The whole population of the Acadian Peninsula in 1710-13, was not more than 1500 souls, nearly all descendants of the people brought to the country by Poutrincourt and his successors Razilly and Charnisay.  At no time did the French government interest itself in immigration to neglected Acadia.  Of the total population, nearly 1000 persons were settled in the beautiful country which the industry and ingenuity of the Acadian peasants, in the course of many years, reclaimed from the restless tides of the Bay of Fundy at Grand Pre and Minas.  The remaining settlements were at Beau Bassin, Annapolis, Piziquit (now Windsor), Cobequit (now Truro), and Cape Sable.  Some small settlements were also founded on the banks of the St. John River and on the eastern bays of the present province of New Brunswick.

Section 3.—­French exploration in the great valleys of North America.

The hope of finding a short route to the rich lands of Asia by the St. Lawrence River and its tributary lakes and streams, influenced French voyagers and explorers well into the middle of the eighteenth century.  When Cartier stood on Mount Royal and saw the waters of the Ottawa there must have flashed across his mind the thought that perhaps by this river would be found that passage to the western sea of which he and other sailors often dreamed both in earlier and later times.  L’Escarbot tells us that Champlain in his western explorations always hoped to reach Asia by a Canadian route.  He was able, however, long before his death to make valuable contributions to the geography of Canada.  He was the first Frenchman to ascend the River of the Iroquois, now the Richelieu, and to see the beautiful lake which still bears his name.  In 1615 he found his way to Georgian Bay by the route of the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers, Lake Nipissing and French River.  Here he visited the Huron villages which were situated in the district now known as Simcoe county in the province of Ontario.  Father le Caron, a Recollet, had preceded the French explorer, and was performing missionary duties among the Indians, who probably numbered 20,000 in all.  This brave priest was the pioneer of an army of faithful missionaries—­mostly of a different order—­who lived for years among the Indians, suffered torture and death, and connected their names not only with the martyrs of their faith but also with the explorers of this continent.  From this time forward we find the trader and the priest advancing in the wilderness; sometimes one is first, sometimes the other.

Champlain accompanied his Indian allies on an expedition against the Onondagas, one of the five nations who occupied the country immediately to the south of the upper St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.  The party reached Lake Ontario by the system of inland navigation which stretches from Lake Simcoe to the Bay of Quinte.  The Onondagas repulsed the Canadian allies who returned to their settlements, where Champlain remained during