186 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
not only the best thing and the easiest to make use 
of in this country, but it is also the coin of greatest 
value. And the best of it is that after it has been 
used as a covering * it is found to be ready-made 
gold and silver. You know in France how much 
consideration is given to the style of a gown. 
Here all there is to do is to cut it out of a beaver 
skin and the savage woman straightway sews it to 
her little child with a moose tendon, with admirable 
promptness. Who ever wishes to pay in this coin 
for the goods he buys here saves thereby the twenty- 
five per cent. that the market price gives them 
over that in France for the risk they run upon the 
sea—and certainly it seems that commutative 
justice allows that, if what comes to us from France 
is dearer for having floated over the sea, what we 
have here is worth something for having been 
chased in the woods and over the snow, and for 
being the wealth of the Country, especially as 
those who are paid with this coin always find 
therein their reckoning and something more.” 
Twenty years later (1656-7) we find the situation 
has scarcely changed, as shown by the following 
extract from the Jesuit Relations: “That great 
council was held on the 24th of the month of July 
when all the Nation placed in the hands of 
Achiendasé (who is our Father Superior) the 
settlement of the difficulty between the Sonnon- 
* The value of the skins for hatters’ purposes is increased by 
their having been used. 
