86 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



which he could not effectuate;" were returned by Astor and the 

 agreement cancelled.^ 



While hunting for the power of attorney which is mentioned in 

 the agreement, I came across another agreement between John Jacob 

 Astor and Phillip Liebert, made four days earlier — by which Liebert 

 commissioned Astor to collect from the people of the United States 

 his claim for $1,000.00 "for services . . . performed during the late 

 war between Great Britain and America," consisting of arrérage of 

 pay and "with a legal claim for pension due to him for seven years 

 back, at the rate of $20.00 per month, having been wounded in the 

 service." This will clearly indicate that Mesplet and Liebert were 

 friendly'^ and that he had informed Mesplet of his having given 

 his claim to Astor to collect on his behalf, and advised Mesplet to do 

 the same. 



A power of attorney is mentioned in this act as having been made 

 out and given to Astor, but as the original of this is also missing in 

 the record, we come to the conclusion that they were both made under 

 "brevet" and handed to Astor. 



The fact that Alexander Henry signed both acts as bondsman 

 for Astor, shows much intimacy between these two great fur traders. 



Another fact learnt from this document is that there were four 

 different currencies. There was the Pennsylvania currency in which 

 Mesplet made his claim on the Congress of the United States, which 

 was worth seven shillings and sixpence to the dollar. The old currency 

 of France in livres, Mesplet's own money, which was worth six livres 

 to the dollar; Halifax currency a new Canadian money worth five 

 shillings to the dollar and the Spanish "milled dollars" which was 

 the medium through which exchanges of the different currencies were 

 effected. 



Two other documents have been discovered. One was a petition 

 asking for the calling of a family council for the appointment of a 

 curator to the vacant estate of Fleury Mesplet, by his widow, and in 

 default of relatives seven friends were called and Louis L'hardy was 

 appointed. 



The other was a letter written by Ch. Gratiot, addressed to 

 Mesplet, eighteen months after his death, sending an advertisement 



1 It was not likely that a government which repudiated its promises to pay in 

 the shape of current bills, would honour a problematical claim like Mesplet's. Even 

 Astor did not consider Mesplet's claim as good as Liebert, because he was to receive 

 fully half of what he could collect of the former in comparison with two-fifths of 

 the latter 



* They were probably "drouthy cronies." 



