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 1632-97] The capital of Acadia. Ill period, and with the La Tours, father and son, whose interests Alex- ander had divided, dramatic as it is in all the details that Denys has left us, cannot be told here; it need be noticed only because it was the disputes of these rival gentlemen-adventurers that gave the colony a bad beginning, and led to that want of concentration which was throughout a main source of its weakness. Now, as in the next period, the governors could not decide whether to fix their centre at the sheltered Port Royal, or on one of the rivers which might be made a means of communication with Quebec, or on the Atlantic shore of the peninsula, which offered most advantage for the fishery. The Rochellais, whom Razilly and d'Aulnay brought with them, found at Port Royal conditions of which they had had experience at home; and by dyking the marsh-lands a promising agricultural settlement was made. But Port Royal was no centre. From Pentagouet on the Penobscot, by river and portages, it seemed possible to establish a connexion with Quebec; and accordingly Pentagouet looked the more promising to those who had ambitious schemes. The drawback was that it was nearer to New England, and certain to be an object of attack. La Heve, which offered advantages rather like those of the present capital of Nova Scotia, could be made a convenient port for sea-commu- nication with Quebec, whilst the river was free of ice. All these were tried in turn, now and later. Had any one of these ports been strongly defended, the colony would not have fallen again to the English in 1654, when Sedgwick took Port Royal for the Protector. Between 1654 and 1667, the story of the period 1613-32 was repeated, Sir Thomas Temple playing the part of Sir William Alexander, and the Treaty of Breda (1667) that of the Treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye. France having recovered Acadia, there seemed hope that Colbert might promote settlement here as he had in Canada. But a renewed effort on the Penobscot was checked by the Dutch ; and the creation of a way to Quebec, by what was known as the chemin de Kennebec, could not proceed. So far as this western district came under French influence at all, it was left to the indianised Baron St Castein, who had married the daughter of an Abenaki chief in 1680. Through him, and later through his son, the French in Acadia were assured of Indian friendship. In 1685 the intendant of Canada was sent to study the needs of the colony. At that time the population numbered only 885, of whom 600 were at or near Port Royal. The intendant advised more military protection; and the ease with which Port Royal was destroyed in every filibustering raid, and its speedy fall before Phipps in 1690, proved the wisdom of his view. At the third restoration of Acadia to France, by the Peace of Ryswick (1697), the choice of a capital again lay open. The new governor, Villebon, a capable military commander, decided on a site on the most eastward of the great rivers that might form a frontier, the OH. III.