In the mean time Champlain was sent in a barque of eight tons, with the secretary Sieur Ralleau, Mr. Simon, the miner, and ten men, to reconnoitre the coast towards the west. Sailing along the shore, touching at numerous points, doubling Cape Sable, he entered the Bay of Fundy, and after exploring St. Mary's Bay, and discovering several mines of both silver and iron, returned to Port Mouton and made to De Monts a minute and careful report. De Monts immediately weighed anchor and sailed for the Bay of St. Mary, where he left his vessel, and, with Champlain, the miner, and some others, proceeded to explore the Bay of Fundy. They entered and examined Annapolis harbor, coasted along the western shores of Nova Scotia, touching at the Bay of Mines, passing over to New Brunswick, skirting its whole southeastern coast, entering the harbor of St. John, and finally penetrating Passamaquoddy Bay as far as the mouth of the river St. Croix, and fixed upon De Monts's Island [34] as the seat of their colony. The vessel at St. Mary's with the colonists was ordered to join them, and immediately active measures were taken for laying out gardens, erecting dwellings and storehouses, and all the necessary preparations for the coming winter. Champlain was commissioned to design and lay out the town, if so it could be called. When the work was somewhat advanced, he was sent in a barque of five or six tons, manned with nine sailors, to search for a mine of pure copper, which an Indian named Messamoüet had assured them he could point out to them on the coast towards the river St. John. Some twenty-five miles from the river St. Croix, they found a mine yielding eighteen per cent, as estimated by the miner; but they did not discover any pure copper, as they had hoped. On the last day of August, 1604, the vessel which had brought out the colony, together with that which had been taken from Rossignol, took their departure for the shores of France. In it sailed Poutrincourt, Ralleau the secretary of De Monts, and Captain Rossignol. From the moment of his arrival on the coast of America, Champlain employed his leisure hours in making sketches and drawings of the most important rivers, harbors, and Indian settlements which they had visited.