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Kirke is said to have desired Champlain to use his influence with De Caën to induce him to surrender without resistance, which, however, the noble-minded man declined. Bazilli was reported to be in the gulf with a French fleet, but nevertheless De Caën felt obliged to surrender, as the Kirkes had two ships to oppose his one.
Lawrence, and capturing or destroying the vessels sent out under M. de Roguemont. Then occurred, as we have described, the surrender of Quebec and the other stations, and their occupation by the English under the Kirkes.
In this, the first naval engagement in the waters of North America, eighteen sail fell into the hands of the Kirkes, with a goodly store of supplies, ammunition, and guns, Alas for the high hopes of Father Lalemant and his fellow-missionaries! all were now prisoners and at the mercy of the English and the Huguenots.
The gunpowder was almost exhausted, and the dilapidated fort could not be held by its sixteen half-starved defenders. Accordingly Champlain sent the Recollet Daillon, who had a knowledge of the English language, to negotiate with the Kirkes the terms of capitulation; and Quebec surrendered without a shot being fired.
David Kirke was, on the other hand, equipped to fight, and he bore letters of marque from the king of England authorizing him to capture and destroy any French vessels and 'utterly to drive away and root out the French settlements in Nova Scotia and Canada. The omens were evil for New France when, early in the spring of 1628, the Kirkes weighed anchor and shaped their course for her shores.
Ships, colonists, annual supplies, building materials all fell into the hands of the enterprising Kirkes, who then sailed for England with their booty. Alike to Champlain and to the Hundred Associates it was a crippling blow. Thus, but for the war with England, Quebec would have seen its population trebled in 1628. As it was, the situation became worse than ever.
He was returning in 1628 with the ships of the newly formed Company of One Hundred Associates, under Roquemont, when, off the Gaspe coast, appeared the hostile sail of the Kirkes; and La Tour was taken prisoner to England.
Champlain had spent the winter at Quebec and was, of course, expecting his usual supplies with the opening of navigation. Instead came Lewis Kirke, sent from Tadoussac by his brother David, to demand surrender. Champlain made a reply which, though courteous, was sufficiently bold to convince the Kirkes that Quebec could be best captured by starvation.
It was true the English had taken possession after peace had been declared, and had not the right to hold the country. When France demanded the recession King Charles held off, and the Kirkes were unwilling to yield up the government, as they found great profit in the fur trade.
Along the centre of the side-board, arranged with suspicious neatness, as though seldom disturbed, stood a line of solemn books, Holden's Osteology, Quain's Anatomy, Kirkes' Physiology, and Huxley's Invertebrata, together with a disarticulated human skull.
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