Discoveries of the french. 14*7 
made incredible efforts to raise France to the rank 
of a maritime power. Under his reign, establish- 
ments were formed both in the East and West 
Indies ; the splendour of which soon rivalled those 
of any other European nation. Amid the various 
objects which attracted his attention, the shores of 
Africa were not overlooked. They were interest- 
ing in a double view ; as affording a supply of 
slaves for the cultivation of the West India colo- 
nies, and, still more, as being, with the single ex- 
ception of Spanish America, the only country 
which had the reputation of producing gold, an ob- 
ject of trade to which, at that period, every other 
was considered as secondary. When governments 
at that era had determined to encourage any branch 
of commerce, the only mode which occurred to 
them was to erect a company, with the exclusive 
privilege of carrying it on. A private company at 
Rouen had established a factory at Dieppe, where 
they traded on a small scale, but with profit. They 
were obliged, however, by royal authority, to sell 
the whole of their concern to the new association, 
which was established under the title of the West 
India Company. They began their operations in 
1664, were supported by the whole weight of mi- 
nisterial protection, and received every aid from 
the fleets and armies of France ; yet, in the course 
of nine years, they went entirely to wreck. Their 
privilege and chattels were purchased by a second 
