personal investment of De Monts was somewhat more than
a tenth of the total, as he took a majority of the stock
which fell to Rouen. Apart from Sully's unfriendliness,
the chief initial difficulty arose over religion. The
Parlement of Normandy refused to register De Monts'
commission on the ground that the conversion of the
heathen could not fitly be left to a heretic. This
remonstrance was only withdrawn after the king had
undertaken to place the religious instruction of the
Indians in the charge of priests--a promise which did
not prevent the Protestant colonists from having their
own pastor. The monopoly contained wider privileges than
before, including both Acadia and the St Lawrence. At
the same time, the obligation to colonize became more
exacting, since the minimum number of new settlers per
annum was raised from fifty to a hundred.

Champlain's own statement regarding the motive of De
Monts' expedition is that it lay in the desire 'to find
a northerly route to China, in order to facilitate commerce
with the Orientals.' After reciting a list of explorations
which began with John Cabot and had continued at intervals
during the next century, he continues: 'So many voyages
and discoveries without results, and attended with so
much hardship and expense, have caused us French in late
years to attempt a permanent settlement in those lands
which we call New France, in the hope of thus realizing
more easily this object; since the voyage in search of
the desired passage commences on the other side of the
ocean and is made along the coast of this region.'