The climax of Dutch prosperity in America was reached about 1635, when the settlers in New Amsterdam became involved in difficulties with the English of Connecticut, who drove them, step by step, and little by little, from every outpost they had gained. In 1636 began the terrible Indian war in which the English and Dutch were alike involved, and all the Dutch inhabitants of Staten Island were murdered by the fierce Algonquins; and in 1637 a company of Swedes and Finns, most of them religious refugees, arrived in Delaware Bay, where, having purchased extensive territories from the Indians, they quietly established themselves, calling their American home New Sweden, and their first fort, built at the mouth of the Delaware, Fort Christiana, after the young Swedish Queen. In vain did the Dutch protest against what they looked upon as an invasion of their rights. Settlement after settlement of Swedes was established on both banks of the Delaware, and not until 1665 were the Dutch able to gain possession of New Sweden, which, however, ten years later, fell, with the whole of the Dutch territories of America, into the hands of the English. Illustration: INTERIOR OF A DUTCH HOUSEHOLD IN EARLY NEW YORK. CHAPTER VI. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT LAKES OF CANADA AND OF THE HEADWATERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI. WHILE the English were firmly establishing themselves in New England, and the Dutch and Swedes were struggling for the mastery in the present states of New York and Delaware, discoveries of vital importance were being made by the French in Canada, or as it was then called, New France. We have already mentioned Samuel Champlain, who accompanied both Pontgravé and De Monts in their early expedition to Maine, and was the author of the first scientific map of the St. Lawrence. It was this Champlain, a true hero of geographical discovery, who paved the way for the establishment of French power in Canada, and to whom we, as the successors of the French, owe an undying debt of gratitude. In the winter of 1604, when the little settlement at Port Royal was struggling in that feeble infancy destined to be its only existence, Champlain made it the starting point for many a trip to the South, visiting Cape Cod――which his men named Cape Blanc, from its far-stretching white sands――long before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. In 1608, when Pourtrincourt, the successor of De Monts, had returned to France in disgust, and Henry Hudson was preparing for the great voyage resulting in the discovery of the river named after him, Champlain was starting with a few faithful followers on an overland journey through perfectly untrodden districts watered by the St. Lawrence.