132 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Jean Doublet gives this account of the mining in Gaspe : 



In the year 1665, my father was asked by the Company of Can- 

 ada^ if he would go to Quebec on one of our vessels which would 

 fit out at Havre, in the capacity of a commissioner to mine for lead 

 along the shores of the river St Lawrence where discoveries had 

 recently been reported. They promised to furnish him seventy 

 men for this purpose and also a German mining engineer and an 

 interpreter, all at the expense of the company, and to provide in 

 general all tools and provisions as well as the necessary ships. 

 My father was to have 3000 francs a year and 4 per cent of the 

 profits on the lead ; the engineer to have 4000 francs ; the interpre- 

 ter 600; the workmen in proportion. My father accepted the 

 position which he would not have done had it not been for his 

 previous losses. When the ship was in the roadstead at Havre 

 ready to sail, a boat came to carry my father to it, as he was all 

 ready; and I plead so well that I prevailed on both him and my 

 mother to let me go with him ; so we were taken aboard the ship 

 which was commanded by the celebrated Captain Poulet of 

 Dieppe. We found the vessel extremely crowded by eighteen 

 horses and two stallions from the King's stables. The hay for the 

 sustenance of these filled up the whole place. Then between 

 decks there were eighty respectable young women who were to 

 be married on our arrival at Quebec ; all these together with our 

 seventy workmen made a veritable Noah's ark. 



Our passage was pretty fair, although it took us three months 

 and ten days to arrive at Quebec. M. de Tracy was viceroy, M. 

 de Courcelles was governor, M. Talon was intendant, M. de la 

 Chesnee-Auber was commissary general of the company. When 

 my father had issued his orders a vessel of 70 or 80 tons was 

 equipped to carry us with all our necessary things to the mines. 

 On the 13th of August we arrived and disembarked at Gaspe and 

 set to work on our lodges and furnaces. On the 28th we began 

 to pierce into the rock on the south side where was the first dis- 

 covery the native savages had made. These savages in making a 

 fire for their kettles had used one of these rocks for a handiron 

 (de chenet) and lead came out of it. This they found after their 

 fire was extinguished and they took it to M. de la Chesnee who 

 sent it to France. This it was that had occasioned our enterprise 

 as it was thought that considerable of this metal might be found 

 here as it is in England. On the 6th of September the said mine, 

 after having been excavated 32 feet deep, was fired and we had 

 two men killed and one named Doguet, of Rouen, had both his 

 legs blown off, while three others were slightly wounded. This 

 was their fault as they did not retire as far from the mine as they 



I 



1 What is here meant is the " Compagnie de la Terre Ferme d' Amerique," 

 reorganized by an edict of May 28, 1664, under the name " Compagnie des 

 Indes Occidentales " (Breard). 



