52 FRONTENAC AXD DTJCHESNEAU. [1681. 



proceed. The intendant renewed his demand, the 

 council sustained him, and the packet was opened 

 accordingly. It contained a petition from Amours, 

 stating that Frontenac had put him in prison, be- 

 cause, having obtained in due form a passport to 

 send a canoe to his fishing station of Matane, he 

 had afterwards sent a sail-boat thither without 

 applying for another passport. Frontenac had 

 sent for him, and demanded by what right he did 

 so. Amours replied that he believed that he had 

 acted in accordance with the intentions of the 

 king ; whereupon, to borrow the words of the peti- 

 tion, " Monsieur the governor fell into a rage, and 

 said to your petitioner, < I will teach you the inten- 

 tions of the king, and you shall stay in prison till 

 you learn them ; ? and your petitioner was shut up 

 in a chamber of the chateau, wherein he still re- 

 mains." He proceeds to pray that a trial may be 

 granted him according to law. 1 



Discussions now ensued which lasted for clays, 

 and now and then became tempestuous. The gov- 

 ernor, who had declared that the council had no- 

 thing to do with the matter, and that he could not 

 waste time in talking about it, was not always 

 present at the meetings, and it sometimes became 

 necessary to depute one or more of the members 

 to visit him. Auteuil, the attorney-general, hav- 

 ing been employed on this unenviable errand, 

 begged the council to dispense him from such duty 

 in future, " by reason," as he says, " of the abuse, 

 ill treatment, and threats which he received from 



1 Reyistre du Conseil Supe'rieur, 16 Aoust, 1681. 



