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LETTER III. 



Defcription of Quebec ; character of its inha- 

 bitants, and the manner of living in the 

 French colony. 



Quebec, O&. 28, 1720. 



Madam, 



I A M now going to write you fome particulars 

 concerning Quebec ; all [the defcriptions I have 

 hitherto feen of it are fo faulty, that I imagined I 

 mould do you a pleafure in drawing you a true por- 

 trait of this capital of New France. It is truly 

 worthy of being known, were it only for the Angu- 

 larity of its iituation ; there being no other city be- 

 fides this in the known world that can boaft of a 

 frefli water harboiir a hundred and twenty leagues 

 from the fea, and that capable of containing a hundred 

 fhips of the line. It certainly ftands on the moft 

 navigable river in the univerfe. 



This great river as high as the ifiand of Orleans, 

 that is to fay, at the diftance of a hundred and ten 

 or twelve leagues from the fea, is never lefs than 

 four or five leagues in breadth ; but above this 

 ifiand it fuddenly narrows, and that at fuch a rate 

 as to be no more than a mile broad at Quebec ; 

 from which circumftance this place has been called 



H 2 Que- 



