All preliminaries being settled, De Monts fitted out three ships, with all things necessary, not only for trading in peltries at Tadoussac, but for establishing a settlement elsewhere; taking out a number of gentlemen, and all kinds of artisans, with soldiers and others of both religions, not forgetting priests and ministers.
Being ready to depart, De Monts proposed to Champlain to accompany him, and the desire to revisit and see more of the country having grown stronger within him, he readily promised to go, always with the king's permission, which was willingly granted; being ordered, moreover, by his Majesty to make to him a faithful report of all that he should see and discover.
They all embarked at Dieppe in 1603: one vessel proceeded to Tadoussac; another, commanded by Du Pont Gravé, went to Campseau (Canso) and along the coast towards the island of Cape Breton, to look after certain adventurers trading there in contravention of the king's prohibition. De Monts, with Champlain, took his course to the coast of Acadia, and the weather being very favourable, in a month arrived off Cape la Héve. De Monts continued along the coast, seeking some convenient spot for his settlement, sending Champlain also with a pilot to examine the coast for the same purpose. They discovered a number of ports and rivers, and De Monts at last fixed on an island which he thought well adapted to his purpose; the situation strong, the land good, and the temperature mild. He therefore set about discharging his vessels and building shelter for his people, and when all that was done he sent back the ships with Mons. de Paitrincourt, who had replaced Du Pont Gravé as his lieutenant, and who had gone out to see the country with the intention of settling there.
During this time (fully three years) Champlain occupied himself in exploring the whole coast of Acadia (Nova Scotia), from Cape la Héve, in latitude 45° 5´; examining all the bays, creeks, mouths of rivers, and islands of the great Baye Françoise (so named by him), now the Bay of Fundy, coasting on to "Cape Fortuné," in latitude 41° 20´ (now Cape Cod), and a few leagues farther, to a headland, which, with a great shoal near it, he called "Mallebarre", from the dangers he had there experienced. To the northward he examined the land from Cape la Héve to Cape Canso and Cape Breton, and, his arduous labours terminated, he returned with De Monts to France in 1607.