It was Champlain's opinion that they ought to sail directly for Nauset harbor, on Cape Cod, and commence their explorations where their search had terminated the preceding year, and thus advance into a new region, which had not already been surveyed. But other counsels prevailed, and a large part of the time which could be spared for this investigation was exhausted before they reached the harbor of Nauset. They made a brief visit to the island of St. Croix, in which De Monts had wintered in 1604-5, touched also at Saco, where the Indians had already completed their harvest, and the grapes at Bacchus Island were ripe and luscious. Thence sailing directly to Cape Anne, where, finding no safe roadstead, they passed round to Gloucester harbor, which they found spacious, well protected, with good depth of water, and which, for its great excellence and attractive scenery, they named _Beauport_, or the beautiful harbor. Here they remained several days. It was a native settlement, comprising two hundred savages, who were cultivators of the soil, which was prolific in corn, beans, melons, pumpkins, tobacco, and grapes. The harbor was environed with fine forest trees, as hickory, oak, ash, cypress, and sassafras. Within the town there were several patches of cultivated land, which the Indians were gradually augmenting by felling the trees, burning the wood, and after a few years, aided by the natural process of decay, eradicating the stumps. The French were kindly received and entertained with generous hospitality. Grapes just gathered from the vines, and squashes of several varieties, the trailing bean still well known in New England, and the Jerusalem artichoke crisp from the unexhausted soil, were presented as offerings of welcome to their guests. While these gifts were doubtless tokens of a genuine friendliness so far as the savages were capable of that virtue, the lurking spirit of deceit and treachery which had been inherited and fostered by their habits and mode of life, could not be restrained.