It was now determined by the French government to form settlements in Canada. And the military mind of France attempted to carry into effect a plan not dissimilar to that recommended a few years ago by Major Carmychael Smyth, the making of a road to the Pacific through the wilderness by means of convicts. The plan, however, failed, though attempted by the Marquis De la Roche, who actually left on Sable Island forty convicts drawn from the French prisons. A company of merchants having been formed for the purpose of making settlements, Champlain accepted the command of an expedition, and accompanied by Pontgrave, sailed for the St. Lawrence in 1603. They arrived safely at Tadousac, and proceeded in open boats up the St. Lawrence; but did nothing. The effort at settlement was subsequently renewed. In 1608, Champlain, a second time, reached Stadacona or Quebec, on the 3rd July, and struck by the commanding position of Cape Diamond, selected the base of the promontory as the site of a town. He erected huts for shelter; established a magazine for stores and provisions; and formed barracks for the soldiery, not on the highest point of the headland, but on the site of the recently destroyed parliament buildings. There were then a few, and only a few, Indians in Stadacona, that Indian town being situated rather on the St. Charles than on the St. Lawrence. Few as they were, famine reduced them to the necessity of supplicating food from the strangers. The strangers themselves suffered much from scurvy, and after an exploration of the lake which yet bears the name of its discoverer, Champlain returned to France. Two years later the intrepid sailor set out for Tadousac and Quebec with artisans, laborers, and supplies for Nouvelle France, the name then given to Canada, or the Great "Pass" to China. He arrived at the mouth of the Saguenay on the 26th of April, after a remarkably short passage of eighteen days. He found his first settlers contented and prosperous. They had cultivated the ground successfully, and were on good terms with the natives. Champlain, however, desirous of annexing more of the territory of the Indians, stirred them up to strife. He himself joined an hostile expedition of the Algonquins and Montagnais against the Iroquois. What success he met with is not now to be ascertained. Deficient in resources, he again returned to France, and found a partner able and willing to assist the Colony in the person of the Count de Soisson, who had been appointed Viceroy of the new country--a sinecure appointment which the Count did not long enjoy, inasmuch as death took possession of him shortly afterwards. The honorary office of Viceroy, which more resembled an English Colonial Secretaryship of the present day, than a viceroyalty, was, on the death of Soisson, conferred on the Prince de Conde, who sent Champlain from St. Malo for the Colonial Seat of Government, on the 6th March, 1613, as Deputy Governor. Champlain arrived at Quebec on the 7th of May.