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QUKBEC CPrARLES-FRANCOrS LA XflLOIS PniHTiiR TO Hbr Most Excrilknt Majesty thb Qurbn. 1682 ..^iMIKtea.: **?»" KETUKN ■&im (No. 63.) ^^a;i address from the Legislative Assembly, dated the 20th May 1882 bM i^'-^yi^S that His Honor the Lieutenant-Ooveruor will cause to be laid ^.»1 before this House iJtX '.1 ^ieport of Deputy Surveyor Bouchette on the pretended le-al •^s of the Seigniors of Terra Firma of Mingan, with the chart which icBbmpanies it. Uik ET. THEOD. PAQUET, n®**J Secretary. Secretary's Office, ) / Quebec, 23rd May, 1882. ) •i hi MMTW Tract of lands situate on the north shore of the River and Grulf fx' St. Lawrence, County of Saguenay, claimed by the Honourahte J. J. 0. Abbott, and other co-proprietors with the heirs liichardjon, under the designation of the Seigniory of Mingan. DErAKTMENT OF CROWN LANDS. Province of Quebec, Quebec, 30th November, 1867., (Memorandum prepared in pursuance of the order of the Commis- sioner, DATED 16T1I October, 1867.) oT The only official record of such a seigniory as the Seigniory of Mingan in this Department, which contains the records and documents of the late Surveyor-Greneral's office, dating as far back as the cession of Canada by France to Q-reat Britain in 1763 is now the schedule (cadastre) of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, " No. 108," dated 23rd January Jj||^, which, among other certain schedules (cadastres) of the seigniories in Lpiier Canada, prepared by the Commissioners under the Seigniorial Tenure Act, 41st chapter of the Consolidated Statutes for Lower Canada, were deposited in this Department, in conformity with the 68th clause of the Registra of Titles Act. According to the said schedule the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan extends from Cape Cormorant to the River Groznish, fifty leagues front by the depth of two leagues, containing an area of 705,400 arpents, and it bounded as follows : " Par devant au Fleuve St. Laurent et en profondewt tt des deux cotes au Domaine Public. '' — (In front by the River St. Lawrence, and in rear and on both sides by the Crown Domain.) In 1866 certain tracts of land, situate at the mouth of the Rivet Natashquan, on the north shore of the Grulf of St. Lawrence, and accordingly lying in that part of the Crown Domain, east of the said River G-oznish, or Goyuish, or Agnanius, according to Admiral Bayfield's charts, of the ^rer and Grulf of St. Lawrence, and therefore beyond and east of the Eastern id Gulf ci' lonourabie tichavdiKHi, , 1867. E CoMMJa" of Minfia of the kl» Canada by tre) of the s in Loafer ^'enure Act, 3 deposited [.egistraticm deMingaa es front by tits, and ii •ofondeur tt vrence, »nd the Rivey .ccordingly xoznish, or P i-l- -. -r»4 the Eaatoni < gn o> .al hohedule above mentioned-were surveyed .„d laid off into block aUhe .nstauce o, Me»ie„ra Georg, Duval and .T. L.„gl„i, .„., ," „ .t' Mr _P. L. S Ca.gra,„, bemg, agreeably to the 4th article of said Begulatious filed and depos.ted with the application for purchase in this Deparlmtt Currently with the preparation of the necessary description and nlan for the erecfon of a limited tract of the Crown lands in the loLitv com pnstng the lands applied for, and although the township .ccorditTy p" jected. pnor to the issue of the proclamation to erect the same u^d r th destgnauon of the Townships of Duval, is not conterminous with th eSeign lands of about sixteen m,les front on tl,e Gnlf of St. Lawrence, extending tarn the mouth of the Eiver Goznish or Goynish, to the mouth f the Ri e^r Natashcjuan, tt was deemed expedient, while being agreeable to the ru in pract.cem,h,s Department, to notify the proprietors mentioned in ti^ danes of the.r So,gn,ory,,n conformity with title-deeds by them produced as requtred by the provisions of the 80th clause of the 77.h chapter of che Unsohdated Statutes of Canada, to the surveyors, . to be nati^ed by Th Seigntors and co-proprietors, and the other to be namid by the Crown I „ '^°. '^;' -^f";' *« Department on the 81st January last addressed a etter to Colone Denny (Colonel Dennis as first directed' said to be „ e of h eo.he,rs of the late Honorable John Richardson, resident in Engl. ,d !not^""r .. ", "■" ""^-"-'"^g^O by T. B. Anderson, Esquire nother of he co-hetrs or proprietors of the Seigniory of Mingan residing at Montreal, to whom tt had been sent by that gentleman aslntimated in Mr. Anderson's letter to this Department dated 15th March last. The Honorable J. J. C. Abbott, as proprietor of ten sixteenths of the Se.gn,ory of M.ngan, in his letter of the 29th of March ,»st >.r.r„-Z Dei«rtment that he entirely concurs in the statements and representations contatned .n Mr. Anderson's letter addressed to this Departn.en ^ h nb ject of tho Soignioryof Mingan.as to the eastern boundary, after a thorough mvest,gat:on of the titles and instruments appertaining thereto. &c &c ment ha^^h "^^t"" "" '' ''' ''^' ^"^^^'•^"«' "P^^- ^^e Depart- ment that he has been entrusted by the heirs Richardson, and his other co- proprietors of the said Seigniory of Mingan. with the ta k of prepar .a rein ^'^^"^' ^"' '' ''' '''-' '''' ^-^— '^ "i- wS it A reasonable lapse of time having been allowed, especially us the season for fie d operations was favorable, this Department on the 12th June last romnu led Mr. Abbott of the promised memorial on the subject of the claim eturned, the Department addressed Mr. Abbott again on the 18th of Sep! tember, statmg the urgent necessity there was of establishing and erectino- certain townships in the locality. The Honorable Mr. Abbott in his letter of the 19th ultimo, in replv refers the Department to Mr. Okill Stuart and Mr. Errol B. Lindsay of Quebec, who each represent the present owners of one-fourth of the Seigniory and to E. A. Prentice of Montreal to whom, he understands the heirs Richardson have assigned their rights ; Mr. Weir of Flamboron^h West Tg fr;rth.t."'' ^' '^'"'^"' ''"^^"'' ^'^ P--townersof thrrem::' on. t..^;'^"*^Tu ^T""' "^ ^'^*'''^' '^ ^^Pr^^e'^ting Mrs. Andrews the 20th if"; ^ '^^ ""^''''^^ •'^'^^ ^^^^^^^-'^' "^ ^- ^«tt- dated the 20th ult., informs this Department that the Honorable Mr. Abbott has communicated to him the Departmental letter of the 18th ult.. at the same time submitting his remarks respecting that letter. Of those remarks one appears most entitled to special notice, as bearino- upon the object desired by this Department in its notification to the co^ proprietors of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mino-an A....;u.. ;„ .. Seigniorial Schedule, namely, that the grant of the SeFgniorV of "Mingan is , after a thorough ereto, &c., &c. 0th April last, in rizes the Depart- md his other co- ^ of preparing- a ;s upon which it lly as the season 12th June last, 3ct of the claim o answer being' he 18th of Sep. ig and erecting Itimo, in reply B. Lindsay of ■fourth of the iderstands, the borough West, of the remain- ^Irs. Andrews, is letter dated [r. Abbott has t., at the same ice, as bearinff >n to the CO- of Mingan is of great antiquity, and its limits and boundaries well established by the title and charts in (he possession of the Government, to which easy reference can be had. As has already be.Mi premised, the only record of such a Sei-niory as that ol Terra Firma de Mingan, is Seigniorial Schedule No. 108, deposited as already stated, in this Department. But the proprietors according to Mr Anderson's letter, (No. 2) while readily concurring in the desire of the De- partment to establish the eastern boundary of the Seigniory, and desiring him to express their entire willingness to take immediate steps to fix upon the exact point at which the eastern line is to be drawn, most respectfully but earnestly pra/es/ against the pretensions contained in the Schedule in .question as despoiling them of a large portion of their property, and the part of which they should be unjustly deprived, is in reality the most valuable. Accordiiig to the Schedule, the eastern limit or boundary of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan is placed at the River Ooznish. which easily identified as the River Aguanius, represented in Bayfield's charts of - f«'w .'""'''''' '"""""^' '""= ^" ^^"='*^^^' (-^ —ted charts) 6 08 West Irom Grenwi.h, and situated about five (5) leagues west of the Rn-er Natashquan, and 152 miles due East from Cape Cormorant • but according to the same letter, the proprietors aforesaid claim the Bay des Esquimaux as the eastern limit of the Seigniory de Mingan, where'they would fix the divisie ^ne in latitude 57° 40' west, presenting an additional b eadth on the coast . .Labrador, embracing 4^ 28' of longitude, equal to about 1 .8 statute miles east of the said River Aguanius,formingan aggregate breadth perpendicular to the meridian, of about 350 statute miles, or 117 lea<.ues near y, which, multiplied by the depth of two leagues given in the schedule constitutes a total area of 1,366,400 acres, equal to about 1,616,500 arpents m superficies,-and therefore an excess of about 912,000 arpents over and above the area stated in the schedule in question : whilst the frontage pre. sented by the numerous deep Bays and indentions of the Gulf shore, added the north-easterly bearing of the general line of coast, from Seal Net Point to the Bay des Esquimaux, inclueively, as t]ie stated longitude of the eastern boundary of the Seigniory would indicate, does not fall short of 450 miles. abovo mentioned from .ho''"'""""'"""'"' ""• ''""" herein- .hem lor .he survey, o^ J T: Z;'/:'"^ ^ '"; ""'"-■i"- «'- responded on ,he .nbje.-t of .he re™ Z h " '"" ""'""'■»•■'" >"'« '-. proper .„ remark-, .h.. the nronr Ll t ""■''°' ' '" "''"'■'' ''"'« " '' »ow becomes neee^^'lS: ^ . -rrrtl"™"''-"'"'-''- " v.o„, to any .„i„„ i„ „, „,„„ ^„ jf ^ " '^ 'he,r expre,.ed wish, pre- of .he title of the Seigniory of Mini ! ,h ""'"">' "'"' in'-^'^ation arching e,an.i„a.i„; of ...; r^ord , ,7 ": """ '-«■-' 'J-' ""d Department, relating to any t ,1 . K ^ ''"''""'°" "' ""' «''™">"-"' Seigniory of Terr. H™„ do M i " n d ."",""^ ""' "'""■^ °'- ">» or al, aneien. ordinance,, IT^Z'T':''^ *^' ''"'O"" "o. ,08. or having reference to any co,„J,'ot „f ,K 7 '' """"""R"'" .i"i'partraent has cor- 'Seiuiiiory of Terra 1 which desire it is I Jy acquiesced. It pressed wish, pre- and investipration to effect a just and f the Government existence of the ledule No. 108. or " .judgments, &c., 'd, that may have struments, deeds, nentioned in sup. iportant report of Attorney-General was referred the o the Honorable ^partmental des- ' 'uval, at Xatash- ' erection of the appears conclu- ssioners herein- h in support of ion, boundaries of Terra Firma EXTR.VCT. de mamere u enlover au sujetune propriete. ou un.. purtie d'celle en nos- " session de plus de 100 ans Kn 1771 „„ ... * • 1 , ^' '"- ^" Pos •' d'internr/.f\i r u , ' ™"'>'«'"'' ^"^ plusgraudo latitude "CWronre'-"" "'"^ '' " '''''' ^'^'^'^ ' ''^"^°"^^« ^^ ^-'^« ^^^^ ^- " Les declarations des commissaires faits au cadastre de cette Seigneurie ne dou-ent n. ne peuvent ajouter ou diminuer les droits des proprie" que les tiers ont dans cette Seigneurie." " Le cadastre n'est fait que pour regler les rapports du Seigneur avec 4:1::;;: :7 ''^""'^.^^ '-' '^^"^ ^^'^ -^-^ ^1- P-t r;.lamer lo Ne gneur contre ses censistaires, en un mot. le but de la loi est de chano-er la tenure, et non de regler et etablir les lignes de division d'un Sei^n^u •' avec un autre qui lui est limitrophe." ^ei^nuir "Le cadastre etant final pour Ics choses entre lea cvusitaires et lo X7' 7^- - contrat. ne pent valoir qu'entre les parties, et no^^ contre les droits de propriet6 de tiers porsonnes." 7erra mrma de Mingan, it is therein stated that the Seigniory is whoUv unconeeded. and therefore that there are no sensitaires whose ntl t! e involved m the declimitation of the Seigniory. Seigil'VofM-"'' ^^"^ " ^^"""^'^ ^" '^^^"^"^= ^^« P-^t-'^ of the Seigniory of Mingan, as being situated in the County of Saguenay district of Quebec and stating that it is wholly unconeeded. how!ve Lke 1 n^ention of any title of the Seigniory, nor to whom, nor when i wa'^It d en Se,g„eurie." whilst it refers to no record whatever establishlno he mf ^::r^v '^^^""^^ ^^'^^ ^^^- "-^^^ -' '-^' 7 "\ -ni.„=..a« .hereoi, lu iront. depth and superfices, in French leagues and arpents. Other grounds therefore happen to be indicated in the Seigniorial Schedulp Nn me ^l ^^======== Tena Firna de Mi^t „ ■!' "" """' °' "' '^'^-'o'^ «f «««-, or Derart^en. i„ it. Z° Lh „ :Tr "''*: """ "''""*""' '° ^°-™ *« acnal production offte . i™ hlof^r '" " '"'""="^' ^''°" °f "•» Provisions Of the Survey" leld^ ltd'""*'""' "^"'"' """« '»= But, as pointed out in Mr Andrpw'« i.+* aheady been referred to, a, the .mef^^ hj ' ;; r"";-' "--^-f -- session of the Governmei.t '•.!,. ;, ^^ '°""'' '" "'« I>os- i«ts and entries of In les of ",',17'""" '" ""''""^ -amined the fiWs and Seisneuries " i,:;" tZ'^° ^"""""^ ""^ ««'« S'-ted ■■ en cession of the eountry b^ Fr n.e to I"* p" °' '"""'"' '"' »"" *'« ""-' nishedin the shat,e o/e .L!" , t t et^ ^ "t"h"' ""'■ "■'^'"- -"' f"" the Exeeutive Government from th ffl f I. '•°""''°?« ''>' a-ftority of the Honorable George P n n " th m" M " ''"""™' ""«'^""' *«' Of the aneient Vro^nlZ^^ :^°' Holland, Surveyor-Genera, Of the Provinee, and of disti.t" Lll d ,'T""" °'' '=''-'™""»8 " .™P 8.-igne„ries " ,ror. the wl^ " I i,"' '"""'■'»' ""' «■»•"' " E» '-f» « -tiouof the iatter into ToJ;:;^:'!:, r;:; :™'7--'™- '-"eorgani- Governor in Cunei,, directed to tL SurtyolG^ra. '' '""" '"^ -speetiveiy of the Sei...: 7 1! b:,;:! t'"",':?'?" "'''"■ "'' """ ^''' Jacques de Ja Lande e, Louis J Jo i o.u J"°" "" ""'«""'" P»>'"=d to of Antieosti, granted .^Z'.^uX^^"' T' '"' °'"" '"'"'^ grant of the Seigniory de Mi, m 1 T I ' ""'^" "" '"™«<"' °f "ny that the omissio; . .Lt ^ZTu^TZ': """'"'■"" " '"-' printed volume in the Eno-Iisb I. , ' '""'""na'ion of the relating to the Seigni! iaH^, e trer T '°'' "^'"" """ "-™™'« Assembly ,8M," there is no! ,' whits'" "" ^'"'"' °' ""^ '''"'■^'»«™ of the Seigniory of Mingan mentmnedor therein inserted hie i: 1:^1:::;:—?^:^^^^ - -- New .ranee, compiled by the Hon. ^r^B^n^^^i^'l^l niory of Mingan, or rdson, to govern the rnage, short of the required under the tract whereof has found " in the pos- i^lly examined the fiefs granted " en r to, and since the t, which were fur- re" by authority of al Registrar, then Surveyor-General ustructing a map •ants " En iiefs et view the organi- iurveys from the ■tment, althoitgh OS. 288 and 28!), ?a]i," granted to itl of the Island mention of any 1. and as a proof tiination of the and documents the Legislative herein inserted led, the valua- liei's *' made in w remained a most usefui appendage to the records in Seigniorial matters in -this Department. In th.i 3ri column of the index, headed date of issue in France, op- posite or m a line with the words " Mingan, Terre Ferme." in the column ot Seigniories, and in a line in the column of " grantor, grantee,- &c '' (-ompany of New France to Francois Bissot, gr. de la Riviere," is inserted the date -'1661, February 25," but the pages, in the 1st and 2nd columns of English and French versions of the volumes laid before the Legislative Assembly, in both are blanks, as also blank in the fourth column under the head date of issue or registration in Canada, which blanks are explained in the hrst page, viz., " r^Sm a blank occurs in either column (1st or 2nd) ' no copy of the docum...c has been found to be printed in the lano-uage " indicated by such column." Among the files of the Pein^niorial documents on record in the Depart- ment. is to be found a certified copy of the entry of an Act of " Foi et Hommage," dated 28th May, 1781, to have been rendered before His Excellency Fred. Haldimand, Captain General and Governor in Chief of the Frovince of Quebec, by Fran(«r indivis^ in the above stated pro- perties, produced in support thereof as titles and declarations of property to the said fiefs and seigniories, the undermentioned documents. 1«7qT«^' ^y'^''''''' ^^i^J^ "f *^-« eonce.s.ion granted. 10th March 1679, by Sieur Jacques Duchesneau, Intendant of New France, conjointly' with Mons. le Comte de Frontenac, heretofore Governor of the said coul' 10 try, to Sieur Jacques de LalandTwiTTT"'"^ =— - ^-._^ '■ * M. •' res, a Quebec, le 13 aout 1761 do eI" ^ f . '°'' ''"^'■^'■"' ^^'^l. •' ordre de Sou Excellence, le ^lllt:!:;;^^' '^"^ '"^ ""''''"' ^'^ Secondc,. » Uu extrait des r6o-htv^^ a^ i n "du District de Quebec en dLd? 2 d '" ''^^''^^'^ ^'^'^"»«»« " &C..&C. ' clu 21 de ce mois, signe David Lynd, Teriio. " Une Acte sous -^eino- nrir^ „ ^ . " Catherine Bissot, .^c, ..c, en dat'e d Ve aTloTa I'^r"^ ''^''"'^ ^' " quoi le dit Etienne Charlfet et Catherine I u ' '^'■' ™"^'»»ant " -/«' e/e, Bepi Isles, depuis VMe auJZl- T """''' '"' '' ''^^' '^" 11 it, "(lo« /«/w «t hiets ,)usqu',i la Brti,, ap. t« of Miutfaii, being T called i;n„„g .^^^^ i80. hoforo MoMN, ltog„„. 'Antiroiti, uno (^opi,, mars KJHU, pa,. ^^^ a Tnrrn F«rmt» de to Soiguourii! (mn- i du uord jnN(,u',\ faisaiejit oriliiiairo- te coucMon par la le la Mi vi tiro, (but iicejulio du pa|ai« &c. contVern, Notttl- i do Mijigan, par loyers CommiuiM lie David Lyiul, 3"ne Chares) pt &c., moyojuiant e»it au dit Slonr e rfci- EHiiagntili, Accompa„y,„g the letter of thelate Thos. Amiot, dated nth April, ; the Hon. Joseph Cauohon, then Comm«io„er ot Crown Lands, i« inclosed , ano e fro„ Mr. B.l.n,er, ^erk of the Registrar's Omee, whi;h a,! les f mrtch importance as calling attention to the circnrastance, of the Act LinI nether signed by the Governor nor by Mr. Cngne, the reason hrefo? he submit, as follows. -Je „e pnis m'imaginer pourquoi cet Acte d F et Sommagc a'a pas etc signc ni dn Gouverneur, ni de M. Cngnet • ie pense, cependant. que c'est a cause qu'il, n'avaient pas e.hibe lenr tit e de concession en qnestion, et qu'ils ont pris cer.ilicat de lenr presentation en attendant qn'ils se le procurassent." Pr«entanon (Signed), A. BELANOER. either bv 1 P "" ' ""' '*'"' * ""' " *»■»"■-- -»» »o' -gnod either by the Governor or Mr. Cngnet; I think, however, that it wa» because ihey did not exhibit the deed of concession in quest on, and 1^; ;^.Lte::LT"" " ** """-^ -''-' -'"" '"-^ ~ " The foregoing extracts from the above cited Act of Foi et Homma^e as therein specifying the concessions whereof authentic copies are !hiW :d by the parties to that Act in support of their titles to the lief ^ d .eigniories .-des «„ et HUU de Min,an." and of the Island of Ai cI f addres ™','rT".°r "'""■'^ ^'"'"' "^' "»""°-'l '" 'h« «'"- to the made bv . ° TT ^'"°'"^' '"' ""'" '■^'^""""^ '" *« "-'-ation made by the said p.art,es in regard lo the Seigniory of Terra Fer,„a of .V »..», and named in the Seigniorial Schedule, Cadastre No. 10«, obtI,°[ h cine or materials for more effectually investigating and inqu rin. to he existence o, any such Seigniory, or of any concessions to ,4„r Hi" e Ja Eiviere. situated "dn cote des Sep. Isles, depuis risk „„x ffi," .lusque dans laBaie des Espagnols," (from Egg Isla'd to Spanish ^ mherw.se supplying the information already mentioned as wrnting in tie The result of the investigation and enquiry into the public record, m the possession of the Government," and after an attentive and careiul i"Se™e„.a de. «o: e^ LuT rT„f ^T'. "" °"'"' "'^°''— «' authority of the Legislate of 1?: '" ^*"°'^' P"''«^'>»d V 'angaage, .apeo,i.e\ i tlyoa ' 3:4 '" ''r 7'"""" "" '"^ ^'™^^ Seigniory or iief as the Sei-^niorvT 11 ,,;■ °""^ ''^* '^' *»' ™ '"'<'1> ^'. *e Seigirioria. Sohed ^ rI:ro?"'"";- "I ^^™'"-"" ''^ «'"«-■ Foi e. Hom^age herein above^ra 1 1'" '" "''"" *° '° '"'"f^ '= granted or conceded en »™»-.