sort Champlain felt he had to protect the national
interests which were so dear to him and De Monts. As
things then went, there was only one way to secure
protection. At Fontainebleau a great noble was not
habituated to render help without receiving a consideration.
But protection could be bought by those who were able to
pay for it.

The patron selected by Champlain was the Comte de Soissons,
a Bourbon by lineage and first cousin of Henry IV. His
kinship to the boy-king gave him, among other privileges,
the power to exact from the regent gifts and offices as
the price of his support. Possessing this leverage,
Soissons caused himself to be appointed viceroy of Canada,
with a twelve-year monopoly of the fur trade above Quebec.
The monopoly thus re-established, its privileges could
be sublet, Soissons receiving cash for the rights he
conceded to the merchants, and they taking their chance
to turn a profit out of the transaction.

Such at least was the theory; but before Soissons could
turn his post into a source of revenue he died. Casting
about for a suitable successor, Champlain selected another
prince of the blood--Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Conde,
who duly became viceroy of Canada and holder of the
monopoly in succession to his uncle, the Comte de Soissons.

The part of Champlain in these transactions is very
conspicuous, and justly so. There was no advantage in
being viceroy of Canada unless the post produced a revenue,