That Order gladly responded to the appeal; and, having secured the consent of the King of France and of the Pope, and assurances of aid from the Company of Merchants, the first Récollet missionaries to Canada departed from France, April 24, 1615.--See Introduction, vol. i., pp. xx., xxi. Other Récollets were sent over, from time to time; and, in 1620-21, they built a convent and chapel (the first in Canada) on St. Charles River, about half a French league from the fort of Quebec. This they named Notre-Dame des Anges; it was situated (according to Laverdière) on the spot where now stands the General Hospital. By 1624, five Récollet missions had been established--at Tadoussac, Quebec, and Three Rivers; at Carhagouha, in the Huron country; and among the Nipissings. There was another, in Acadia, on St. John River, founded in 1619, conducted by three Récollets from Aquitaine, and supported by certain commercial companies at Bordeaux. This mission was closed in July, 1624; and, immediately thereafter, its priests joined their brethren at Quebec. Just before their arrival, a conference of the Récollet missionaries was held at Quebec, at which they resolved to ask the coöperation of the Jesuits (also noted for the success of their foreign missions) in the Canadian field, which was far too large and arduous for their limited resources, hoping that the latter order would send some missionaries at its own expense. The Récollets, even more austere than the other Franciscan orders, were forbidden by their rules to own property; hence their missionaries could not look to their own order for aid. The Company of Merchants had agreed with Champlain to support six of the Récollets; but, as many of its members were Protestants, this outlay was probably an unwelcome burden to them. Moreover, the religious dissensions constantly arising between the Huguenots and the Catholics were felt to be a hindrance to the labors of the missionaries, who would have preferred that Protestants should be entirely excluded from the management of affairs. Sagard says (_Canada_, pp. 860, 861) that he complained to Montmorency of the disorders in Canada, for which he blamed the Huguenots; and that the Récollet provincial at Paris, with Father Irenæus Piat (envoy from the Canadian missionaries, to negotiate with the Jesuits), made formal charges against them in the council, to the same effect. The viceroy (in Rochemonteix's phrase, "a man of the world, who loved pleasures quite as well as honors") had meanwhile gladly disposed of his troublesome Canadian dignities (January, 1625) to his nephew Henri de Lévis, duke of Ventadour, a pious man who cared not for trade or conquest, but only for the conversion of the savages. De Lévis's spiritual director was a Jesuit; the application of the Récollets for aid from the Society of Jesus came at an opportune time for both orders. It is also probable that the influences of the court, at that