Owing to the unexpected severity of the climate and the want of support from France, the enterprise failed, and, with the exception of the abortive efforts of De la Roche in 1584 and in 1598,[401] no new attempt at French colonization was made for more than half a century afterward, when the accession of Henry IV. gave a new impulse to the latent spirit of adventure. In 1603 Pierre de Guast, Sieur de Monts, was named lieutenant-general of Acadia, with powers extending over all the inhabitable shores of America north of the latitude of Philadelphia.[402] Vast as was this domain, his real authority was confined to very narrow limits. Setting sail from France in the early part of April, 1604, De Monts, accompanied by Champlain, came in sight of Sable Island on the 1st of May, and a week later made the mainland at Cape La Hêve. [Illustration: ISLE DE SAINTE CROIX. [This is a fac-simile of Champlain’s engraving in his edition of 1613. The key is as follows: _A_, Habitation. _B_, Gardens. _C_, Isles with cannon. _D_, Platform for cannon. _E_, Burial-place. _F_, Chapel. _G_, Rocky shoals. _H_, Islet. _I_, De Mont’s water-mill begun here. _L_, Place for making coal. _M_ and _N_, Gardens. _O_, Mountains (Chamcook Hill, 627 feet high). _P_, River of the Etechemins (called later Schoodic River, till the name St. Croix was restored). Slafter describes the island as about 540 feet wide at the broadest part, and it contains now six or seven acres. Five small cannon-balls, two and one-quarter inches in diameter, were dug up at the southern end some years ago. Slafter’s edition, ii. 33.—ED.]] Subsequently he doubled the southwestern point of the peninsula of Nova Scotia, and coasting along the shore of what is now known as the Bay of Fundy, he finally determined to effect a settlement on a little island[403] just within the mouth of the St. Croix River. Here several small buildings were erected, and the little company of seventy-nine in all prepared to pass the winter. Before spring nearly one half of their number died; and in the following summer, after the arrival of a small reinforcement, it was decided to abandon the place. The coast was carefully explored as far south as Cape Cod, but without finding any spot which satisfied their fastidious tastes;[404] and the settlement was then transferred to the other side of the bay, to what is now called Annapolis Basin, but which De Monts had designated the year before as Port Royal. Here a portion of the company was left to pass a second winter, while De Monts returned to France, to prevent, if possible, the withdrawal of any part of the monopoly granted him by the Crown.