In February of the year 1663, the Company of New France, whose affairs had been going from bad to worse, made a voluntary surrender of all their rights and privileges to the king, leaving it to his discretion to make them such compensation as might be just for the capital they had sunk in their not very well-directed efforts. The king accepted the surrender, and, as a means of providing for the better administration of justice in the colony, and also the due control of its finances, he created by royal edict a Sovereign Council, which was to consist of the governor, the bishop, or other senior ecclesiastic, and five councillors chosen by them jointly. A year later he proceeded to charter a completely new company--as if the regime of companies had not been sufficiently tried--under the name of the West India Company. To it the entire trade of all the French possessions in America and on the west coast of Africa was transferred. The new company was virtually the creation of the great administrator, Colbert; and it may be assumed that he trusted to his own vigorous oversight and control to make it a success. He hoped, in fact, to succeed where a Richelieu had failed; experience had yet to teach him that no administrative ability, however eminent, can obtain prosperity from a system of close monopoly. It was not long before Laval and his pocket governor (as he had hoped Mezy would be) found themselves at daggers drawn. The quarrel was of so trifling a character that its details need not detain us; suffice it to say, that Laval represented the case to the court and procured his nominee's dismissal. The unfortunate man, however, whose weak mind was assailed with the most distressing spiritual fears, when he found himself under the ban of the church, accomplished a hasty reconciliation with the offended powers, and died, desperately penitent, before his successor reached Canada.