The Fishery Question. $ 



oils. '3 When De Monts lost his patent in 

 1606, through the hostility of Malonese rivals, 

 Potrincourt succeeded in obtaining a con- 

 firmation of his grant and founded Port 

 Royal. 



Englishmen already in Virginia claimed 

 under their charter to thei forty-fifth degree 

 north latitude/"* but the French were unwilling 

 to relinquish their occupations within the de- 

 batable territory. The Virginians, having 

 decided to enforce their rights, as they under- 

 stood them, fitted out, in time of peace, an 

 expedition under Argall and destroyed Port 

 Royal in 161 3. '^ 



That the French now possessed a centre of 

 influence and of resistance, was due to the 

 sagacity of Champlain ; convinced of the com- 

 mercial and strategical superiority of the 

 Saint Lawrence over the coast line, he had 

 founded Quebec in 1608, when, as pilot, he 

 accompanied De Monts to Tadousac, the 

 latter havino- obtained the renewal of his 

 patent for one year. 



English commerce, heretofore confined to 

 the Channel and the German Ocean, utilized 

 promptly the discovery of Newfoundland,'^ 

 especially as the Dutch were then deriving 



