Among the early marriages not uncommon at that period, the following are examples. César, the son of Henry IV., was espoused by public ceremonies to the daughter of the Duke de Mercoeur in 1598. The bridegroom was four years old and the bride-elect had just entered her sixth year. The great Condé, by the urgency of his avaricious father, was unwillingly married at the age of twenty, to Claire Clemence de Maillé Brézé, the niece of Cardinal Richelieu, when she was but thirteen years of age. CHAPTER VII. THE FUR-TRADE AT MONTREAL.--COMPETITION AT THE RENDEZVOUS.--NO EXPLORATIONS.--CHAMPLAIN RETURNS TO FRANCE.--REORGANIZATION OF THE COMPANY.--COUNT DE SOISSONS, HIS DEATH.--PRINCE DE CONDÉ.--CHAMPLAIN'S RETURN TO NEW FRANCE AND TRADE WITH THE INDIANS.--EXPLORATION AND DE VIGNAN, THE FALSE GUIDE.--INDIAN CEREMONY AT CHAUDIÈRE FALLS. Champlain lost no time in hastening to Quebec, where he found Du Parc, whom he had left in charge, and the colony in excellent health. The paramount and immediate object which now engaged his attention was to secure for the present season the fur-trade of the Indians. This furnished the chief pecuniary support of De Monts's company, and was absolutely necessary to its existence. He soon, therefore, took his departure for the Falls of St. Louis, situated a short distance above Montreal, and now better known as La Chine Rapids. In the preceding year, this place had been agreed upon as a rendezvous by the friendly tribes. But, as they had not arrived, Champlain proceeded to make a thorough exploration on both sides of the St. Lawrence, extending his journeys more than twenty miles through the forests and along the shores of the river, for the purpose of selecting a proper site for a trading-house, with doubtless an ultimate purpose of making it a permanent settlement. After a full survey, he finally fixed upon a point of land which he named _La Place Royale_, situated within the present city of Montreal, on the eastern side of the little brook Pierre, where it flows into the St. Lawrence, at Point à Callière. On the banks of this small stream there were found evidences that the land to the extent of sixty acres had at some former period been cleared up and cultivated by the savages, but more recently had been entirely abandoned on account of the wars, as he learned from his Indian guides, in which they were incessantly engaged.