18 



LABRADOR 



of the coasts of Labrador has already been referred to. 

 As a reward for his discoveries he was granted the island of 

 Anticosti, a barren fief, of which he was the first seigneur. 

 When Bissot died, Jolliet was one of his heirs. He became 

 engaged in a dispute with the other heirs which was the 

 precursor of a long line of disputes about the Bissot seig- 

 neurie, litigation over which was only ended in 1892 by 

 the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 

 in the case of the Labrador Company vs. the Queen. Jol- 

 liet's last years were tragic. He endured great losses 

 from the English invasion of 1690, and afterwards was 

 actually suffering from poverty. He died about 1700, 

 neglected and forgotten, on some island of the Labrador 

 coast. 



Jolliet's example without doubt induced others to go 

 and spy out the land of Labrador. It was about 1702 that 

 De Courtemanche obtained his concession near the Strait 

 of Belle Isle. Augustin Legardeur, Sieur de Courtemanche, 

 was a lieutenant in the troops of the marine. He spent the 

 early years of his life in the west in the Indian wars, and 

 acquired there a reputation as a leader. In 1697, however, 

 he married the widow of Pierre Gratien Martel de Brouague; 

 she was the granddaughter of old Frangois Bissot, and 

 family ties drew De Courtemanche, as they had drawn 

 Jolliet, to the east of Canada. It has been usual to describe 

 De Courtemanche's concession as a seigneurie; but such 

 language is inaccurate. It was merely a grant of fishing 

 and trading rights for a number of years. The policy of 

 the government was evidently to leave its hands free for 

 the future with regard to the Labrador coast. The only 

 true seigneurie east of the Mingan Islands was "the fief 



