On the 18th of April, 1609, Champlain, accompanied by two Frenchmen, ascended the Great River with a war party of Canadian Indians. After a time, turning southward up a tributary stream, he came to the shores of a large and beautiful lake, abounding with fish; the shores and neighboring forests sheltered, in their undisturbed solitude, countless deer and other animals of the chase. To this splendid sheet of water he gave his own name, which it still bears. To the south and west rose huge snow-capped mountains, and in the fertile valleys below dwelt numbers of the fierce and hostile Iroquois. Champlain and his savage allies pushed on to the furthest extremity of the lake, descended a rapid, and entered another smaller sheet of water, afterward named St. Sacrement. On the shore they encountered two hundred of the Iroquois warriors; a battle ensued; the skill and the astonishing weapons of the white men soon gave their Canadian allies a complete victory. Many prisoners were taken, and, in spite of Champlain's remonstrances, put to death with horrible and protracted tortures. The brave Frenchman returned to Quebec, and sailed for Europe in September, leaving Captain Pierre Chauvin, an experienced officer, in charge of the infant settlement. Henry IV. received Champlain with favor, and called him to an interview at Fontainebleau:[103] the king listened attentively to the report of the new colony, expressing great satisfaction at its successful foundation and favorable promise. But the energetic De Monts, to whom so much of this success was due, could find no courtly aid: the renewal of his privilege was refused, and its duration had already expired. By the assistance of the Merchant Company, he fitted out two vessels in the spring of 1610, under the tried command of Champlain and Pontgrave: the first was destined for Quebec, with some artisans, settlers, and necessary supplies for the colony; the second was commissioned to carry on the fur trade at Tadoussac. Champlain sailed from Honfleur on the 8th of April, and reached the mouth of the Saguenay in eighteen days, a passage which even all the modern improvements in navigation have rarely enabled any one to surpass in rapidity. He soon hastened on to Quebec, where, to his great joy, he found the colonists contented and prosperous; the virgin soil had abundantly repaid the labors of cultivation, and the natives had in no wise molested their dangerous visitors. He joined the neighboring tribes of Algonquin and Montagnez Indians, during the summer, in an expedition against the Iroquois. Having penetrated the woody country beyond Sorel for some distance, they came upon a place where their enemies were intrenched; this they took, after a bloody resistance. Champlain and another Frenchman were slightly wounded in the encounter.