146 ^i^g'i^fi 1749' 



polTefiions in the country. They leafe the 

 land to the fettlers for a certain rent, 

 which, if it be annually paid according to 

 their agreement, the children or heirs of 

 the fettlers may remain in an undifturbed 

 pofleffion of the lands. A piece of land, 

 three arpens * broad, and thirty, forty, or 

 fifty arpens long, pays annually an ecu -f-, 

 and a couple of chickens, or fome other 

 additional trifle. In fuch places as have 

 convenient water-falls, they have built wa- 

 ter-mills, or faw-mills, from which they 

 annually get confiderable fums. The fe- 

 minary of Montreal pofTefles the whole 

 ground on which that town ftands, toge- 

 ther with the whole ifle of Montreal, I have 

 been affured, that the ground-rent of the 

 town and ifle is computed at feventy thou- 

 fand livres ; befides what they get for fay- 

 ing maiTes, baptizing, holding confeffions, 

 attending at marriages and funerals, &c,- 

 All the revenues of ground-rent belong to 

 the feminaries alone, and the priefts in the 

 country have no fhare in them. But as the 

 feminary in Montreal^ confifting only of 

 fixteen priefts, has greater revenues than 

 it can expend, a large fum of money is an- 

 nually fent over to France, to the chief 



fe- 



» A French ac^(;_. 



f K French c,Q\n^ value about a crown £«^///^, 



