86 FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



woods and to the rigors of the Canadian winter, and who 

 were by no means afraid of the Indians ; while the men 

 of St. Malo, the Basques and the Normans, who fished along 

 the Labrador coast, were so much frightened, he pretended, 

 at the sight of the Esquimaux, that a boat load of French- 

 men, well armed, would give up at the appearance of a 

 canoe occupied by a single Esquimau, with only a bow 

 and arrows for his arms. ("Les Malouins, les Basques et 

 les Normands qui vont a la peche a cette coste et au petit. 

 Nord sont tellement effraye a la veue des Esquimaux, qu'une 

 chaloupe de francois bien armes reldche a la veue d'un canot 

 dans lequel il n'y a qu'un Esquimau qui a des f leches pour 

 toutes armes."} 1 



It was pointed out that if the armed cutter had to 

 be built at Quebec and sailed down to Hamilton Inlet, it 

 would be possible to explore all the harbors in the Straits 

 of Belle Isle. Mr. de Lage, also referred to in the memoir, 

 was declared to be the only man to place in charge of the 

 vessel, since nobody knew the coast as well as he did. 



Messrs, de Vaudreuil and Begon insisted that it would 

 be equally advantageous to the State and to the Colony 

 that a solid establishment should be built up to assure the 

 safety of the fisheries in time of war ? and the security of 

 commerce between France and Canada, so that ships taking 

 the proposed route would not fall into the hands of Eng- 

 lish cruisers. "If," they argued, "there are in this river 

 (the Hamilton) as fine harbors as pretended, and if the 

 fishing there proves to be abundant, it will be a great ad- 

 vantage for vessels fishing on the coast, because where they 

 now go to fish (off the upper shore of Labrador) they are 

 exposed to violent wind storms, and must arrive some weeks 

 later, because of having to wait for the disappearance of 

 the ice from the Straits of Belle-Isle." 



Archives de la Marine, B.1.29. Page 53. 



