their vessel westward, passed the mouth of the river St
John, which they named, and finally dropped anchor in
Passamaquoddy Bay. Here, on a small island near the mouth
of the river St Croix, now on the boundary-line between
New Brunswick and Maine, De Monts landed his colonists.
They cleared the ground; and, within an enclosure known
as the Habitation de l'Isle Saincte-Croix, erected a few
buildings--'one made with very fair and artificial
carpentry work' for De Monts, while others, less ornamental,
were for 'Monsieur d'Orville, Monsieur Champlein, Monsieur
Champdore, and other men of high standing.'

Then as the season waned the vessels, which linked them
to the world they had left, unfurled their sails and set
out for France. Seventy-nine men remained at St Croix,
among them De Monts and Champlain. In the vast solitude
of forest they settled down for the winter, which was
destined to be full of horrors. By spring thirty-five of
the company had died of scurvy and twenty more were at
the point of death. Evidently St Croix was not a good
place for a colony. The soil was sandy and there was no
fresh water. So, in June, after the arrival of a vessel
bringing supplies from France, De Monts and Champlain
set out to explore the coasts in search of a better site.
But, finding none which they deemed suitable, they decided
to tempt fortune at Poutrincourt's domain of Port Royal.
Thither, then, in August the colonists moved, carrying
their implements and stores across the Bay of Fundy, and
landing on the north side of the Annapolis Basin, opposite
Goat Island, where the village of Lower Granville now