have been born in a good
climate, and nourished by good and abundant food, that they are at
liberty to engage from childhood in fishing, hunting, and journeying in
canoes, in which there is much exercise. As to bravery, even if it were
not born with them as Frenchmen, the manner of warfare of the Iroquois
and other savages of this continent, who burn alive almost all their
prisoners with incredible cruelty, caused the French to face ordinary
death in battle as a boon rather than be taken alive; so that they
fight desperately and with great indifference to life." The consequence
of this judicious method of peopling a colony was that, the trunk of the
tree being healthy and vigorous, the branches were so likewise. "It was
astonishing," wrote Mother Mary of the Incarnation, "to see the great
number of beautiful and well-made children, without any corporeal
deformity unless through accident. A poor man will have eight or more
children, who in the winter go barefooted and bareheaded, with a little
shirt upon their back, and who live only on eels and bread, and
nevertheless are plump and large."

Property was feudal, as in France, and this constitution was maintained
even after the conquest of the country by the English. Vast stretches of
land were granted to those who seemed, thanks to their state of fortune,
fit to form centres of population, and these seigneurs granted in their
turn parts of these lands to the immigrants for a rent of from one to
three cents per acre, according to the value of the land, besides a
tribute in grain and poultry. The indirect taxation consisted of the
obligation of maintaining the necessary roads, one day's compulsory
labour per year, convertible into a payment of forty cents, the right of
_mouture_, consisting of a pound of flour on every fourteen from the
common mill, finally the payment of a twelfth in case of transfer and
sale (stamp and registration). This seigniorial tenure was burdensome,
we must admit, though it was less crushing than that which weighed upon
husbandry in France before the Revolution. The farmers of Canada uttered
a long sigh of relief when it was abolished by the legislature in 1867.

The habits of this population were remarkably simple; the costume of
some of our present out-of-door clubs gives an accurate idea of the
dress of that time, which was the same for all: the garment of wool, the
cloak, the belt of arrow pattern, and the woollen cap, called tuque,
formed t