INTRODUCTION tT 
the height of its prosperity.”’ It is indeed probable that 
Mr. Robertson did not know where Brest was; he confuses 
it with Bradore Bay, which is eight or ten leagues farther 
along the coast. And yet the story has died hard; it is 
to be found in some of the latest books, in Professor Pack- 
ard’s Labrador Coast (1891), and in Judge Prowse’s His- 
tory of Newfoundland (1896). 
The exploitation of Labrador by the French Canadians 
really began in 1661. In that year the Compagnie des 
Indes granted to Francois Bissot the Isle aux CKufs en 
seigneurie, together with fishing rights over nearly the whole 
of the Quebec Labrador, from the Seven Isles to Bradore 
Bay. This was what was known afterwards as the Seig- 
neurle of Mingan. Francois Bissot was a Norman immi- 
erant who had come out to Canada some time between 
1641-1647. He was aman of enterprise and ideas. He was 
the first Canadian to enter upon the tanning of leather, an 
industry which is to-day perhaps the most important in 
Quebec. He was also one of the very first Canadians who 
attempted to establish sedentary fisheries in the Gulf. 
At the Isle aux (Eufs, and later at Mingan on the mainland, 
he founded posts at which he carried on fishing, sealing, 
and trading with great success. Between his farm and his 
tannery at Lévis and his fishing-posts on the Labrador 
it was not long before he made his fortune. He was him- 
self of bourgeois extraction; but he married his daughters 
to members of the colony’s ruling class. The noblesse 
and the bourgeoisie joined hands. 
One of Bissot’s daughters married Louis Jolliet, the 
discoverer of the Mississippi. His marriage into the Bissot 
family drew Jolliet’s energies eastward. His exploration 
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