_If I present to your Majesty these Discourses upon your new France, the description of the country, and the account of the manners and strange and barbarous ways of the Canadians, I am bound to do it by every consideration of duty. Your express command, with that of the Queen, your highly esteemed mother, then Regent, carried me and some of my Companions thither more propitiously than wind and tide; your Royal generosity supported me there for some years; and your mighty authority delivered me from the hands of certain English Pirates, enemies of our holy_ [iv] _faith, (of which we cast some seeds in this New World, with the hope of one day having a plentiful harvest, sole object of our voyage and of your royal command, SIRE,) they compelled us to leave the place, to our great regret, and held us prisoners several months in their ship, and a hundred times prepared the rope and the gallows for our execution; respect for Your Majesty alone having prevented them from carrying out their wicked designs, particularly upon my person, which possibly divine providence has wished to preserve through your agency, to be again ordered to sail away to the same country, and to continue the education of this barbarous people. Delivered now from this danger, and still wet from the shipwreck in the port of your France, I lay at your feet this little book as an evidence of very humble gratitude that, if I am living and writing, it is due (after God) to your help and favor, SIRE. And_ [v] _this signal obligation, being always before my eyes, will cause me to pray God continually, with all those of my order, that, as Your Majesty's years and zeal increase, you may one day plant the standard of the Cross with its Royal fleurs de lys upon the most distant Infidel lands, while the great King of Kings prepares for you in Heaven a crown of honor and of everlasting glory, which I wish for you, after having worn your crown upon earth long and happily, with the same love and devotion from which I am your Majesty's_ Very humble and very obedient subject and servant, PIERRE BIARD. [vi] Avant-Propos.