appoint a day, which he promised to do. This is what the Regent has promised my Lord Stair once every week, for four or five months past, without any effect, and His Excellency does not expect any more from the promise now, tho' possibly a Conference may be appointed for form sake. I have been here near six months and have seen only one Conference, which was appointed at my Lord Stanhope's desire; I think there had been two Conferences before I came ; at the first of them the Commissions were read, and at the second my Lord Stair and Mr. Bladen gave in a memorial about the limits of the Hudson Bay Company, to which no answer has been made. I must own that I

never could expect much success from this Commission, since the French interests and ours are so directly opposite, and our respective pretensions interfere so much with each other on the several points we were to treat about; but that the French have not been willing to entertain us now and then with a Conference, and try how far we might be disposed to comply with any of the views they had in desiring the Commission, cannot, I should think, be accounted for, BUT BY SUPPOSING THEY KNEW WE CAME PREPARED TO REJECT ALL THEIR DEMANDS, AND TO MAKE VERY CONSIDERABLE ONES FOR OURSELVES.*

I shall expect your further directions as to my stay or return; I cannot help owning I heartily wish for the latter, but I shall always submit to what His Majesty likes best, and shall only desire in this case that I may have a supply from the Treasury, since I have not had the good fortune to be concerned in either of the Misiseppis.

MR. PULTENAY TO MR. DELAFAYE.

PARIS, August 22nd, N.S. 1720.

In pursuance of the orders of their Excellencies the Lords Justices, which I received by your letter of the 3rd instant, O.S., I waited this morning on Sir Robert Sutton to the Archbishop of Cambray, to lay before the Archbishop Colonel Philips' complaint against the French of Cape Breton for continuing to fish at Canco. The Archhishop

said the Marechal d'Etrees' negligence was the occasion that this and other matters of the Commission have not been settled; but as he [the Marechal], is now going to Brittany, he is to leave behind him several papers relating to these matters, that the business of the Commission may be pursued in some other hands.

You will receive from Sir Robert Sutton an account of the discourse he had with the Marechal d'Etrees on the same subject.

MR. DELAFAYE TO MR. PULTENEY.

WHITEHALL, Sept. 1st, 1720.

Upon my reading to the Lords Justices one of your letters to Mr. Secretary Craggs, wherein among other matters you mention a difficulty you were under upon the Archbishop of Cambray's saying that ye Marechal d'Etrees was to leave his papers with his Commis who should confer with you; whereas according to your Commission you are to transact only with Commissaries having the like powers with your own from the most Christian King, their Excellencies have commanded me to signify to you their directions that you pursue the intent of your Commission, and that you decline entering into any negotiation with such Commis.

MEMORANDUM AS TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSARIES, 1719-20.

[It is curious to note after a thorough search of the available papers, made on behalf of the Government of Ontario, that the Commissioners on both sides accuse each other of endeavouring to avoid a meeting for the settlement of the boundary question. In a precis of the negotiations under the treaty (Foreigh Office, Paris) written in 1723, the French

*The italics and capitals are ours.

complain bitterly of the conduct of the English Commissaries, stating that they used every pretext to avoid a meeting, and that when a meeting was finally arranged, it was found on the assemblage of the French Commissaries that one of the English Commissaries had the day previously left for England, without communicating his intentions, and the proposed meeting could not be held in consequence.]

EXTRACTS FROM TWO MEMOIRS OF M. D'AUTEUIL,* RESPECTING THE LIMITS OF HUDSON'S BAY, 1719-20.

(Copies obtained by the Government of Ontario, from the Archives of the Department of Marine and the Colonies, Paris.)

FIRST MEMOIR.

All these facts being laid down, of which my Lords the Commisaries will make such use as they may judge proper, I come to that which concerns the limits. On the supposition that it may be necessary, in virtue of the 10th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht, to cede to England Fort Bourbon, and all the other establishments which are on the shores of the Bay, I say:

1st. That it is well to remark that the English, in all the places of the said Bay and Streights which they have occupied, have always stopped at the border of the sea, carrying on trade with the savages who went there to find them; whilst the French, from the foundation of the colony of Canada, have not ceased to traverse all the lands and rivers bordering on the said Bay, taking possession of all the places, and founding everywhere posts and missions.

2nd. They cannot say that any land, or river, or lake belongs to Hudson's Bay; because if all the rivers which empty into this Bay, or which communicate with it belongs to it, it might be said that all New France belonged to them, the Saguenay and St. Lawrence communicating with the Bay by the Lakes.

