! 749- 



St. Frederic, which the Englijh call Crown 

 Point. Moniieur Lujignan, the governor, 

 received us very politely. He was about 

 fifty years old, well acquainted with polite 

 literature, and had made feveral journies in- 

 to this country, by which he had acquired 

 an exacl: knowledge of feveral things relative 

 to its ftate. 



I WAS informed that during the whole 

 of this fummer, a continual drought had 

 been here, and that they had not had any 

 rain fince laft fpring. The exceffive heat 

 had retarded the growth of plants ; and on 

 all dry hills the grafs, and a vaft number of 

 plants, were quite dried up -, the fmall trees, 

 which grew near rocks, heated by the fun, 

 had withered leaves, and the corn in the 

 fields bore a very wretched afpedl. The 

 wheat had not yet eared, nor were the peafe 

 in bloffoms. The ground was full of wide 

 and deep cracks, in which the little fhakes 

 retired and hid themfelves when purfued, 

 as into an impregnable afylum. 



THE country hereabout, it is faid, con- 

 tains vaft forefts of firs of the white, black, 

 and red kind, which had been formerly ftill 

 more extenfive. One of the chief reafons of 

 their decreafe are, the numerous fires which 

 happen every year in the woods, through 

 the careleffheis of the Indians, who fre- 

 quently 



