of France, made, in 1603, a grant to a favorite
nobleman, De Monts, of the territory lying between
the fortieth and the forty-sixth degrees of north
latitude. James I. of England, three years later,
in 1606, granted to the Virginia Companies the territory
lying between the thirty-fourth and the forty-eighth
degrees of north latitude, covering the whole grant
made by the French three years before. Creuxius,
a French historian of Canada, writing some years later
than this, informs us that New France, that is, the
French possessions in North America, then embraced
the immense territory extending from Florida, or from
the thirty-second degree of latitude, to the polar
circle, and in longitude from Newfoundland to Lake
Huron. It will, therefore, be seen that each nation,
the English and the French, claimed at that time sovereignty
over the same territory, and over nearly the whole
of the continent of North America. Under these
circumstances, either of these nations was prepared
to avail itself of any favorable opportunity to dispossess
the other.
The English, however, had, at this period, particular
and special reasons for desiring to accomplish this
important object. Sir William Alexander, [96]
Secretary of State for Scotland at the court of England,
had received, in 1621, from James I., a grant, under
the name of New Scotland, of a large territory, covering
the present province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
and that part of the province of Quebec lying east
of a line drawn from the head-waters of the River
St. Croix in a northerly direction to the River St.
Lawrence. He had associated with him a large number
of Scottish noblemen and merchants, and was taking
active measures to establish Scottish colonies on
this territory. The French had made a settlement
within its limits, which had been broken up and the
colony dispersed in 1613, by Captain Samuel Argall,
under the authority of Sir Thomas Dale, governor of
the colony at Jamestown, Virginia. A desultory
and straggling French population was still in occupation,
under the nominal governorship of Claude La Tour.
Sir William Alexander and his associates naturally
looked for more or less inconvenience and annoyance
from the claims of the French. It was, therefore,
an object of great personal importance and particularly
desired by him, to extinguish all French claims, not
only to his own grant, but to the neighboring settlement
at Quebec. If this were done, he might be sure
of being unmolested in carrying forward his colonial
enterprise.
A war had broken out between France and England the
year before, for the ostensible purpose, on the part
of the English, of relieving the Huguenots who were
shut up in the city of Rochelle, which was beleaguered
by the armies of Louis XIII, under the direction of
his prime minister, Richelieu, who was resolved to
reduce this last stronghold to obedience. The
existence of this war offered an opportunity and pretext
for dispossessing the French and extinguishing their
claims under the rules of war. This object could
not be attained in any other way. The French were
too deeply rooted to be removed by any less violent
or decisive means. No time was, therefore, lost
in taking advantage of this opportunity.