3rd. That this being incontestable, it is for France to regulate the limits in this particular quarter (á régler les limites de ce côté lá); and that of the little which she may cede, she will always cede that which is her own, as the English cannot pretend to anything except a very small extent of the country adjoining the forts which they have possessed at the bottom of the Bay. Nevertheless their pretensions amount to nothing less than to overrun nearly all the north and west of New France, as they would also do on the south coast by extending the boundaries of Acadia as far as the Fort at Quebec, these being the propositions which the Commissaries named by the King of England have made, but which they have never signed.

[He then quotes the English claims as submitted by Lord Stairs, ante p. 365.]

The simple reading of these propositions renders it apparent that there can be no other response to make to them than to reject them absolutely, as not having any foundation which can support them. By what right indeed, and in virtue of what Treaty do these gentlemen break the Treaty of Breda, which placed our limits at the 60th parallel, in order to place them at the 49th, not only from the shores of the Bay which has been ceded to them, but stretching towards the west in every longitude. The Treaty of Utrecht speaks only of restitution-let the English show that which the French have taken from them and they will restore it to them; but all that they demand beyond this, they demand without any appearance of right. Article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht restores Hudson's Strait; why then wish that the boundary on this side should commence at the north cape of Davis' Bay in the 56 degree of latitude, since this cape is more than 120 leagues from

*M. d'Auteuil was, at the date of the negotiations respecting the boundaries, 1719-20, Procureur-General of Canada, and had gone to Paris at the instance of the French Commissaries, to whom he had been strongly recommended by the Archbishop of Trêves and others, as a competent authority on and one thoroughly master of the question of the boundaries. He was in frequent consultation with the Commissaries; and the Abbé Dubois is known to have had constant reference to him in matters of difficulty. These two memoirs bear internal evidence of their having been prepared by him in answer to the English demands; though whether they were so prepared simply for the information of the French Commissaries (as 8 most likely), or as the official answer to the English is not quite clear. If as the latter, it is clear it was never dellvered. See note to De l'Isle's map of 1703, sec. VIII., ante. (This information has been procured by the Ontario Government from the Department de la Marine, and in the Bibliothèque Nationale.)

the Cape of Button's Island, at the 61st degree or thereabouts, which is the commencement of Hudson's Straits? This excessive claim would carry away a large portion of the land of Labrador, which France has not ceded.

The line of separation should then commence at Cape Bouton, pass through the middle of the territory which is between Port Rupert and Lake Nemiskau, of which Père Albanel, Jesuit, and Mr. de St. Simon, took possession in the name of the King in 1672 ;* follow at the same distance from the Bay along the eastern side, in such manner as to divide in the middle the territory between the Lake of the Abitibis and Fort Monsipi or St. Louis; continuing at a similar distance from the shores of the Bay at the western side until beyond the Rivers of Ste. Thérèse and Bourbon.

That if on the territory which by these lines belongs to England, there should be found French settlements, they shall be destroyed; but those that may have been founded on our own lands shall be continued, each one being master of his own.

SECOND MEMOIR.

The 10th Article of the Treaty of Peace of Utrecht says, precisely, that the Strait and the Bay of Hudson shall be restored to England. Therefore, there does not appear any reason for the demand that the limits of the territory in question should commence at the north cape of Davis' Bay, in 56° 30′, north latitude, since this cape is more than 120 leagues from the Cape of Isle Bouton, close to the 61st degree or thereabouts, which is the commencement of Hudson's Straits, and this excessive claim which they demand, would carry away a great part of the lands of Labrador, which appertain to the Government of Canada, and which France has neither ceded nor intended to cede. Thus the commencement of the dividing line should be at Cape Bouton, which is the first cape that forms the entrance into Hudson's Straits, as is explained by the preceding memoir: this line should run to the middle of the territory between Fort Rupert and that of Nemisco, an old French post.

Further, their demand to draw a line from the North Cape of Davis' Bay as far as the Great Lake of the Mistassins, separating the said lake in two parts, has no more foundation, seeing that the King of France has never said that he would give any part of the lands appertaining to the Government of Canada, but that he would restore those which appertain to Hudson Bay; if the English pretend that the territory which they demand should come back to them, it will be for them to prove it.

To conclude, the English Commissaries, not content with wishing to have half of the Lake of the Mistassins, demand that the line shall continue as far as the 49th parallel of north latitude, and that, from thence, there shall be drawn a line to the west along the said 49th parellel.

