ve these
liquors to the savages; and yet many reconcile their consciences to the
permission of this thing. They go into the woods and carry drinks to the
savages in order to get their furs for nothing when they are drunk.
Immorality, theft and murder ensue.... We had not yet seen the French
commit such crimes, and we can attribute the cause of them only to the
pernicious traffic in brandy."

Commissioner Talon was, however, the cleverest administrator that the
colony had possessed, and the title of the "Canadian Colbert" which
Bibaud confers upon him is well deserved. Mother Incarnation summed up
his merits well in the following terms: "M. Talon is leaving us," said
she, "and returning to France, to the great regret of everybody and to
the loss of all Canada, for since he has been here in the capacity of
commissioner the country has progressed and its business prospered more
than they had done since the French occupation." Talon worked with all
his might in developing the resources of the colony, by exploiting the
mines, by encouraging the fisheries, agriculture, the exportation of
timber, and general commerce, and especially by inducing, through the
gift of a few acres of ground, the majority of the soldiers of the
regiment of Carignan to remain in the country. He entered every house to
enquire of possible complaints; he took the first census, and laid out
three villages near Quebec. His plans for the future were vaster still:
he recommended the king to buy or conquer the districts of Orange and
Manhattan; moreover, according to Abbe Ferland, he dreamed of connecting
Canada with the Antilles in commerce. With this purpose he had had a
ship built at Quebec, and had bought another in order to begin at once.
This very first year he sent to the markets of Martinique and Santo
Domingo fresh and dry cod, salted salmon, eels, pease, seal and porpoise
oil, clapboards and planks. He had different kinds of wood cut in order
to try them, and he exported masts to La Rochelle, which he hoped to see
used in the shipyards of the Royal Navy. He proposed to Colbert the
establishment of a brewery, in order to utilize the barley and the
wheat, which in a few years would be so abundant that the farmer could
not sell them. This was, besides, a means of preventing drunkenness, and
of retaining in the country the sum of one hundred thousand francs,
which went out each year for the purchase of wines and brandies. M.
Talon presented at the sam