INTRODUCTION 17 



the height of its prosperity." It is indeed probable that 

 Mr. Robertson did not know where Brest was ; he confuses 

 it with Bradore Bay, which is eight or ten leagues farther 

 along the coast. And yet the story has died hard; it is 

 to be found in some of the latest books, in Professor Pack- 

 ard's Labrador Coast (1891), and in Judge Prowse's His- 

 tory of Newfoundland (1896). 



The exploitation of Labrador by the French Canadians 

 really began in 1661. In that year the Compagnie des 

 Indes granted to Franois Bissot the Isle aux (Eufs en 

 seigneurie, together with fishing rights over nearly the whole 

 of the Quebec Labrador, from the Seven Isles to Bradore 

 Bay. This was what was known afterwards as the Seig- 

 neurie of Mingan. Frangois Bissot was a Norman immi- 

 grant who had come out to Canada some time between 

 1641-1647. He was a man of enterprise and ideas. He was 

 the first Canadian to enter upon the tanning of leather, an 

 industry which is to-day perhaps the most important in 

 Quebec. He was also one of the very first Canadians who 

 attempted to establish sedentary fisheries in the Gulf. 

 At the Isle aux (Eufs, and later at Mingan on the mainland, 

 he founded posts at which he carried on fishing, sealing, 

 and trading with great success. Between his farm and his 

 tannery at Levis and his fishing-posts on the Labrador 

 it was not long before he made his fortune. He was him- 

 self of bourgeois extraction; but he married his daughters 

 to members of the colony's ruling class. The noblesse 

 and the bourgeoisie joined hands. 



One of Bissot's daughters married Louis Jolliet, the 

 discoverer of the Mississippi. His marriage into the Bissot 

 family drew Jolliet's energies eastward. His exploration 