-,K . "P"™ °™' "> l»ve been France .0 any person rr;:;;:""" "^ "'"""'^ "^ '"' ^'"^ °' such Seigniory of ''VIsJ^^^'lt^lZ-T '.' '"'"' '''' "^ ex-lsts : although such a concession w '^ **"" '*''"• *"■ "»" d^' la Riviere, the o«h FebrZ V^ b'T" ' ""^'^ '° ^^""'^ »-"' -n Arr. .U, Conscii Su.-rdJ^^: I~- ^3 '^ "™ ^^ and reasons for the above Statement nrpf k ,^^^'1^33. The ground Pubhc Acts, contained in .henraro:;::^"" '"^ """'' ""'«™«<' 1st. The "ordonnance" of G-iIIp^ TT«.^ ^ t date 12.hMay,„88...entre 1 D tour Td ",'' *^' '^'""^ -ta«l,es,"pages854to858,2ndvoInme '" " '" ^'■'"" '^^'°' ^o^^C^^r^Zr ' """'™ "^ '-'-"CaH.re. acting ^'0* scp.en.be,.: na, ix r r:::' : ™t " ""r"'- ' °' "« possession of the extent of territorv th 7 " ""'^ *"'' '°°'^ maintained in the possessi™ of the TT^' '"""'" ^"""'"' ""'"""'^ B«ot de ,a Eivierl agrZb,; to hi titleTtf '" "" '* ''™'^- feudal^":::;"::;:/,::-'^ «i-rO„gnet,„ere that the de- "mieuxilsn.aimaientldcsster d r" ™" ""' ^™' ''«'■ "« •■ S la rennion au domaine de i! , '"'°" "" ''"'''"'"' "' -■""■'tir -/«.«» .^.».™. depuis ,e dit te.ps ius^u^pr,;;;:;;";;;::;:: lonnances, les arrets f the Ordonnances et lada, published by mes (in the French 56 is, that no such 1. Ferma de Mingan, tt to be receivjed to eA'er to have been ity of the King of it appear that any 5ept Isle, &c., now to Francois Bissot 1 to the Crown by 733. The ground ! under mentioned ant, &c., bearing t le Sieur Bissot ■re Caliere, actino- 'onnance " of the hereof they took ere Moisie, (a la i-iting, that he be le late Francois February, 1661, re that the de- year 1661. " Si ion et consentir ' qu'tls ont aban- if la iraiie quits 'ur le pied qui 13 eerait par nous regie, et que les dits Uefendeurs et intervenar^ts fussent tenns de prendre r^ouveau tUre pour I'etablissement par eux fait au dit Minc^an a commencer de la pointe des Cormorans, eu allant a la Baie-de.-E;^; gnols, sur tol Iront et profondeur et sous telles redevances qu'il phura t a &a Majeste leur accorder." The drfondauts i„ aa,,pli„. the proposed altemam-e to be dis,ha,-..ed of ehe avrea,. c a.med hy «i.„r Cngne. o„ .hen- voluntarily abaudo,, „, the la„d conceded, ,u, aforesaid, to the late Fran.oix Bi»ot de la Riviere OS ta, as the Ba,e.de..E.i.agnoh, and recjuesting a new title therefor. " Vu aussi les litres et pieces A nons present™ et prodnits par les dites parttes savotr, de la part dn dit Sieur Ct.,net, etc., ordonnance de M Kandot, cdevant luteudant, etc., et antres ordonnances de M. Be^on". ci-devant Inte,ida,it, etc., et trne autre ordonnance, etc. " 1, T-^'^lr' ^"^ '•'''■'"<'™" ^' intervenants •■ I'acte d'aveu fait le 1 fevner 668, au pap.er terrier da la Compagnie Eoyale des Indes Occi- dentales,alors Setgneurs de cc pays, par le dit defunt Francois Bissot S eur de Etvere, dans lequel aveu est enoncee la concession a Ini faitj par la dite conrpagme, le vingt-cinq ffivrier 1661, de I'lsle-aux-ffiuls sttuee au-dessous de Tadoussac, vers les Uonis PeU% du eote du nord' quarante heues ou environ du dit Tadoussac, a«,o le droit u faculu ,le la P^che sedentatre des loups-marins, baleines, m.rsouins, ou autre ^. goce, depu,s ,a dite M..au^.muft jusqu'attx Sept Isles, et dans la ^rande anse vers les Esquimaux, of les B>,.,no,. font ordinaira^u ,a ,.,Xe, avec les bois et terres necessaires pour faire le dit etablissement, a la charge de payer par chacun an, deux castors d'hiver, ou dix livres tournois, au'reee- ^enr de la d.te compagnie, et les droits accoutumes pour la traite a la communaute deeepays; lequel titre de »,«„,„„, ,,6,, les dit. dcL. 14 "Conclusion du Procureur-G-pnHrni ^„ t? • j •• nier, parties ouies, et tout ZfZ ' '" ""«'*"" ^''"" ^^ " Nous avons donne apfp onv ^t j ■• cede i dtfunt Franfois Bissot, Sieur de la Rh-i 7'" " '"™" '=°"- " A la demande du dit Sieur C„g„e, i^i 1 ' ""^.O'^''''^'^' »y«»' '^Sard "sa;!;::-rer:r.r:rdrLrrT ""^ •■ lieue. au.des.ou. de la dL Rivii Moil °°™''™'^' ^»' ™' ^ " °- ^ ■etdroii. doutaai. ew^rdrr:::rer::r^^^^^^ r.^ro„deu. ei .ous ielle redevauce ,u.l plaira , Sa ^^I^ t t^Z " Mandons, etc. " Fait a Quebec le douze mai mil sept cent trente-trois. (Sign6,) "HOCQUART." appe'": S:? "'"" '""^ '"' ""^™»-- "' '"« -* Ma, „aa, Ixt. Thai according to the "acle d'areu fait le 11 Kvrier 1««, pap.er.err.erde la Compagnie Royale," b. the .aid fU^bh'';" couce...ou of n.le.au..cEuft, of the 26th February, im. j;:^ Z ■"—m 15 ngt-huit d'avril der- -enants de Vabandon rnier du terrain con- la compagnie de la oixante-et-un, depuis jueiice, ayant egard e par son ecrit de >ns au domaine de depuis ec compris s, qui est a 4 ou 5 decharges et de- sire dus des rentes it au nouveau tilre r eux, et par le dit laififfan, les parties «■ sur tel front et ajeste de leur ac- )CQUART." 12th May, 1733, 'evrier 1668, au loois Bissot, the nly granted the nght and faculty ot hunting and making establishments <' en terre ferme" tor carrying on the fisheries, etc, between certain o-iv T ''''** ^^"'^^^ from the said Is!e.au..(Euts "jusou'aux Sent T "T "' ''^""'^^^ f ^-^r. u 1? ju&quaux bept Isles, et dans la erande an^e er, e. L»q„,„a„x, ou le, &pag„„,, fo„. ordinairemeut la pfche " aTd .W « o,e granted no right to the said Frs. liissot, even to e,.„bli7h ii«h „ ;:rth::::;;:rA::v" ""'"'•"""" '^- ^^'— «--- the 25 February, 1661 ; ° *^' concession of EtLnrT^'dtM'^"""'^'""^^' to other parties; witness, thlf^; Etienne and St. Maurice in the district of Three Rivers, &c. ; 4th. And what further confirms the paT>npii;„„ „<• x. ^a* or Peh^a,, ^U, , that the IZ^T^^ZZ tZ appl,cat,on„f the co-hei. for a new title for the elbli hme^l Lade bv the„ and the sa,d F™,ois Bis.ot de la Eiviire, at the place called Stola' the saia parties are directed to apply to His M-iiestv t„ „. t "'"«'"'• ..PC. such rron, an, *,.„ a„d suoir edevattc: a^Cl 1 hI tTT^ .0 grant. It is worthy of remark that the dimensions w tlot I'S in the concession of the 25th February, 1661. The question then arises as to whether nnv m..„. j subsequent to the date of above cited ordt^rofTv r:;ertr" "" of France to the said co-heirs Frs. Bissot de la Eiviere oTthe " :rrre:r — "' - -or;:7:hetxi::;t After a careful search in the records and archives «lrp«^^ none Whatever has been found, on the contrarytlL'S ^ir 16 mentioned concessions of different portions of the territory extendino- alonff the north shore of the gulf St. Lawrence from Pointe Cormorans'to the eastern hmit of the province, at Mont Bhvnc S.blon, which may be better distinguished under the general appellation of Labrador, were entered and lound on record, copies whereof are herewith accompanying. Two of those concessions it may be observed, bear date respectivelv in 1702 and 1-0, and therefore anterior to the Ordinance of 1733 which circumstances etfe.tually sustain the construction therein put on the w^ords ol the concession of I'fsle-aux-CEufs of the 25th Februarv 16(;i that the right of hunting and establishing fisheries therein granted to' Francois Bissot did not comprehend nor apply to any part of the territory lyino- intermediate between the Seven Islands and " Bale des Esquimaux " As the concessions of Kekashka and St. Augustin are situate nearly midwav in the pretended Seigniory of Mingan ; whilst the concession of the rivers Etamamean and Montogamu of the 1st Septembr, 1733, manifestly shew the right in the crown of disposing of the territory now claimed bv the heirs Bissot, viz : } i^ "10. Concession au Sieur Ledardeur au lieu appele Labrador, depuis la riviere Kegashka jusqu'a la riviere Kescakiou, le temps et I'espace de " dix annees consecutives, pour y faire des etablissements pour la peche " sedentaire, etc."-17th Oct., 1702. No depth given. " 20. Concession au Sieur de la Valtrie au lieu nommc la riviere St " Augustm, dans la cote de Labrador, de deux lieues de IVont de chaaue " cote sur quatre lieues de profondeur dans les terres, ensemble les isles et islots adjacents au dit hftvre, pour en jouir sa vie durante et tant qu'il lera valoir la dite concession par les pfiches qu'il y fera etc etn " 7fK Oct., 1720. , 1 J' , eic, etc. —7th •' 3o. Concession au Sieur de la Fontaine de Belcourt, a la cote du " nord du fleuve St. Laurent, une etendue de terrain a prendre depuis l. " rmere Etamamion icelle comprise a celle de Matagamion avec le orivi " lege exclusif pour y faire des etablissements pendant le te-ps et I'esr . " de neuf annees, etc., etc."-lst Sept., 1733. No depth given ' • \ 17 itory extending alonjr ito Cormorans to the which may be better lor, were entered and laying. r date respectively in mce of 1733, which ein put on the words ■uary 16(J], that the granted to Francois the territory lyino- es Esquimaux." As late nearly midway iession of the rivers 3, manifestly shew lovv claimed by the e Labrador, depuis imps et I'espace de ents pour la peche >mmt! la riviere St. e I'ront de chaque isemble les isles et rante et tant qu'il ra, etc., etc."— 7th 'urt, a la cote du prendre depuis la ion avec le privi- temp,s et I'espace iven. " 4o. Concession au Sieur .T.-Bte. Pommereau en une etendue de terrain • de cinq lieues de iront de la cote du Labrador, depuis la pointe du Gros • Mecatinat, icelle comprise en allant au nord-est, sur quatre lieues en pro- ' fondeur, avec les iles, ilots et battures qui se trouvent au-devant d'icelle ' avec le privilege exclusif d'y faire la p6che du loup-marin, etc., etc., pen- ' daiit le temps et I'espace de dix annees consecutives."— 2nd May, 1738. .50. " Concession en continuation au dit Sieur J.-Bte. Pommereau d'un terrain situe, ci-devant designearm. de quatre lieues ou environ de front allant au Nord-Est, a prendre au bout des cinq lieues a lui concedees le 22 mai 1738,., usque et y comprise la Riviere Chekoupon, sur quatre lieues de m-ofondeur, pour la dite etendue de terrain ne faire avec les cinq lieues ci-devant a.cordees au Sieur Pommereau, qu'une seule et m6me conces- sion et en jouir par lui pendant le dit temps, et y faire un ou plusieurs etablissements de p6che du Loup-Marin, etc.— 20th Sept., 1739. 6o. " Concession au Sieur Vincent, a la cote de Labrador, pour Ic temps " et I'espace de neuf annees consecutives, un terrain qui se trouve non cou- " cede, entre les concessions des Sieurs Pommereau et Latbntaine • a prendre " le dit terrain trois lieues au-dessus de la Riviere du Petit Mecatinot en " tirant au Sud-Ouest vers la concession du Sieur Lafontaine, trois lieues " au-dessous en tirant vers le Sieur Pommereau. sur quatre lieues en pro- " fondeur.— 7th Jan., 1740. 7o. " Concession au Sieur Jacques Breard, Contrecceur, et Guillaume " Estebes, pour le temps et espace de neuf annees, un terrain entre les con- " cessions ci-devant accordees au Sieurs Pommereau et Lavaltrie, a la Cote " du Nord, du fieuve St-Laurent, d'environ quatre lieues de front mn con- " 6(Wes, a prendre de la Bale Chikapoin, qui est la borne du Nord-Est de " la concession du Sieur Pommereau, jusqu'a celle du Sieur de la Valtrie " 8ur six lieues de profondeur, avec les Isles, Islets, et batures qui sont au " devant, etc., avec privilege de faire a r exclusion de tout autre, la p6che " du Loup-Marin.— 5th Nov., 1848. 8o. " Coucession aux Sieurs Croiselle de Montesson, Daniel de Beaujeu " et auiUaume Estebes, er -ontinualion de la concession accordee en 1740, 9o. " Concession au Sifnir Ph.'.r«« ' i "appeleSf. A„s„»,i„ ,1„ „' I ,? "•," '" '"" •>" '""""■'or, au li,.,, lOo. "Concession au Sienr Tn(n»f • concession du Poste St-Ai,..,,,,!,, »,„ , "' ''°""''"'' ■""'» la " cello da Si.,,,. B.-omig«„ aCu.;.. '," " ""■" ''' '» ^"""™. »' «t.Lawre„ce, which although on a v ' " T ,"'' " "' ""^ *»"■ ">' theiv relative p„.i„o„, wifi, TferZ T,!",'' '" ™'°°'»''' '° -•>'". Richardson. '""^ '" "'" "^'aime of ,he «„id i,.j,. The conclusions which an ^t^^ i- doo«n.en.sandst»t.J,'rtwd :t;7''''"'"'' '"" ^"■^>' '>'">^ of the supposed Seigniory „f yl! '"""""""""'"S '^S-' "" the subject obtain, as sustained L a,!d resWr T *""=™' "'»^' °*'"''"% archives in the possess^of ^^ZZZTI' "' ■ "" '"™"'^ «^ ■nents published under Lemslttiv. ITT' °""'""^'' P'taM docu- =i<.cred in connection wi^tr ztpt; f ' leZ '''r!'- '''"' ™- succeeding the cession of the Cou„t,v ,„ r .„ ' '^ immediately establishedatdiflerentperiodsttbouudlT "''■'''• '" "««• "'"'* fouudland, be summed up as Mkl "" "'^'"''^■' ^'"-"a and Ne«- Sieur Bissot, rendered/.. ^I'r:! ' f ^^f.'" f f -■ 'or which the = - m 1058, and which was accordingly 19 8 de front, snr qiiatre iniieos.— 1st May, 1740. du Labrador, au lieu qiiatri' lieuos dc pro- t au ft'u Sieur de la it'cutivt's, pour y faire temps et espace de le Apitipi on Chirata- et Boucaut, oiKre la ieiir de la Valtrie. et Jiideur, ainsi que les B coast of Labrador, 'art of the Gulf of sufficient to exhibit of the said heirs and study of the ages, on the subject n, raust obviously f the records and ^'ise printed docu- Jcially, when con- ■cted immediately 1. in 1763, which Canada and New- ■> ®tc., — there was >re, for which the was according-ly invoked by ,h,. ,».heirs and re|,r™,mt,uiv,.. „r the .aid lli,Kot. h, Ihoir ^ d,H.|»™t,on ,„ wn„„,, „„d« i„ ,.„r»„,u,c,. „r ll... ordinan.e „r ..«,h Sen, I.thA.nl l,82,_„,,8r,.nn,tod,o.hell„mainorlli,Mai,..ly,„„dlhere(br.. r..vol«da„dca„.,.||,vUo„llp„,po«,.8,vh„,,.v,.,'. « «erelor., lWj,^Thal „„ ,„„ title vva, „lterw:ud, granted to the «aid co-heir., of the ,,a,d B,s.ot, a, by them re,iue»l,.d, " ,„„„. laabli»«„,„ent fait ,,are«x et " par le dil Franfois ]!is»„t, leur auteur, au liou dit Mingan." 8rrf/,,, That the «aid concession of the i!5lU February, 1«61, ho reunited lo he Domam, „ evidently identical .vitl, ti.e c„„ce»ion of ri-le-aux-ffiuf, of the same date, invoked in the declaration ,aad,. by the parlie, repre.ent- mg the late Fran,oi» l,is.„t de la Kivi.,,., ,„ be received in fealty ad hommage More 1& Excellency General Haldi, d, whereof Act the 28,h docLlt ^ "'■"'■ ^'" "■'"'°"' "'» ''i="»'"'° "f Hi» "Jxeellency to the 4/4/4^ Thai the said concession of the 25th February, 1661 for w',i,-h the sa,d Francois Bi.o. dc la Rivi.rc, rendered in pcrso^ /„, . Zi ' on the 4th February, ,868, thereon described : " La oonce^iou a luT I.e par la compajn.e ,. 2,-, ,,„,,, ,,6,, .u /7./«„...CE„,,, situ™ .„.dessous L Tadousac avec le dro.l et faculte de chasse et dVlablir en terre ferme aux cndrotts le. ph. commode, la peche ..edcntaire, etc , *,,„,,, ,„ ^Z Z au..ed h, the . , / V -.; ...at,,, ,rod„eed b;r:.:;':::- ::^.::;t: :r.:;i: thereby have wirranf..! th. ii "'''^ concession, and y iiavc wa.rantecl the alleged occupation and possession otherwise he d ou a mere presumption of tUle to a territory on L coast oi' Latad wholly belonging in the absence of sueh new titl.. or .■^*^'^^^^^' only has no such concession as that of the 25th Februvrv iHfii f < 01 this country previous to the co„ques,, now amo„g the reeord» i„ Th ,.o..es.,o„ of the govem,„e„t, bat u„ „ew co,.ce»sio ,., wha te 'r „ V,^ Hay, t7J8, to ./„ »•/.«« 0/ me saiU F„. Bum. wherefore no su.-h ^.f 8n.ory, a» the Seig„io,.y of Terra Fi„na de Mi„,„, e,i. J;'X ^ y «,! or coucession from the Crown of France. '^ The oicasiou, when treating of the boundari..^ „t ih .nio,,ofM,..ga,,,n„dertheetr:„.tance;onh:r. d :~ :; Crown, suggested as a neeessary measure prior to the disposal ofthe a 'd •-<. .ed... , iNo. 108, deposited ,n this department under the provisions of .h ■...>orial Te.. re Act, in ,85., a„,„,.ibes »./, „ >>ei.^^I^TZ .-. . •f^.e ,eu. ...W.„ appears a htting one. to i:i;Z rorifhaZ^ 21 id hiU'n, uiid.T the lufs, rouiiitud to the ant Gilles Hooquart *8ot dv la Itiviore, as li'tc^r obtuinof! Iroin thtj front and dopth iro to ( hoso horoiii. ind'uiiymgon the the said ordinance, :an,) or it' any other 'ssion would have y and hommage in Kiviere, but who- iw concession, and isi'ssion, otherwise coast of Labrador, concession, to the been shown, not ry, 1661, to Sieur ^! ancient archives he records in the whatever of any main, on the 12th 3fore no such Sei- ! under any title ie supposed Sei- bornage with the Dsal of the lands ich as a certain provisions of the as in the posscs- how it happens hat the Seigniory .h> Mingan f. referred to in the late Tol. Houchette's opography. publish..! in 1817, and aI«o i.i the typographical dictionary m 1881, to which much oflic.al in.portance. owing to the author being Surveyor (.eneral of Lower Canada, at ,he p-Ho.! of those publications in accordnigly attached. In attentively comparing the description of the con(oth February. 1661. to Krs. Bissot de la Riviere, contained in the Extract • du 1 e^.stre den Foi et Hommaue." No. 78. fo/u, ,,,, inserted in the appendix ot Col. Bouchctte-s topography, ia 1817. with the description of that cui,- cession contained in the declaration made by the repre.sentatives of the said Bissot. in the Act of the 28th May, 1781. herein hofore ..ifed and corti- bed by Joseph Laurin. to be a true copy of the entry in the ilrst volume des R.g,stres des Fois et llommages." in his otiioe of *he Crown Domain Branch of this department, the similarity between both -b-scriptions in their most essential terms, is readily apparent, and on referri. ,• to the entry itnelf of the act it is found in the said first volume, as statc.i, under No. 78. at fol. 853, but without the signature " Frederick Haldi.nand." or that of Joseph Cugnet. then a. P. I. as at foot of the procee.Mng similar act« whenee evidently the origin of the "extract or title." above mentioned. It therefore seems questionable, under the circumstance ol that entry beino- thus defective and unauthenticated, whether Mr. Cugnet vas justified or authorized m granting copies of it to the parties who wer. to have been received to the act of fealty and hommage, but raere not su received^ and assumption possibly on the part of the registrar to which may reasonably be attributed the misapprehension and error which has since prevailed on the subject of the pretended Seigniory of Terra Firma de Min-an. The late Surveyor General of Lower Canada, in neither of his said pubhcations, has followed the description given in the " J'ktract "' or I' Title," as he describes the concession granted to Sieur Frs. Bissot the 25th February, 1661, as extending from Cape Cormorant, alon^ the North S.'r.re of the Labrador Channel, to Goznish River, limits adop od in the description given in the Seigniorial Schedule. No. 108. 22 That ho had grounds for that description w'n,V.h . , ■montionod, conveys nothing- more than f ' I ' '' "' ^'^^^ '' oiantedin th. ■ ^^"^ "=ht of fishing orio-in-illv supposed to lie onnn^if.. fk r , '^'"«»i 'a pe( he, was there bt. Lawren(;e the "Mnu..,,, ni r- »/ '^ ",. ,.,. , * ^ ® Islands opposite the the K„.ashL R ivt &. ' ■'°""' "'' ""' ^"^"i^" «'-'• °a--.s by - 'i-e E.,.:: ■ ,t : Lr:; "'"■ ^"^-^ "^^ «''>'-^ - '■- Cape Cormorant and the Bard! F ! "'' ''"■'■ >>«'""■-"> 'he whereo. a portion extendi^rdotn 7,17' '""" ""T" '°'""'"^' Hiver, a. havin, been oc.nt.Lda^'el o 'e'd tZrt:.':::: """"'"^ since September, 1808 nainelv „vt t • 'y""""hiough their lessees remainder. lyi„: betwe n th O ' " '""'• "''"" ''''" ""» '<> *« . j'lHe, ottween the Oromaine or Romainp ..n.i .