weather, however, all the time. Changes in France at last stopped all progress,and Port Royal was abandoned. I cannot tell its history, but in time it fell into the hands of the English, who called it Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne, who then sat on their throne. It is a town of but a few hundred inhabitants now.

The Father of New France, as the founder of L'Ordre de Bon-temps has been called, was disappointed, but not disheartened. He returned home, and passed a year in the enjoyment of the social pleasures of which for three years he had been deprived. He was a romantic hero, reminding us sometimes of those we read of in the romances of the middle age, but he had hard common-sense and was earnest and persistent. He had come into existence so unobtrusively that no one knows now even the year in which he was born, nor what his ancestry was. He did not get a very good education, and seems to have spent his early years in the employment of a sea

man.

After a while he entered the navy. He was some

twenty-three years old, according to the pretty care ful guesses of historians, when the celebrated battle

of Ivry was fought that battle which gave Macaulay the text for his stirring ballad. I have had to stop to read it myself as I have been writing this, it stirs me so with its fire.

Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance Through thy cornfields green and sunny vines, O pleasant land of France !

War continued a long time after the battle of Ivry before there was peace in the "pleasant land of France." It was nearly eight years before Henry the Fourth could look with satisfaction upon his goodly land, before the people could feel the pleasure that came to them at the close of the war in 1598. The Father of New France had done good service for the king, and at the close of war found himself out of business. He had been quarter-master; but quarter-masters have nothing to do in times of peace. He looked over the maps of the world, to see whither he might go for the work he delighted in. He reminds me again of those knights of the middle age, who were ever

on some "quest," as they called it, and never sat∙isfied to be at rest and in peace.

The West Indies proved to be the region that seemed desirable above others for his purpose, and he thought over plans whereby he might get there and make an exploration that would do service to France. It seemed no easy task, for Spain was rich and strong and held the West Indies firmly in her grasp. However, our hero found a way, and sailed thither on a January day in the year 1599. I cannot tell you all that he did on this remarkable journey, but I must say that he went further than the West Indies. He crossed to the mainland, visited the city of Mexico, and made many interesting observations on what he saw. After two years' absence, he returned to France, and made a report, probably to King Henry of Navarre, in which he advocated the building of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien, and objected to the Spanish mode of trying to convert the Indians at the risk of killing them in the attempt. Nothing came directly of his report, but his journey gave him a reputation as an explorer, and he was