hard work, and this small number must be reduced to two
or three if we include only the tillers of the soil.
Besides these, a few adventurous spirits were away in
the woods with the Indians, learning their language and
endeavouring to exploit the beaver trade; but twenty
years after the founding of Quebec the French in Canada,
all told, numbered less than one hundred.

Contrast with this the state of Virginia fifteen years
after the settlement of Jamestown. 'By 1622,' says John
Fiske, 'the population of Virginia was at least 4000,
the tobacco fields were flourishing and lucrative, durable
houses had been built and made comfortable with furniture
brought from England, and the old squalor was everywhere
giving way to thrift. The area of colonization was pushed
up the James River as far as Richmond.'

This contrast is not to be interpreted to the personal
disadvantage of Champlain. The slow growth and poverty
of Quebec were due to no fault of his. It is rather the
measure of his greatness that he was undaunted by
disappointment and unembittered by the pettiness of spirit
which met him at every turn. A memorial which he presented
in 1618 to the Chamber of Commerce at Paris discloses
his dream of what might be: a city at Quebec named
Ludovica, a city equal in size to St Denis and filled
with noble buildings grouped round the Church of the
Redeemer. Tributary to this capital was a vast region
watered by the St Lawrence and abounding 'in rolling
plains, beautiful forests, and rivers full of fish.' From