“All for the glory of God, whom I pray with my whole heart to grant you ever increasing prosperity, and to make me all my life, monseigneur, your most humble, most faithful and most obedient servant,

“Champlain.

     “At Quebec, in New France, August 15th, 1635.”

In order to consolidate his general scheme for the colonization of the country, Champlain desired that the missionaries should settle permanently among the Huron tribes.  The Jesuits wished to go there, as they believed they would find a field for their labours.  They had previously set before the people the light of the Catholic faith, but these efforts had not been as successful as they had wished.  Father de Brebeuf, the apostle to the Hurons, having decided to return to his former sphere of labours, left for the Huron country in 1634, prepared to remain there as long as there was work to be done.  He was destined to live among the Hurons until they were finally dispersed by the Iroquois.

When Champlain arrived at Quebec, he summoned Emery de Caen to deliver to Duplessis-Bochart the keys of the fort and habitation.  Champlain’s arrival caused much rejoicing among the inhabitants, for he inspired both their love and respect, and he was, perhaps, the only man who could impress them with a belief in their future, and thus retain them in the country.  The arrival of a certain number of settlers during the years 1633-4, was also an encouragement for all.  The restoration of Canada to France caused some excitement in the maritime provinces of France, especially in Normandy, as most of the settlers of New France up to this date were from there.  The exceptions were, Louis Hebert, a native of Paris, and Guillaume Couillard, of St. Malo.  Emigration soon extended to other parts of the provinces, as the result of the discrimination of the Relations of the Jesuits, which had been distributed in Paris and elsewhere during the years 1632 and 1633.  Several pious and charitable persons began to take an interest in the missions of New France, and forwarded both money and goods to help them.

Some nuns offered to go to Canada to look after the sick and to instruct the young girls, and in the year 1633 a few families arrived in Quebec with Champlain, who had defrayed their expenses.

In the year 1634 an association was formed in France for the purpose of promoting colonization, and a group of about forty persons, recruited in different parts of the province of Perche, were sent to Canada, with Robert Giffard at their head.  Giffard, it will be remembered, had visited Quebec in the year 1627 as surgeon of the vessels sent out by the company, but he had no intention of settling in the country.  After having built a log hut on the Beauport shore, he devoted his leisure to hunting and fishing, game and fish being plentiful at that time, and returned to France during the same year.  He was appointed surgeon to Roquemont’s fleet during the following year, and as the vessels were captured by the English, he, with the others on board, was compelled to return to his mother country.  This misfortune did not discourage the former solitary inhabitant of Beauport, and he resolved to revisit the country, but this time with a view of settling and of farming.