Their lot was rendered more dreadful still by quarrelling and crime.

Roberval could keep his colonists in subjection only by the use of irons and by the application of the lash.

The gibbet, reared beside the fort, claimed its toll of their number.
The winter of their misery drew slowly to its close.

The ice of the river began to break in April.

On June 5, 1543, their leader, Roberval, embarked on an expedition to explore the Saguenay, 'leaving thirty persons behind in the fort, with orders that if Roberval had not returned by the first of July, they were to depart for France.' Whither he went and what he found we do not know.