42 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



shed some interesting sidelights upon the fishery, and upon 

 the hopes, the requirements and the demands of those inter- 

 ested in it. Thus we learn that it was the custom in the latter 

 part of the seventeenth century for the fishermen from. 

 France to have two-fifths of the cod which they caught. A 

 memorandum still to be seen in the Bibliotheque Nationale 

 mentions this fact and adds: "A ship of ten boats, for ex- 

 ample, should have for its cargo three thousand quintals, 

 which is three hundred for each boat, and the crew should 

 have twelve hundred quintals for its share." Each boat was 

 manned by five men, so that a ship of ten boats was manned 

 by fifty men. Half of these were left ashore to dry the fish. 



The document from w T hich the above details are taken 

 was signed by Jean de Berraute, in presence of the Rev. 

 Eustache de Monpassant, Superior of the Recollet Fathers, 

 and in that of Monsieur Denys, Seignior of Perce. 



Stress is laid by the writer of another document of this 

 series * upon the necessity of securing for the establishment 

 the best fishermen available, in order that those who come 

 after them, and the people of the colony who engage in the 

 industry may follow their methods. None were declared to 

 be more proficient than the Basques and the fishermen cf 

 Bayonne, and while it was said to be much easier to procure 

 Normans and Bretons, the latter were described as of more 

 doubtful utility than the others ; so much so, in fact, that the 

 crew of a single boat of men from Bayonne would ordinarily 

 catch as much fish as three other crews. It was admitted that 

 some of these others might with advantage and with proba- 

 bility of improvement, be employed in company with the 

 Bayonne fishermen. 



When Pierre Denys, the nephew of Nicolas, undertook 

 the re-establishment of the Perce fishery, he urged that the 

 king should lend the promoters a ship for the first three years 

 of their enterprise, and that while young men were prefer- 

 able for the work, and a number of respectable girls might 

 also be brought out, who would work ashore and probably" 



Collection Clairambault, Vol. 1016, folio 302. 



