116 KOYAL SD.IETY OF CANADA 



1665 no soldiers, therefore no disbandment ; from 1665 to 1673 a few 

 isolated cases ; the regiment of Carignan came to Canada in 1665 and left 

 in 1669 with the exception of one company which eventually was dis- 

 banded here; from 16'?o to 1753 the garrisons of • Canada consisted as a 

 rule of about 300 men in all, under an infantry captain, sometimes called 

 the major when no longer young. 



Besides that " detachment " as it was styled, an addition of six or 

 seven companies was sent into the colony during the years 1684-1713, on 

 account of the war. From 1754 to 1760 the battalions sent under Dies- 

 kau and Montcalm (Seven Years war) do not seem to have left more 

 than 400 men in the country. Consequently, the " military element " 

 had very little to do with the formation of our French population. 



IX. The date of the arrival of most of the heads of families will 

 never be ascertained accurately. In order to face that difficulty with 

 chances of success, I have resorted to the following plan : prepare an 

 alphabetical list of all the heads of families, and afterwards, when con- 

 sulting the old archives and various sources of information, be careful 

 in comparing your list with any date or other indication you may find. 

 In this manner it turns that a man was married in 1664, in Quebec, was 

 a witness before the court in 1658, made a deed in 1672, in which he 



states that " before leaving Alençon in 1652, to come to Canada" 



The date of " 1652 " and " Alençon " are the very things I want — there- 

 fore I erase " 1664" and " 1658," previously entered and keep the most 

 remote date, with the name of the locality. This process is slow, not 

 very sure, but still it is the best yet found to reach a fair approximate 

 estimate. Finally I hope to publish, that tabular statement in a couple 

 of years from now. 



X. We have to deal now ^\■ith La Hontan, a writer upon whose state- 

 ments succeeding historians based their assertions as to the questionable 

 character of many of the immigrants that were sent out by the commit- 

 tee (see Y.) La Hontan, who came to Canada in 1684, wrote home to 

 his friends describing the country and his experiences. These letters got 

 collected and afterwards were published in book form. In some of these 

 communications he describes the marrying scenes of newly arrived girl 

 immigrants, and other spicy traits which never took place in Canada, 

 and as it is that kind of matter that takes the eye and remains longer 

 in the mind, this odd letter is the one most quoted. Now La Hontan in 

 many of his writings describes with- accuracy what occurred under his 

 own eyes and must be ])eli('ved, but this particular letter is so untruthful 

 that there is little doubt that it was never written by La Hontan, espe- 

 cially as many of the incidents therein referred to indicate the scenes as 

 having occurred in the West Indies and at a time, we know, quite dis- 

 tinct from that of the immigration alluded to in paragraph Y. Lot us 



