Attempts of the French to Plant Settlements in America

Now dawned the bright era when English colonies were permanently planted in America. The story of their marvellous growth will be told hereafter. Raleigh, poor and in prison, was not allowed to share, personally, in the glory of any of that fruitful seed-time, the result of his genius, generosity and enterprise. When Richard Hakluyt, Bartholomew Gosnold, and Sir Fernando Gorges, three of his firm friends, were permitted by the king to visit the illustrious prisoner in the Tower, and tell him of the new enterprise, the interview was a touching one. They found Raleigh seated at a little table near an open window in the massive wall, tall and narrow, writing. Around him lay huge folios. On the walls hung maps, and on the deep window-sill was a mariner's compass. Near him sat his faithful wife, almost twenty years younger than he, who had just come to share his imprisonment. At her feet lay a sleeping spaniel belonging to the keeper of the Tower; and a picture of their son who was killed in Guiana leaned against a small cabinet at her side. When the three friends entered, Raleigh quickly arose and embraced them affectionately. When they told him of the great enterprise and the king's sanction, he sat down in his chair, and with clasped hands and eyes turned heavenward exclaimed: "God be praised for his goodness! Prison walls cannot defeat his justice. The English nation love truth and will defend the good name of her disciples. God save the king!" The final invocation was for the ears of the jailor who stood at the door. It had a double meaning on Raleigh's lips-a meaning of political loyalty, or an earnest prayer for the salvation of the monarch from the consequences of his bad life. It could not be interpreted to Raleigh's hurt.

A Protestant sovereign, the great Henry of Navarre, was now on the throne of France, the first and best of her Bourbon kings. His heart was set on promoting the prosperity and true greatness of his kingdom. He had given it peace at home by the edict of Nantes, granting toleration to his Protestant subjects, proclaimed on the fifteenth of April, 1598, and cessation from war abroad by the treaty of Verviers with Spain, signed seventeen days afterward. Agriculture, manufactures, mining, internal improvements, and settlements in New France (America), which had not been attempted since the disappearance of Robertval more than fifty years before, were encouraged. In these labors of statesmanship he was led and assisted by Maximilien de Bethune, the great Duke of Sully, whose name shines with splendor in the annals of France.

Among the earliest of the new French adventurers was the Marquis de la Roche, a wealthy nobleman, who gathered a company from the prisons of France wherewith to found a colony in America. He sailed with a single ship in the spring of 1598, and landed on Sable Island, in the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles southeast of Nova Scotia, where he left forty men and returned to France for supplies. Before he was ready to go back, he sickened and died, and the poor emigrants had no tidings from home or the rest of the world for seven years. Then a vessel was sent for them, but only twelve survived. These were pardoned on their return, because of their sufferings abroad, and their immediate wants were supplied by the king.

Whilst these men were on Sable Island, another expedition was sent from France on a similar errand. M. de Chastes, Governor of Dieppe, obtained from the king a charter for founding settlements in New France. He engaged Samuel Champlain of the French navy, a man of noble lineage and a favorite of the sovereign, to act as his delegate. The king commissioned Champlain lieutenant-general of Canada, and with this authority he embarked at Honfleur on the 15th of March, 1603, with a single vessel, commanded by Pont-Greve, a skillful mariner of St. Malo, whose father had been an intimate friend of Cartier. They reached the St. Lawrence in May, and anchored near the site of Quebec, when Pont-Greve, with five men, went up that stream in a canoe to the rapids of La Chine, above Montreal, where Cartier found an impassable barrier to his upward voyage. Then he turned back, carefully examining the shores of the river, and on reaching the ship he gave Champlain a minute account of all they had observed. Meanwhile, Champlain had held intercourse with the savages, whose memories and traditions ran back to Cartier's kidnapping, but they were placable, and the lieutenant-general was pleased with all he saw. They returned to France in the early autumn, when Champlain published an account of the country.