SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 93 



iu honor to maintaiue them, both iu regard of his subjects that have planted there vpon 

 his warrant and of the promises that he made to the Commissioner of the natives that 

 came to him from them." 



It is probable that Kirk's fleet accompanied the colonists to Port Royal. If so his 

 visit must have been a very hurried one, for we find that he had navigated the St. 

 Lawrence, captured a French fleet under M. de Rocquemont, taken Miscou and Tadousac, 

 plundered Cape Tourmente, and summoned Quebec, all before the middle of July. 



The statement above regarding La Tour, if the reference is to Claude the father, gives 

 a diS'ereut view of his first connection with the British interest from that commonly 

 received. The statement of mi st historians is that he had gone to France the year pre- 

 vious, with a petition from his sou, Charles Amador, to be made governor of Acadia, and 

 that on his return he was captured by Kirk in the St. Lawrence, on board one of the fleet 

 which had been sent out by the new company for the strengthening of the French colony. 

 As Alexander was at the time of writing well acquainted with the elder La Tour, having 

 had him associated with him in his undertaking, it is natural to suppose that it is to him 

 he refers as " Mous'r Latour." He is said to have come to Port Royal with Poutrincourt 

 in 1610, his son being then a boy. And it seems strange that while the father was 

 still in the prime of life, and the son yet quite a young man, the latter should be exer- 

 cising such authority as could be exercised over the few French then scattered in the 

 neighbourhood ol Port Royal, and the father voyaging to France to obtain for him the 

 government of Acadia. 



But on the other hand French authorities agree in stating that Biencourt after (he 

 return of his father Poutrincourt to France, exercised at least the leadership among the 

 residents at Port Royal after the death of the latter in 1615, till his own death in 1623, 

 that he was the intimate companion of the younger La Tour, and in dying bequeathed to 

 him all his rights in Port Royal, at the same time naming him as his successor in ofhce. 

 But while we are writing we notice in a published catalogue of MS. for sale by M. 

 Dufosse of Paris, the following : 



" Biencourt de Pouteincourt (Charles) né en 1583, mort vers 1638, fils du sieur 

 de Poutrincourt, gouverneur en Acadie pour M. Des Monts. — Piece sur velin signée, in 4 

 obloug (64)." 



" Reçu par le sieur Charles Biencourt de Poutrincourt d'une somme de trois mille 

 livres pour sa charge de directeur de l'Académie du roi, décembre 1621." 



And another with exactly the same title, but marked ''Piece signée 2 pp. in fol. (66) " 

 and with the addition, " Pouvoir donné au sr. François de Vaux d'administrer certaines 

 propriétés. Paris, 17 avril 1638." 



We have not been able to get access to these documents, but these statements are 

 sufficient to show that Biencourt had returned to France some time before this time, pro- 

 bably at the same time as his father, and that he lived there till his death some years 

 after. The more we examine the case the more satisfied we are of the correctness of Sir 

 William Alexander's account. He could not be misinformed as to the facts which he 

 has here recorded in a grave official document, and we may therefore regard it as certain, 

 that what French still remained in that part of the country with La Tour at their head 

 quietly submitted to the new-comers. It is probable that it was then that Charles 



