Î14 EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



residences, such as furniture and utensils, from 1640 to 16T0. The 

 kitchen had a special fireplace M^here the cooking was done. Two or 

 three chimneys (brick or stone) heated the main part of the house. 

 Wooden floors everywhere, smooth, clean, covered with rug-carpets. 

 Sleeping rooms upstairs. Double doors and windows for the winter. A 

 large and well-lighted cellar, with a compartment for ice to be used during 

 the summer months. The four walls of the building were made of thick 

 lumber placed flat one over the other in a horizontal position. Xo chairs, 

 but forms for two, four, or six persons. No wine, but cider and beer 

 sometimes, also guildive, a second-class brandy, and rum. The popula- 

 tion came altogether from that part of France where cider and beer were 

 most in use ; they immediately started a brewery and a plantation of 

 apples on arriving in Canada. Guildive and rum came from France. 

 Flannel, serge, heavy cloth, linens of various descriptions, all home-made, 

 and of which the farmer's wife felt proud, were stored in cupboards or 

 closets. 



The evident superiority of the men who came immediately after 1631 

 over those who had previously tried to reside here is the object I wish to 

 impress upon the mind of the reader. The manner in which they prac- 

 tised agriculture, their habits, customs, dresses, all things belonging to 

 them, were afterwards adopted by all the new-comers. Such is the evid- 

 ence very clearly shown by our archives. 



V. From 1667 till 1672, a committee was active in Paris, Eouen, 

 Eochelle and Quebec to recruit men, women and young girls for Canada. 

 This committee succeeded in effecting the immigration into Canada of 

 about 4,000 souls. Half of the girls were from country places in Nor- 

 mandy, and the other half were well educated persons who did not go 

 into the rural districts, but married in Quebec, Three Eivers and Mont- 

 real. 



Since these people were brought to Canada by the organized efforts 

 of a conmiittee, we might expect to find some detailed record of their 

 arrival and origin, but as yet no such information is Imown to exist. We 

 are merely told by contemporary writers of that period how many arrived 

 at such and such a date, and the port of embarkation, — that is all. Hap- 

 pily the church registers, notarial deeds, papers of the courts of justice, 

 and several classes of public documents show abundantly the places of 

 origin of those who actually established their families here. 



VI. In 1673 the King stopped all emigration, and this was the 

 end of the French attempts to colonize Canada. The settlers of course 

 remained as they were, and in 1681, the whole population amounted only 

 to 9,700 souls. Double this figure ever}- thirty years and we have the 

 present French population of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario and 

 of the groups established now in the United States. 



