54 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



It was just about the time that Riverin was struggling 

 with fate at Matane, that the Recollet Fathers, who had 

 established a settlement at Perce, were also overwhelmed 

 with disaster, in the manner already described. 



Meanwhile, the importance of the fisheries of New France 

 was the theme of further communications between Quebec 

 and Versailles. 



M. de Champigny, in a memoir on the condition of; 

 affairs in Canada, claimed in 1691 that the coasts belonging 

 to the King of France were the only ones that furnished 

 codfish to Europe, and that seals and porpoises were abun- 

 dant. He added that these fisheries were of inestimable 

 value. 1 



In 1699, the Court of Versailles again appeared impress- 

 ed with the importance of a due development of the fisheries 

 of New France, and special instructions, dated the 25th of 



May of that year, were address- 

 ed by it to the Sieur Chevalier 

 de Callieres, Governor of the 

 colony, in which he was told 

 that "the establishment of sed- 



dentary fisheries was one of the 

 Autograph of theJiturC^alie, ^ meang rf emplo y ing the 



King's Canadian subjects and 



to develop the great riches of the colony, and that it was 

 necessary for the Governor to support them with his authority 

 and to give all possible assistance to those who undertook to 

 establish them. 2 



FISHERY CONCESSIONS ON THE SOUTH SHORE. 



Various concessions of fishing rights and of land upon 

 which fishery establishments were to be erected were made on 

 the South Shore in the latter part of the seventeenth century. 



1 Collection de Manuscrits relates a la Nouvelle- 



France.Vol. II., pp. 67, 69. 



2 Collection de Manuscrits relatifs a la Nouvelle- 



France. Vol. II., p. 324. 



