102 ROYAJ. SOCIETY OF CANADA 



of large cities and towns, the very individuals who were the least fit for 

 the trials to be met in a wild country. For instance, a shoemaker is not 

 called upon to find his daily bread and meat by sowing wheat, planting 

 vegetables, or hunting and fishing. These men do not know how to 

 manufacture clothing or to dress themselves appropriately; neither can 

 they prepare beaver or other skins to make a soft and warm garment. 

 Their "coaling" power was also limited, for the wood standing in tlie 

 forest was to them a foreign product, accustomed as they were to receive 

 their fuel all cut up and dry at the door of their homes. Necessity, it is 

 said, is the mother of invention; but this only applies to people who 

 already live by inventions, such as poor country folks — not the "citizens" 

 who depend upon the shops in their street. Furthermore, those who 

 came to Canada "took no stock" in the future of the country, and they 

 returned to France fwhen not buried here) in haste, without having had 

 time to learn much. The fur companies did not ask them to become 

 Canadians. They had no reason to turn a new leaf and devise a means 

 of life so completely different from their habits and aspirations. 



Now we will close this unfortunate period by saying that about 

 twelve or fifteen of the youngest men, still employed in the neighbourhood 

 of Quebec in 1631, were merged into the subsequent immigration and 

 became equally competent with that new formation i.e., the actual 

 settlers. This little squad, strange to say, was all from Normandy, and 

 every one of them educated far more than ordinary people. This was 

 the only good result of a century of wrong mismanagement in the affairs 

 of Canada. 



II. The trade of Canada remained in the hands of the Dieppe and 

 Eouen merchants from 1632 until 166'3. It consisted solely of fish and 

 fur, especially the latter. Therefore, any man of these localities who 

 wished to go to Canada to settle there was admitted on the strength of 

 the Hundred Partners who were bound to send in people brought up to 

 farming in order to cultivate the soil of the colony, but who did nothing 

 of the kind except transporting the self-sacrificing emigrants. There is 

 even indication that the transport was not free. The other seaports of 

 France in the west and south-west having no connection with Canada 

 before 1662, five or six families only came from these ports or the sur- 

 rounding countries. 



Coming to this second phase, we have to introduce farmers of 

 Perche, Beauce, Normandy, and Picardy, numbering forty-six, from 

 1632 to 1640, besides forty from Champagne, Lorraine, Brie, Poitou, 

 etc., during the same nine years. This period gives an average of ten 

 settlers per year only, which may be considered the proportion for twenty 

 vears afterwards. 



