118 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



In the neighbourhood of the year 500 the Gauls had abandoned 

 Poitou to the Saxons and emigrated fo Brittany. 



The same thing happened about the year 800 when the Normands 

 conquered Neustria — now Normandie. 



Therefore, the Canadians are the offspring of the soldiers of Clovi& 

 and Eollo, since they came from Poitou and Xormandie. 



I would say that the Xorman blood has contributed four-tenths ; 

 the Saxon also four-tenths ; and the Gaul two-tenths in the formation 

 of the ancestors of the Canadian stock, but the mixture of the Norman- 

 and the Saxon took place in Canada, not before, because there was very 

 little intercourse between the people of the various provinces of France 

 in those days. 



The French language — la langue franque — originated amongst the 

 Francs in Poitou and spread across the Kiver Loire to Normandie. Na 

 wonder that the first Canadians spoke pure French and not Gaelic, or 

 Basque. 



There is a census of France taken in 1860 concerning the tongues 

 spoken by its population : 



Flandres-Artois ... . 



Alsace-Lorraine 



Savoie 



Roussillon 



Gascogne 



Brittany 



Provence-Laaguedoc 



200,000 



1,160,000 



200,000 



100,000 



100,000 



1,070,000 



14,000,000 



16,890,000 



Flemish. 



German. 



Italian. 



Catalan. 



Basque. 



Celt. 



Provenval. 



The regions where the French language predominates are : Picardy^ 

 Normandy, Isle de France, Maine, Anjou, Orléanais, Touraine, Poitou, 

 Aunis, Saintonge — nineteen millions of souls — the very cradle of the 

 Canadian emigrants, as shown on the accompanying map. 



XII. There now remains to be considered only the q^^estion of the 

 half-breeds, with regard to which there need be little doubt, for the civil 

 as well as the religious authorities were strongly opposed to inter-mar- 

 riages with the Indians. Then, too, there exists at the present day a 

 complete record of the genealogy of each family, showing clearly that 

 rarely did such a marriage take place. Of course those who removed to 

 the North-West are not taken into account when speaking of mixed mar- 

 riages, for far from forming part of the Canadian population they were 



