We now approach the picturesque episode of Port Royal.  De Monts, having regained St Croix at the beginning of August, lost no time in transporting his people to the other side of the Bay of Fundy.  The consideration which weighed most with him in establishing his headquarters was that of trade.  Whatever his own preferences, he could not forget that his partners in France expected a return on their investment.  Had he been in a position to found an agricultural colony, the maize fields he had seen to the south-west might have proved attractive.  But he depended largely upon trade, and, as Champlain points out, the savages of Massachusetts had nothing to sell.  Hence it was unwise to go too far from the peltries of the St Lawrence.  To find a climate less severe than that of Canada, without losing touch with the fur trade, was De Monts’ problem.  No one could dream of wintering again at St Croix, and in the absence of trade possibilities to the south there seemed but one alternative—­Port Royal.

In his notice of De Monts’ cruise along the Bay of Fundy in June 1604, Champlain says:  ’Continuing two leagues farther on in the same direction, we entered one of the finest harbours I had seen all along these coasts, in which two thousand vessels might lie in security.  The entrance is 800 paces broad; then you enter a harbour two leagues long and one broad, which I have named Port Royal.’  Here Champlain is describing Annapolis Basin, which clearly made a deep impression upon the minds of the first Europeans who saw it.  Most of all did it appeal to the imagination of Poutrincourt, who had come to Acadia for the purpose of discovering a spot where he could found his own colony.  At sight of Port Royal he had at once asked De Monts for the grant, and on receiving it had returned to France, at the end of August 1604, to recruit colonists.  Thus he had escaped the horrible winter at St Croix, but on account of lawsuits it had proved impossible for him to return to Acadia in the following year.  Hence the noble roadstead of Port Royal was still unoccupied when De Monts, Champlain, and Pontgrave took the people of St Croix thither in August 1605.  Not only did the people go.  Even the framework of the houses was shipped across the bay and set up in this haven of better hope.

The spot chosen for the settlement lay on the north side of the bay.  It had a good supply of water, and there was protection from the north-west wind which had tortured the settlers at St Croix.  ’After everything had been arranged,’ says Champlain, ’and the majority of the dwellings built, Sieur de Monts determined to return to France, in order to petition His Majesty to grant him all that might be necessary for his undertaking.’  Quite apart from securing fresh advantages, De Monts at this time was sore pressed to defend his title against the traders who were clamouring for a repeal of the monopoly.  With him returned some of the colonists whose ambition had been satisfied at St Croix.  Champlain remained, in the hope of making further explorations ‘towards Florida.’  Pontgrave was left in command.  The others numbered forty-three.