transports, laden with emigrants and stores, together with one hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance to fortify the settlement at Quebec. War existing at that time between England and France, an English fleet was already on its way to destroy the French colony at Quebec. The transports and convoy sent out by the Company of the Hundred Associates were intercepted on their way, carried into England, and confiscated. On the arrival of the English at Tadoussac, David Kirke, the commander, sent up a summons to Champlain at Quebec, demanding the surrender of the town; this Champlain declined to do with such an air of assurance that the English commander did not attempt to enforce his demand. The supplies for the settlement having thus been cut off by the English, before the next spring the colony was on the point of perishing by starvation. Half of them had been billeted on Indian tribes to escape impending death. On the 19th of July, 1629, three English vessels appeared before Quebec, and again demanded its surrender. Destitute of provisions and of all means of defence, with only a handful of famishing men, Champlain delivered up the post without hesitation. All the movable property belonging to the Company at Quebec was surrendered. The whole colony, with the exception of such as preferred to remain, were transported to France by way of England. On their arrival at Plymouth, it was ascertained that the war between the two countries had come to an end, and that the articles of peace provided that all conquests made subsequent to the 24th of April, 1629, were to be restored; and consequently Quebec, and the peltry and other property taken after that date, must be remanded to their former owners. Notwithstanding this, Champlain was taken to London and held as a prisoner of war for several weeks, during which time the base attempt was made to compel him to pay a ransom for his freedom. Such illegal and unjust artifices practised upon a man like Champlain of course came to nothing, except to place upon the pages of history a fresh example of what the avarice of men will lead them to do. After having been detained a month, Champlain was permitted to depart for France. [Illustration: CAPTURE OF QUEBEC, 1629. Fac-simile of the engraving in Hennepin’s _New Discovery_, 1698, p. 161. Of this capture (during which not a gun was fired, notwithstanding Hennepin’s dramatic picture) see an enumeration of contemporary authorities in the notes to Shea’s _Charlevoix_, ii. 44, _et seq._, principally Champlain, Sagard, and Creuxius. It is the subject of special treatment in H. Kirke’s _Conquest of Canada_, with help from papers in the English Record Office. In the same year (1629) there was a seizure on the part of the French of James Stuart’s post at Cape Breton, commemorated in _La Prise d’un Seigneur Écossois, etc._ Par Monsieur Daniel de Dieppe. Rouen, 1630. Cf. Champlain, 1632 ed., p. 272; and Harrisse, no. 45.]