FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 59 



CONCESSIONS IN LABRADOR. 



Meanwhile there had been many concessions of fishing 

 privileges on what is now called the Canadian Labrador. In 

 1661, the Compagnie des Cent Associes granted to Francois 

 Bissot the Isle aux Oeufs en-Seigneurie, together with fishing 

 rights over a large extent of territory on that coast, the limits 

 of which do not appear to have been very satisfactorily deter- 

 mined by the deed of concession, which was destroyed in 

 the Quebec Lower Town fire of 1682, but which limits 

 were claimed by Bissot 's heirs to extend as far east as Bra- 

 dore Bay. This concession was afterwards known as the 

 Seigniory of Mingan, the disputes concerning which were 

 only terminated by an agreement between the last claimants 

 of the seigniory and the Government of the Province of Que- 

 bec, in 1899, following the judgment of the Lords of the 

 Privy Council upon appeals from the decision rendered by 

 Judge Routhier in 1892, in an action instituted by the Crown 

 for the establishment of its rights. 



Bissot, who was an enterprising Norman immigrant, and 

 had come to Canada about 1646, was the first Canadian tan- 

 ner. 1 He was also one of the very first Candians to establish 

 sedentary fisheries in the Gulf. At the Isle aux Oeufs, and 

 later on the mainland at Mingan, he founded posts at which 

 he carried on fishing, sealing and trading with great success. 



THE FIRST SEIGNIOR OF ANTICOSTI. 



One of Bissot J s daughters married Louis Jolliet, the dis- 

 coverer of the Mississippi, 2 and shortly afterwards, the bride- 

 groom made a voyage of exploration along the Labrador 

 coast, in the fisheries of which his father-in-law was so deeply 



1 Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, par J. Edmond Roy, 

 F.R.S.C., Levis, 1897. Vol. I., p. 239. 



2 Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, par J. Edmond Roy>, 

 F.R.S.C., Levis, 1897. Vol. I., p. 249. 