< i r> • , Esquimaux" is established by a Sheriffs' titr T "' ^"^ 1804. ^ "' ^'*^^ obtamod in September -°"'*'«^- 23 ch, as 110 depth is ^i' fishing originaJIy hiM-e can bo scarcely tyjiish, (Aguanus on e Anse vers les Es- i peche," was there id«, west of the said " vis-a-vis en terre irts of the Gulf of '■ luioient maps of ilebrated Mitchell's e coast of Labrador iled from the best 3 mention of any i of Anticosti, the aiids opposite the ibit that Seigniory I River, others by Seigniory as far i"ts or maps "la ' of the Strait of nentioned, claim- liiy evidently in possession " for ihore of the Gulf 'iz.: between the isteni boundary, Lower Romaine agh their lessees leir title to the id " la Bale des I ill September The above alleged possession of part of the Crown Domain, lyin.. j between Cape Cormorant and the " Bale des Esquimaux," set forth in letted I No appears deserving of a few remarks, in closing this report, although atisfied from the premises and fticts therein already adduced, and the documentary authorities referred to that no valid possession or occupation of he territory can be sustained or established by the heirs Richardson, (the Seigniorial S,.hedule notwithstanding) whether as the representatives ofthe said Francois Bissot.or of the parties who were to have been admitted to fealty and homage in the Act aforesaid in 1781 ; or whether on the grounds of length of occupancy by themselves or their lessees, .oitkout tWe which should entitle them to a claim for prescription against individuals a though unavailable under the statutory laws and Civil Code of Lower Canada, against the Crown. nf . Jl' ^°;;«ideration. however, ofthe legal merits of any such claim, or of the .herifls title under the circumstances herein stated, is properly he province of the law officers of the Crown. i^^/i""''*"'' *^'"' ^^'* "' ''''^''' '*■ '^' ^^^^<^^^-^on ofthe 25th February 1661, the said Frs. Bissot had established a sedentary iisherv " au lieu dii ! Mnigan as intimated in the ordinance of the 12th May, 1733, any rio-ht or c aim which his legal representatives might have had in that establishment otherwise called "poste de Mingan," or in any other portion ofthe coast of Labrador, "dans la grande anse vers les Esquimaux," were revoked and cancelled along with the concession of Isle aux (Eufs, of the 25th February ]l \Z J'^' '?'''''''' "''"" ''^""'^^'^ '^ '^' "^"^^"^ ^^ His Majesty,' n 1733. The co-heirs furthermore, never having acquired subsequent hereto any new right or title from the Crown of France, for any part of the territory lor which possession is now claimed. On the contrary it has beeii shown that the Crown of France, by the concession granted to Sieurs LeGaixieur, Fommereau and Fontaine de Belcourt and others, dating- as far as back as 1702 to 1750, hereinbefore mentioned, had entire contrd over the territory in question, as part of the Domain of His Majesty In sup port of which position may be adduced the Ordinance of the Marquis de Beauharnais and Gilles Hocquart, Intendant, dated 27th August. 1742 published m the 3rd volume "des Edits et Ordonnauces." at folio ;70 by 24 a«thority,onheLegM»t,.re, establishing ce,tem regulaliou, -mr, 1„ „r„. "I'lrdrist:."^^' '""*™'' " -««..-o».».>« «, ,.„./„«, :::r; The 4lh artiele of which mles : " S'il est e.pMii par la «,,i„. d.. con- ies Isles et Islets anx termes, au=t charges des articles „remi,.r „, ,e..„,,d da present reglement, et faute pareux de lo feire. il le„ . J J^ ' And by the 6th clause : ■' A I'egard desredevances due. jn«Mf,i ce lour par e S,« P„„,„„„„ p„„r ,„ eoncessiou ,u'il a eue d. .''r., , ■ Z " vts-a-vts sa concession," indicates the situaHbu of the co„ce«l„,. ' ° aZtTwr °"" °" '" """-^'' ^'"-' "''^-"■* »'i' "'• '" .he lllrofthTE''' ' n" ''"'"'""" ""'""' '° "--"l>atio„ i„ 1J„a, „f the land of the E.ver Oromame, or Lower Eomainc, possibly ,h„ River 01omona»h,.o on the said annexed chart, situate nearly In, rl-d between the concession of Kegashka, to Sieur Lettardeur Ltd t"™ ! 804^for the terrUory so shown to be held under previous ,oncc..|Z „" .heEoma,neE,ver to the » Baie des Esquimaux," forcing ; "o'l tW Doma,n„, the Crown, at the cession of Canada to Great l,r, a ",. 7 only 21 years subsequent to the date of the Ordinance o 4'. l,' mentioned. '"■*'' With the Island of Ant.cos,uhe\aiein?Mltr .;:';:;::; •;;■; t™nto, that coast, were transferred to the Province of Newfm , whe,.„p„„ the Governor of this Province, by his p-oelamatior, ",; f.,' Oo ober 1,60 established such stringent regulations, espcciail I,", ab e as throw.ng open to fishermen and adventurers of all nati™. , j subjects nevertheless preferred, the territory and the Island, wl I '■:i 25 lations "mitre le« pro- n terre feme, vis-u-vis '■ par la suite* dew con- ceux qui ('11 out ci- liges de loui- fiolicoder les premici- at ain-oiid leur 8era ai^idUi^ des s dueNJu8fiu'i\e0 jour ue de ■ fxloN ,j^i gout e conctissiou of said yii'-'ld's map of the ccupatiouiiiigog, of I possibly thy River learly iutarmedinte eur and Itomnnion erefor as obtnijied in lis couct'ssiojiM, ii'om brmiiig puit of the at Ihitaiu, in 1768, nan.e ol 1740 |„g, •etohor, no-'], till the n-tit. John, t(»«i'lhHr, id all th« islftiul,^ in of Nowibundlnnd -' anuitioji, dated L'lst •specially objeetion- all nations, J3iiti«h IslandN which had jthus fallen under his jurisdiction, declaring the same " to be free and nn- {granted since the conquest" as to render necessary the enactment of the Imperial Act, 14 George III., Cap. 83, which restored to the Trovince of Quebec the territory and Islands detached from it by the proclamation of [the 7th October, 1763. According to the preamble of the said Act, to wit : Whereas His Majesty by His Royal Proclamation of the 7th October, 1763, thought fit. &c., &c., " and certain part of the territory of Canada where sedentary " fisheries have been established and carried on by the subjects of " France, inhabitants of the said Province of Canada, under grants and " concessions from the G-overnment thereof were annexed to the Govern- " ment of Newfoundland, and thereliy subjected to regulations incon- " sistent with the nature of such fish(n-ies," it is manifest that its pro- visions intend to apply to those grants and concessions which were registered in the public archives, and which are now laid down on the said annexed map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, occupynig upwards of 200 geographical miles on the coast of Labrador, from Kegashka River to the "Bale des Esquimaux," and East therefrom 100 miles more along the Straits of Belle Isle, to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean ; whilst the Act appears also intended to have the reverse ofFect of the Newfoundland Proclamation-", virtually excluding from the territory re-annexed to the Province of Que- bec fishermen and adventurers who did not possess bona fide concessions from the Government. Any establishments therefore effected on the coa.st of Labrador under the pretended concession of Terra Ferma de Minffan would not come nuder the protective operation of the Imperial Act above cited, and accordingly any such occupation of the territory East of the River St. John, on the coast of Labrador, was not only without leave or license, but adverse to the provisions of the Act aforesaid, unle.ss it had obtained the authority of the Government of Newfoundland, under the provisions of the third clause of that Act; whilst the territory was under the jurisdiction of that Province, viz., during the interval of eleven years succeeding the King's Proclamation in 1763, until the passing of the Imperial Act 14 George III., Cap. 27, in 1809, which re-annexed the coast of Labrador, East of the River St. John, together with the Island of Anti- costi, the Magdaleine Islands, and all th.' Islands in front of the said coast 26 ■- 1:| to the Province of Newfoundland and "Z ~=======--== Cap. 59, which extended the E 1 n K. T ''' '' ''^ ' ^^^^'^'^ '^'-^ ' Canada, from the saia KiverSt tI v ' «f ^^e Province of Lower to ;• Anse au Blan- Sablon" (u/lot .ser'nt'^r^''; '^^'"^^^^" ^^^^^• and again revannexed the Ishuid of "'a.H 'M i^'om Greenwich), all the Islands in front of th '^,^"''^°^''' ^^e Magdaleine Islands and Canada, now the P^L: ^iT^'' 1 ''' '''' '"'^^^'^ ^' ^--• Act, 1867, 30 Vict, Cap. 3 ' '"'^'' '^' ^"^'^'^ ^orth America The heirs Richardson dafo fT, ■ Labrador ,.oa,t: ,,t FrorCtalr °™"'l"'«<»">f «>« territory on the year 1803, r.^o.irJlZ^^: ^::r' "' ''' °™"'™^ ''"-' "' '»' of the Seigniory do Mi„„,„ .„ ' ^'^°'" >"^'"'' " Possession of that part Frs. «iss„, de ia Kivi.re to wh™ :»: J, J ;T7'''"™' "' '"' ""» «es«on of the /,/. aux (Sufi, dated "Sth p"h ^'""'"■?«.> the con- said representatives in the r 7e!l ™"''' ''"' <""■*»<' ^y the D-ain in ,78, presenti^ t 1 IrJ rL" T!' ^^ """""^ '° ""> ISO,,, of one hnndredand f^ty-twrj^a', '" '""" *" ^'»'' '«" -■» '■ -ariy a century," there r „IT '^"l " '='''™ °'' "-"P"'-" of ^"« and :867an .fuerrnpLr;:;. t::,: ,' T TT" '''''" "^ o.- ocenpation is adduced by .he said heirs ffiehLdl" " '°""™" tamed a Sherifl's title in 1804 it ha. K u ^''^''^'^'' ^^^^ to have ob- .he territory .onr K.,.^::^ "-^^ "f "^^-efy .hown that down the coast of Labrador to the "nZT I ■ "'■<"»«»'<' River, grants and concessions of divers indf, f T f V"»aux,» was held under the renewed concessions po:y"::t!':„"" ^ ^'" ""' '° "^»' the oonce»ion„aires havL befidt '™1 'V" *' '•'=™»' "»'">- Ordinance Of ,748, aforesaid, stiU ha™" ^t^f t/;' t°'^ 1 '"^ ^ifeni ot hunting the seal "au Q Th Itone n peignio aary be In the I'.ibject pu as ( Ippears 27 t of the 6 George IV., he Province of Lower ig the Labrador coast, est from Grreenwich). gdaleine Islands and i Province of Lower 'itish North America the territory on the ■omaine River, in the ssession of that part ively. That posses- sentatives of the late ' Cnmpasrnie the con- 31, (invoked by the lid re-united to the ' the year, 1661 and isil " on the Ishinds opposite their respective grants, after the expiration of leir concessions, in common with the proprietors of the said Islands. The Sheriffs title, if any wise relating to the pretended Seigniory of [erra Ferma de Mingan, which has been shown to have no title whatever 1. sustain it, or even any valid occupation of the territory claimed under it, Ml have no weight or validity before the uiidefeasible right of the Crown the whole territory on the Labrador coast, lying within the limits of this province, as part of its disposable Domain. The whole nevertheless respectfully submitted. (Signed,) {True copy,) )epaiitment of Crown Lands, Quebec, 23rd May, 1882. E. E. Tache, Assistant Commissioner. JOSEPH BOUCHETTE, Dep. Surveyor General. century and a half, » of occupation of extreme periods of hich no possession iiaine River to the state to have ob- ttively shown that Oromaine River, ^" was held under ^ear 1702 to 1750, >resent century— •d article of the 'ng the seal "au iiR. (No. 1.) Department of Crown Lands. Ottawa, 3 1st January, 1867. There being an urgeiit necessity to establish in a permanent manner by J^tone monuments, in due ibrm of law, not only the easterly limit of the icigniory of Ter>a Firma de Mingan, but the divi.sional lines of the boun- itiry between that Seigniory and the adjoining waste lands of the Crown, |u the County of Saguenay— I beg to draw your earliest attention to the Jubjeet of the Departmental letter, dated 13th December last, addressed t<^ rou as one of the heirs Richardson, to whom the said Seigniory belongs as bpears by the Schedule of the Seigniorial Commissioners, No. 108, deposit- m i f' 28 ed in this Department agreeably to the 25th Clause of the 41st chapter of the Consolidated Statutes for Lower Canada, to which letter no reply has yet been received. I take the present occasion to bring under your notice the description of the boundaries and extent of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan. contained in the same schedule published in the Canada Gazette on the 2t3th March, 1864, pursuant to the 28th clause of the said Act. I have the honor, cVc , &c., &c., (Signed), A. RUSSELL, Assistant Commissioner. Col. Dennis, ) Bellerive Serente, Dalkey, [ near Dublin. ) ' [True copy.] Department of Crown Lands, Quebec, 23rd May, 1882, E. E. TACHii, Assistant Commissioner. Department of Crown Lands, Ottawa, 16th April, 1867. Sir, In reference to your letter of the 29th ult., intimating that as proprietor of the ten-sixteenths of the Seigniory of Mingan, you entirely concurred in the statements and representations contained in the letter of T. B. Anderson, Esq., as addressed to the Department on the subject of that Seigniory, as to the eastern boundary, after a thorough investigation of the titles and instru- ments appertaining thereto, I have now the honor in furtherance of the Departmental letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Dennis, dated 31st January last, Sir, 29 list chapter of the ■ no reply has yet ice the description Firma de Mingan. razette on the 2(ith RUSSELL, Commissioner. that this Department is prepared, as a preliminary measure to the actual bornage of the boundaries of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mino-an to investigate into the titles and instruments upon which the heirs Richardson rest their proprietary of the said Seigniory ; and more especially the extent and limits thereof, with the adjacent land of the Crown. In that view I would beg to suggest thai the proprietors of the Sei-niory do transmit at an early or convenient day. those titles and instruments for exam.nation at this office, accompanying the same with such explanations and remarks as will conduce to a clear understanding of the documents, the originals of which must necessarily be of record in the public archives or as the case may be, in the Courts of Justice of Lower Canada (Signed) The Honorable A. RUSSELL, Assistant Commissioner. J. J. C. Abbott, f Montreal. ) [True Copy.] Department of Crown Lands, Quebec 23rd May, 1882. E. E. Tache, Assistant Commissioner. April, 1867. that as proprietor •ely concurred in f T. B. Anderson, ; Seigniory, as to j titles and instru- .rtherance of the 1st January last. Sir, (No. 2.) Montreal, 15 March, 1867. Your letter of the 31st January last addressed to Colonel Denny has just been sent to me by that gentleman, who desires me to state that he never received the communication from the Deoartment, therein referred to and was not aware of the publication, in the Canada Gazette, of the schedule' mentioned in it, and the other proprietors of the Seigniory of laTerre Ferme ! I 30 dt' Mingan, of which Colonel Denny represents only five-eightieth parts, have hitherto been equally ignorant of the Schedule in question. I beg now to state on behalf of the other proprietors and of myself, that th<>y are also desirous to have the boundary lines between the Seigniory and the waste lands of the Crown duly and permanently established. The western boundary of the Seigniory is described as Cape Coruunant, which is doubtless correct, and if the exact point of division has not already been iixed, the extreme point of the Cape might be adopted as constituting it. The northern boundary might be established without actual continuous survey, by taking the average coast linafor iixed distances and establishing the depth of the Seigniory from high water mark at each of the selected points. The proprietors, however, are at a loss to understand on what ground a river called in the schedule the Goynish, (which, by-the-way, does not appear on any map to which they had access) has been selected by the Seigniorial Commissioners as the easterly limit of the Seigniory. The eastern boundary is plainly indicated in the description of the Seigniory to be found on record, by the words -tngramie anse vers des EsquiA mavx ou les Esimgn„[s font ordtnairement la p^xUe^ and the Bale des Esqui- 1 maux, where are also the Esquimaux Islands, and the Esquimaux .lliv,^'. is designated in various authentic modes as that at which the Spaniards were in the habit of resorting to fish. They have had no difficulty in tracin- back for nearly a century through every map or pian of note, made durin^o- that period, having reference to the north coast of the Gulf, the confirmation olj this claim as to the eastern boundary, and a large portion of the Seigniory extending down the Oromaine, or Lower Romaine liiver, has been occupied and enjoyed by them through their lessees since September, 1803. namely. | for the last sixty-four years; which their title to the remainder, lying, between the River Oromaine or Romaine, and the Bale des Esquimaux. i°| established by a Sheriff's title obtained in September, 1804. If the Goznish " means the Aguanus" as they presume it does, it does not include much more than one-half of the portion of the Seigniory so held underlease, and not more than one-third of the extent of territory to which they are entitled 81 The propneto,,, ,h„refore, while concurrinff in thed.,ir. of ,he JJepa,,- men. ,o e. abl.h the e»»,„„ ,,„„„aa,,. of .h. 8„i,„io,y, and desirinU. .0 .M.,.»„. h..,r «mre «.,lli„g,K.. to tak„ immediate ..ops .o lix upo,! „„. exact poml at wh.ch thwr .,„.«., 1„,„ i» ,obed„uv„, ,„o.,l„.pe,.,r„IK but earnestly protect against thepretonsio.i contained in the Sched,,!.. in ,nu's.io„ as Jespothngthem of a large portion of their property, an.l the par, „, ^vh.ch hey would 1,0 unjnsil, deprived, i.s in reality ,l,e most valuable. It Is however, they trust, prenrature ,o speculate upon the possib.lity of their' lights ol property being disregarded by the Government. The proprietors therefore claim the liaie des Es,,uimaux a, the ea.ster„ hmu of their .eigniory, and they hope to receive the coueurreiioe of the Department in that view, in order that the boundary may be lixed in the coming season of navigation. This expense, however, might be avoided by adopting longittxde o7Ml as the dnusion hne, which would enable the permanent boundary mark to be put down wh never a competent person may chance to be there If there should be any difficulty experienced in acceding to this view, the pro- pnetors are prepared to concur in the appointment of arbitrators to settl. the question, or even to the remission back of the SchedtUe to the «eignioria Commissioner, that they may be heard before him. ■ Though doubtless arbitration would be the most equitable mode of deciding the difficulty, and they are the more anxious to'have the m ter determined, as they are informed certain persons !tre endeavorino- to obtain the sanction of Government to their taking possession of a valLble t.a near the Natashquan Kiver, which the proprietors are determined to resist to the uttermost extent known to the law, and if the question remains open a vast amount ot trouble and litigation will probably be the consequeiice. [True Copy.] ^'^^"''^ T. B. A.NDEK80N. Department of Crown Lands, Quebec, 23rd May, 1882. E. E. Tachk, Assistant Commissioner. 82 (No. 3.) Sir: Montreal, 29th March, 1867. Mr. T. E. Auderhon of this city ha.s communicated to me his letter ad- dressed to you hist week, on the .subject oi' the Seigniory of Mingau, and I have the honor to state as proprietor of ten-sixteenths of that Seigniory, I entirely concur in his statements and repre.sentations as to the eastern boun- dary, after a thorough investigation of the title.s and instruments appertain- ing thereto. And I would most respectfully urge upon the Department the reference of the question of the eastern boundary, if disputed, to some competent per- son or persons, being equally resolved with Mr. Anderson, to protect my property from encroachment by any one, until a further investigation and adjustment of the difficulty has been arrived at. (Signed,) The Honorable Commissioner of Crown Lauds. [True Copy.] Department of Crown Lands, Quebec, 23rd May, 1882. J. J. C. ABBOTT. E. E. Tachk, Assistant Commissioner, (No. 4.) Sir; Montreal, 30th April, 1867. