THE HUGUENOT COLONY IN CANADA 117 



perity attended his venture. Many merchants of La 

 Eochelle activ^ely engaged in the profitable trade. 



Eeligious liberty had not as yet been interfered M'ith, 

 and though there were serious discussions between the 

 Eomanists and Calvinists, the friendly intercourse pre- 

 vailed in the main so long as de Monts was in control. 

 Presently, however, Champlain, who was a Roman Cath- 

 olic, was appointed governor of the colony, and the re- 

 ligious contentions gave him much trouble. The Calvin- 

 ists remained true to their faith, and on most of the Religious 



. ' Troubles 



"company's vessels the crews were assembled daily for 

 prayers, after the manner of Geneva ; and even good 

 Catholics, it was complained, were required by the 

 Huguenot captains to join in the psalmody which formed 

 so important a part of the Protestant worship. ' ' But now 

 came the terrible blow to the Protestants in France. 

 Tolerant and sympathetic King Henry IV fell under the 

 assassin's knife, and it was plain that no longer would the 

 Huguenots enjoy their freedom of worship. De Monts 

 gave up his hopes and plans, and surrendered his com- 

 mission as viceroy of New France to the Prince of Conde, 

 who had been a Huguenot leader, but was now engaged 

 in politics rather than religion, using the latter as a po- 

 litical weapon. The proprietary rights which had be- 

 longed to de Monts passed, by the irony of fate, into the 

 hands of the Jesuits, most inveterate and implacable of 

 foes to the Protestant faith. One of the romances of his- oeMonts 

 tory stranger than fiction is to be found in the passing of 

 the title to half a continent from Protestant to Roman 

 Catholic hands, through the missionary zeal of a French 

 noblewoman controlled by the Jesuits on the one hand, Jesuits in Con- 

 and the financial needs of the noble de Monts, who had 

 become governor of a Huguenot town and wanted to de- 

 fend it against time of persecution, on the other. Thus 

 began the Jesuit missions in North America under fa- 

 vourable auspices, and thus sounded the death-knell of a 

 Protestant New France in North America. 



trol 