One cannot see upon what ground these gentlemen can authorize this pretension and demand that France lose all the territory which is to be found between the 60th degree, which belongs to it by the Treaty of Breda, to the 49th degree in every longitude discovered and to be discovered; this pretension also is a novelty of which no mention is made in the Articles of the Treaty of Peace of Utrecht.

7

LAMOTHE-CADILLAC ON THE LIMITS, 1720.

(Copy obtained by the Government of Ontario from the Department de la Marine, Paris.) EXTRACT FROM A MEMOIR CONCERNING THE LIMITS OF ACADIA AND OF HUDSON'S BAY, GIVEN IN 1720, TO THE DUKE OF ORLEANS, REGENT, BY THE SR. DE LAMOTHE DE CADILLAC, FORMERLY CAPTAIN in Canada, and GOVERNOR OF MISSISSIPI.

Lamothe has examined the 10th Article of the Treaty of Utrecht, and has remarked that there can be contestation upon the word Restituera (shall restore), because it is certain that where there has been no unjust possession there is no place for restitution.

* See pp. 348-9 ante.

The English have never possessed the lands that the French have at Hudson's Bay, therefore it is impossible for the King of France to restore them to them, for one cannot restore more than that which has been taken by usurpation.

The fact is, that at the time of the said Treaty of Utrecht, the French possessed one part of the Strait and Bay of Hudson, and the English possessed the other. It is very true that the King of France had, some time before, conquered the English part, and it [is] of this that it has been understood that restitution is to be made, that is to say to trouble them no more in their enjoyment; but with regard to the said lands possessed by the French in the said Bay, if they have previously belonged to the English, the King will bind himself in the same manner, to make restitution of them. But there must be a real and incontestible proof of proprietorship; and this the Crown of England cannot produce.

AN ENGLISH VIEW OF THE BOUNDARIES OF CANADA AND OF OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST; TOGETHER WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATIVE INHABITANTS, 1747.

(Extracts from "A complete system of Geography

in two volumes. The whole illustrated with seventy maps, by Emanuel Bowen, Geographer to His Majesty This work is extracted from several hundred books of travel, and history, is brought down to the present time, preserving all that is useful in the fourth and last edition of the Complete Geographer, published under the name of Herman Moll, &c. London, 1747." pp. 621, 624, 629.)

[CANADA OR NEW FRANCE].--The limits of this large country are variously fixed by our Geographers, some of them extending them quite from Florida to the northern boundaries of America, or from 33 to 63 degrees of north latitude...... Others bound it on the north by the land called Labrador, or New Britany; on the east by the Northern Sea and New England, &c., on the south by Florida; and on the west by New Mexico, and the unknown tracts north of it.* According to which, it will extend itself from the 25th to the 53rd degree of latitude, and from 76 to 93 of west longitude. But its greatest extent is commonly taken from south-west to north-east, that is, from the Province of Padoua in New Spain, to Cape Charles, near the Bay of St. Lawrence, which is reckoned near 900 leagues. [The preceding includes, whilst the following excludes Louisiana.] Hontan, makes it to reach only from 39 to 65 degrees of latitude; that is, from the southside of the Erie Lake, to the northside of Hudson's Bay, and in longitude from the River Mississippi to Cape Race in Newfoundland.

* *

*

CANADA, in its largest sense, is commonly divided into Eastern and Western, the former of which is commonly known by the name of Canada, or New France, and the latter, which is of much later discovery, Louisiana, in honour of the late Lewis XIV The former of these, including all to the north and west of the great river and lakes, contains twenty-eight tribes [the following amongst others ;]-Illinois, Miamis, Maskoutens, Outovagamis, Hurons, Outaouatz, Nipissirinians, Algonkins, Nadouessoueronous, Kiristinoas. SAGUENAY contains the four following nations or tribes, viz.:-1, the Esquimaux; 2, Bersiamites or Oupapinachois; 3, Oumionquois; and 4, Cacouchaquois.

parts.

.

It may not be improper to give a farther list of the wild nations of these Round the Hurons' Lake, the Hurons... the Outatouas, Nokes, Mis

* As a matter of fact the real westerly boundary of Canada at this period was the Pacific Ocean, or at least the Rocky Mountains. Louisiana's northern boundary, which was the southern boundary of Canada in that quarter, ran from the River Colorado, and easterly along the northern watershed of the Missouri, to about the parallel of 40°; and thence easterly, on about that parallel to the English Colonies. The boundary of Louisiana followed the Colorado River, southerly, till it met the northerly boundary of New Mexico, which it then followed easterly to the junction of the northerly and easterly boundaries of that country; and thence it followed the easterly boundary of New Mexico to the Gulf. From the point of junction of the westerly and northerly boundaries of Louisiana, a line due west to the Ocean was the southerly boundary of Canada; to the south of this last mentioned line was New Mexico according to some, and New Albion according to other Geographers.

kin.