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th, instant, and to say that I haA' e communicated its contents to the Heirs Richardson, and my other co-proprietors of the Seigniory of Mingan ; and that I have been entrusted by them with the task of preparing a memorial of our claims, and of the titles and instruments upon which it rests. mf'. 88 March, 1H67. me his letter aJ- if Mingau, and I that Seigniory, I he eastern boun- monts appertain- ent the reference e competent per- 1, to protect my iivestigation and \ ABBOTT, A.pril, 1867. tter of the 16th, ts to the Heirs f Mingan ; and :ing a memorial 1 it rests. As such memorial will doubtless he r..,,uirod, not only to satisfy the Departmoni, hut also to withstand the s.-rutiuy ol' parties who an, under- stood to be seeking to pro.-ure from the Gover.uaent a grant of a portion of the NMgruory for a nominal sum ; it will n.v...s.arily take some time to pre- pare It with requisite amplitude and accural y. In the moantime, in common with my co-proprietora, I feel it to bo .">^^^- ^« -" )-»• attention on the n nd d '""""^ ""' ^"^'^'^' ^"^° ^^--'^'I- - -gently de. (Signed.) The Hon. J. J. C. Abbott, &c., &;e., &c.. Montreal. [True copy] Uepartment of Crown J.ands, Quebec, 2;3rd May, 1882. ii. E. T.U-HK, Assistant Commissioner. J- O. BEAUBIEN, C. C. L. i r No. f). Lauds, ?mber 1867. tmental letter of ,rou signified in Sir, MoNTKEAL. 19th September, 18C.7. T have the honor to state that when I proposed to submit to you a m.mor.l on behalf of the proprietors of the Mingan Se.gniory, I ^f Id to be ble to do .so autho.'tatively as representing all of them But as mT Ok r.f"T'"""' '^ ^"'^ ^'^^P^^^' ' --^ -«l-^^-^^l'-y refer ut M . Okdl Stuart, and Mr. Errol Lindsay, of Quebec, who each rep2n he present owners of one fourth of the Seig.aiory ; and to Mr. E. A P P^riio? ;?. '' t "'"" ' ''''''''''''''' "^^ ^«- ^'-'^-dson, or the tre . ioi,„n, and Mr. John Blackwood, of London, Ensland ai-o tl.„ owners of ,he remaining fourth of the Seigniory ''™"'"' At^the ,ame time I mu»t e.pre.» n.y hope, as being indirectly interested ■n the .e,gn,ory, that titles among the nrost ancient In the prov"ce wiU (1 f 86 not be disregarded without a thorough investigation, nor without a hearing oi the actual proprietors in possession. (Signed,) J. J. C. ABBOTT. The Hon, Commissioner of Crown Lauds, Quebec. [True copy.] Department of Crown Lands, Quebec, the 23rd May, 1882. E. E. Tachk, Assistant Commissioner. No. 7. Sir, Montreal, 20th September, 1867. The honorable J. J. C. Abbott has communicated to me your letter of the 18th September instant, of the following import. er " No reply having been received from you to the Departmental lett.. " of the 12th June last, in reference to the memorial in which you si-nihed " in your letter to this Department under date 30th April last, vou were " preparing in support of the claim of the heirs Kichardson and others " co-proprietors of the Seigniory of Mingan, I beg to call your attention to " the subject inasmuch as, moreover, the organization of that section of " the Crown Lands is urgently demanded." As representative of Mr. Andrews, one of the heirs of the late Honorable John Richardson, I trust I may not be out of place if I lay before you some remarks respecting your letter to Mr. Abbott, and particularly as rec^ards the latter part of it, having reference to the erection of townships as°" nr- gently demanded." 87 r without a heariiiji' C. ABBOTT. me your letter ol' I cannot enlerlam the idea, that in the organisation of that section of the Crown Land, for the purpose of erecting townships, the Governmen of the provnce of Qnebec can have in view or that any part or p'rZo Se,gn.ory of the Terra Pirma de Mingan, can be included in such erectLs Any concesston or grant, once made, I take to be irrevocable in every ele of he word. I am perfectly aware, a« stated, the organization oftownsh^ ndZt": % '"''"'" ^ °"'"" ''°«°'" °f 'he Province of Q^be'c d that the Se,g,„ory of Mingan, or certain part of it, have been disin.eu, : h Crown, and tho.r representations have been made with the view of ob tamtng grants of certain portions of such pretended waste lands. At the same time, I distinctly state that the parties so urgent in their apphoattons and so willing ,o obtain grants of their neighb^s' p per v are parfes who from interestec motives, have taken grea pains and red much sophtstry to impugn the titles of the Seigniors and Co proprtl,r„' Mmgan, vvh>ch Seigniors h.ave been in uninterrupted and peaceabt 's session of that Seigniory for upwards ol' half a century. "^ The graut of the Seigniory of Miagan is of great antiquity and its i.m.ts and boundaries well established by titles and charts i r the poss sion of the aovernment to which easy reference can be had. Under the circttmstances it is to be hoped that the Government will not entertain, for an instant, any applications for grants of l„„d,s "r Inv ::tTr"T'''""°"*""^^''°'»"'>^ "=-'-' the title 'and p o' pet > ofMmgan, but on the contrary will discourage the applicatio t of parfes „otor,ot,sly interested and by the heirs Richardson, to a large extent of Territorial Domuiu ol thi^ 89 Province, situate on the North Shore of the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence otherwise known as Labrador, but which the chumant« designate by the name of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, also having read with equal attention the remarks of Mr. Stuart at foot of his memorandum evi- dently meant and intended as a refutation of the conclusions arrived in the report dated 30th November last, which the undersigned had the honor of submitting to you on the subject of the correspondence which had taken place between certain of the heirs Richardson and this department relative to establishing the boundaries of the tract of land designated in the Seio-nio- rial S memorandum as authority in support of the pretensions of the said heirs Richardson. v: *. 41 the allegations and ties, acts of fealty therein referred to >f the questions at Seigniory of Terra along the North " if by the " Baie r the " Baie Phe- inc Sablon, are to :* ordinuiict's, pub- the pretentions of ondence with the ry of Terra Firma tern boundary- of Jlastern boundary y to be found of ^ux ou les Espa- eographical posi- which he claims ds of 200 geogra- is — nevertheless^ nols," nor of the [uimanx," where r, " at which the act contained in tte, published in lical Dictionary, ries, Townships, as authority in Inasmuch as great stress has thus been laid upon the public works of the late Col. Bouchette, Surveyor General of Lower Canada, as upholding the exlraordmary claim set forth, in the memorandum as comprehendino- nearly the whole frontage of the Labrador Territoy, on the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, within the limits of this Province, and exceeding the area 1314 million of arpents, the consideration of the subject of the boundaries mentioned in this first paragraph, seems opportune to examine carefully in what manner and how far the descrij^tions given in Col. Bou- chette's works whether in the text, or in the extract of title, contained in the appendix or Topographical Dictionary, accord with the physical outline and general configuration of the shore line of the River and Gulf St Lawrence, exhibited on the geographical map of the St. Lawrence, accom- panying the report. Without presently enquiring into the authenticity of the description contained in the extract aforesaid, the concession of the 25th February, 1661. to Sieur Frs. Bissot, stands as follows : " Concession du 25 fevrier, 1601, faite par la compngnie an Sieur Frs Bissot de la Riviore, a prendre depuis le Cap des Cormonnis de la cote du nord jusqu'a la Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux, on les Espagnols font ordmairement la peche." " Registre des Foi et Hommage, No. 78, folio 355.'- ?Now, in the phraseology commonly used in describing boundaries or limits, the word " jusqu a " means in the English language : at, as far as or to, for example : as for as - la Grande Anse," and the monosyllable " vers " means toward in the linglish language, as " toward the Esquimaux " or Blanc Sablon, or some" place of note on the coast beyond the proposed or assigned boundary, intended to indicate the direction towards which the given frontage is to ])e laid off.-Instances of the use of the word " vers " are frequent in the concessions of seigniories in Lower Canada, as in the case ol the Seigniory of Champlain, granted to Sieur de la Touche, " d'une demi heue de terre de front sur le Grand Fleuve St. Laurent, vers les Trois- Rivieres." A glance at the district map will show that the River Cham- \i I ■■»', n I, h m / 42 plain lies thirty miles below Three-Rivers, yet the intervening space wa^ not intended to bo included in the gram of the Seigniory of Charaplain. Finally the word" anse "may be translated into the english word "bay' or " cove," but neither of them convey the proper meaning of the word " anse" used in a maritime sense— a word commonly applied by frenoh navigators in the St. Lawrence waters to a gradual curving in of the shore to no great depth between prominent headlands causing an expansion of the river's breadth, such as occurs in several places in the south shore of the St. LaAvrence, as for instance ' I'anse de Kamouraska, I'anse de St. Roch, I'anse de Bellechasso," and other places in the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence, generally called Bays, Coves, etc., etc., on the admiralty charts. Now when Sieur Bissot, rendered " foi et hommage" on the 11th February, 1068, he did so evidently from a personal knowledge of the localities he so correctly describes as the boundaries of his concession of the 25th February, 1661, to wit: " depuis I'lslo-aux-CEufs, la dite Isle incluse, jusqu'aux Sept Lales," and would naturally with similar exactness designate the position of " la Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux," where himself and his sons established a fishing, and trading station called the " Poste Mingan, en terre ferme vis-a-vis les Isles Mingan," and situate about twenty miles west of Esquimaux Pointe and Esquimaux Islands, commonly called " les Esquimau.!." Upon inspecting of the map of the north shore of the St. Lawrence, compiled in this Department from the admiralty charts on the large scale expressly to accompany the report, a well defined inward bending of the show line cannot fail to be noticed East of Cape Cormorant "alknt vers les Esquimaux." This inward curving of the coast more or less indicated by small coves, properly commences at the Headland, called Longue Point on Vendenvil- den's map of 1803, situate near the estuary of the River St. John, in Longitude 64° 12' west and closes at the conspicuous headland called on Bayfield's map " Clear water point " a few miles East of Esquimaux Point. 48 age" on the 11th In this Bay or Basin lies " off the shore " the larger group of th.' Mingaii Islands opposite which at the Mingan Harbour " en terre lerme " is located the " Poste de Mingan " called on the said Vondenvelden's map the "Mingan settlement" A. Beyond and East of Clear water point, th.' shore line still curves northward, presenting i)i the form of a Segment or Elipsis, a larger expansion of the River terminating at Point Natlshquan. called on same ancient map " Mont Joli.' its greaa-st depth inland opposite the River Ouitachoomanicouagan not exceeding ten miles from an air line laid from Long Point aforesaid to Point Natashciuan, a distance from west towards the East of about one hundred miles. This broad open Bay or expansion of the St. Lawrenca^ taken together with the Bay described west of Clear water point, rendere'd furthermore striking as comprehending the whole of the Islands defined by the name of "Mingan Islands" on the Admiralty charts, and <,'alled part of th^ seigniory of the Mingan Islands on Vondenvelden's said map, compiled under the direction of the late Major Holland, Surveyor General ot Lower Canada (it is here worthy of remark there are no Islands of any note alono- the north coast of the Oulf of St. Lawrence, for at least 130 miles below the last Island of the Mingan group opposite Appetital Bay), is manifestly and beyond a question of doubt " la Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux ou les Espagnols font ordinairement la peche," mentioned in the extract here- in above quoted from the late Colonel Bouchette's works and which is in- voked in the memorandum as evidence of title in support of the claim of the heirs Richardson. In coui' mation of the correctness of the conclusion thus arrived at from the physical structure of the north shore of the St. Lawrence between Cape Cormorant and Natashquan Point especially, as East of the latter Point, to the Eastern limit of the Province, at Blanc Sablon, the coast is indented with deep Bays, with bold headlands, the more important of them distin- guished by names in the Esquimaux language, but none of the Bays of such configuration as would deserve the name of " Anse " as above premised. The late Colonel Bouchette, adhering to the definition of the bound- aries of the concession of the 25th February, 1661, given in the extract ,1 I fi t -,1 J ! >\ 44 and title published in his topographies of 1815 and 1832, accordino-ly and consistently placed the Eastern limit of the concession of Terra Ferma de Mingan at a river of some magnitude called the River Goynish, discham- mg in the said •' Grande Anse" about 18 miles west of Natashquan Point aforesaid, which River Goynish is well indicated on his Geographical map published m 1815, and corresponds geographically with the position of The River Aguanus on Bayfield's charts of the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Surveyor General, as shall hereinafter be shown, had certainly good and sufficient grounds for thus limiting the concession of 16til at the River Goynish ns well in his publication of 1815, as in that of 1832, a limit which has been followed by the Commissioners under the Lower Canada Tenures Act of 185 4, in definino. the East boundary of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan in the Seigniorial Cadastre No. 108, to wit, the •' River Goynish," the position of which river according to the front of 50 leagues given along the St. Lawrence, east of Cape Cormorant, corresponds with the River Goynish of the Surveyor General, and Aguanus of Admiral Bayfield m Longitude 02^ 40' west from Greenwich. But the Surveyor General, in the text of both his publications, in describing the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, makes no mention of or allusion whatever to its territorial extent in depth and would accordinoly represent the concession of the 25th February, 1661. to Sieur Fran^'ois Bissor de la Riviere as a mere trading post or station, to which is attached •' le droit et facilite de chasse et de pfiche avec le bois et terrain necessaire pour faire le dit ctablissement," from Cape Cormorant along the Labrador Channel to the River Goynish. As there will be further occasion to recur to the subject of " la Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux," and to Colonel Bouchette's works, maps &c in some other subsequent observations, no more need be said on this paragraph, except with regard to the matter of the uninterrupted po.ses- sion of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan claimed for over two hundred years by the heirs Richard.son. Neither Mr. Anderson, nor Mr Andrews, in their communications with this Department as co-proprietors 46 appear to daim over a ...cury of uninterrupted ocupation or possession, .s the former holds to 64 years including 1807, and the latter to one half a centurv. The nature or validity, however, of sn.h possession by the heirs Richardson, or through their lessees are at any rate subjects for the con- sideration and opinion of the law officers of the Crown or tribunals of the Courts of Justice. Paragraph. 2.-That a con-.-ession was made by the Company ol ^'ew inn f Tr,f ""'/: '^ '""'"• ^'^ ^'^^ '^^''^^^^«^^' ^^^l- - - declared m he Act of fealty and homage rendered by him on the 11th February, 166H but that IS not presently the question under immediate consideration, the non-existence of a title for the pretended Seigniory of Terra Firmade Min- gan, having been conclusively shown in the report of the undersigned herein a ove alluded to. It is as to the nature as well as to the extent°and limits of that concession as described under the circumstance of the stated destruc- ^on by fire of the primitive title and of there being no entry or record whatsoever of the concession among the ancient archives of the Provin.-e. The Ordinance of the 12th May, 1733, happens, however, to be the ! only certain authority that throws light on the subject of informations sought for as it recited the Act of fealty and homage rendered by the said Bissot on the 11th February, 1668. "au papier terrier de la Compagnie Koyale par le dit defunt Frs. Eissot de la Riviere, dans lequel est eno^cee " ^ixZr&c'' " '"'' '" '' '"' ""'"'"" '' '' '"""^' ''''^ ""' ''^'^ The nature of the concession is next made sufficiently apparent by the words in the <> aveu avec le droit et facult. de chasse et de piche et d'^ta^ blirenterreferme la p.che sedentaire." whilst its extent and limits are defined as follows: "depuis laditelsle aux (Eufs, ladite Isle comprise ius- ';qu^uSeptIsesetdans la arande Anse vers les Esquimaux o/les Espa- I gnols font ordiuairement la p^che." In the declaration thus rendered by Sieur Frs. Bissot, in person, only seven years after the grant of the concession of Isle aux (Eufs, the 25th !i 46 February. 1(5(J1, he acknowledges the privile;?e therein cranted to him of vstablishingsedontary fisheries "on terre ferme aux endroits qu'il trouve- rait k's plus commode.s depuisl'isle aux (Eafs Jusqu'aux Sept Isles." But having abandoned, a.j the Ordimime of the V2ih May, 1733, intimates, their concession of Lsle aux a^:uis, the said JJis.sot and his bona subsequently established a lishinu' and trading slution " au lieu dit Miugan, au-dessous de la Riviere Moisy," which is un([U('stionably identical with the place railed " Poste de Mingan " on the ancient map published in France by the Marechal de Castries, letter a, on Pinnal's map of 1755, also on Vonden- velden's map of 1803, as the Mingan settlement, and represented on 15ay. iield's map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as the "Hudson's Bay Company Post, Mingan Harbour." This fishing and trading station, better known under the name of " Poste de Mingan " and .so indicated in the ordinances of the year 1738. continued to be hold and occupied by the heirs Bissot under the possible presumption that the aveu of Frs. BisbOt, senr., of the 11th February, 1(368, was a sufficient warranty for that occupation until they were called upon in 1732 by the authorities to produce a title therefor. Paragraph 3. — It therefore seems somewhat extraon Unary in the face of the declaration rendered by Sieur Bissot in 1668, that the language of the original grant of the 25th February, 1661, should be quoted in the memo- randum, when according to the declaration of the heirs Bissot (in 1733) the title was destroyed by lire in the Lower Town of Quebec, about " 52 years " before that Ordinance, say, about the year 1681." This account, however, scarcely agrees with the declaration (a century after the fire in the Lower Town of Quebec) of the heirs Bissot, Messrs. Grant, Dunn, de Lagorgen- diere, dfec, contained in the unauthenticated Act of fealty and homase thev presented themselves to render, on the 28th May, 1781, before His Excel- lency General Frederick Haldimand, for the concession of the 25th Feb- ruary 1661, " dont le titre est adhere et qu'on croit avoir ete brule dans " I'incendie du Palais de I'lntendant il y a cinquante ou soixante ans," that is to say about the year 1730, three years before the Ordinance of 1733 ! ! ! 