Travels in North America. 35 



yaft Countries would be infenfibly peopled ; and this would 

 perhaps be the only Means to execute what the Court has had 

 fo long at lieart, to frenchify thefe Savages. I believe I may àt 

 leaft aflert, that if this rrojedl had been followed, Canada 

 would have been at this Time much more populous than it is ; 

 that the Savages, attracted and retained by the Help and kind 

 Treatment they would have found in our Habitations, would 

 have been lefs roving, lefs miferable, and in Confequence would 

 have encreafed in Number, (inftead of which their Numbers 

 are furprifingly diminifhed) and they would have been attached 

 to us in fuch a Manner, that we might have made the like Ufe 

 of them by this Time, as of the Subjects of the Crown ; and 

 the more fo, as the Miffionaries would have found much lefs 



Difficulty in their Converfion. -What we now fee at Loretfo^ 



and in fome Meafure amongft the Iroquois^ the Algonquins, and 

 the Jbenaquisj who live in the Colony, leaves no Room to doubt 

 of the Truth of what I advance ; and there is no Perfon amongH 

 tliofe who have been moll converfant with the Savages, who does 

 not agree that we can never depend on thefe People till they are 

 Chrijïians, I will cite no other Example than the Abenaquis | 

 who, though few in Number, were during the two lafl: Warà 

 the principal Bulwark of Ne^ Trance againfl Ne^ England^ 



This Proje(^, which I have laid before you, Madam', is as 

 old as the Colony, itv/as that of M. de Champlain its Founder, 

 and it was the Defire of ahnoft all the Miffionaries v/hom I have 

 known, and whofe painful Labours in the Situation in which. 

 Things have been a long while, do not produce any great Fruit 

 in the Miffions which are at any Diilance. It would be in Faél 

 very late to take up this Defign now with Refpedl to the 

 Savages, who difappear in fuch a Manner, as is fear ce conceiva- 

 ble. But what iliould hinder us from following it, with Refped 

 "to the French and to continue the Colony from one Neighbour- 

 hood to another, till it can reach out a Hand to that vï Louijiana^ 

 to ilrengthen each other. By this Means the Englijh in lefs 

 than an Age and a half have peopled above five hundred 

 Leagues of Country, and have formed a Povver on this Con- 

 tinent, which we cannot help beholding without Fear when we 



^ake. a near View of it. -Ca?iada may and does fome* 



times carry on a pretty confiderable Trade with the Ifles of Ame- 

 rica, in Flour, Planks, and other Wood fit for Buildings ; as there 

 is not perhaps a Country in the World that has more Variety of 

 Wood, nor a better Sort: Judge what Riches this may one Day 

 produce. It appears that few People underftand this Article ; I do 

 not underftand it enough myfelf toenter intoa more particular Ac- 

 count: I have fomething more Knowledge in the Article of Oils, of 

 which Ilhallfoon take Notice. Being inHafle to finiih my Letter, î 



F z have 



