[suLTE] ORIGIN OF THE FRENCH CANADIANS 103 



The group of Perche took the lead from 1633 and kept it for ever. 

 They came married, bringing their farm implements, cattle, etc., and in 

 less than two years after their arrival conquered the soil, learned how tj 

 face the climate, and made themselves literally at home, where their 

 predecessors had miserably perished by scores during many years. 



The little colony at Montreal, which came from Anjou, subsequent 

 to 1640, differed little in character and origin from the others, except 

 that its members had not been brought up to till the soil and there were 

 no women in their company. A number, therefore, married the daugh- 

 ters of the earlier Norman settlers of Quebec. This helped to preserve 

 the uniformity of the language and general habits of the people. Had 

 the company of Kouen and Dieppe merchants continued to control the 

 trade of the colony it is certain that the development of the agricultural 

 population, even slow as it had been from the beginning, would have 

 been altogether on Norman lines. But in 1662 another influence made 

 its presence felt in Canada. A small flow of immigrants, men and 

 women, set in from the country parts around Eochelle and from the pro- 

 vince of Poitou. These were, year by year, as they came out, merged 

 into the older colonists, assuming their habits and forms of speech, 

 already very similar to theirs. 



Leaving aside the men engaged in the fur trade, and who did not 

 adopt the colony as their home, we find that only 127 actual settlers or 

 heads of families arrived in Canada du:^ing the period of 1608-1645. 



Nine-tenths of these men have numerous descendants still amongst 

 us. In this respect Canada is far ahead of any colony. The New Eng- , 

 land States can hardly name twenty families coming from their first 

 stock, that is before 1645, although their immigration was five times at 

 least larger than ours. 



There was no special organisation for recruiting in France. 



Nearly every one of these 127 men married just before leaving for 

 Canada or soon after his arrival in the colony. They all belonged to that 

 class of people devoted altogether to agriculture, or the cultivation of 

 grains, hay, oats, vegetables, hemp, flax. They understood thoroughly 

 well the work of felling trees and clearing land, because the provinces 

 they came from were of good soil, but not adapted for fruits and vine, 

 nor fit for pasturage on a large scale. 



