Such were the problems upon the successful or unsuccessful solution of which depended enormous national interests, and each country faced them according to its institutions, rulers, and racial genius.  It only needs a table of events to show how fully the English, the French, and the Dutch realized that something must be done.  In 1600 Pierre Chauvin landed sixteen French colonists at Tadoussac.  On his return in 1601 he found that they had taken refuge with the Indians.  In 1602 Gosnold, sailing from Falmouth, skirted the coast of Norumbega from Casco Bay to Cuttyhunk.  In 1603 the ships of De Chastes, with Champlain aboard, spent the summer in the St Lawrence; while during the same season Martin Pring took a cargo of sassafras in Massachusetts Bay.  From 1604. to 1607 the French under De Monts, Poutrincourt, and Champlain were actively engaged in the attempt to colonize Acadia.  But they were not alone in setting up claims to this region.  In 1605 Waymouth, sailing from Dartmouth, explored the mouth of the Kennebec and carried away five natives.  In 1606 James I granted patents to the London Company and the Plymouth Company which, by their terms, ran athwart the grant of Henry iv to De Monts.  In the same year Sir Ferdinando Gorges sent Pring once more to Norumbega.  In 1607 Raleigh, Gilbert, and George Popham made a small settlement at the mouth of the Sagadhoc, where Popham died during the winter.  As a result of his death this colony on the coast of Maine was abandoned, but 1607 also saw the memorable founding of Jamestown in Virginia.  Equally celebrated is Champlain’s founding of Quebec in 1608.  In 1609 the Dutch under an English captain, Henry Hudson, had their first glimpse of Manhattan.

This catalogue of voyages shows that an impulse existed which governments could not ignore.  The colonial movement was far from being a dominant interest with Henry iv or James I, but when their subjects saw fit to embark upon it privately, the crown was compelled to take cognizance of their acts and frame regulations.  ’Go, and let whatever good may, come of it!’ exclaimed Robert de Baudricourt as Joan of Arc rode forth from Vaucouleurs to liberate France.  In much the same spirit Henry iv saw De Monts set sail for Acadia.  The king would contribute nothing from the public purse or from his own.  Sully, his prime minister, vigorously opposed colonizing because he wished to concentrate effort upon domestic improvements.  He believed, in the second place, that there was no hope of creating a successful colony north of the fortieth parallel.  Thirdly, he was in the pay of the Dutch.

The most that Henry iv would do for French pioneers in America was to give them a monopoly of trade in return for an undertaking to transport and establish colonists.  In each case where a monopoly was granted the number of colonists was specified.  As for their quality, convicts could be taken if more eligible candidates were not forthcoming.  The sixty unfortunates landed by La Roche on Sable Island in 1598 were all convicts or sturdy vagrants.  Five years later only eleven were left alive.