In the sixteenth century, Spain claimed the fabled New World, and a rash of explorers sailed there seeking riches and, most famously, a fountain of youth. Although France made inroads into Florida, ultimately the French, like the Spanish, failed to establish dominion over North America. Francis Parkman tells why.

The first part of Pioneers of France in the New World deals with the attempts of the Spanish and the French Huguenots to occupy Florida; the second, with the expeditions of Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain and French colonial endeavors in Canada and Acadia.