47 J'r I'rom su.:h conllictiniv doclanitioiiH it is a math-r of doubt whether such a con.HvssJou as the 2ath Fel.ruary lO.ll, wan over made by the Government of France in danada, an no n-crd of it, as alreadv stated, is to be found among- thf archives of this Trovincc, Paragrni>h 4.-It was the Ordinance ol the 23rd and not the Ordinanee ui the 12th May 17:!y,whi.h hitt.r re-unitedto the 'Domaine de Sa Majeste" the concession of the 2oth F.-bruary IOC I, ibat establishes on the «t.Lavvrence •• loshmites du Uomaine," to wit: "depuis I'lsle aux Coudres jusquVi d.ux heues au-dessous des Sept Isles" within which Sieur de Calli^res,' adjudi- cataire des fermes unies de France etdu Domaine d'Occident '• was -ranted the privilege of hunting and lishino. iu the rivers therein comprehended and carrynig a trade and commerce with the Indians " a I'exrlusion de tous autres dans I'ctendue du Domaine du lloi depuis Tlsle aux Coudres, cVc, et au bas sera borne, en .onsoHiuen.^e de notre ordonnance du 12 du' present mois, par le Cap des Cormorans, jusqu'a la hauteur des terres dans lacjuelle sera comprise la Riviere Moisy." The concession of Isle aux CEufs was therefore not denned to extend below the «ept Isles whirh had been re-united to the Domaine by the Ordinance of the 12th May. But the Ordiiiance of the 23rd May in erect, mg "leslimitesdu Domaine "known as the King's Posts subjoined for' that object to the cancelled concession of Lsle aux CEufs, the vacant space on the St. Lawrence below the end of the two leagues " au-dessous des Sept Isles " and " Cap des Cormorans " situate about four or live leao-ues [ " au-dessous de la Riviere Moisy " then evidently forming no part of 'any pievious concession by the Governors or Intendants of Canada. The re-union in fact to the Domaine of the concession of Isle aux CEuis, by the Ordinance of the 12th May 1733, was a consequence of the abandonment by the heirs Bissot of the concession and their removal to another locality, wherefor they were served in due form by Baihif, at the mstance of Sieur Cugnet, under the authority of the Ordinance of the 26th September, 1732, with a notice to that effect "que les dits defendeurs fus- • sent tenus de representer et produire a notre Secretariat les titres en vertn • aesqueis lis seront mis en possession et jouissance de I'etendue de pays " qu'ils occupent a la terre du nord au.dessou« de la Riviere Moisy." h .1 I 48 :t|i >i It 18 worthy or remark tlmt at this period " i„ poste de Mingan " had beoom. «o,n..what notorious for the illicit trade in liquors .arri.d on with the Indians con.niry to law. and a subj-ct of . omphunl to the (lovmiors and Intendants. llnico tlu- Ordinanc „r the 2nd May 1783 " sur le< " .liff.-.n.ntt.s plaintos d.'H d.-s„rdn-s ronsid.Tahlo.s ,iui se pa„«,.,it dans I,. " poste do Mingan par I'ivresse .-t rusa-o immodtTr. d'-au-d.-vio contriirr " aux defences qui ont .'-te faites par Sa MajVstc., notamment cello pcrt^V " dans rOrdonmtncc .In C, mai 1702, etc., etc." The yoar, it may be well to remark, in which the Seigniory at Kegashka was granted to .Sieur Lagovgendierc. Letting aside the ix'tition ol' the Defbndants in reply to the above mentioned notihcati.in that they be maintained in the possess on and enjoy- ment of the land conceded to the late Frs. Bissot "suivant titre de conces- " sion du 25 feyrier 166l,enonce en I'acte do foi et hommage du 11 fevrier 16t;8. Mr. Cngnet in his .apacity of '• Directeur du Domain." de I'Occident " condemns the defendants to pay npWe.s arnrages de la rectevance annuelle " de deux castors dluver ou dix hvres tournois defmh Vannie 16(J1." Jlark well that this redevance is precisely the same mentioned in the act of fealty and homage rendered by Frs. Bissot, the 11th February, 1608, which is invoked in the prayers of the defendants. Thus conclusively showing that ihe "redevance annuelle" applied not only to a part but tc the whole of the concession :of I'Isle aux (Eufs " re- united to the Domain. In further proof of the correctness of this conclusion and to show how groixndlessly the assertions in these paragraphs are advanced, the heirs Bissot, defendants in the process thus served on them were further held to p»y dues "pour la traite qu'ils ont faite a Mingan, et qu'ils fussent tenus " de prendre nouveau titre (titre nouvel as asserted in the memorandum,) " pour I'etablissement par eux fait du dit Mingan, a commencer a la Pointe " des Cormorans en aJlant a la Bale des Espagnols, sur tel front et profon- " deur et sur telle vedevance qu'il plaira a Sa Maieste leur accorder," 49 do Mingan " hiul ors tarried on with it to the Governors lay 1783 "sur les se imsHent clans Ic iiu-di'-vic, contraire mment cello porter 1 the Seigniory at >ply to the above isession and enjoy- int titre de conces- iiage du 11 fevrior ine dp I'Occident " reUevance nnnuelle mee 16(31." Mark ned in the act of uary, 16ti8, which lelle " applied not ile aux CEufs " re- and to show how vanced, the heirs re I'urther held to I'ils fussent teuus 3 memorandum,) encer a la Pointe 1 front et profon- accord or " It may bB fairly ..skort l,„w (hi, judsmant ca,. b» con.tra6d into » ,,. c.,.umo,. of the old till, o,- c„„H„„„t„,y „,• a pr...„xi«i,„. o„«, who,, „r,her,aor.. ,l,„ I,„„„da„, ir„c,,„.rt .l,,ol„,„ly r..j„„t. tho p,.,itio„ o,' ,h„ .^■,r, Ii,,H0 to 1„. „,„i„t„i„,.,l i„ ii.„ „o,.„pa,i„„ ..a„ |a„„d„., a„ ,., -h..y had th,„ „o„„„i„d without l.av. or lioen«, „„|„„ ., ,h.. „'^^,„,, .on,!, ,,,„ ol h.,r taki,,, „p „ „„„ ,i„o ..,.o„voau titre" ,.o,„ai„i,„; ,h,. r|w„, doe, „o, i„ ,a„ thi, „..,a.i„„ .0 ,h„ir poti,i„„ .o'„.it,.te a , g .ima,,. „,t..rr„p„o„ .„ the allegod 200 y„ar, of u„i„t,.r™p.„d p„.«.,»i„„ "huh accord,,,^. .0 Mr. A„der,o,>', stalotu.nt, wouhl o„Iy Lve be.,, re»„„.ed ,„ the year ,«„8 for the part above the Oromaiuo, Ld 1804 to the part b..|..u , he Kiver OromaiHe. Obviously ,he i„,ertio„ of the dime„,i„„, i„ ,he „ew title would have pv..„ a .erritorial oo,.si,te,tce to their c„„ce«o„ (whether u„der the a.s,s„at,ou 01 M,„ga„ or auo.hor name, which the old oue of the „ r ed title evidently had not. '""lu Fr .!"' "r "'? " ""'"'' "*'' " "" ^"^"'^'^ ^y ^^- ^ ' --""^-^t or old rranceor Caiiad ih, hoirs P.i««nf r... ^u ■ nodoiihf . P.y» a„.de,sous de ,a Kiviere Moi,y, the ■■ Kreeteur du Doml t^t ;;r,:::rr:^ro=r2^;:r„;!:^l^--^^ catiou W the^tre^pa., by'them ^■^r.^ZlC Z^ ::t^: II s f r ' 60 n \ rendered by their parent " defunt Sieur Frs. Bissot" of the 11th February, 1668, declaring the original to have been destroyed by fire, as computed in the memorandum, in about the year 1681, whilst another declaration of the representatives of Bissot, rendered in the unauthenticated Act of 1781, supposes it to have occurred in or about the year 1730, and in the "Acte de notoriete " it is stated to have taken place in the year 1713. More of this hereinafter. I Taking the words "depuis longtemps" as the text, a somewhat im- portant inquiry is suggested on the " quiet and uninterrupted possession of 72 years." It may be here asked when or how long after the year 1668, did the heirs Bissot abandon their concession " de I'lsle aux CEufs " of the 25th February 1661, and establish themselves " au lieu dit Mingan au-dessous de la Eiviere Moisy ;" certainly the words " depuis longtemps " mean at least the lapse of half a century, and it is quite reasonable to suppose that the elder Bissot contemplated, if he had not already done so, removing- "au lieu dit Mingan " when he made his declaration or aveu in 1668. " Et I dans la (Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux ou les Espagnols font ordinaire- 1 ment la p6che." I There are no means of ascertaining what really was the primitive title I of the concession of 1661. whether the words in the aveu of Frs. Bissot of I 1668, " et dans la G-rande Anse vers les Esquimaux ou les Espugnols font I ordinairement la p6che," were at all in the primitive concession granting I to him the privilege of establishing sedentary fisheries between the limit's! given "depuis I'Isle aux (Eufs jusqu'aux Sept isles." I The fact, however, of the defendants being condemned to pay further I dues for their occupation " au lieu dit Mingan " and to take out " nouveau I titre" with special conditions of hmits, would evidently lead to the conclu-l sion that the primitive title contaii id no such words. Hence that occupa-l tion by the said heirs Bissot " de I'etendue de pays au-dessous de la Riviere! Moisy "was viewed in the light of a trespass on the Domain of His I Majesty. I The interpellation itself which brought this result has besides muchP significance as indicating the near proximity of the new establishment " au I'll. 51 heu dit Mingan dans I'^tendue de pays au-dessous de la Riviere Moisv " to the concession of I'Isle aux (Eufs, for even admitting tho words " au- dessous '• to mean 5. 10 or even 15 leagues below the River M^isv, as might mhke manner be inferred from the Ordinance of the 23rd May 1733 in definmg'.leslimitesdu Domaine"the words "au-dessous de la Riviere Moisy to apply to the "Poste de Mingan au lieu dit Mingan " would not assuredly imply a distance of 130 leagues, down the coast of the St Lawrence then ^ terra incognita, now claimed for the concession of "Isle aux(Eusofthe^.th February, 1661. But in point of fact the " lieu dit Mingan ident.h. • as the " Poste de Mingan " indicated on ancient maps " du fleuve St. Laurent," lies in the vicinity and west of " la Grande Anse " described m the aveu of Sieur Frs. Bissot, 11th Februaiyr, 1668. Paragraph. 10 ^ ll.-Thistosay the least, is a most groundless assertion, inasmuch as there is not a word or sentence in the Ordinance to recognize any precise boundaries whatever towards the East for the Eastern boun- dary ; but on the contrary it peremptorily directs "que les defendeurs fussent tenus a prendre nouveau titre a commencer a la Pointe des Cormorants allant ^5 les Espagnols, sur tel front, etc.," meaning towards "les Espagnols" or a definite distance in the direction of or towards " les Espagnols " subject besides to a redevance to be paid to the Crown therefor. It is unnecessary after what has been shown already in the preceding observat.jns to dwell i\irther on these paragraphs. Paragraph 12._The supposed destruction by fire of the original title has already been noticed. Paragraph 13.-The recommendation to the heirs Bissot to take out a new title " nouveau titre" not (titre nouvel) " pour I'etendue de pays au- dessous de la Riviere Moisy au lieu dit Mingan " or " Poste de Min-an " is twice mentioned in the Ordinance of the 12th May 1733. ° Evidently some advantages hoped to be derived favorable to the pre- tension of the Representatives of Bissot, in their persisting to substitute the words ■■ litre nouvei which are not in the Ordinance, for " nouveau titre " recommended in the Ordinance. if / I f H m £2 ^:\ However, the device that the end justifies the means, soomM to parvude the memorandum, but it cannot seriously obtain in adiHcusHion involving a million and a half of acres of the Public Lands of this Provinee. Paragraph 14.— A careful examination of the " formal judgment" here invoked dated 2nd May 173»!, will be found to elicit some' importttnt facte confirmatory of the conclusions of the report and a grout doiU rmm than expected of it by the framer of the memorandum, the invocation ©f " h Sei- gneurie de Terre Ferme de Mingan et ses dependance^ " to the contrary nevertheless. The judgment summarily relates to a matter of dispute about the trade at Mingan. Sieur ^e Handebourg who was both heir and lnHmw of the « Poste et terre ferme de Mingan " apprehending that one Siour Martel de Brouague intended to come down (possibly from Quebec) and «top at the said poste de Mingan, and then<-e proceeding in a canoe toLabradof, would on his way trade with the Indians and thereby entice them away Lm the " Poste de Mingan " which would become deserted. Hence tht* «jomplaint to the Intendant of Police. The defence therefore of Sieur de Brouague " qu'il n'entejjd j.oint trai^ teravec d'autres sauvages que ceux qui vont et viennent surna (unu-.mion et sur celle appartenant au Sieur de Lavaltrie, a vingt-deux limm do In Bale Phe.ippeau" being heard, the judgment rendered thopeon by the Intendant was as follows : " En consequences faisons (Icfenses au dit Sieur " de Brouague et a tons autre, de traiter avec les sauvages autre* ,^mmix qui " se trouvenl sur hur concession^ An attentive consideration of this formal judgment naturally suggests the enquiries as to where are situate the concessions of Sieurs du Bmmigue de Lavaltrie and others, where is Labrador, where does it commejice as distinguished from " les c6tes du Nord," localities invoked in tho fli-tion under the police regulation of 1736, and evidently indicating thom to be far remote from the "Poste d« Mingnu," the enquiry might also i,j,,lude "la Bale des Phelippeaux, Bale des Esquimaux, Bale des Espagnol«." A glance on thj Admiralty map of the Gulf of St. Lawrenuo, rafmod 58 ris, ammH to pervade cusHiou involving a Proviuoa. lal jmlg-mant " hore )mo, importtttit facti? •out (Ifliil (nor« than v'ocatiou of " la Hei- e^ " to the «ontrary •uto ftbout the trade and It'NHMM of the le Sieur Martel de ec) and utop at the to Labrador, would em awfty from the ouoe tht» (joinplaint i'.3utend point trai- t snvHii eoiifi'ssion •deux liottPii do In i thoreon by the fonsGs tui dit Sieur autrei que aeuic qui naturally suggests i3urs do Jlrouague, « it I'omuieiK'e as aktid in the action mating them to be gbt aim include 2si)agnol»," awront^e, referred and annexed to the report, will readily supply much of the inlbrmatiou sought for, which, joined to the exhibit of the River and Gulf of St Lawrence oa several an.ic.t as well as later authoritative maps cannot fail of determining the respective position of the diiierent Bays claimed in the memorandum for the Eastern boundary of the " Terre Ferme de Min-v ^ ran. On the admiralty map above referred to, whieh is sheet 1st of the River and Cxulf of St. Lawrence, are drawn for the present purpose, in red ink hues, the several grants made by the Governors and Intendants of Nouvelle France to divers persons therein named for the purpose of carrying on seden- ary fisheries, with the exclusive privilege of trading ^^ith the Indians "a la cote dit Labrador." These concessions to the grantees "en terre ferme," which were for ■n.^ed periods, some for life, occupy all that extent of the coast of Labrador • - : between the concession to Sieur Le Gardeur, at the River Ke^-aska and the concession to veuve Farmel at or near Blanc Sablon. ° ' Among these are the concession to Sieur de Brouague, and to Sieur de Lavaltrie. mentioned in the defence aforesaid, the former situate at the " Bale des Esquimaux," and the latter about 60 geographical miles or 22 leagues west from the " Bale des Phelippeaux." As herein-before stated, Mr. T. B. Anderson for himself and the "co- proprietors/' claims the " Bale des Esquimaux," and the memorandum the my <' des Philipeaux," or "Bale des Espagnols " for the eastern boundary ot the " Terre Ferme de Mingan." The true position of which localities appears now to be the question to be investigated and definitely determined in connection with that of " La Grande Ansa ou les Espagnols font ordinairement la pfiche." To arrive at a solution of the question it is of moment preliminarily to enquire where the coast commonly called " Labrador " or Cote de Labrador " east from the Strait of Belle-Isle terminates on the north shore of the St Lawrence, which, by implication, would indicate where " la Cote du Nord du Fleuve St. Laurent " commences. I I II 54 y m.{' The iormer designation being used in the concession above mentioned for the sedentary fisheries, from Kegashka to Auso an Sablon, and 'the latter used in the notification served on the heirs IJissot under the ordinance of 1732, in reference to their occupation, " de I'etendue de pays a la CSte du JSord au dessous de la Riviere Moisy." No sufficiently certain definition however of any divisional limit between these distinctive characteristics of the St. Lawrence, " la grande Riviere du Canada," is obtainable from maps or descriptions pointing to any marked feature or ditference in the physical structure of the shore's of the River as contradistinguished from those of the Cfulf, the latter being better understood under the designation oi the cc.ast of Labrador. The nearest approximation to any positive definition is to be found under the head " Indians ' of the Topogrophical Dictionarv of 1832. " In 1804 there weie about 1000 of these Indians, men, women and children, included between the River St. Maurice, King's Posts, Mingan Seigniory and Qjast of Labrador." It is howeA-er an historical fact that mariners and navigators of almost all nUio.is, especially those of Spain, Portugal, Italy, England and France, more particularly Spain and France, frequented the Gulf of St. Lawrence at a very early period of its discovery on account of its valuable and inexhaus- tible fisheries, also for tlie purpose of trade and traffic in furs and peltries wuth the Indian tribes inhabiting especially the vast territory on the north shore of the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Esquimaux may be considered as the primeval aboriginal native tribe that inhabited, at the period of the discovery of "la Nouvelle France," that section of the country extending back into the interior along the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence below the Betsiamites. Later, Sieur de Cham- plain on his map entitled "Le Canada," 1«^>64 (Letter G.), three years after the concession to Sieur Bissot, the 25th February, 1661 (trace letter C.) designates that section of country " au Nord de la Grande Riviere du Canada," or St. Lawrence, as divided into five parts or districts, namely : Saguenay,' Betsia- mites, Esquimaux, Quartier and Brest. .ui.4i:n Voudelvelden's, of the Gulf of St. ight at " Pointe des ouquins, of which e descendants ; in idon their huntinsr 'n the coast of the e names of Esqui- )osite the Strait of arrectness of that 68, at " la Grande itical with la Baie le Seigniory " des Lioted at length in de Mingan " and solving the ques- Igment of 1736 " cote du Nord," the circumstance the lease part of A^ill answer the I " to be situate les Cormorans et >peaux valquire- ern limit of the awrence. T of the Mingan " Isles ec Islets by His Majosty t qui se suivent jusqu'tk la Baie appelee I'anse aux Espagnols, pour en jouir, etc. ; it may be asked by what right or in virtue of what title the proprietors of the said concession assume to add to the above description the " Baie Phelippeaux ' situate according to Mitchell's Map (Letter B.) about 30 miles east of the " Baie des Esquimaux," and evidently identical with " Brador Bay," on the Admiralty charts. By thus substituting in the lease the " Baie Phelippeaux " in the stead of " La Baie des Espagnols " as immediately in " front and of the same extent as the main Seignin^-y of Mingan," upwards of 200 miles fi^itage was added to both seigniories along the coast " vulgain-raent appelee Labrador," whereby the proprietors of the Seigniory of the Mingan Islands compass