The expedition, as we have seen,
was merely preliminary to more specific and extended operations. The ocean
voyage, which was a tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and
they did not reach the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They
sailed up as far as Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little
trading-post had been established four years before by Pontgrave, and
Chauvin. Here they cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering
natives gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and
(unconsciously) to sit to Champlain for their portraits. After a short stay
at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several of
the crew, embarked in a batteau and preceded up the river past deserted
Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, discovered by
Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically described by that
navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had inhabited it at
the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin Indians. Our
adventurers essayed to ascend the river still farther, but found it
impossible to make headway against the rapids of St. Louis, which had
formerly presented an insuperable barrier to Cartier's westward progress.
Then they retraced their course down the river to Tadousac, re-embarked on
board their vessels, and made all sail for France. When they arrived there
they found that their patron, De Chastes, had died during their absence,
and that his Company had been dissolved. Very soon afterwards, however, the
scheme of colonization was taken up by the Sieur de Monts, who entered into
engagements with Champlain for another voyage to the New World. De Monts
and Champlain set sail on the 7th of March, 1604, with a large expedition,
and in due course reached the shores of Nova Scotia, then called Acadie.
After an absence of three years, during which Champlain explored the coast
as far southward as Cape Cod, the expedition returned to France. A good
deal had been learned as to the topographical features of the country lying
near the coast, but little had been done in the way of actual colonization.
The next expedition was productive of greater results. De Monts, at
Champlain's instigation, resolved to found a settlement on the shores of
the St Lawrence. Two vessels were fitted up at his expense and placed under
Champlain's command, with Pontgrave as lieutenant of the expedition, which
put to sea in the month of April, 1608, and reached the mouth of the
Saguenay early in June. Pontgrave began a series of trading operations with
the Indians at Tadousac, while Champlain proceeded up the river to fix upon
an advantageous site for the projected settlement. This site he found at
the confluence of the St. Charles with the St. Lawrence, near the place
where Jacques Cartier had spent the winter of 1535-6. Tradition tells us
that when Cartier's sailors beheld the adjacent promontory of Cape Diamond
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