Champlain's difficulties and anxieties became daily greater, as, with the utmost possible economy, the few remaining provisions would hardly last longer than the end of May, and if the annual ships with supplies were lost or taken by the English, they must all perish with hunger; so he resolved that, if the vessels did not arrive by the end of June, and the English should return as they had promised, to make the best terms he could and give up the fort, as the people could not otherwise subsist; and if neither the English nor the ships should arrive, to patch up, as well as he could, a little vessel of seven or eight tons, which had been left at Quebec as being good for nothing, and go to Gaspey, Miscou, and other places to the north, to try and get a passage for the greater part of the settlers, in the vessels which went there for the fishery, retaining in the settlement only such a number as might subsist on the grain which would be gathered in the following August from the lands of "Hebert" before mentioned, and of the "Fathers," who seemed to have taken care of themselves in all this necessity. "To exist till August," says he, "our resource would be to seek for herbs and roots, and try and catch fish." If he found that the little vessel could not be repaired, he determined to take with him as many men as possible and make war on some of the savage tribes who had aided the Iroquois; to force one of their villages and fortify it, so as to pass the rest of the summer, the autumn, and winter, rather than all die of hunger at the settlement, "hoping for better things in the spring."