a much larger extent of Islands than is warranted by the primitive concessions, such as the Mecatinas, the St. Mary's, the large islands in the St. Augustin Bay, in fact, the entire Archipelago of Islands extending from Cape Whittle to Isle au Bois (exclusively) represented on the Admiralty charts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, islands of the greatest importance in a commercial as well as in a maritime point of view. The above fact carries with it the presumption that the proprietors had previously obtained,' some certain knowledge of the true position of the " Baie des Espagnols," or why such another designation, espe- cially as they could not reasonably claim two different boundaries for the eastern limit of the Seigniory " des Isles et Islets de Mingan," no more than for that of Terra Firma ; for it will be proved beyond a question of doubt in the succeeding observations that the " Baie appelee I'Anse aux Espagnols" is not only not|identical with the Baie Phelippeaux but that they are on the contrary situate some 200 miles apart, along the coast " vulgaire- ment appelee Labrador." The proprietors in support of this unjustifiable accession of extent to the concession " des Isles et Islets de Mingan," readily invoke the Police regulation of Oct. 1743, a regulation which, in fact, confirms the proprietary occupation by the concessionnaires of the concession "vis-a-vis les Isles et islets de Mingan," part of the territory claimed for the supposed Seigniory ol Terra Firma de Mingau. /'I i 58 However, upon an attentive reading of the above-cited police regula- tion, even from the preamble as follows, a different conclusion is arrived at as " sur les contestations survenues entre les feu Sieur Pommerais proprie- " taire d un terrain de cinq lieues de front a la cote de Labrador, au lieu " appel6 Gros Mecatina et les heritiers Jolliet et Lalande, proprictaires des " Isles Mmgan en vertu de la concession du dix Mars, 1679 ;" it appears manifest that the Governor and Intendau: Beauharnois and Hocquart intended only thereby to justify the proprietors in the possession " de la " seigneurie des Isles et Islets de Mingan - granted to them by Duchesneau the 10th March, 1#9. Supposing possibly that the " Baie appelee L'Anse "des Espagnols" was situate beyond the disputed concessions " des propri6- '' taires en Terre Ferme." probably the Bay called Spaniard Bay, situate near the Atlantic seaboard, at the entrance of the Strait of Belle-Isle, some 40 or oO miles east of Bay Phelippaux shown on Jefferie's map of Canada, published in 1777 (trace letter E). Such a pretension in our present knowledge of the Gulf shores obtained within the last 100 years from the surveys of Debarres (letter F.), Major Holland, the Hydrographical charts of the St. Lawrence and the variety of authentic historical records of the old French names of plao.s given by the early navigators of the River and Gulf shoies, collected by Mr. P L Morin by authority of the leigslature and deposited in the public institutions in Canada, could not well be entertatned, the police regulations of 1736 1739 1743, nothing to the contrary notwithstanding. The question then arises as to the true situation of the " Baie appellee I'anse aux Espagnols," the deter- mination of which and of the Seigniory of Mingan Islands, granted by the Intendant Duchesneau to Sieur.s Lc-.is Jolliet and Lalonde, 10th March, 1679 would likewise define the limits of the Seigniory of "Terre Firma de Mingan." " The two Seigniories," asserts the memorandum, " having been " recognized as co-existing seigniories, in the possession of the present pro- " prietors and their auteurs for more than 200 years without trouble or " molestation." By-the-way the memorandum makes here a slight mistake of about one quarter century between the periods of one of these concessions and the present time. To solve the question above stated, no better authority can be consulted than the maps published at a very early period of the discovery of the Gulf 69 of St. Lawrence by the celebrated geographer and discoverer " Sieur de Jolliet," himself, one of the grantees of the concession " des Isles et Islets de Miiigan," and grantee of the Island of Anticosti, which map is entitled " Carte generale de la France septentrionalo concernant la decouverte du " pays des Jelinois par le Sieur de Jolliet, dedie a Monseigneur Colbert par " Dnchesneau, Intendant de la Nouvelle France" ;Trace letter D). On this map, constructed on a geographical projection, the longitudes thereon being reckoned from the meridian of Paris, are exhibited the Bays, Rivers and Islands and the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence involved in the present inquiry, which, with the aid of the Admiralty charts of thos.^ locali- ties and the corroborative information derived from old Fremh maps as well as those of later date, of that section of Canada will, combined, no doubt establish in a definite manner, the respective limits of the co-existing seigniories "des Isles et Islets appeles Mingan et Terra Firma de Mingan." Beginning, then, with the River St. John, the same which by the pro- clamation of 1763 formed the eastern limit of the old Province of Quebec, and again under the Imperial Act 43 Geo. Ill, chap 33 (1809) the eastern limit of the Province of Lower Canada, from which by the Imperial Act 6 Geo. IV, chap. 59, the boundary of the Province was extended along the coast of Labrador to " anse au Blanc Sablon," the present eastern limit of the new Province of Quebec, is evidently represented on Mr. Jolliet's map as a stream of considerable magniudo, and apparently the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence on the north shore of the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence be- low the River Betsiamites. The River Esquimaux is not named on the map, but its place is suffi- ciently indicated by the leep indentation of the (' twice the distal 1 e Z t , T* "' *' '"""^ °' ""' ■'■''" «' •'"""• ">«' would Pla e the Ba,e des Espagnols, according to Bayfield's Map. about one he Bay, hes he Island of Anlieosli, granted ,„ the author of the ,n,p by Duchesneau, tnlendant of La Nouvclle-France, the 10th March, ,680. ' Mr .Tolhe, s Map w.ll be found upon inspection to accord with remarka- ble general precsion with the admir.alty map of the Gulf, as likewise with regard to unnamed places indicated on Sieur Jollietfs Map, situate in the v.c,„,ty of the strait of Belle-Isle. Now, assuming that the deep Bay oppo- site the entrance of the strait indicates the •• Baie des Esquimau, "of Mr Anderson, on the Bay Phelippeanx, of M.tchell's Map B. or of JefTery's Map F, or Bradore Bay of the admiralty map, under the letter X, the " Bale des Espagnols" on Mr. Jolliefs Map, which lies west of X, three parts of five of the whole distance between I he said Bay X, and the Elver St John would according to the admiralty chart, place Bradore Bay, 800 Geogra- phical mtles below or east of the Eiver St. John, and place the Bay or X about 200 miles east of the " Bale des Espagnols " inserted on Mr. Jolliefs Map. It is also worthy of remark that on thi. m.,p, there are no Islands oi aiiy note mterveuing between the group of the I. Mingan and the <• Baie m I 61 des Espa^nols " nor are .h.>re any, save but small Islands inshoro shown on tho admirnlty -hart, b..tw..,.n tho Es.iuimaux Islands, ropres^-nted as tho .■astern group of the Mii.gan Islands, and Point Natashquan or " Mont .Toli." A line drawn duo south from tho " Baio dos Espagnols " or the mouth of the larnre rivor rrprosented on tho w .t sid(> of it on .TollioCs Map, idonti- fled as the River Natashquan, will intorseot tho easterly extremity of Jhe Island of Anticosti, corr.'sponding vory nearly with the relative position of the " Baie des Espagnols " and the Island of Antioosti, on tho admiraltv chart of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It would in fact be superfluous to note any farther coincidenoes be- tween the places mentioned on Sieur JoUiet's Map and the admiralty charts. Upon a review of the general delineation of the shore line of the St. Lawrence, the respective position of tho Island of Anticosti, the Sept Isles and the I. Mingan, with regard to the position of " Bale des Espagnols" designated in the concession • des Isles ot Islets de Mingan " as " ]& Baie appelee I'Anse aux Espagnols," it -annot for a moment be questioned that tho said " Ause aux Espagnols " is identical with the " Grande Anso vers les Esquimaux," desovibed in tho observations under the 1st paragraph of the memorandum in which tho late Colonel Bouc;hette, with remarkable precision of .judgment, from the materials ho must have had befori> him, defined the River Goynish as the eastern limit of " la Terro Forme de Mingan." Paragraph 16.— It is the province of the law officers of the Crown, or the tribunals of the Courts of Justice to pronounce on the validity of this and other notarial acts under such circumstances, as in October, 1766, the land claimed for the stated Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingun, east of the River St. John, formed part of the neighbouring province of Newfound- land, and subject to the laws and regulations established by the government. Parafrnph 17.-Inasrauch as the subject of the unauthenticated act of me 28th May, 1781, has been fully investigated in the report, no more need be said on this paragraph, than merely briefly to state the facts, that the 1 62 ,f I' 'MA: ifflSK parti.'s to the proposod art prosentod thoiTiNclveH for thai purpose, as crti- Hod by Mr. Dugnot, the clrrk of the " Terriers " at the loot of the entry „f that act in the 1st vol. " deH foi ,,t hommages," No. 78, folio 353, hut no act under the customary lonnalities was matured. The usual preliminary u.t had been indeed prepared, containing the citation of the documents produced, and the declarations of the parties wherein no docuraejitary evidenc- of' title w:is produced, as in the instance of the stated .Seigniory of T.-rra Firma of Mingan, by the legal representatives of the late Frs. Bissot de la Riviere. The act was entered at length in the register on record above men- tioned, but was never authenticated by the signature of the then Governor of the Province, nor of the signature of the Attorney General, secretary of the Province, nor that of the clerk of the " Terriers " Frs. Joseph Cugnet, as customary ; (see the preceding entries of acts of fealty and homage in' the same register.) The entry of the act, however, as it is, as may be again adverted to. is otherwise of importance as containing the d.nlaration of the parties now claiming no less than one fourth part of the frontage presented on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, between the western and easu^rn limits of the Province of Quebec, " quant au Fief et Seigneurie de la Terre Ferme de Mingan, les dits comparants nous out declare que la dite seigneurie com- mence 8U Cap des Cormorans, a la cote du nord, fusqu'd la Grande Anse vers les Esquimaux, oii les Espagnols fesaient ordinairement la pfeche, sur deux lieues de profoudeur, qui a ete concedee par la compagnic a Frs. Bissot de la Riviere." The foregoing description it is well to observe, is substantially similar to the extract given in the appendix of the late Colonel Bouchette's Topo- graphy of 1815, and in the iJictionary, or 2nd volume of his work on the British Dominions, publi,shed in 1882. The discussion on which subject, which the remarks on the memorandum have given rise to, only proving the author's discernment and a knowledge of the circumstances relating thereto in defining in the text of these works, the eastern boundary as limited at the River Goynish. Paragraph 18.— The reference in this paragraph to a certain official statement of the title of the ancient concessions of lands in Lower Canada, \ purpose, as certi- >f thoontry of thut , but no act under nary a^t had bocn ts produced, and evidencf of title >f Terra Firma of t de la Riviere. ord above men- le then Governor aral, secretary of . Joseph Cugnet, and homage in n adverted to, is the parties now ted on the north ■rn limits of the rerre Forme de seigneurie com- rrande Anse vers peche, sur deux a Frs. Bissot de antially similar mchette's Topo- is work on the which subject, o, only proving itaucee relating •n boundary as certain officisxl Lower Canada, published by Wm. Vondenveldon, Esquire, in 1H03, ui.on investigation, may not j.rove more successful to ui.hold the elaim of the heirs Iti.hurd.son. than has been the •• formal judgment " or police regulation of 17^6, invoked in the memorandum ; indeed the reseanh it has lead to, may p ^sibly have a iatal result on the pretensions they therein set up to no less than the whole ol the territory of Labrador, within the boundary of this Province under the assumed name of •' Seigneurie de Terre Ferme de Mingan," It may be as well to premise that upon a eomparison of the descrip- tion quoted from the official statement " and the extract " given in the late Colonel Bouchette's ^^.>i ..aphy, already adverted to in the observation on the 1st paragraph, will read I y indicate the source whence the latter was derived, whilst th< q. otatioi itself is nearly in the same words of the declaration of the her-. ,t,^ representatives of the late Frs. Bissot de la Riviere, contained in u.e uuauthenticated act of fealty and homage of the 28th May, 1781, register v'ol. 1st, No. 78, and folio 363, with this difference that m the declaration which should be in the authentic document the word '• jusqu'a " instead of " dans la Grande Anse. etc.," is inserted in' the aveu of 1668. Upon a renewed search among the old files of the late Surveyor Gene- ral's Office of a century back, no record of the official statement alluded to was found. However, two very important official documents relating to the Seigniories of the old Province of Quebec, and the late Province of Lower C anada were discovered which have a direct bearing on the question under consideration. One is a list of grants in Seigniory and Roture by the French Crown m Canada, bearing date. Surveyor General's Office, Quebec '>7th Sept., 1790, and signed Samuel Holland, Surveyor General, and by 'john Collins, Deputy Surveyor General. The list, which is in the exclusive handwriting of the late Mr. Chaimbers, an experienced clerk of the Surveyor General's Office, who wrote the descriptions in Registrar A of land patents m 1764, contains five columns arranged by Districts, distinguishiiig those on the north shore from those on the south shore of the St. Lawrence I i 64 The first column contains the grantees names. 7 ( ■ s; f The second " The third " The fourth " The fifth date of grant. " of ratification, quantity of acres, the names of the seigniories. The following Seigniories are therein mentioned under the general head. — Islands in the St. Lawrence. — GRANTEES NAMES.! DATE. RATIFICATION. QUANTITY OF ACRES. NAMES OF SEKINIORIES. Jacques de La- lande & Heirs of Louis Jolliet, — Heirs of de La- lande i 10th 1 March, 1 1679. 1 19th May, 1680. Isles et Islets de Mingan, from the Isle-aux-Qilufs to I'Anse des Espa- gnols. Louis Jolliet March, 1680. 29th May, 1680. ■ 1,664,000 L'Isle d'Anicosti. 1. „, i Upon a careful examination oi the list, it evidently contains no entry or mention of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan or of the concession of the 25th February, 1661. This omission is, however, corroborative of the fact of there being no extracts of titles of the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, among those furnished by the Secretary of the Province, the Hon. G-. Pownal to the Surveyor General, Major Holland, to construct the Dis- trict Maps of the Province, ordered by Lord Dorchester, in 1784. The next document which is in the well known handwriting of the late Beranger Hay, Esquire, then acting Deputy Surveyor General, is en- dorsed, " G-eneral statement of the Grants' en Fief et Seigneurie, and of thos. en Koture, in the Province of Lower Canada," dated (at foot) Sur- veyor General's Office, Quebec, ^Kst Julyj 180-5, (the day on which the Ho .rable Thos. Dunn, one of the proprietors of Mingan, was inaugurated 65 icier the general NAMES OF SEIGNIORIES. Isles et Islets de ingan, from the le-{uix-G]]ufs to Liise des Espa- lols. Isle d'Anicosti. )ntaius no entry •f the concession oborative of the Terra Firma de ivince, the Hon. istruct the Dis- 1784. President of the Province of Lower Canada.) The statement enumerates the seigniones in alphabetical order by Districts. The first column contains the name of the seic-niory The second " " date of the grants. The third " « the quantum of arpents. It was compiled under the supervision of the late Joseph Bouchette, hsqnne whilst Deputy under Major Holland, from 1791, until appointed in England, Surveyor General in 1805. Dr ing which period, the staff of the burveyor aeneral's Office, may be said to have consisted of William Vondenvelden Deputy to the Surveyor General, Beranger Hay. Col. Natha- niel Coffin, J. Bte. Duberger, senr., Joseph Meric and Robert Smith, Esqs draughtsmen. ^ "' In the compilation of this statement which might be possibly be a copv 01 the Identical " official statement." alluded to in the memorandum, the i«t of 1790, prepared by Major Holland, was evidently followed as a basis the areas in acres converted into arpents, as well as the dates and names ot the seignories agreeing perfectly together. But in the statement the apparent omission in the list of the seigniories in the Province of Quebec ol the feeigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, is in a manner supplied by thj insertion of the name of that seigniory under the head of the seignories in the District of Gaspe, among several of the seignories anne^ced to the Do- mam of the Crown, under the feudal right of " Droit de retrait." effected by order of Governor Hope, in 1784. i writing of the General, is en- gneurie. and of i (at foot) Sur- o» which the ^as inaugurated 66 iA i: 'f I! The entries in which statement stand as follows : DISTKICT OF GASPfi, NAMES OF SEIONIORIES Terra Firma de Mingan QUANTUM i)\f ABPKNT8. 485,460 ISLANDS IN THE SAID DISTRICT. Isle Anticosti Isles et Islets de Mingan. March, 1680, 10th Mar., #1677 *This should be 1679. 1,898,322 16,000 "U\< The importance of the above mentioned official document under the questions presently at issue, of extent and possession involved in tiw clnim preferred by the heirs Richardson cannot well be doubted, as it dotiji'miiies in a definite manner the area and extent of the stated Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mangan, presuming of course that a valid title will ha produced therefor, of a date posterior to the ordinance of the 12th May, I70g, which cancelled the concession of the 25th February, 1661, to the Stttisfftction of the government. According then to the area thus given of 435,456 square arpj^ntN and the dephth of two leagues, or 168 lineal arpents stated in the descriptioh of the seigniory, quoted in the memorandum from the official statement , published in 1803, by Wm. Vondeuvelden, the extent in perpendicular bruadth oi' the seigniory is ascertained to be 2594 lineal arpents, equal to 94 statutM miles. This distance being carefully laid off by scale on the map of the St, LitWmnce accompanying this report, due east from Cape Cormorans '< alliuit v^rn les Esquimaux " or " la Baie des Espagnols," viz : at right angles to tho vmmo due north for the lateral lines will terminate at the heaalaud culled Clear Water Point, in longitude according to the corrected edition of Ihf- admiralty charts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 63° 25 west from Gr«ouwioh, 'PI ill 07 rUM Ol-- A11PENT8. Which headland called Whale Head on Vaudonv.lden'n Map, and on the late Co . Bouchette's Map of 1815. it should be observed, forms the eastern exh-emity of the inferior or Upper Bay, or Anse, in which lies the post or settlement of Mingan, " vis-a-vis les Isles at Islets de Mingan." Pam^raM 19.