At length, in 1621, as a result of the complaints of
Champlain and the Recollets, before the authorities in
France, the Company of St Malo and Rouen lost its charter,
and the trading privileges were given to William and
Emery de Caen, uncle and nephew. But these men also were
Huguenots, and the unhappy condition of affairs continued
in an intensified form. Champlain, though the nominal
head of the colony, was unable to provide a remedy, for
the real power was in the hands of the Caens, who had in
their employment practically the entire population.

Yet, in spite of all the obstacles put in their way, the
Recollets continued their self-sacrificing labours. By
the beginning of 1621 they had a comfortable residence
on the bank of the St Charles, on the spot where now
stands the General Hospital. Here they had been granted
two hundred acres of land, and they cultivated the soil,
raising meagre crops of rye, barley, maize, and wheat,
and tending a few pigs, cows, asses, and fowls. There
were from time to time accessions to their ranks. Between
the years 1616 and 1623 the fathers Guillaume Poullain,
Georges le Baillif, Paul Huet, Jacques de la Foyer,
Nicolas Viel, and several lay brothers, the most noted
among whom was Gabriel Sagard-Theodat, laboured in New
France. They made attempts to christianize the Micmacs
of Acadia, the Abnaki of the upper St John, the Algonquin
tribes of the lower St Lawrence, and the Nipissings of
the upper Ottawa. But the work among these roving bands
proved most disheartening, and once more the grey-robed