no satisfaction; the viceroy could not interfere. And
Louis XIII was too busy with other matters to listen to
the Jesuit's prayer. The king's chief adviser, however,
Cardinal Richelieu, then at the height of his power, lent
a sympathetic ear. The Huguenots were then in open
rebellion in France; Richelieu was having trouble enough
with them at home; and it was not hard to convince him
that they should be suppressed in New France. He decided
to annul the charter of the Caens and to establish instead
a strong company composed entirely of Catholics. To this
task he promptly set himself, and soon had enlisted in
the enterprise over a hundred influential and wealthy
men of the realm. The Company of New France, or, as it
is better known, the Company of One Hundred Associates,
thus came into being on April 29, 1627, with the great
Richelieu at its head.

The One Hundred Associates were granted in feudal tenure
a wide domain--stretching, in intention at least, from
Florida to the Arctic Circle and from Newfoundland to
the sources of the St Lawrence, with a monopoly of the
fur trade and other powers practically unlimited. For
these vast privileges they covenanted to send to Canada
from two to three hundred colonists in 1628 and four
thousand within the next fifteen years; to lodge, feed,
and support the colonists for three years; and then to
give them cleared land and seed-grain. Most interesting,
however, to the Jesuits and Recollets were the provisions
in the charter of the new company to the effect that none
but Catholics should be allowed to come to the colony,