Thus was De Monts rewarded for having expended upwards of one hundred thousand livres, and passed more than three years of great suffering, from long duration of the snows and extreme cold, and having lost more than half his people by the dreaded "maladie de terre", or earth sickness. As compensation, however, for his losses, the Royal Council generously granted him six thousand livres; not in ready money, but to be paid by such vessels as should traffic in peltry, etc., in the new country; but De Monts was obliged to abandon even this mockery of a grant, finding the expense of collecting greater than the receipts. Champlain at this exclaims indignantly: "Thus were affairs managed in the Council of his majesty; may God pardon those whom He has called to Himself, and amend the living! Hé! bon Dieu! who would ever undertake anything, if all can be revoked in such a fashion, without carefully examining affairs before deciding. Those also who know least cry out the loudest, and pretend to know more than men of tried experience." He adds that there was one great defect in De Monts' expedition--the mixture of creeds, "as two contrary religions never produce much fruit for the glory of God among the heathen they wish to convert." "I have seen," says he, "the minister and our curé fight with their fists about differences of religion, and," he continues slyly, "I do not know which was the bravest or hit the hardest blows, but I do very well know that the minister complained sometimes to Mons. de Monts of having been soundly beaten; and in this way they cleared up the points of controversy. I leave you to think if it was very pleasant to behold. The savages were sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other; and the French, divided according to their different belief, said everything that was bad, both of one and the other religion. These quarrels were really the means of rendering the infidel more hardened in his infidelity." In the following year (1608) De Monts, desirous of making another attempt, consulted with Champlain, who advised him to proceed direct to the river St. Laurence, with which he was well acquainted from the experience of his previous voyage. De Monts, adopting his advice, applied again to the king, who granted him another commission authorising him to make the desired settlement; and to enable him the better to bear the expenses, interdicted the trade in peltry to all others for one year.