where, and everywhere to the northward, there was only 

 wilderness. 



Such was the state of North America, when, on a fair 

 midsummer day, just three centuries ago, a tiny vessel 

 came sailing along the lonely Fundy coast from the east- 

 ward and turned her prow to the river on whose historic 

 banks we are now standing. She was a tiny craft that 

 thus appeared out of the unknown, for she was no larger 

 than the fishing sloops we know so well in our Quoddy 

 waters today. She carried about a dozen men, of whom 

 two bore the unmistakable stamp of leadership. 



One was a prominent gentleman of France, lofty in 

 spirit, devoted in purpose, trusted of his King, the com- 

 mander of the company, Sieur de Monts. The other was 

 one of the great men whom France has given to the 

 world, a remarkable combination of dreamer and man 

 of swift and wise action. The intentness of his gaze as 

 one new feature after another unfolds itself along the 

 coast, and his constant use of compass and pencil, shows 

 him to be the geographer and chronicler of the expedition. 

 He was the first cartographer and historian of Acadia, 

 Samuel de Champlain. 



But the little vessel is coming nearer; she reaches 

 our beautiful Passamaquoddy islands ; she winds her 

 cautious and curious way among them; she crosses the 

 spacious bay ; she enters our noble river ; she sails up 

 the hill-bordered valley; she reaches the island where 

 today we placed our memorial, then unbroken forest; 

 her sails are furled; the leaders step ashore and, with 

 the air of men who have ended a weary search, declare 

 that it is good and that here they will plant the capital 

 of the New World. 



Whence came this little vessel? What carried she that 

 we should here assemble three centuries later, to cele- 

 brate her coming! 



She was the herald of the permanent occupation of 

 the northern part of America by Europeans. From the 



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