28 EROXTENAC AND PERROT. [1669-73. 



time to Canada, in 16G9, an officer named Perrot, 

 who had married his niece, came with him. Perrot, 

 anxious to turn to account the influence of his wife's 

 relative, looked about him for some post of honor 

 and profit, and quickly discovered that the govern- 

 ment of Montreal was vacant. The priests of St. 

 Sulpice, feudal owners of the place, had the right 

 of appointing their own governor. Talon advised 

 them to choose Perrot, who thereupon received 

 the desired commission, which, however, was re- 

 vocable at the will of those who had granted it. 

 The new governor, therefore, begged another com- 

 mission from the king, and after a little delay he 

 obtained it. Thus he became, in some measure, 

 independent of the priests, who, if they wished to 

 rid themselves of him, must first gain the royal 

 consent. 



Perrot, as he had doubtless foreseen, found him- 

 self in an excellent position for making money. 

 The tribes of the upper lakes, and all the neigh- 

 boring regions, brought down their furs every 

 summer to the annual fair at Montreal. Perrot 

 took his measures accordingly. On the island 

 which still bears his name, lying above Mont- 

 real and directly in the route of the descending 

 savages, he built a storehouse, and placed it in 

 charge of a retired lieutenant named Brucy, who 

 stopped the Indians on their way, and carried on 

 an active trade with them, to the great profit of 

 himself and his associate, and the great loss of the 

 merchants in the settlements below. This was not 

 all. Perrot connived at the desertion of his own 



