[suLTE] ORIGIN OF THE FRENCH CANADIANS 115 



VII. The bulk of the men who came during 1633-1673, were from 

 rural districts, and took land immediately on their arrival here. It i8 

 noticeable that a large number of them had, besides, a trade of their 

 own, such as carpenter,- cooper, blacksmith, so that a small community of 

 twenty families possessed among themselves all the requirements of that 

 kind that could be useful. 



No land was given to those who did not show qualification for agri- 

 cultural pursuits, and they were placed for three years in the hands of 

 an old farmer before the title of any property was assigned to them. 



A few, discharged soldiers from the Carignan Eegiment, in 1670, 

 swelled the number, and as these, together with many of the men from 

 Poitou and Eochelle, came out single, they married the daughters of the 

 previously settled Normans. This accounts for the marked absence at 

 the present time throughout the French speaking communities of Canada 

 of any but the Norman accent and forms of speech. All other accents 

 had been overcome by that of the Norman mothers, and while it is true 

 that the number of immigrants coming between 1662 and 1673 far 

 exceeds that of the earlier period, yet those first settlers, through their 

 conservative poAvers and clannish tenacity, could not be overcome by the 

 influx of numbers, but became, on the contrary, the conquerors, and that, 

 too, in a very short space of time. 



After 1674, very few immigrants settled on the banks of the St. 

 Lawrence. There were at most not more than thirty or forty a year, 

 which were absorbed in the same manner into the general population. 

 The wars which prevailed from 168-1 to 1713 depleted this annual immi- 

 gration so that the census of 1681 is taken as the basis for all French 

 Canadian genealogical computation even up to our o\ra time. 



The population of France in 1680 did not exceed fifteen million 

 souls. 



In 1685 the population of New France was 11,000 souls. From that 

 year until 1713 the colony passed through a succession of wars without a 

 moment of rest : 1st. against the Iroquois; 2nd. the Wisconsin Indians; 

 3rd. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine; 4th. Newfoundland and 

 Hudson's Bay. When peace was signed in 1713 the Canadians were 

 19,000. 



Then followed thirty years of quietness during which period a cer- 

 tain number of immigrants settled in Lower Canada. At the beginning 

 of hostilities in 1744 the French population (not including the Aca- 

 dians) amounted to 39,000 souls. 



We have had no seven year war, but a sixteen year fighting instead, 

 terminating in 1760 by the capitulation of Montreal. 



YIII. In regard to troops disbanded in Canada at various dates, 

 much misimderstanding exists. The real facts are as follows : before 



