Canada

The name given to a confederation of all the British possessions in North America except Newfoundland. The first explorations of this country, of which any authentic information exists, were by Jacques Cartier, between the years 1534 and 1554, thus giv- France to acquire territorial jurisdiction on the newly discovered continent, and the division lines between their acquisitions were not very clearly maikt-d. Those of France included Florida in the south and the'lands watered by the St. Lawrence in the north, and to it all the name of "New France" was given. In 1603 an expedition for trading purposes was fitted out under the command of Samuel Champlain, whose explorations up the river St. Lawrence and its tributary, the Richelieu River, brought him to the lake which still bears bis name. The viceroyalty of New France was conferred in 1612 upon the Prince de Conde, who made a formal assignment of it in 1619 to Admiral Montmorency, who personally visited the country. In 1628, under the rule of Cardinal Richelieu in France, the colony was ceded to "La Compagnie de Cunts Associ6s" (The Company of the One Hundred Associates), a trading company, but armed, like the Hudson Bay Company in later years, with full power for the administration of justice in the primitive forms practicable in new countries and with mixed populations. This company had an unsuccessful career financially, and upon its disorganization, in 1663, Louis