[RAYMOND] TRAVEL BETWEEN CANADA AND ACADIA 37 



rejoiced we were to find them. . . . They made us a present of 

 part of their provisions at a time when ours failed us. The same day 

 we found others in much larger numbers in three cabins, who enter- 

 tained us in like manner, and who asked us earnestly to send a mis- 

 sionary to teach them." 



A little farther on in his book Mgr. St. Vallier gives the first 

 description of the Grand Falls of the River St. John that has appeared 

 in print. This we also quote in translation: "The sixteenth of May 

 [1686] we arrived at the place called le grand Saiilt Saint-Jeaji-Baptiste, 

 where the river falls from a height over lofty rocks into an abyss, 

 making a wonderful cascade, the rising mist hides the water from 

 sight, and the uproar of the falls warns from afar the navigators 

 descending the river in their canoes." 



Mon. de Meulles, the intendant, while on this tour visited all 

 the new settlements in Acadia and caused a census to be taken, 

 including the name and residence of every French settler, with other 

 information. The total French population of Acadia was then only 

 915 souls, including the garrison of Port Royal. There were at this 

 time only five or six French families living on the St. John river. 



Bishop St. Vallier again writes in his journal: "The 18th [May, 

 1686] we slept at Medocteck, the first fort in Acadia, where I greatly 

 cheered a hundred savages during my visit. I told them I came on 

 purpose to establish a mission in the place for their benefit. It is to 

 be wished that the French who live along this route were so exemplary 

 in their habits as to draw these poor savages to Christianity; but we 

 must hope that with time the reformation of the former will lead to 

 the conversion of the latter." 



The Marquis de Denonville, governor at Quebec, in his letter to 

 the French minister announcing the safe return of the Bishop, after 

 a most fatiguing journey, says: 'He will give you an account of the 

 numerous disorders committed by the miserable outlaws [the coureurs 

 de bois] who for a long while have lived like the Indians without doing 

 anything at all towards the tilling of the soil." 



The authorities at Quebec had already shown an interest in 

 affairs on the River St. John, where Pierre de Joibert, seigneur de 

 Soulanges, served as commander under Count Frontenac. The sieur 

 de Soulanges was a native of the little town of Soulanges, in the old 

 French province of Champagne, who, in recognition of "good and 

 praiseworthy service to the King, both in Old and New France," 

 was granted three valuable seigniories on the St. John, including in 

 all more than a hundred square miles — the value of which at the 

 present day would be difficult to estimate. One seigniory, at the 



