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...lement in the new world in the 16th century had also been huguenot-sponsored, by gaspard de coligny- and consisted principally of huguenots. both settlements ended in disaster. the brazilian colony of 1555 was razed by the portuguese and the florida colony of 1564 was destroyed by the spanish, with an accompanying massacre justified by calling the settlers, "lutherans". the privilege of exploring and settling newly discovered lands was awarded to the spanish and portuguese by pope alexander vi, in 1493, in a papal bull that gave the spanish the western hemisphere and the portuguese the eastern hemisphere. the next year, in the treaty of tordesillas, between spain and portugal, brazil was awarded to portugal. but france, like england and other european maritime powers, never accepted the pope's right to parcel up the world. france claimed rights to the western hemisphere on the basis of jacques cartier's voyages in the 1530s. preoccupied by the wars of religion, the french were not very aggressive in the colonization race. nevertheless, fishermen from normandy, brittany and the basque country were active in the sea off what is now canada for as much as three decades before cartier and in the middle of the 16th century they began to trade in furs. many of the fishermen and the fur traders sailed from ports like st. malo, dieppe, and la rochelle, areas that, as calvinism spread, became huguenot centers. furthermore, the huguenots had a virtual monopoly on the processing of beaver fur; they held a chemical formula for treating the fur that enabled them to maintain their control of the european beaver fur market even after the revocation of the edict of nantes resulted in their diaspora. if fishing took the french to the st. lawrence valley, it was the fur trade that dept them there. on november 8, 1603, de monts, who had formed a company in partnership with a number of french coastal merchants, obtained a co...