11. In Champlain's report of the voyage of 1603, after obtaining what information he could from the natives relating to the St. Lawrence and the chain of lakes, he says they informed him that the last lake in the chain was salt, and he therefore believed it to be the South Sea. He doubtless enlarged verbally before the king upon the feasibility of a passage to China in this way. 12. The commission here referred to was doubtless the one renewed to him in 1608, after he had made his searches on the shores of New England and Nova Scotia, and after the commission or charter of 1603 had been revoked. Champlain is here stating the advantages of a settlement in the interior, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, rather than on the Atlantic coast. 13. In this chapter, Champlain speaks of events stretching through several years; but in the next he confines himself to the occurrences of 1603, when De Monts obtained his charter. CHAPTER II. DESCRIPTION OF SABLE ISLAND; CAPE BRETON; LA HÈVE; PORT AU MOUTON; PORT CAPE NEGRE; SABLE BAY AND CAPE; CORMORANT ISLAND; CAPE FOURCHU; LONG ISLAND; BAY OF SAINT MARY; PORT SAINT MARGARET; AND OF ALL NOTEWORTHY OBJECTS ALONG THIS COAST. Sieur de Monts, by virtue of his commission [14] having published in all the ports and harbors of this kingdom the prohibition against the violation of the monopoly of the fur-trade accorded him by his Majesty, gathered together about one hundred and twenty artisans, whom he embarked in two vessels: one of a hundred and twenty tons, commanded by Sieur de Pont Gravé; [15] another, of a hundred and fifty tons, in which he embarked himself, [16] together with several noblemen. We set out from Havre de Grâce April 7th, 1604, and Pont Gravé April 10th, to rendezvous at Canseau, [17] twenty leagues from Cape Breton. [18] But after we were in mid-ocean, Sieur de Monts changed his plan, and directed his course towards Port Mouton, it being more southerly and also more favorable for landing than Canseau. On May 1st, we sighted Sable Island, where we ran a risk of being lost in consequence of the error of our pilots, who were deceived in their calculation, which they made forty leagues ahead of where we were.