Champlain's explorations on what may be strictly called the Atlantic coast of North America were now completed. He had landed at La Hève in Nova Scotia on the 8th of May, 1604, and had consequently been in the country three years and nearly four months. During this period he had carefully examined the whole shore from Canseau, the eastern limit of Nova Scotia, to the Vineyard Sound on the southern boundaries of Massachusetts. This was the most ample, accurate, and careful survey of this region which was made during the whole period from the discovery of the continent in 1497 down to the establishment of the English colony at Plymouth in 1620. A numerous train of navigators had passed along the coast of New England: Sebastian Cabot, Estévan Gomez, Jean Alfonse, André Thevet, John Hawkins, Bartholomew Gosnold, Martin Pring, George Weymouth, Henry Hudson, John Smith, and the rest, but the knowledge of the coast which we obtain from them is exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory, especially as compared with that contained in the full, specific, and detailed descriptions, maps, and drawings left us by this distinguished pioneer in the study and illustration of the geography of the New England coast. [57] The winter of 1607-8 Champlain passed in France, where he was pleasantly occupied in social recreations which were especially agreeable to him after an absence of more than three years, and in recounting to eager listeners his experiences in the New World. He took an early opportunity to lay before Monsieur de Monts the results of the explorations which he had made in La Cadie since the departure of the latter from Annapolis Basin in the autumn of 1605, illustrating his narrative by maps and drawings which he had prepared of the bays and harbors on the coast of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England.