d
therefore there was not a merchant when the Company quit who could
transact any business in his presence; he gets his goods free of dues,
freight and insurance; he also refused to pay the import tax on his
wines, liquors and tobacco.

Finally his friends or enemies told him aloud that it was of profits of
his commerce that the King would be enriched.

They fell out, M. de Courcelles and he; their misunderstanding forced
the first to ask for his discharge. M. de Frontenac, who succeeded him
also complained and I believe he returned to France without his conge
whence he never came back although he had promised so to all his
friends.

You are aware as well as and perhaps better than I of the disputes of
M. de Frontenac and M. du Chesneau.

And that is all I have been told for my satisfaction of what occurred
previous to 1655 when I came here to attend to the affairs of the Rouen
Company.

I have also learned at the time of my arrival that properly speaking,
though there were a very large number of Indians, known under divers
names, which they bear with reference to certain action that their
chiefs had performed or with reference to lakes, rivers, lands or
mountains which they inhabit, or sometimes to animals stocking their
rivers and forests, nevertheless they could all be comprised under two
mother languages, to wit: the Huron and the Algonquin.

At that period, I was told, the Huron was the most spread over men and
territory, and at present, I believe, that the Algonquin can well be
compared to it.

To note, that all the Indians of the Algonquin language are stationed
and occupy land that we call land of the North on account of the River
which divides the country into two parts, and where they all live by
fishing and hunting.

As well as the Indians of the Huron language who inhabit land to the
South, where they till the land and winter wheat, horse-beans, pease,
and other similar seeds to subsist; they are sedentary and the
Algonquin follow fish and game.

However, this nation has always passed for the noblest, proudest and
hardest to manage when prosperous. When the French came here the true
Algonquin owned land from Tadoussac to Quebec, and I have always
thought they were issued from the Saguenay. It was a tradition that
they had expelled the Iroquois from the said place of Quebec and
neighborhood where they once lived; we were shown the sites of their
villages and towns covered by trees of a fresh g