FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 77 



statement that there was still, in his day, a family in France 

 bearing the name of Foucher de Labrador. 



Courtemanche was in France about two years before his 

 death. There is still to be seen in the Archives Nationales 1 

 a letter dated at Havre on the 10th of October, 1714, and 

 addressed to the Minister of Marine by M. de Champigny, 

 a former Intendant of New France, which contains an inter- 

 esting reference to Courtemanche. The minister was inform- 

 ed that only a few days previously there had arrived at 

 Havre a ship belonging to Sieur Yanqueray, a merchant 

 of the place, with a cargo of green and dry codfish from the 

 Labrador coast; and that on board this ship a Canadian 

 gentleman, Sieur de Courtemanche, had arrived at Havre, 

 from whom the writer had heard that he had established a 

 considerable business on the coast, where the fishing was 

 very abundant and that his visit to France was for the pur- 

 pose of waiting upon the Minister to describe the fisheries 

 in question, as well as the advantage which they offered to 

 French ships, merchants and fishermen. M. de Champigny 

 informed the Minister that Sieur Vanqueray and Sieur Feray, 

 of Havre, had decided to equip two ships for this trade, and 

 that other merchants of the place proposed to do the same 

 thing. As for the Sieur de Courtemanche, M. de Champigny 

 informed the Minister that he had always known him as a 

 wise and capable man, who had seen good service both in the 

 troops and in the business affairs of the colony, and that he 

 had no doubt that the other Intendants who had served in 

 Canada after him, would render the same testimony. 



Charlevoix, in 1720, mentioned the fort built at Bradore 

 Bay by Courtemanche, and referred to the cod-fishing of the 

 locality as "very abundant." 2 



An important grant of lands and fishing rights was 

 made by Governor Denonville on the 14th April, 1689, when 

 the fishing privileges for cod, whales, seals and porpoises in 



1 Archives de la Marine, B.3, 220.P.439. 



2 Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, par F. X. Charlevoix S.J., Vol. 

 I., p. 422. 



