FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



53 



that it was not necessary to go out more than a quarter of a 

 league from shore to find them, 

 and that it was often possible 

 to get near enough to them to 

 be able to touch them with the oars 

 of the boat. Charlevoix, the his- 

 torian, by way of endorsing Riverin's 

 statements, declares that he himself, 

 in 1705, saw four whales at one 

 time playing around his ship near 

 Tadoussac. 1 

 Riverin apparently kept his 



Marquis de Seignelay P romise to persevere in his un- 

 Son of Colbert, died in 1690 at age dertaking, as long as he found 



of 39. Was Secretary of State ., -,-, -, ,, 



under Louis XIV. it pOSSlDlC tO QO SO, I0r 



Charlevoix is authority for the statement that undeterred by 



first failures he persisted in his efforts, though the historian 



sagely observed that something more 



than industry and courage were 



necessary to the success of such a 



project as Riverin's, and that that 



something, which meant considerable 



funds, was what the promoter, like 



many other promoters, both before 



and after his time, lacked. 



The persistence with which he 

 sought financial backing, confident 

 of the promise and excellence of his 

 proposition, was in time rewarded 

 by temporary success. He induced 

 certain capitalists in Paris to take an 



interest in his project, but, as in so many other similar cases, 

 "they wanted," in the words of Charlevoix, "to reap before 

 the crop was ripe, and their impatience spoiled everything." 



i Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France avec 

 le Journal Historique d'un Voyage fait par ordre de Roi dans 

 rAmerique Septentrionale. .Par le P. DeCharlevoix, de la Com- 

 pagnie de Jesus. Tome Premier. Paris, M.DCC. XLIV., pp. 539, 540. 



Rev. Pere Charlevoix. 



