4 The Fishery Question. 



his colony, did not sail until 1598.'° Leaving 

 forty of these miserable men on the uninhab- 

 itable Sable Island, the scene of the first at- 

 tempt at French colonization, eighty years 

 before, he continued his course to the conti- 

 nent." De la Roche also returned without 

 his company, and soon afterward died. A 

 rescuing party was humanely undertaken by 

 the Government, and a few of the colonists 

 were found and brought alive to France. 



A commission given by Henry to Chauvin 

 indicates the part played by the French mer- 

 chants in effecting a successful settlement in 

 Canada. It contained an exclusive privilege 

 for trading in furs.'^ The peltry obtained 

 from Tadousac in 1600 and 1601 led to the 

 formation of a company composed of Dieppe 

 and Malonese merchants. Whatever trading 

 rights then existed, seem to have been cov- 

 ered by Henry's patent to De Monts, who in 

 1603 assumed the viceroyalty in " La Cadia" 

 with a monopoly of the fur trade from Cap de 

 Raze, Newfoundland, to fifty degrees north 

 latitude. The next year De Monts set out 

 and vigorously raided the interloping fur 

 traders. To Potrincourt, one of his compan- 

 ions, he gave the site of the modern Annap- 



