92 



district are mostly voyageurs^ a name given to 

 the persons employed in the north-west fur 

 trade, whose wandering mode of life, toilsome 

 and laborious as it is in the extreme, has superior 

 charms for them than the more regular and pro- 

 fitable pursuits of husbandry. Such a disinclina- 

 tion to yield to the quiet sameness of a fixed 

 residence is seriously inimical to the progress of 

 cultivation on tracks that are but sparingly 

 peopled; and from such a cause, neither this or 

 the adjoining grants, that contain many men 

 who follow this employment, are in so flourish- 

 ing a state as it is highl}^ presumable they would 

 be, from their great fertility and numerous na- 

 tural advantages, were all their inhabitants of a 

 more domesticated disposition. 



SouLANGE (the seigniory of) stretches four 

 leagues on the north bank of the Saint Law- 

 rence, from that of New Longeuil to the Pointe 

 des Cascades : a small part of the township of 

 Newton and the seigniory of Rigaud bound it 

 on the south-west, as does the seigniory of Vau- 

 dreuil on the north ; with the latter it occupies 

 the whole of the tongue of land that is formed 

 by the confluence of the Ottawa and the Saint 

 Lawrence, at the upper extremity of lake Saint 

 Louis; it was granted October 12th, 1702, to the 

 Chevalier de Soulange, and is now the property 

 of Saveuse de Beaujeu, Esq. The general cha- 



