IV.

Second Visit

The southern area that Champlain had been told about during his first visit to North America became the destination of his second trip in 1604, undertaken with Pierre du Guast, sieur de Monts. De Monts had obtained a commission to govern Acadia—the region that now comprises Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island—in exchange for establishing a permanent settlement in the area.

Hired by de Monts, Champlain explored the Atlantic Coast on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, sighting a river flowing from the north that he named the Saint-Jean (now the Saint John River). He learned from the area’s inhabitants, the Maliseet, that this river was their route to the St Lawrence. Travelling west along the coast, Champlain chose a site on the St Croix River for the permanent settlement, but 35 of the 79 men who stayed there during the winter of 1604-1605 died of scurvy. The base was then moved, in the spring of 1605, to the south side of the Bay of Fundy and its new site was named Port Royal. Champlain remained in North America three years, during which time he charted the coast as far south as Cape Cod.