In the mean time, Champlain resorted to every expedient to provide subsistence for his famishing colony. Even at the time when the surrender was demanded by the English, they were on daily rations of seven ounces each. The means of obtaining food were exceedingly slender. Fishing could not be prosecuted to any extent, for the want of nets, lines, and hooks. Of gunpowder they had less than fifty pounds, and a possible attack by treacherous savages rendered it inexpedient to expend it in hunting game. Moreover, they had no salt for curing or preserving the flesh of such wild animals as they chanced to take. The few acres cultivated by the missionaries and the Hébert family, and the small gardens about the settlement, could yield but little towards sustaining nearly a hundred persons for the full term of ten months, the shortest period in which they could reasonably expect supplies from France. A system of the utmost economy was instituted. A few eels were purchased by exchange of beaver-skins from the Indians. Pease were reduced to flour first by mortars and later by hand-mills constructed for the purpose, and made into a soup to add flavor to other less palatable food. Thus economising their resources, the winter finally wore away, but when the spring came, their scanty means were entirely exhausted. Henceforth their sole reliance was upon the few fish that could be taken from the river, and the edible roots gathered day by day from the fields and forests. An attempt was made to quarter some of the men upon the friendly Indians, but with little success. Near the last of June, thirty of the colony, men, women, and children, unwilling to remain longer at Quebec, were despatched to Gaspé, twenty of them to reside there with the Indians, the others to seek a passage to France by some of the foreign fishing-vessels on the coast. This detachment was conducted by Eustache Boullé, the brother-in-law of Champlain. The remnant of the little colony, disheartened by the gloomy prospect before them and exhausted by hunger, continued to drag out a miserable existence, gathering sustenance for the wants of each day, without knowing what was to supply the demands of the next. On the 19th of July, 1629, three English vessels were seen from the fort at Quebec, distant not more than three miles, approaching under full sail. [100] Their purpose could not be mistaken. Champlain called a council, in which it was decided at once to surrender, but only on good terms; otherwise, to resist to their utmost with such slender means as they had. The little garrison of sixteen men, all his available force, hastened to their posts. A flag of truce soon brought a summons from the brothers, Lewis and Thomas Kirke, couched in courteous language, asking the surrender of the fort and settlement, and promising such honorable and reasonable terms as Champlain himself might dictate.