The progress of the colony was not satisfactory to Champlain or to the authorities in France, and in 1627 Cardinal Richelieu dissolved the company which had charge of affairs, and instituted a new one with himself at its head.  In the spring of 1628 he despatched to Canada four armed vessels and eighteen transports laden with emigrants, stores, and cannon, but war had broken out between the English and French the year before, and on their way the fleet was intercepted and the ships and goods confiscated.

The English had not recognized the claims of the French to any part of the North American continent, and the very year that the Jesuit station was planted at Mount Desert Island Samuel Argall came twice from Virginia and burned the houses of the intruding French at all of their settlements in Acadia:  Mount Desert Island, Isle de Croix, and Port Royal.  The French rebuilt Port Royal, and at the death of Poutrincourt’s son Biencourt, about the year 1623, his possessions and claims fell to his friend and companion Claude de la Tour.

Meanwhile, in 1621, Sir William Alexander obtained a grant from King James for New Scotland, being that part of Acadia now comprising the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick;[9] and he sent over from time to time a few Scotch emigrants.  De la Tour and the French submitted, and English rule seemed firmly established in Acadia when war was declared in 1628.  In February, 1629, Alexander received a patent for St. Lawrence River and “fifty leagues of bounds on both sides thereof,” and on both sides of its tributary lakes and rivers as far as the Gulf of California.[10]

After the failure of the expedition sent by Cardinal Richelieu, Alexander and his partners despatched an English fleet commanded by David Kirke, which appeared before Quebec in July, 1629.  Champlain and his small garrison were compelled to surrender, and all New France fell under English power.  Unfortunately for Alexander and Kirke, war between the two nations had ceased, and the articles of peace provided that all conquests made subsequent to April 24, 1629, should be restored to the former owner.  This insured the loss of Quebec and was the forerunner of other misfortunes.  In 1632 a treaty was made at St. Germain by which, despite the protest of Sir William Alexander and a memorial from the Scottish Parliament, King Charles consented “to give up and restore all the places occupied in New France, Acadia, and Canada” by his subjects.[11]

In 1632 Champlain returned to his government at Quebec, and with him arrived a number of zealous Jesuit priests, who began that adventurous career of exploration which, after Champlain’s death in 1635, connected the fame of their order with the great lakes and the Mississippi.  The king of France appointed Chevalier Razilly governor of Acadia, who designated as his lieutenants Claude de la Tour’s son Charles, for the portion west of St. Croix; and Charles de Menou, Sieur d’Aulnay Charmise, for the portion to the east.[12] They claimed dominion for France as far as Cape Cod.