80 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



the said coast, granted him, on the advice of the Duke of 

 Orleans, his uncle and Regent, four leagues in frontage of 

 the said coast, being two leagues on either side of his establish- 

 ment, with the adjacent isles and islets." As a testimony 

 of his personal good will towards Constantin, His Majesty 

 signed the order for this grant "with his own hand." 



It was Constantin, according to a document in the ar- 

 chives of the Marine, who first took Courtemanche to Labra- 

 dor. His original grant of territory from Vaudreuil and 

 Begon extended thirty leagues eastwards from the straits of 

 Belle Isle, facing the Gulf, by ten leagues in depth. Courte- 

 manche, who was Commandant of the Labrador coast, sent 

 to the Sieurs de Ramezay and Begon at Quebec a complaint 

 from certain ship captains against Constantin who, it was 

 alleged, wished to prevent them cutting wood and even from 

 fishing without his permission. Constantin, on his part, pre- 

 tended that what Courtemanche wanted was to prevent the 

 existence of any other establishment than his own on the coast, 

 After Constantin 's death the rights held by him on the coast 

 of Labrador with headquarters at St. Modet, were conceded 

 in 1759 by Jonquieres and Bigot to the Sieur Breard. 



IMPORTANCE OF THE FISHERIES. 



Of the importance attached to the fisheries of New France 

 in official quarters, we obtain some interesting glimpses in a 

 memoir prepared in 1691 by M. de Champigny, who, after 

 claiming that the French possessions in North America supply 

 the whole of Europe with codfish, declares that the fishing 

 for walrus and seal, which produces so much oil, is more 

 abundant than it is possible to imagine. 



De Champigny was not slow to realize what the subjects 

 of the King of France lost by the failure of the court to duly 

 protect the fisheries of New France. 



In the memoir just referred to he says: "The English 

 of Europe, together with those of Boston and Manhattan, treat 

 these fisheries as if the property in them was common to them 



