alone became director of
those voyages, for he obliged M. de Courcelles to sign him conges which
he got worked, but on a dispute between the workers he handled some
himself, of which I remember.

You know the number and the regulations given under the first
administration of M. the Earl of Frontenac.

It is certain that it is the holders of conges who look after and bring
down the beaver, and, can it be said that it is wrong to have an
abundance of goods.

The French and the Indians have come down this year; the receipts of
the office must total up 200 millions or thereabouts, which judging
from your letter, will surprise those gentlemen very much. The clerks
have rejected it as much as they liked; I am told that they admitted
somewhere about six thousands of muscovy; during our administration
there were 28 or 30 thousands received, which is a large difference
without taking into account other qualities, and all this does not give
the French much trouble, and at the most for the year we were not
informed. I have given my sentiments to the meeting, and in particular
to M. de Frontenac and to M. de Champigny.

We should be agreeable to our Prince's wishes who is doing so much good
to this country: his tenants who must supply him in such troubled
times, lose, and it is proper that people in Canada contribute
something to compensate them by freely agreeing to a pretty rich
receipt on their commodity but what resource in regard to the indian so
interested that everything moves with him, through necessity; they are
asked and sought after to receive English goods, infinitely better than
ours, at a cost half as low and to pay their beaver very high.

This commercial communication gives them peace with their enemies and
liberty to hunt, and consequently to live in abundance instead of their
living at present with great hardship. Should we not say that it
requires a great affection not to break away in the face of such strong
attractions; if we lose them once we lose them for ever, that it is
certain, and from friends they become our enemies; thus we lose not
only the beaver but the colony, and absolutely no more cattle, no more
grains, no more fishing.

The colony with all the forces of the Kingdom cannot resist the Indians
when they have the English or other Europeans to supply them with
ammunitions of war, which leads me to the query: what is the beaver
worth to the English that they seek to get it by all means?