-It has already been conclusively shown that in neither of the la e Col. Bouchette's publications in 1815 or 1882 herein referred to as upholding, the boundaries claimed for the Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mmgan, does the text of those works touching the concession of the 25th February 1661, afford grounds for such a presumption. In fact the author treats the concession in the light of a fishing ground extending from Cape Cormorant along the Labrador channel, to the river Qoynish. The shore called the Mingan Islands as advantageously situated for carrying on the hsheries, &c. The Surveyor General in thus giving in the text of his work the river ^oynish as th. eastern boundary, exhibited on his geographical map of 3815 (trace letter H) did not however do so inadvertantly as asserted in this p'.ragraph. but on very good grounds and for the best of reasons that m accordance with the description in the extract of his appendix, such eastern boundary should not over-roach " la Grande Anse vers les Esqui- maux ou les Espagnols font ordinairement la p6che," which Grande Anse has been conclusively shewn to be identical with " la Bale appele I'Anse des Espagnols." the eastern limit of the concession " des isles et islets de Mingan," and conceded the 10th March 1677 to Messrs. Lalande, ir and Louis Jolliett. It is worthy of note that this quotation from the memorandum contains the same clerical error in giving the year 1677 (instead of 1679, the year of the concession by Duchesneau) that occurs in the general statement referred fo in the previous observations, a coincidence leading to the surmise that the official statement in the memorandum is a similar document to the general statement found on record in this Department. To resume, it is difficult to conceive a greater jumble of focalities thrown togethor for the eastern boundary than is presented in this para- graph; the "Bale des Espagnols" near the " Esquimaux and Phelippeaux II ^f'' 68 |! ■A Bf. r " pretended to be derived from Col. Bouchette'e description in the ex- tract of 1815, and repeated in his work on the British Dominions, published in 1832 ; while in point of fact, none of those places are at all mentioned in either of the descriptions referred to ; as certainly the words " vers les Esquimaux " do not mean the Esquimaux Bay nor the " Bale des Espa- gnols " nor the " Bale de Thelippeaux," localities which have been shown to be miles asunder. The paragraph refers to a map of Monsieur N. Belion, Ingenieur de la marine de France in 1744, to be found in the 1st volume of Charlevoix's history, to prove that the " Bale des Esquimaux » is a very short distance to the west of the " Bale des Phelippeaux." That it is to the west is also borne out by several ancient as well as later maps, and accordingly shewn on the annexed traces B and F ; but that very shore distance, admitting that the Bay Phelippeaux be identical with Brador Bay of the Admiralty chart, happens according to the latter authority, to be a distance of at least 20 geographical miles. But the me- morandum by this " very short distance " thus adduced, does not surely pretend to claim the two places whilst admitting this to be a very short distanct apart for the eastern boundary, nor mean that both are identical with " la Baie des Espagnols " which in f -t would be nothing less than claiming three distinct places for the easi. i boundary of the stated seig- niory of " Terra Firma de Mingan. Paragraph 20.— The honorable the Hudson's Bay Company have trading posts scattered on different parts of Canada, from lake Superior to the eastern limit of the province, and beyond it along the strait of Belle-Isle, on the Atlantic sea board, some on the Ottawa river, the Gatineau, the Lievre, the St. Maurice, the Saguenay, the lake St. John, Mille-Vaches, Chamou- chouan, Betsiamites, Scpt-Isles, Moisy, and in the places enumerated in this paragraph, also^up the river des Esquimaux, some 30 miles in the interior according to the explorations of Mr. George Duberger, in the service of the company. The situation and relative positions of these places were laid down on the geographical map of the Br. . ' ..th American Provinces published at New York in 1846, by the Dep. rv c' :. /eyor General of Lower Canada, irrespectively of any proprietory right of any parties, but as loca- 69 prion in the ex- nions, published ill mentioned in vords " vers les Baie des Espa- e been shown to Ingenieur de la of Charlevoix's short distance to 2ient as well as s B and F ; but ux be identical ng to the latter s. But the rue- loes not isureiy be a very short ih are identical hing less than the stated seig- ly have trading uperior to the )f Belle-Isle, on iau, the Lievre, "hes, Chamou- nerated in this in the interior ) service of the aces were laid lean Provinces lei&i VI uovver i, but as loca- tions vested m the Crown, their situations being ascertained and chiefly derided from the Admiralty charts of the river and gulf of St. Lawrence and otherwise from ofhcial documents and information in the possession of the Crown Lands Department. The '' eastern boundary " on the map of the Deputy Surveyor General over-reaches the Goyn.sh river about 30 miles at the river Kegashka the western hmit of the concession of Sieur LeOardeur, granted in 1702, a'few miles below the ascertained location of the ancient " Baie des Espagnols " accordmg to Sieur Jolliet's map, and where possibly the late William Sax 1st clerk m the late Surveyor Qeneral's Office, limited the eastern boundarv of the seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan in the vicinity of Natashquan on his figurative map laid before the committee of the House of Assembly in ^ The changing of the year of publication of the Deputy Surveyor (xeneral's map in 1846 to 1852, by tne publishers in anticipation c . uew edition of his map, was wholy unauthorized by the author, who still holds m his possession the manuscript materials for the contemplated new edition on which the seigniory was struck out. The official map of the province of Canada published in 1862 for the use of emigrants by order of the honorable P. M. Vankoughnet, then Com- missioner of Crown Lands, places the "eastern boundary" at the river Goynish, agreebly to the map of Upper and Lower Canada by the late Surveyor General, Joseph Bouchette, Esquire. Paragraph 21.-Titres des Fiefs (page 11), undnr this head are enu- merated as follows : 1st. "Concession de la Terra Firma de Mingan au Sieur Bissot de LaRiviere " of the 25th fevrier 1661. 2nd. " Concession des isles et islets de Mingan a Messieurs Ja .:.;ies de Lalande et Louis Jolliet, 10 mars 1679." 3rd. " Concession de I'isle d'Anticosti a M. Joliet, mars 1680." F £V.,J^ 70 li .ji ^1 li 4th. " Acte do foi et hommasre des trots fiefs y annexes rendu au Roi par M. Joseph Henri de la Gorgendiere, 12 avril 1725.' Referring t^ the 1st volume " des Reglstres des foi et homrvige " No. 78, folio '?.53, we find an entry of an act witJH)Ut tr,e u.sr.al authentication thereof by the sijmature of the aovi^mor Geu oral, then generu Frederick Haldimand, nor of the officer., of the (lovernm-ut that usually sign as in the preceding entries, as in the -.me volume, nor the signature of the clerk of Terriers then Joseph Cugnot, Ji'squire. In lieu of these necessary and indispt^'is^ble ionnalJ^ies to give validity to tho Act, the following Nota-Bene is vabscrio'^d at foot oi the entry ihtireof ']^Ji-- Ranis a la demande de Messieurs Cugnet, Nicolas, Joseph et Franooiir de la Fontaine, Grant et Dunn, uu certiticat de leur presentation a foi et horamage. ce matin, a 4 h. P. M. dans Vapres-midi, le 28 mai 1781." Signe : J. A. Cugnet, G. P. F. Next with respect to the concession "('os isles et islets de Mingan " and " la concession de I'isle d'Anticosti " both grants are found duly regis- tered, but although unquestioned, are nevertheless brought under notice in the " foi et hommage des trois fiefs " rendered by Sieur Joseph, Henri de la Gorgendiere, but instead of the " Terre ferme de Mingan " as the Srd fief indicated, we find mentioned (agreeably to the annexed certified extract) a certain small fief " dans la riviere des Etcherains " iu the seigniory of Lauzon. Nothing further need be said on this paragraph. Paragraph 22.— In the elaborate and highly useful work of the honorable Christopher Dunkin. relating to the seigniories and fiefs of Lower Canada, which called for unanimous approval of the judges established as a seignio- rial court under the provisions of the Seign" nrial Act of 1854, the descrip- tion of the concession of the 25th February appears indeed evidently derived fro-)^ the late Col. Bouchette's Topo. phy of 1832 ; but at the same time plain tablishes in the valuablr ,f Mr. Dunkin's work, that no r^ir^lBUfiiiiiir 71 ces rendu au Roi title is on record either according to the french or engUsh versions of the titles of iiefs and seigniories in Lower Canada, published by authority of the Legislature in 1862, whether of the concession of the 25th February 1661, or of the stated concession of the seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan. Para^rph 23— The description of the stated seigniory of Mingan or Terra Firma de Mingan as in the possession of the heirs Richardson, given in the cadastre No. 108, deposited under the provisions of the Seigniorial Tenure Act of 1854, has at all events the merit of unambiguity in the- designation of the limits therein stated, viz : Le Cap Cormorant as the west and the river Goynish as the eastern boundary, 50 leagues front on the river St. Lawrence, of two leagues in depth, and containing 705,400 arpents in superfiohies. With reference to the cadastre of the seigniorial commission by Henry Judah, Esquire, T. E. Anderson, Esquire, one of the co-proprietors of the stated seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan, in reply to the notification of the Crown Lands Department for a homage, states as follows : " The proprietors are however at a loss to understand on what grounds " a river called the Goynish in the schedule (which by the way, does not " appear on any map to which they have had access) has been selected by " the seigniorial commission as the eastern limit of the seigniory. " If the Goynish means the ' Aquanus,' as they presume it does, it does " not include much more than one-half of the portion of the seigniory so " held under lease, and not more than one -third of the extent of territory to " which they are entitled, most respectfully but earnestly protest against " the pretensions contained in the schedule in question as despoiling them " of a large portion of their property ; and the part of which they would " thus be unjustly deprived is in reality the most valuable," &c. In this protest against the certificate of Henry Judah, Esquire, on his proceedings as Commissioner under the Seigniorial Teiinrep- i\.ct, the pro- prietors claim " La Bale des Esquimaux " and not " La Bale des Phelipp- caux," of the memorandum, for their Eastern boundary. i i H' 72 I'M f« iiep<,rt the i,nde«,g„ed, m the folfllment of the duty devolved «,>on him under theorderof reference from theCommi,,iouer„fcL-°rLLl,o"^ upon the subject of the boundaries o, the stated sei^ ^^^ Sd Kichardson, Mr. Stuart has not o.,ly thought fit to tax the report with a vanety of charges of omission and commission, but mostgrat^C* .mply that tt .mpugned the accuracy of the late Colonel BouchetTe's pll „ works, the truth and reliability of which were presumed quest oled u^d he report. Possibly only but for this unwarrantable and gro™d,e ns,nuat,ou the printed memorandum would have passed witoT „, special notice from Mr. Bouchette. witnout any On the other hand, and under any circumstances, the interest of the tteZThrf '""""°'' °' "" """'^"^ "*- -"deration seemed require that tfle arguments used, as based upon utterly reckless asser ions, and the distortion of the descriptions contained in'the docIZ s' adduced in the memorandum in supportof the claim, should be me ^(1 the examination and further investigation which the statemr. 's h e necessarily invoked have resulted in the discovery of certain omj st^ ments of considerable importance on the question at issue. An attentive perusal, however, of the observations of the preceding paragraphs of the memorandum, and a particular examination of'he m t: herein referred to. confirm the accuracy of the late Ool. Bouchettel pi hshed topographies and maps, which, combined with other rel Ibl evi dence and oilicial statements, will doubtless serve to elicit th. ,„te M nature of the pretensions of the heirs Richardson to the t r 'o y Im aimed under the memorandum, even admitting they succeeded in sub stantlating occupation of a part under judicial authority, or sheriffs sals unopposed through accidental oversight or other unforeseen causes Under the circumstances, the readiest reply that can be offered to thU lengthy, and the following paragraphs, which are. in fact, » recnimla'io! condensed of the subjects of argumentation which have' called for tte 78 preference "to his ivolved upon him n Lands, to report of Terra Firmade ment to have ad- Honorable John he report with a : gratuitously to juchette's public uestioned under and groundless id without any 3 interest of the ieration seemed Y reckless asser- the documents i be met, whilst tatements have in official state- the preceding on of the maps ouchette's pub- r reliable evi- the untenable ritory by them jeeded in sub- sheriff's sales causes. offered to this recapitulation called for the observations and remarks of the undersigned on the preceding paragraphs is a brief review or summary of such of those observations as have more especially a direct bearing upon thn situation, extent and boundarips of the territory claimed under the seigniory of Terra Firma de Minnan, and sup- Inlying at the same time, additional remarks upon certain statements in the memorandum as have been omitted to be touched upon in the observa- tions : — 1st. That the only evidence of such a concession of " I'lsle aux (Eufs " having been granted to Sieur Frs. Bissot de la Riviere, the 25th February 1661, IS to be found in the ordinance of the 12th May, 1733, published by authority of the Legislature of Canada in 1852, whilst the evidence of that r iIu't^'u^ ^""^ '^" declaration of the grantee himself in his aveu of the 11th February, 1668, cited at length in that ordinance. 2nd. According to his declaration, the concession of the 25th February 1661, merely granted to the said Frs. Bissot the exclusive right or privile-^e of establishing sedentary fisheries, &c., on the shores of the St. Lawrence ft-om .• I'Isle aux CEufs," inclusively "dans les endroits les plus conven- ables to the " Sept Isles" and " dans la Grande Anse vers les Esn.-.aux.' ^d That by the authority of said ordinance the concession of " I'Lsle aux (Eufs" of the 25th February, 1661, was cancelled for a consideration dont quittance," and thereupon reunited to the Domain of His Majesty which, together with the unconceded space below the Sept Isles to " Cap Cormorant," was included "dans les limites du Domaine," under the ordiii- ance of the 23rd May, 1733. Here is no theory based upon any mere sup- position, nor does the written abandonment " depuis longtemps" of the con- cession of the 25th February, 1661, constitute a surrender oi : . ...cession as asserted in the memorandum. 4th. That in respect of the occupation by the heirs Bissot " do I'etendue du pays au dessous de la Riviere Moisy," the said Frs. Bissot and Defend- ants, despite their humble petition, were condemned to pay "redevance pour ia ^- te qulls ont faite au lieu dit Mingan," and consequently were deemed uepuis longtemps" as trespassers on the Domain of the Crown Ifl 74 rnJ ^^^t^t^^^^i-lHoirs Bissot. Defendants. " for reasons best known to themselves, never complied with the injunction or recommendations of the Intendou nour^H, made to them in the same ordinance, to wit • .. ^'^: """ '■'''" ^-^ titre nouvel. as reiteratod in the memo.), pour den, ot sur telle redevance qu'il plaira a Sa M.jeste leur accorder." th. IX'' ''' '^I""i''" """""' "' ^'^^ concession to the Heirs Bissot among the archives of this Provxiice. ^ 6th. That although the contents of the " burned title " must ever front or depth, they would assuredly have bee. stated in the-'acte d'aveu" of the said B,ssot on the 11th February. 1668, then as fresh in his memory as the circumstances of the amount of redevances to be paid therefor benJ only seven years after the date of his grant of the concession of Msle au^ a:ul,s ^ and, therefor.., inasmuch as no new title was ever taken out by the Heirs Bissot, the present claimants for the stated seigniory of Terra Firma de Mnigan. in invoking the cancelled or revoked concession of the ■ 5th February, 1661, cannot certainly, with any semblance of right or con - riu 7 r *""*""' "'' """ they justified on a plea of possession 01 grounds of occupation in placing their Eastern boundary at any lim east of the " Cap Cormorant." ^ 7lh Thattouohtoglhe '.amed litle-lst. Th« document is apposed, ... 788 « ..ve b,..a destr «d by flr» in about th. year 1681 ; 2„d L the declarafon ..the una«the„ticated Act of the 28th May, 1781, it is believed the 5ear 178. .-..d. In the ■■ ,.ote de notoriets" of 1766 (proving .„ i„„e. mor.al possession of the stated «.,g„iory of tt.e mainland of Min^aTto have been burned "a can.e d, i'incendie arrivee au palais d« cette ^iil le du Pa la.s on ava.ent et ,,er ,, les R6gi,tr«,- &o., but ,t is fair to pre- ...me that the registers ,.ere no. burned, inasmuch as the titto of over a hundred se.gn.ories granted an.erior to that coniiaFration are found en„. n.era^.d among the titles ar.d documents published bv authority of the Leo-is- 76 i) irs Bissot among lature in 1852 ; and 4th. For the Act of fealty and homage rendered by James 8tuurt, Esciuiro, the 9th October, 1837. the declaration of title, which ifi an exact transcript of the one contained in the authenticated Act of 1781, would again lix the periled of the concession conflagration in about the' year 1780. 8th. That the lirsf instrument on record relating to the concession to Sieur Frs. IJissot de la liiviere of tliH 25th February. \6G1, in which men- tion of depth, viz. : "deux lieues en profondeur," is made in the unauthen- ticated Act of fealty and homage of the 28lh May, 1781, in the Ist vol. des Fois & Hommages. No. 78. vol. 373, containing the declaration of Messrs. Uunn, (J rant, Cuguet, La Clorgendiere, and other parties as representatives of the Heirs Hissot, at tl' > foot of the entry of which Act, unauthenticated by the signature of the Governor, nor of the public officers, nor of the Clerk of the Terriers, who usually signed such Acts, is written the noia-bo^p oi Mr. F. Cugnet, G. P. S., certifying to the presentment of the said parties and no more; in the face of which formal proceedmgs the Memorandum treats the omission of the signatures as "clerical omissions." However, the legal point on this question is wholly within the province of the law officers of the Crown to determine. 