﻿REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I9IO 



141 



Convincing clues to the history of a country are embalmed in 

 its place names. I have here given the principal names on these 

 islands with suggestions as to their origin. 



., , , ' ^ Named for Madeleine Doublet, wife of Francois 



Sfall ! «hj Doublet, l66 , 

 Maudlin — broad French and vulgar English. 



Brion 

 Bryon 

 Byron 



on most English maps 



r This name, applied by Cartier, 1534, to the 

 island now bearing it, was often used 

 by early explorers for the whole group. 

 It was given in honor of Philipe Chabot, 

 Sieur de Brion. 



disappearing, for whenever the opportunity presented, the agents changed 

 these leases about. 



Generally these leases contained clauses which permitted the seignieur of 

 the islands to take over the lands, to take advantage of their improvements 

 and to possess himself, without reimbursement, of the house and buildings if 

 by some ill-luck the tenant could not fulfil the terms of his lease. It was thus 

 that two of the descendants of the oldest settlers of the Madeleines, Louis 

 Baudraut and Francois Lapierre, were compelled, after many years of hard 

 work and privations, to abandon to Admiral Coffin the land where their ances- 

 tors had lived and which their children had improved to the best of their 

 ability. 



This is the way in which Fabien Lapierre was not quite stripped of all his 

 possessions. This man having decided in 1863 to explore the north coast of 

 Labrador, left the land he had occupied for twenty-five years to the care of 

 two of his compatriots, Basile Cormier and Emile Morin. They were to 

 hold it on condition of keeping it up, paying the rent and turning it back to 

 him on his return. For the first year everything went well. The agent con- 

 sented to take the rental from Lapierre's proxies ; but after the beginning of 

 the second year he refused their money, took possession of the land, cut the 

 hay, forced open the house and stored it with the crops for winter use, and 

 afterward sold the whole, land and dependencies, to Desire Giasson. The 

 following year Lapierre returned and claimed his property. In reply Coffin's 

 agent threatened him not to obstruct the cutting of wood and told him if he 

 continued to make trouble, he would chase him off the islands. But finally 

 by his own pleas and the help of his priest, the Abbe Boudreault, the poor 

 man succeeded in recovering a part of his land on the condition of consenting 

 to a new lease which obliged him to pay annually a shilling an acre. The 

 rest of his property remained and is yet in possession of the purchaser 

 Giasson who has claimed legal title to it by the payment of five pounds. It 

 is not difficult to understand the evils which such a regime imposes on the 

 archipelago and some of the inhabitants, shaking off their torpor, have under- 

 taken to test before the Circuit Court of the Madeleines the titles of Admiral 

 Coffin. Some plead the law of limitations, others allege the illegality of the 

 leases and their burdensome tenure, as contrary to the colonization and 

 progress of the islands. The more philosophical state that for nearly a cen- 

 tury their forefathers had cultivated these lands in full ownership, while their 

 descendants and legal heirs can occupy them only as tenants ; and the more 

 equivocal say that their ancestors never consented to the title of Admiral 

 Coffin. All these complaints accomplished nothing. The court decided in 

 favor of the proprietor and as most always happens the complainants who 

 perhaps had a chance on appeal from this decision were not able, for lack of 



