INTRODUCTION 21 



Whether the Abbe Martin's request was granted, we do 

 10 1 know. He is to us merely a nominis umbra. We 

 know nothing more about him than that he was " serving 

 on the Labrador." 



Order was kept on the coast by the Sieur de Courte- 

 manche, who bore the official title of commandant. At 

 Baie des Phelypeaux (now Bradore Bay) he had a fort 

 called Fort Ponchartrain. He exercised magisterial pow- 

 ers, and sent in an annual report to the president of the 

 Navy Board at Paris. His chief difficulty was with the 

 Eskimos, who persisted in destroying the boats and 

 stages of the fishermen, and in murdering an occasional 

 white man. De Courtemanche's conciliatory policy toward 

 the natives is deserving of notice, especially as it stands 

 in sharp contrast with the treatment of the Indians 

 by the English across the Strait in Newfoundland. There 

 it was considered good sport to shoot an Indian like a 

 deer. This is not the only case in which the French 

 proved themselves superior to the English in their rela- 

 tions with the natives. 



De Courtemanche died in 1716, and his place as com- 

 mandant of the coast was taken by his step-son, Frangois 

 Mart el de Brouague. De Brouague held the post until 

 the conquest, though in 1759 he was so old and worn out 

 that the minister proposed to replace him by another. 

 He too had difficulty with the Eskimos, and he seems 

 not to have been so successful as his step-father in his 

 measures. He was, however, a person of importance in 

 New France; he married in 1732 Louise-Madeleine Mari- 

 auchau-d'Esglis, sister of the eighth bishop of Quebec, 

 and his daughter was that beauty of whom Garneau tells, 



