The destruction of Port Royal by Argall ends the first period in the
history of Acadia as a French colony. Poutrincourt bowed to the
relentless fate that {66} drove him from the shores he loved so well,
and returned to France, where he took employment in the service of the
king. Two years later he was killed at the siege of Meri on the upper
Seine, during the civil war which followed the successful intrigues of
Marie de' Medici with Spain, to marry the boy king, Louis XIII., to
Anne of Austria, and his sister, the Princess Elisabeth, to a Spanish
prince. On his tomb at St. Just, in Champagne, there was inscribed an
elaborate Latin epitaph, of which the following is a translation:
"Ye people so dear to God,
inhabitants of New France,
whom I brought over to the
Faith of Christ. I am Poutrincourt, your
great chief, in whom was once your hope.
If envy deceived you, mourn for me.
My courage destroyed me. I could not
hand to another the glory
that I won among you.
Cease not to mourn for me.
Port Royal, in later years, arose from its ashes, and the fleur-de-lis,
or the red cross, floated from its walls, according as the French or
the English were the victors in the long struggle that ensued for the
possession of Acadia. But before we continue the story of its varying
fortunes in later times, we must proceed to the banks of the St.
Lawrence, where the French had laid the foundation of Quebec and New
France in the great valley, while Poutrincourt was struggling vainly to
make a new home for himself and family by the side of the river of Port
Royal.
[1] Now known as Douchet Island; no relics remain of the French
occupation.
[2] Champlain says the river was named after a little fish caught
there, _de grandeur d'un esplan_.
{67}
VI.
SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN IN THE VALLEY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE.
(1608-1635.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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