402 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA t 
have been granted, simply by certificates of oc¬ 
cupation,, or licences,, from the governor, giving 
permission to persons who applied for these 
lands to settle upon them, no patents, convey¬ 
ing a clear possession of them, have ever been 
made out; it is merely by courtesy that they 
are held ; and if a governor thought proper to 
reclaim them on the part of the crown, he 
lias only to say the word, and the titles of the 
occupiers sink into air. Thus it is, that al¬ 
though several persons have expended large 
sums of money in procuring, ajijd afterwards 
improving townships*, none of them are yet 
enabled to sell a single acre, as an indemnifi¬ 
cation for these expences; at least no title can 
be given with what is offered for sale, and it 
is not therefore to be supposed, that purchasers 
of such property will easily be found. It is 
true, indeed,"that the different proprietaries of 
these townships have been assured on the part 
of government, that patents shall be granted 
to every one of them, and they are fully per¬ 
suaded, that these will be made out some time 
or other; but they have in Vain waited for them 
for three years, and they are anxiously waiting 
for them still f. 
■ • ot 
*' Tracts of waste land, usually ten miles' square. 
f I received a letter, dated early in the year l79ff> from a 
gentleman in Canada, who has taken up one of these town- 
