[Illustration: PEARL FISHERY.] BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE THINGS THAT SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN OF BROUAGE, OBSERVED IN THE WESTERN INDIES; DURING THE VOYAGE WHICH HE MADE TO THE SAME, IN THE YEARS ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE TO ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND TWO,--AS FOLLOWS. Having been employed in the army of the king, which was in Brittany, under Messieurs the Maréchal d'Aumont de St. Luc,[30] and the Maréchal de Brissac,[31] during some years in the quality of maréchal de logis,[32] until his majesty, in the year one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, had reduced the said country of Brittany to obedience,[33] and dismissed his army; and finding myself by this means without any charge or employment, I resolved, in order not to remain idle, to find means of making a voyage to Spain, and, being there, to acquire and cultivate acquaintance, in order, by their favour and interposition, to arrange so as to be able to embark in one of the ships of the fleet, which the king of Spain sends every year to the western Indies; to the end, in so embarking, to be able at my return to make a true report to his majesty (Henry IV) of the particularities which could not be known to any Frenchman, for the reason that they have not free access there. [30] Maréchal d'Aumont. Jean d'Aumont, born in 1522, of an ancient and noble family, entered the career of arms very early, and distinguished himself by his bravery during the Piedmontese war. Henry III created him Knight of the Saint Esprit in 1578, and Marshal of France in the following year. D'Aumont signalized himself at the battle of Ivry. He was named governor of Poitou by Henry IV, and by his prudent conduct kept that province from rising for the League. The king sent him to Brittany to oppose the Duke de Mercoeur. He was killed by a musket-shot at the siege of Camper, on the 19th of August, 1595, aged seventy-three years. [31] Maréchal de Brissac. Charles, second Duke de Cossé Brissac, peer and marshal of France. He gave up Paris, of which he was governor, to Henry IV, on the 22nd March, 1594. He served in the war in Brittany till its close, and died at Brissac, in Anjou, in 1621. [32] "Maréchal de logis"--quarter-master. [33] Reduction of Brittany. The greater part of Brittany held out for the League against the king (Henry IV), under the command of the Duke de Mercoeur, aided by the Spaniards under the Archduke Albert of Austria.