died, and forty of them only

were left alive. These considerations determined -- 1605. De Monts to remove his colony across the bay to

Port Royal. The buildings at St. Croix were left standing, * but all the stores, &c. were removed. New houses were erected at the mouth of the river L'Equille, which empties itself into the basin of Port Royal, and here the people and stores were lodged. These incidents, however induced De Monts to look out for a more comfortable situation in a warmer climate. With that view he sailed southwardly along the coast to Penobscot, Kennebec, Caseo, Saco, and ultimately to Malebarre,

* The river in which L'isle de St. Croix lies, is called the Scoodich, which was the original name given it by the natives, but it is also called the St. Croix; and being part of the boundary between the territory of the United States and the British province of New Brunswick, it has become a stream of considerable importance. After the treaty of 1783, by which the river St. Croix was made a boundary, it became a question which was the real St. Croix; whether the river known by the name of Scoodich, or that known by the name of Magaguadavick. It has, however, been satisfactorily determined, by commissioners appointed for that purpose, that the Scoodich is the river, originally named St. Croix, and the line has been settled accordingly. Professor Webber, who accompanied the commissioners in 1798, informed Mr. Holmes, that they found an island in this river, corresponding to the French descriptions of the island St. Croix, and near the upper end of it, the remains of a very ancient fortification, overgrown with large trees, that the foundation stones were traced to a considerable extent; and that bricks (a specimen of which he showed Mr. Holmes,) were found there. There is nu doubt that these were the reliques of De Monts's fortifica, tion. Holmes's Annals, Vol. 1, p. 149.

1605.

revoked.

which was at that time the French name of Cape SECT. Cod. He explored divers of these rivers, bays, and harbours: particularly the Kennebec, up which he went a considerable distance. But the natives

appearing numerous and unfriendly, and his company being small, he returned to St. Croix, and then to Port Royal, where he found Pontgravé, in a ship from France, with supplies, and a reinforcement of forty men. Having put his affairs into good order, he embarked for France in September, 1605, leaving Pontgravé as his lieutenant, with Champlain and Champelore to perfect the settlement and explore the country.

M. de Monts, on his arrival in France, found, His patent that endeavours had been made to prepossess the French court against his views. The masters of the fishing vessels, who frequented the coast of Acadié and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which fishery is said to have been the best trade the French then had, represented to the ministry, that De Monts, on pretence of preventing the fur trade with the natives, to which by his patent he had an exclusive right, kept them from the necessaries fit for fishing, and that they were upon the point of abandoning the fisheries. They succeeded so far that De Monts's patent was revoked. This did not, however, entirely discourage him. He entered into new engagements with Pontrincourt, who was then likewise in France.

Pontrincourt sailed again for America, in the year 1606, in an armed vessel from Rochelle. The court's encolony which had been left at Port Royal under the to fix a setcare of Pontgravé, was, by the time of the arri- Port Roy.

1606, Pontrin

deavours

tlement at

al, Nova Scotia.

SECT. val of Pontgravé off Cape Canso, reduced to such

difficulties, that Pontrincourt was obliged to reem1606. bark all the inhabitants but two, whom he left to

take care of the effects he could not carry off. However, before he got out of the Bay of Fundy he heard of Poutrincourt's arrival at Canso, upon which he returned to Port Royal, where, about the same time, Pontrincourt arrived. The relief which Pontrincourt brought to this infant colony, came so seasonably, that it again held up its head; but its prosperity is said to have been in a great measure owing to the spirit and abilities of Le Carbot, a French lawyer, who, partly from friendship to Pontrincourt, and partiy through curiosity, had accompanied him in this voyage. It would seem also, that about this time Pontgravé, said to be the ablest man by far of any concerned in these projected settiements, resigned his command.

In the next year, 1607, Pontrincourt returned to The Sieur France, and the king, induced probably by his faobtains a vourable representations of the country, either contion of his firmed or regranted to the Sieur De Monts his for.

mer exclusive privilege for the fur trade with the natives, for the purpose, as it is said, of enabling him to establish his colonies in New France. De Monts accordingly sent over, in the year 1608, three ships with families, to commence a permanent settlement. Champlain, who took the charge of conducting this colony, after examining all the most eligible places for settlement in Acadié, and the river St. Lawrence, selected a spot at the conAuence of this river and the St. Charles, another small river emptying into the former, about three

1607.

restora

grant,

blishes

hundred and twenty miles up the river St. Lawrence, SECT. from the sea. Here, on the third of July, 1608, he began to erect barracks for lodgings for his peo- 1608. ple, and to clear the ground, which he sowed with And estawheat and rye, and on this spot laid the foundation the first of Quebec, the present capital of Canada. * The nent colo.

ny in Can. succeeding events relative to Acadié and Canada, ada, under appertain to the histories of those countries. now our business to return to the at last successful attempts of the English at colonisation.

perma

It is plain.

Chain.

Holines's An.

• Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. 39, p. 408, 412. nals, Vol. I, p. 148, 163.

)

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A Sketch of the History of Maryland During the Three First Years After Its ...