16 lemoine on the last 



commended to the Government by the all powerful intendant. Péan was not long in dis- 

 covering that, with a master such as Bigot, he could dare anything. Had he not, without 

 any trouble, netted on grain 50,000 half-crowns? A large quantity of wheat was required 

 by the Government; he was charged with buying it. There lay a fat job in store for the 

 town-major. How was his master, the intendant, to manage the case for him ? Bigot 

 was a man of resource, able to think for his friends. First, he provided Péan with a 

 large sum out of the treasury, to buy the wheat as low as possible for cash, and then, his 

 complaisant council passed an order or ordonnance fixiug the price of grain much higher 

 than that at which Péan had purchased. The town-major charged it to the Government 

 at the rate fixed by the ordonnance ; the difference between the two rates left him a hand- 

 some profit. He next tried his hand at building coasting crafts, which he could manage 

 to keep constantly in commission for the Government ; this also was lucrative. Other 

 devices, however, were resorted to : a secret partnership was entered into between Cadet 

 and a person named ClaA^ery, who shortly after became storekeeper at Quebec. Cadet 

 was to purchase wheat in the parishes, have it ground at a mill he had leased, the flour 

 to be sent abroad secretly. Péan, too, had large warehouses built, at Beaumont, some 

 say. Cargoes of grain were thus secretly shipped to foreign ports in defiance of the law. 

 Breard, the comptroller-general, for a consideration winked at these malpractices, and 

 from a poor man when he landed in Canada, he returned to France in aftluent cir- 

 cumstances. 



The crowning piece of knavery, was the erection of a vast shop and warehouse near 

 to the intendant's palace. Clavery had charge of this establishment, where a small 

 retail business was carried on as a blind. The real object was to monopolise the trade 

 in provisions and concentrate it there. Clavery was clerk to Estebe, royal storekeeper 

 at Quebec. In this warehouse were accumulated all such provisions and supplies as were 

 wanted annually, and ordered from France for the king's stores at Quebec. 



It was customary for the intendant to send, each summer, requisitions for supplies to 

 Paris. Bigot took care to order from France less supplies than were wanted, so as to 

 have an excuse to order the remainder, in times of scarcity, at Quebec. The orders were 

 sent to Clavery's warehouse, where the same goods were sold over again, at increased 

 rates. Soon the people saw through the deceit, and this repository of fraud was called, 

 in consequence. La Friponne (the cheating house.) Montreal, though better off than 

 Quebec for food supplies, suffered as much as the latter from the vexatious proceedings 

 of Bigot's ring ; trade at -that date was very low at the Eoyal Mount. It also had its 

 Friponne under the personal care of Peuisseault, so notorious as the lieutenant of the 

 commissary-general of supplies. Cadet. Variu, the commissary-general of marine, and 

 Martel, the king's storekeeper, had monopolised everything. The memoirs depict these 

 two worthies as follows : — 



" François Victor Varin, was born in France ; some said his sire was a shoemaker by 

 trade, while others ma.de him out the son of a schoolmaster ; he was A^ain, iintruthful, 

 arrogant, capricious and obstinate, small in stature, his face was unprepossessing and 

 his morals of the worst." 



" Martel was the son of a merchant, formerly established at Port Royal. On its 

 surrender to the English, he settled at Quebec. Poverty soon compelled him to seek 

 for employment. He had a brother who was a Jesuit ; through his influence he and 