About the

sisaques, Atticumekes, and the Outchipones, sirnamed Leapers. Lake of the Illinois, some Illinois, the Oumamis, Maskoutens, Kikapous, Outagamis, Malomismis, Pouteuotamis, Ojatinous, and the Sakis. All these speak the AlgonAlong the River of the Outauas are seated the Tabitibi, Monzoni, Machacandibi, Neopemen of Achirim, Nepisirim, and Temiskamink-all speak Algonkin. About the Upper or Superior Lake, in north of the Mississipi, live the Assimpoals, Soukaskitons, Ovadbatons, Atintons, Clistinos, and the Esquimaux.

CANADA PROPER hath on the north the Terra de Labrador, Hudson's Bay, and New Wales. On the east the great River Saguenay divides it from the Province of that name; on the south the great Province of Louisiana, and the Iroquois and Etechemins. As to the northern boundaries, they are not known, and must be left to time to discover.

THE PROVINCE OF LOUISIANA.-This vast tract is bounded on the south by the Gulph of Mexico, on the north by the Illinois ... and by the Territories of the Panissus, Paoducas, Osages, Tionontetecagas, Chavanons, and other wild nations; on the east by the part of Florida, Georgia, and Carolina; and on the west by New Mexico and New Spain. The maps of the accurate Mr. de Lisle give those boundaries a much greater extent, especially on the north side, where they make it contiguous to Canada.

FIRST VISIT OF RADISSON AND DESGROISSILIERS TO HUDSON'S BAY, 1666 — Two French gentlemen, meeting with some savages in the Lake of Assimponals [Winnipeg], in Canada, they learnt of them, that they might go by land to the bottom of the Bay, where the English had not yet been upon which, the Frenchmen desired the Indians to conduct them thither, which the savages accordingly did. The Frenchmen returned to the Upper Lake [Superior] the same way they came, and from thence to Quebeck, the Capital of Canada; where they offered the principal merchants to carry ships to Hudson's Bay, but their project was rejected. Hence they went to France in hopes of a more favourable hearing at Court... but they were answered as they had been at Quebeck... The King of England's Embassador at Paris persuaded them to go to London, where they met with a favourable reception from some men of quality, merchants and others, who employed Mr. Gillam, a person long used to the New England trade, to perfect this discovery.

OPERATIONS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY IN THE BAY, 1670-86.-In the year 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company sent over Charles Baily, Esq., as their Governor, who, with Mr. Radisson, settled at Rupert's river; and another factory was established at Fort Nelson.* In the year 1683, Henry Serjeant, Esq., was made Governor at Rupert's River, with orders to be very careful of the French, who now began to shew themselves very jealous of the trade carried on by the English Company with the natives. In the year 1686, we find the Company in possession of five settlements, namely: Albany River, Hayes Island, Rupert's River, Fort Nelson (or York), and New Severn.

No FORT OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY BUILT INLAND ON NELSON OR HAYES' RIVERS, 1747.-If a fort were built at the Great Fork, sixty leagues above York Fort, towards the south-west, and a factory, with European goods fix'd there, and a reasonable price put upon them, the trade would be wonderfully increas'd. The Great Fork is that part where the Rivers Nelson and Hayes join, and having run a little way together, separate again forming an island, which is called Hayes Island.†

FRENCH POSTS AND TRADE NORTH OF THE HEIGHT OF LAND, SOUTH AND EAST OF THE BAY, 1747.—The bottom of the Bay is by the French pretended to be part of New

* It would appear quite clear from a perusal of this and the several relations on the subject in this book (confirmed by such others as we have been able to procure access to), that the first attempt to build a Factory here by the English was in 1682. (See Extracts from Parliamentary Report of 1749, viz.: despatch from the Company to John Bridgar, dated May 15th, 1682 p. 399 post.) The French contemporaneously with them re-built their own Fort Bourbon (which they had originally built in 1676), and during the same season destroyed the English establishment.

+ There is another Hayes Island at the mouth of the Moose, on which Moose Fort was built.