50 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



that it carries on for the most part on our own shores, while 

 the French are doing nothing. ' ' 1 



Eiverin himself was at work upon his project, however, 

 at the very time he had prepared the above memorandum, or 

 at least very shortly after it, and out of what we know were 

 his slender means, he had built a vessel in France which it 

 was his intention to employ in these fisheries. 



"Le pauvre Riverin," however, as De Derionville called 

 him in 1686, in a letter to the French Minister, seems to have 

 encountered ill luck from the very inception of his enter- 

 prise. The new vessel which he had built at La Rochelle 

 for his fishery, and which he had anxiously expected at 

 Quebec from day to day failed to arrive. "We do not know," 

 said the Governor, ' ' whether this ship has perished or whether 

 she has been taken by pirates, as were the ships that Mon- 

 sieur de la Barre sent you three years ago, and that are 

 believed to have been taken by the English robbers from 

 Boston," and he earnestly pleaded: "We have, Monseigneur, 

 a great interest in having our navigation safeguarded by 

 you and in being guaranteed from these piracies which dis- 

 courage so much our merchants and fishermen. ' ' 



Official representations from New France, and doubtless 

 the promptings of Riverin himself, with his references to 

 the march that was being stolen by the New England "pi- 

 rates" upon the French in Canada in the matter of the fisher- 

 ies, so impressed Louis XIV with the importance and possi- 

 bilities of the latter, tha.t in 1689 he signed instructions for 

 the Count de Frontenac, reminding him of the vast utility 

 to the people of Canada in the matter of commerce, as well 

 as of industry, that the establishment of fisheries on the St. 

 Lawrence and on the coasts of Acadia would be, and telling 

 him that in order to make a commencement of such fisheries, 

 His Majesty had had one Riverin engaged to undertake a 



1 Collection de Manuscrits relatifs (i la Nouvelle- 



France. Quebec, 1883. Vol. I., page 347. 



2 Collection de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle- 



France. Vol. I., p. 371. 





