37. Champlain and Sieur de Monts visit Norumbega and explore places further south

Sieur de Monts sends out Champlain to locate potential settlement sites in Maine (1604), then after a disasterous winter, de Monts leads another voyage reaching as far south as Cape Cod (1605).

You can’t judge the past by the present.

It’s a splendid slogan. It permits us to set aside the missteps of history and offer a covenant with the future, allowing us to be held blameless for the decisions we make today. Ignorance. That’s our defense. Our grandparents didn’t know any better. We didn’t know any better. If we knew then what we know now, we wouldn’t have done what we did.

You can’t judge the past by the present. One of history’s grand maxims. It’s convenient, and its specious. …

Ignorance has never been the problem. The problem was and continues to be unexamined confidence in western civilization and the unwarranted certainty of Christianity. And arrogance. Perhaps it is unfair to judge the past by the present, but it is also necessary.

Thomas King “The Inconvenient Indian”

Despite France’s interest in Acadia, England and Spain continued to find ways to expand their domains at the expense of French explorers. Spain cemented its domains in Central and South America and made inroads into North America in what was then called Florida. The English also began eyeing Florida as potential sites for settlements. In the early 17th Century, Florida defined the coast of North America from modern Florida to New Jersey and New York. This activity put pressure on Sieur de Monts¹ to search south of Acadia for new settlement locations besides St. Croix Island.

The Indigenous peoples, especially the Souriquois (Mi’kmaq) and Etchemins of Acadia, had become accustomed to trading with the French and Basque peoples. They had become allies with de Monts and Champlain who frequently relied on them as guides, translators, and traders. They would become vital during the voyages to Norumbega. Champlain led the first voyage, de Monts the second, and de Poutrincourt the third and final expedition.

Mount Desert Island, Maine

From Champlain’s promising start, poor judgement and behavour on the part of de Monts and Poutrincourt would eventually lead to open hostility towards the French by the tribes they encountered at Cap Blanc (Cape Cod). French failure would lead to English success. The English soon afterwards would find a footing there and begin what would become New England.