18 LABRADOR 
of the coasts of Labrador has already been referred to. 
As a reward for his discoveries he was granted the island of 
Anticosti, a barren fief, of which he was the first seigneur. 
When Bissot died, Jolliet was one of his heirs. He became 
engaged in a dispute with the other heirs which was the 
precursor of a long line of disputes about the Bissot seig- 
neurve, litigation over which was only ended in 1892 by 
the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 
in the case of the Labrador Company vs. the Queen. Jol- 
liet’s last years were tragic. He endured great losses 
from the English invasion of 1690, and afterwards was 
actually suffering from poverty. He died about 1700, 
neglected and forgotten, on some island of the Labrador 
coast. 
Jolliet’s example without doubt induced others to go 
and spy out the land of Labrador. It was about 1702 that 
De Courtemanche obtained his concession near the Strait 
of Belle Isle. Augustin Legardeur, Sieur de Courtemanche, 
was a lieutenant in the troops of the marine. He spent the 
early years of his life in the west in the Indian wars, and 
acquired there a reputation as a leader. In 1697, however, 
he married the widow of Pierre Gratien Martel de Brouague; 
she was the granddaughter of old Francois Bissot, and 
family ties drew De Courtemanche, as they had drawn 
Jolliet, to the east of Canada. It has been usual to describe 
De Courtemanche’s concession as a seigneurie; but such 
language is inaccurate. It was merely a grant of fishing 
and trading rights for a number of years. The policy of 
the government was evidently to leave its hands free for 
the future with regard to the Labrador coast. The only 
true seigneurie east of the Mingan Islands was “the fief 
