found there. Fish abounded near its coasts; its forests were numerous
and dense. An opinion existed that there were numerous mines, rich in
copper, coal and gypsum. This country was also the favourite of the
Normans, Britons and Basques, who for a hundred years had pursued their
callings as fishermen or traders without interruption.

De Monts, however, was unable to bear the expense of this undertaking
alone, and he consequently formed a company, composed of merchants of
Rouen, La Rochelle and other towns. To further the enterprise Henry IV
diminished the duty on merchandises exported from Acadia and Canada, and
granted to the company the exclusive privilege of fur trading for a
period of ten years, "from Cape de Raze to the 40°, comprising all the
Acadian coast, Cape Breton, Baie des Chaleurs, Percé Island, Gaspé,
Chisedec, Miramichi, Tadousac and Canada River, from either side, and
all the bays and rivers which flow within these shores."

Acadia of that day was not confined to the peninsula of our own time,
called Nova Scotia. It included that part of the continent which extends
from the river St. John to the Penobscot. These boundaries were the
cause of long quarrels and fierce and bloody wars between England and
France until they were finally settled by the Treaty of Utrecht. In the
early part of April, 1604, the king's proclamation confining the fur
trade to de Monts and his associates was published in every harbour of
France. Four ships were lying at anchor at Havre de Grâce, ready to
sail, and one hundred and twenty passages had been secured in two of the
ships. Pont-Gravé commanded one of the vessels of one hundred and twenty
tons burthen, and another vessel of one hundred and fifty tons was under
the charge of de Monts, who had taken on board Jean de Biencourt, Sieur
de Poutrincourt, a gentleman of Picardy, Samuel Champlain, some Catholic
priests and some Protestant ministers. Poutrincourt was going to America