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a year in
America, he abandoned his immense viceroy-
alty.
Estates in
Picardy were better than titles in Norimbega.
His subjects must have been a sad company; during the winter, one was hanged for theft; several were put in irons; and ‘divers persons, as well women as men,’ were whipped.
By these means quiet was preserved.
Perhaps the expedition on its return entered the
Bay of
Massachusetts; the
French diplomatists always remembered, that
Boston was built within the original limits of New France.
The commission of
Roberval was followed by no per-
manent results.
It is confidently said, that, at a later date, he again embarked for his viceroyalty, accompanied by a numerous train of adventurers; and, as he was never more heard of, he may have perished at sea.
Can it be a matter of surprise, that, for the next fifty
years, no further discoveries were attempted by the government of a nation, which had become involved in the final struggle of feudalism against the central power of the monarch, of Calvinism against the ancient religion of
France?
The colony of Huguenots at the
South sprung from private enterprise; a government which could devise the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
was neither worthy nor able to found new states.
At length, under the mild and tolerant reign of Henry IV., the star of
France emerged from the clouds of blood, treachery, and civil war, which had so long eclipsed her glory.
The number and importance of the fishing stages had increased; in 1578 there were one
hundred and fifty French vessels at
Newfoundland, and regular voyages, for traffic with the natives, began to be successfully made.
One French mariner, before 1609, had made more than forty voyages to the
American coast.
The purpose of founding a French empire in
America was renewed, and an ample commission
