date of Roberval's commission was in fact after that of Cartier.]

With the failure of the expedition of Roberval, Francis abandoned
the attempt to discover new countries, or plant colonies in America;
but his successors, though much later, entered upon the colonization
of New France. They inherited his rights, and while they
acknowledged the discoveries of Cartier they discredited those
ascribed to Verrazzano. Of the latter claim all of them must have
known. The publication of Ramusio took place during the reign of
Henry II, who died in 1559; but he made no endeavor to plant
colonies abroad. In 1577 and 1578, the first commissions looking to
possessions in America north of Florida, were issued by Henry III,
to the Marquis de la Roche, authorizing settlement in the terres
neufves and the adjacent countries NEWLY discovered, in the
occupancy of barbarians, but nothing was done under them. In 1598,
another grant was made to the same person by Henry IV, for the
conquest of Canada, Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, the country
of the river St. Lawrence, Norumbega, and other countries adjacent.
This is the first document emanating from the crown, containing any
mention of any part of the continent north of latitude 33 degrees
and south of Cape Breton.

Norumbega is the only country of those here enumerated which is
included within those limits, and that did not become known through
Verrazzano. [Footnote: Norumbega embraced the region of country
extending from the land of the Bretons to the Penobscot, of which it
was regarded as the Indian name. It was almost identical with what
was subsequently called Acadia. It had become known at an early
period through the French fishermen and traders in peltries, who
obtained the name from the Indians and carried it home to France. It