St. Lawrence; ["Ce
moys (juin 1648). Mre. Abraham, auec deux de ses gendres, s’en alla pour
la lére fois a pesche des loups-marins; il en prit la veille de la St Jean
42, a l’Isle Rouge, proche de Tadoussac, dont il fit 6 bariques
d’huile."— (Jesuits’ Journal. p, 11 1.)]
sometimes, we light on tid-bits of historical
lore anent Master Abraham, not very creditable to his morality; once, he
gets "into chancery;" ["Le 19 (janvier 1649) premiere execution de la main
du bourreau sur vne creature de 15 on 16 ans, laronesse. On accusait en
méme temps M. Abraham de l’auoir violée; il en fut en
prison, et son procés différé a l’ar rivee des vaisseaux "—(Jesuits’
Journal, p. 120.)] as there is no account of his being brought to
trial, let us hope the charge was unfounded; a case of blackmail,
originated by some "loose and disorderly" character of that period or by a
spiteful policeman! On the 8th Sept., 1664, the King’s. Pilot closed his
career, at the ripe age of 75.
Were Cartier’s, were Champlain’s
Scots, the descendants of those adventurous sons of Caledonia, who, at an
earlier date, had sought their fortunes in France, and had so materially
helped to turn the scale of victory at the battle of Beauge, under Charles
VII? Who can ever tell?’
Those familiar with the history of
the colony since its foundation, have doubtless noted the studied and
uniform policy which once provided Quebec with French laws, French
fashions, French officials, French soldiers and settlers, making it a
species of close borough to other races, the natural result of the
colonial policy of the period. They can scarcely expect to find many
foreigners among its denizens under Champlain. Few indeed there were
Wolfe’s conquering legions inaugurated an entirely new order of things. A
Scotch face however might have been met with in our streets, before that
era, and a pleasant one too. Five years previous to the battle of the
Plains of Abraham, one comes across three genuine Scots, in the streets of
Quebec—all however prisoners of war, taken in the border raids—as such
under close surveillance. One,
