The Fishery Qicestion. 5 



olis.'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 the 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 having 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 



