128 THE LABEADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxix. 



doubt. Mr. Eobertson says in the ' Notes ' before re- 

 ferred to : — 



About the year 1600 Brest was in its greatest prosperity; its 

 first cause of decay was the grant en seigneurie of four leagues 

 of coast, on each side embracing the town, to a certain noble- 

 man named Courtmanche, who had married a daughter of 

 Henry IV. of France.* This happened about the year 1630, 

 and, much about the same time, the whole tribe of the Esqui- 

 maux, who had given the French so much annoyance, were 

 totally extirpated or expelled from the Griilf shores. These two 

 causes dispersed the fishermen to other stations, and the place 

 had ceased to be a town, and indeed was little more than a 

 private establishment, towards the close of the century, and the 

 name changed to Bradore. 



Nevertheless, while the French held the country, it was the 

 centre of considerable trade, as an old Frenchman named Jean 

 Junot used to say that, when he came first to the country, 

 he saw 150 vessels rendezvoused in Bradore Bay, with five ships 

 of war, preparatory to their departure for France, and that this 

 was usually the case every year : this man spoke of the year 

 1 720.1 This place remained in the hands of the family of the 

 Courtmanches for three generations, and then came to the pos- 

 session of one M. De Brouagnes, one of the Council of Seven in 

 Quebec, who was either a nephew or a grandson of the last 

 Count de Courtmanche ; he held it till the conquest. After 

 the conquest, Bradore, and 150 miles of the coast westward, 

 were monopolised by a company, called the Labrador Company, 

 established in Quebec, who for sixty years carried on the fishery, 

 chiefly for seals, with success, until the last fifteen years, when 

 the fisheries foiled ; and finally, they were obliged to abandon 

 and sell out: this happened in the year 1820, since which time 

 this part of the coast has been gradually filling in with settlers, 

 whose numbers have risen from a dozen to more than 250. 



* This is a mistake, according to M. Abb^ Ferland. Mons. de Com-te- 

 mancbe mamed tbe daughter of Etienne Charest, Seigneur de la Cote de 

 Lauson, 



t Mr. Robertson's ' Notes on tbe Coast of Labrador ' were read before 

 Lit. and Hist. Soc. of Quebec in 1841. 



