Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 3.
Frank Moore, Ed.

For an agricultural colony, a milder climate was desirable; in view of a settlement at the South, De Monts explored and colonized for France, the rivers, the coasts, and the bays of New England, so far, at least, as Cape Cod. The numbers and hostility of the savages led him to delay a removal, since his [45] colonists were so few. Yet the purpose remained. Thrice in the spring of the following year did Dupont, his lieutenant, attempt to complete the discovery. Thrice he was driven back by adverse winds, and at the third time his vessel was wrecked. Poutrincourt, who had visited France, and was now returned with supplies, renewed the design; but meeting with disasters on the shoals of Cape Cod, he, too, returned to Port Royal. Thus the first settlement on the American Continent had been made--two years before James River was discovered, and three years before a cabin had been raised in Canada.

The name of Dupont in connection with a naval expedition at Port Royal, in 1605, and with another and greater two hundred and fifty years later, is one of those curious coincidences in which the muse of history loves to indulge. If the first had succeeded in his efforts to possess the New England shores, who can tell what would have been the effect upon the destinies of this continent? If the second had failed in entering Port Royal harbor, how differently the future annals of the Republic might read! If Port Royal menaced New England in 1605, the tables have been turned in 1861.--Philadelphia Press.