ulate settlement. Ambitious persons of limited means were able to
form a class of colonial _noblesse_. But unless the seignior cleared a
certain portion of his grant within a limited time, he would forfeit it
all. The conditions by which the _censitaires_ or tenants of the
seigniorial domain held their grants of land were by no means
burdensome, but they signified a dependency of tenure inconsistent with
the free nature of American life. A large portion of the best lands of
French Canada were granted under this seigniorial system to men whose
names frequently occur in the records of the colony down to the present
day: Rimouski, Bic and Metis, Kamouraska, Nicolet, Vercheres,
Lotbiniere, Berthier, Beloeil, Rouville, Juliette, Terrebonne,
Champlain, Sillery, Beaupre, Bellechasse, Portneuf, Chambly, Sorel,
Longueuil, Boucherville, Chateauguay, Lachine, are memorials of the
seigniorial grants of the seventeenth century.

The whole population of the Acadian Peninsula in 1710-13, was not more
than 1500 souls, nearly all descendants of the people brought to the
country by Poutrincourt and his successors Razilly and Charnisay. At no
time did the French government interest itself in immigration to
neglected Acadia. Of the total population, nearly 1000 persons were
settled in the beautiful country which the industry and ingenuity of the
Acadian peasants, in the course of many years, reclaimed from the
restless tides of the Bay of Fundy at Grand Pre and Minas. The remaining
settlements were at Beau Bassin, Annapolis, Piziquit (now Windsor),
Cobequit (now Truro), and Cape Sable. Some small settlements were also
founded on the banks of the St. John River and on the eastern bays of
the present province of New Brunswick.

SECTION 3.--French exploration in the great valleys of North America.

The hope of finding a short route to the rich lands of Asia by the St.
Lawrence River and its tributary lakes and streams, influenced French
voyagers and explorers well into the middle of the eighteenth century.
When Cartier stood on Mount Royal and saw the waters of the Ottawa there
must have flashed across his mind the thought that perhaps by this river
would be found that passage to the western sea of which he and other
sailors often dreamed both in earlier and later times. L'Escarbot tells
us that Champlain in his western explorations always hoped to reach Asia
by a Canadian route. He was able, however, long before his death to
make valuabl