The Fur Animals of Louisiana 21 



mighty Mississippi, came peltries during the life of the 

 "Company of the West 5 ' and even after Law's bubble burst. 

 With the flow of fur through the new port no special dis- 

 tinction came to New Orleans as a fur center, although 

 many of the older firms of the "Crescent City" owed their 

 prominence and accumulated profits to the trade thus car- 

 ried on in these early days. 



Long before the establishment of Louisiana, the French 

 in America were energetic in the fur trade, as has always 

 been pointed out. The first establishment of a fur-trading 

 company came with the operations of "The Company of 

 the Hundred Associates," in 1626, the traders plunging into 

 the new and unknown lands of westerly sections of New 

 France, as the French possessions in upper North America 

 were then known, for their furs. 



The work delegated to the company and its successors 

 after 1663, and that assigned to the Church, was carried 

 on by the traders in conjunction with the churchmen. As 

 indicated by a letter to Colbert from Governor Frontenac 

 in 1672, the task of establishing commerce with the Indians 

 and converting of them to the Christian faith did not 

 always harmonize, for the governor said that the Jesuits 

 "think as much about the conversion of beaver as of souls; 

 for the majority of their missions are pure mockery." 1 In 

 1676, Frontenac received instructions that he must not 

 "suffer any person, invested with Ecclesiastical or Secular 

 dignity or any Religious Community" to follow the fur 

 trade in any wise or even to trade in peltries, a prohibition 

 which was likewise placed on any of the governor's domes- 

 tics or any other person acting directly under his authority. 



The struggle of the Frenchmen for control of the fur 

 trade with the Hudson's Bay Company fell with full weight 

 on the traders of New France, as difficulties with the In- 

 dians began and competition increased. Many of the skins 

 sent to Montreal were not properly cured, while others were 

 of poor quality. Then came the settlement of Iberville and 

 his Frenchmen at Biloxi and the beginning of a new fur 



iSurrey, Commerce of Louisiana, from Documents Relating to the Col- 

 onial History of N. Y., p. 305. 



