INTRODUCTION #5 
in the Lenox Library, New York. It was entitled Copy 
of a Letter sent from New France, or Canada, by the Sieur 
de Combes, a Gentleman of Poitou, to a Friend, in which 
are described briefly the Marvels, Excellence and Wealth of 
the Country, together with the Appearance and Manners of 
the Inhabitants, the Glory of the French, and the Hope there 
is of Christianizing America. ‘This letter gives the follow- 
ing account of Brest :— 
“We desired first to go and see the Sieur de Dongeon, 
who is governor, and resides ordinarily at Brest, the prin- 
cipal town of the whole country, well provisioned, large 
and strongly fortified, peopled by about fifty thousand 
men, and furnished with all that is necessary to enrich 
a good-sized town.” 
When it is remembered that this letter was written in 
the year in which Champlain founded Quebec, it will be 
seen immediately that it is a fairy tale of the wildest sort. 
Brest was never anything at this time but a convenient 
harbour for fishermen; and the Sieur de Combes and the 
Sieur de Dongeon are probably people who never ex- 
isted. Somebody, however, must have taken the account 
au grand sérieux; for in 1638 the following account of 
Labrador appeared in Lewes Roberts’ Merchants’ Map of 
Commerce printed at London: — 
“The seventh is Terra Corterialis; on the South whereof 
runs that famous river of Caneda, rising out of the hill 
Hombuedo, running nine hundred miles, and found navi- 
gable for eight hundred thereof. ... The chiefe Towne 
thereof is Brest, Cabomarso, and others of little note.” 
Cabomarso is obviously a cape named by the Portu- 