9th. The next instrument is the official statement published by Wm. V indenvelden, E.sq., in I803, the description quoted from wh'ich in the H morandum is a transcript of the declaration of the representatives of the Bissot, contained in the unauthenticated Act above mentioned. 10th. Mention is also made of the depth of two leagues in the extract given in the appendix of the Topography published by the late Col. Bou- chette in 1815, and also in the title under the I ^d Terra Firma de Mingan, Seigniory of. in his Topographical Dictionary, forr-.ing the 2nd vol. of-'his British Dominions in N.A., published in 1832, both of which, viz., the ex- tract and title, are verbatim transcripts of the description contained in the official statement. Nevertheless, the author, in the text of both works, makes no mention of any depth in describing the concession of the 25th February, 1661; in fact treats the concession as a mere fishincr ffronml limited on the East at the River Goynish, "dans la Orande Anse vers les Esquimaux." 11 ^1 Ir 76 n nth. Finally, tho depth of th. stated «eiff„iory of Terra Firma de .Ion le t,.ra o,. adh^.rC," and believed to hav,- been destroyed a, di, ; ren ly I'I'^t;' *: "'''" ' "' »'""'• "'• -"■* -"-«- ..and» h w : ' r,e n ,'" -Aotedaven' „, the nth February, ,668 Wher : for tt , c„nch«,ve that the representative, of the said fJ Bi«ot in th r d ara ,„n ,„„de in ,h„ i„.,„„,„„. „,„, ,„, ^ tak n^on the 16 tb" ."' """ °'""""' "y'O'—ionof theMthF.'l.ln- eOl the menttou of depth, Tiz. : » snr deux lieue, de pro,6„de„r • a „„Te' t red th,. character of the oo„ce«on described in the said " Acte dWu " of the "anteur" Frs. Bisaot de la Eiviere of the llth February, 1668 authe,2a,i!r'„f''tt ""rf ""^ "'y ™ »™« — ' -count for the non- ^T::zVT : ":''"• ''''■ "'■■""'•^ "vouches for .he reco ds althoul hi 1". '"™ ""' "" °''"^'' "' ""= P""- ''°"'- records, although himself one of the interested parties to the Act. varie"L!fnt! '" '" "" "°" """"'""'^ '""■"»-"■ '™ "'"o^' "n- corren eTa^r p""""'"" °' "'"' '"' "'"^"'y' «" ^ "^ ""' «■«« : •• a comn,enoer au Cap Cormorant a la c6te d„ Nord jusqu a la (Jrande Anse v,rs TMs ZZ" "b ''''°*"* '"'" "^ f™"™' °">™ire„ent la p.oh • «eu de? K ..°'™™'' """ ''•°"'"'" "'^"•" >^'' i-astnuch as the aveu describes the concession of " Isle anx rPnf«-' .• ^s Bissot the .„, i „,, , ashtr^l-C 7 -- w:Ltut::::i::re:tro;:^^^^^^^^^ 16th. That neither in the " aveu," nor in the descrintion. i„ ,be in-,-,, ments above cited, is there any mention, word or allusion toth; "Bakdes 77 Terra Firma de idcred before His e Heirs of Peter unauthcnHcated ts the concession ariably invoked, yed at differently stands, however, r, 1868. Where- s Bissot, in their in taking on the ; 25th February, ondeur," at once I " Acte d'aveu " ary, 1668. unt for the non- vouches for the Public Domain e Act. )ne almost un- direction of the will suffice: "a ande Ansevers lent la p6che." asmuch as the anting to Sieur ! aux CEufs" to jua la G-rande i in the instru- the " Baie des hspagnols" or to the " Baie des Esquimaux," or to the •' Baie Phelinpeaux " names ol localities set up without a shadow of right or authority by the representatives of the Heirs B.ssot for the Ea.st..rn boundary of the stated «e,gmory of Terra Firma de Mingan, and so introduced :n various deeds leases, sales and transactions mentioned as otherwise stated at length in the Memorandum. * 16th. That the first instrument in which the "Baie des Espa-nols" clam.>dmthe Memorandum lor the Eastern boundary of the stated seig. ".ory of Terra Firma de Mingan, v,z. : from Cape Cormoront, along the north .shore of the St. Lawrence to the "Baie dos Espagnols," is mentioned occurs m the concession " des Isles et Fslets de Mingan" to Sieur de Lalande and Louis Jolliet, dated 12th March, 1079, situate a« stated in the Memo- randum, immediately in front, and of the same extent as the main seio-niory of Mingan, " qui se suivent jusqu'a la Baie appeleo 1' Anse aux Espagnols ' The next mention is made in the ordinance of the 12th May 1733 in re- commending the Heirs Bissot, Defendants, to take out "nouveau titn- pour letabhssement par eux fait au lieu dit Mingan, a prendre de la Pointe des Cormorants et allant vers la Baie des Espagnols." It is more than probable as It has been already shewn, that had the new title been taken out in tlie manner directed, with a special extent of front, that the Eastern boundary would have fallen far short of the '• Baie appelee 1' Anse aux Espagnols," the Eastern limit of the existing seigniory "des Isles et Islets de Mingan " the exact position and extent of which bay has formed the subje,; of special enquiries in the preceding observations. 17th. That the geographical position of the " Baie des Espagnols" is well and accurately ascertained and established on Sieur Jolliet's map "de la France Septentrionale," dedicated to Mons. Colbert by Duchesneau lln- tendant of New France, the same who granted the concession " des Isles et Islets appeles Mingan" to " Sieur de la Lalande" and "Sieur Colbert " and of the concession of the Island of Auticosti to the latter in 1780. 18th. That accordi'ug to the ancient map. the authenticity of which cannot be questioned, the " Baie dc. Espagnols" lies rather west of an imaginary line drawn from the Eastern extremity of the Island of Anticosti .' 1.- 78 ■ i! 1^ i to the north shore of the St. Lawrence, coinciding generally with the har- bour of Natashquan, situate in the broad expanse of that part of the River St. Lawrence, lying opposite the Island of AuticosH, and represented on Debarre's chart of the St. Lawrence, from surA-eys performed under Major Holland»between the years 1766 and 1790, under the authority of the Ad- miralty of England, on " Sieur le Marechal de Castrie's map of 1784, on several old French maps," published in atlas form by the late Thomas Jeilerys in 1775, Mitchell's map of 1755, the late Colonel Bouchette's map of 1815, the map of the Deputy Surveyor-General in 1846, and several other maps of the River and Grulf of St. Lawrence. In all these maps the deeply-curved shore of that part of the St. Law- rence, comprehending the Bay or Anse of Natashquan, is clearly and con- spicuously defined, extending between " Mont Joli " on the East and the headland called " Wolfe's Head" on the West, more particularly describ.^d in the observations under the first paragraph of the Memorandum. 19th. That corroboratively with the above mentioned authoritative maps, a map entitled '• Carte du Canada. 1664, par Sieur de Champlain," on which are exhibited oortain territorial divisions on the North shore de la Grande Riviere du Canada, ou St. Laurent," represents with striking exact- ness, for the early period it was constructed, in the division called " les Es- quimaux," situate opposite the Island of Anticosti, extending eastward from the River Moisie, or the River St. John, to a certain deep indent,^tion of the shore line, evidently coinciding with the geographical siautJon of the harbour of Natashquan or Kegashka or Natissagait harbours, c.st of which lies the division desigiuitcd by the name of "P. Quartier," termin- ating eastward at another deep indentation of the coast opposite the strait of Belle-Isle, without a name, but whi> h appears to correspond with the " Baie des Esquimaux" or Bay Fhelippeaux, mentioned in Sieur de Brou- ague's defence in the formal judgment case of 173(J, east of which lies the division called " Brest," extending along the strait to the Atlantic seaboard. 20th. That reverting to the formal judgment or police regulation of the 20th of May 1736, it has been in the foregoing observations established from the regulation itself, that the stated seigniory " de la Terre Ferme de 79 Mingan" comprehending the "Poste de Miugan" and itn dependencies is a totally distinct and remote locality, on the north shore of tae River St Lawrence, from that portion of the Gulf of St. Lawrence " vulgairement appelOe Cote du Labrador," the concession of the 25th February 1661 now claimed under the name of the " Seigneurie de la Terre Ferme de Mingan " extending agreeably to the instruments herein previously mentioned, from "Cap Cormorant a la cote du nord jusqu'a la Grande Anse vers la Bale des Espagnols," whilst the latter extend from the River Kegashka " a la cote vulgairement appelee La Cote Labrador" Eastward to the Strait of Belle- Isle inclusive, and as having been under the concessions from the Governor andlntendant of "La Novelle-France " from the year 1702 to the time of the conquest, concessions which forsooth Mr. Stuart is pleased to des- cribe as of the nature of short leases which have terminated a century ago." ^ 2l8t. That, after a careful examination of the foregoing facts it appears evident that a certain limited part of the north shore of the St. Lawrence situate between the western extremity of" la Grande Anse " which accord- ing to the description invoked, formed the Eastern limit of the " terre ferme de Mingan," and the River Kegashka, the westernmost of the con- cession called " short leases " granted to Sieur LeGardevr in 1702, was un- conceded or neutral territory during the period the Spaniards " carried on their fisheries," which according to the " acted'aveu " they actually occupied ml668, to wit: "dans la Grande Anse, ou les Espagnols font ordinaire- ment la p6che," but which agreeably to the declaration in the unauthen- ticated Act aforesaid they had abandoned anterior to 1781 " ou les Espagnols fesaieut ordinairement la peohe." In this space presenting upwards of 100 miles of coast, the map of Sieur de JoUiet has located "la Bale appelee I'Anse des Espagnols" no doubt the identical "Bale des Espagnols " which the first two lines of the memorandum refer to as the limit of the stated Seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan. 22nd. That the police regulation of 1736 containing the formal judg- ment, as well as the subsequent regulations of 1739, 1742 and 1743, adju- dicating on matters in dispute between the " concessionnaires eii terre ferme a la cote vulgairement appelee Labrador " and the " concessionnaires 80 i\ ■ 1 3 li des Isles et Islets appel6s Mingau " qualify the former as woll m t\w latter concessioniiaires equally as " proprietairos." Hence could it bfl ruftw.nably supposed that the lutendaut Hocquart, whilst establishing police j-egtlla- tions regarding the sedentary fisheries " recognized " the " ScigiuMir de la TerreFerme" as prior proprietor of the territory granted since 1702 in separate concessions, which Mr. Stewart admits as of the nature of short leases which terminated a century ago that is the year of tht* Treaty of 1763. If then the Intendant, in the exercise of the power vmiad in him by his Sovereign, did thus dispose of the vacant Domain of Hin Majesty " k la cote vulgairement appelee Labrador " it matters not whether in the shape of concessions for a limited number of years or for less ijm,, and renewal to the parties, how according to Mr. Stuart's own showing can the claimants pretend to the often repeated " uninterrupted posKossion " of I 206 yeors, since 1661, of that part of the coast of the St. Lawrence, ext.-nd- ' ]ng from the Kegashka Kiver to the " Bale des Esquimaux " of Mr, Ander- son, or the "Bale Phelippeaux " of the memorandum, and as being the most valuable part of the stated Seigniory of " Terra Firmade Mingan ?" 23rd. The answer to the foregoing queries is simply that the pretttnsions set forth by the parlies in the correspondence aforesaid with the D&pixrt. ment, to the " Bale dec Esquimaux " and the party of the memorrttnluni to the "Bale Phelippeaux " which latter Sieur de Bellin locates •• a very short distance," only twenty miles according to Bayfield's chart East of iho former, for the Eastern boundary of the stated Seigniory of Terra Kirmn de Mingan, are not only utterly groundless, but are in many respects in direct contradiction with the very authorities adduced in their support, whilst the geographical exhibits of the coast of the St. Lawrence in very " old French maps "contemporaneous with the period of the concessions of •' UU attx (Eufs " in 1661 " des Isles et Islets de Mingan " in 1679 " de I'Isle d'Auiicos- ti" in 1680, herein referred to, establish that both the above mentioned Bay. were unknown or unnoticed at that early period of the history of Canada Later, however, the" Baie des Esquimaux " is mentioned in seveml of the concessions " a la cote de Labrador " in the concession " en terre ferme " and the Bay Phelippeaux is also mentioned in the defence of Sieur da Bronacrne in the formd judgment, while the " Baie des Espagnols " was a well Itnowi. locality and mentioned as the limit "de la concession des Isles et IsUts de 81 8 w«ll m f,h« latter Id it bfi roftwonably ing police regtila- "HeigniMjr de la ted sine** 1702 in le nature of short r of the Treaty of Niiv vowled In him u of HiH Majesty ot whothci' in the for leNiN iiniM and )wu Hhowing can 3d po««e««io)r' of lawrence, extend- IX " of Mr, AndiT- as being the most dingm V at the pretensions vith th«' Depart- m«mor(indum to teH " a. very short uirt VMHt of iho f Torra Firma dc •esp«ct« in direct pport, whilst the ery"oId French IS of •' UU am risle d'Anticos- meutioned Bays story of Canatla, u several of the 8rre ferme " and surde Hronagne 8 a well knowti sles et lHUi» dc Mmgan as "la Bale appelee I'Anse des Espagnols." &c., and referred to in the Ordmauce of 1733. " allant vers la Bale des E.pagnols," wherefore he assertion m the memorandum that the " Bale de« Espagnols " which has been shewn to be situated upwards of 200 miles west of the " Baie Ihehppeaux," has been since called "La Baie Phelippeaux," is, like other assertions ni that document, without the least foundation. 24th- That accordingto a certain official "list of all the grants " "en s..gneune et roture" by the French Crown, found on record in this Department bearing date at the Surveyor General's Office, Quebec. 25th September, 1790, .signed by the Honorable Samuel Holland, Surveyor General, and the Honorable John Colhns, Deputy Surveyor General, both menrbers of the Honorable the Executive Council, at the same time with he Honorable Thomas Dunn, the Honorable Wm. Grant, the Honorable George Powiiall and the Honorable Comte Dupre, under the administra- ion of His Lxcellency Loru Dorchester, neither the grant of the concession (the burned title) of the 25th February. 1661, nor of any seigniory of the name of "Terra Fermade Mingan." are therein mentioned; althouo-h the «eiginory" des Isles et Islets de Mingan" granted to Sieur de lllande andLou.s Jolhet, heivs of the Lalande, and the Seigniory of Anticosti, granted to Louis Jolliet. with the dates of the concessions and ratification thereof are therem stated and enumerated. 25th. That the omission is not merely confined to the above stated list but extends to the official extracts "of the s.igniories furnished to the Purveyor General by the Honorable George Pownall, then Secretary of the Province, still of record in this Department, but prevails also in the i>nnted volume "des titres et documents des seigneuries dans le Bas- Canada 1-blished by authority of the Legislature in 1852, the omission m both the English and French versions of those published documents being clearly pointed out in the valuable index of the seigniories prepared by the Honorable Christopher Dunkin, presently Treasurer of this Pro- vince, in relation to the Seigniorial Tenures Act of 1854. 2Hth. That, although the said Honorables Thomas Dunn and Wm Grant were ^directly interested parties or co-proprietors of the stated ■f ^ 82 A I Seigniory of "Terra Finna de Mingan" as only recently purchasers of certain proportional parts thereof from the heirs Bissot de la Riviere, evidenced by the notarial deeds referred to in the memorandum, the omission, so strikingly apparent in the list of the concession or sdgniory whereof they were part-owners, passed for years unnoticed, officially or otherwise, although the subject of the federal tenures of the fiefs and seigniories were then, as immediately prior to the division of the Province of Quebec, into separate Provinces, 1791, under constant discussion in the Executive Council of that period. 27th. That, however, according to a certain other list entitled general statement of the grants " en fiefs et seigneuries " and of those " en roture " m the Province of Lower Canada, bearing date at the Surveyor Generals Office, 31st July, 1805 (the day of the inauguration of the Hon. Thos. Dunn as President and Administrator of the Government of Lower Canada) the name " Seigneurie Terra Firma de Mingan " stands inserted along with the names of other seigniories situate in the District of Gaspe, several of which were re-united to the Domain of the Crown in virtue of the feudal right JUS retractum, exercised by Governor Hope, in 1784. Opposite the name "Terra Firma "is the date of the concession, 25th Februarv 1661, and in the column headed " quantum ofarpents" the area in figures"435,456 square arpents of the said seigniory of Terra Firma of Mingan is accordingly given, which quantum assuming the depth of the said seigniory given in thJ official statement published by Wm. Vondelvelden in 1803, quoted in the memorandum, to wit: " deux lieues de profondeur" obtains, by a simple calculation in mensuration,;the perpendicular breadth of 2590 lineal arpents qual to 94 statute miles for the front of the seigniory. 28th. That applying by scale this perpendicular extent of breadth 94 miles on the map of the St. Lawrence, due East from " Cap Cormorant a la cote du nord " towards the "Grande Anse" or " allant vers la Bale des Espagnols " as directed in the Ordinance of the 12th May 1733, the Eastern lateral limit of the stated seigniory of Terra Firma of Mingan would accord- ingly determine at Clear Water Point, situate about 25 miles below the " Postede Mingan " in longitude west on Bayfield's corrected chart. 29th. That the limit thus determined at Clear- Water Point for the eastern i 83 t for the eastern boundary of the seigniory, which has been herein-before shown to indicate the western extremity of " La Grando Anse " extending to Pt. Natashquan, or Mount Joli, and identical with the " Baie appelee l'4nse aux Espa-nols '' as distinguished from .he interior Bay or " Anse " in which is located " la seigneurie et poste de Mingan vis-a-vis les Isles et Islets do Mingan " is stnkmgly in harmony, although about 60 miles west of the Goynish River the eastern boundary by the late Col. Bouchette with the descriptions ..iven in the instruments herein-above cited, that is " a prendre ou a commencer " au Cap Cormorant, a la cote du Nord, jusqu'a la Grande Anse vers les "Esquimaux, etc," as it embraces between the boundaries Cap Cormorant and Clear-water Point, " le Poste de Mingan, la seigneurie commune- ment appellee seigneurie et poste de Mingan, I'etablissement au lieu dit Mingan," which, according to Vondenveldeus Map of 1803, includes the Settlement of Mingan opposite the Mingan Islands, Esquimaux Point, Esquimaux Harbour, opposite Esquimaux Islands, from which the Terre Ferme is separated by Esquimaux Channel, and further because of the corroborative incident that the Seigniory '• des Isles et Islets de Min- gan," upon the same coast, and immediately in front of the Main Seigniory of Mingan, recognized as co-existing seigniories for 200 years, should according to the avea of the said concession, " des Isles et Islets de Mingan," contain 16,000 square arpents, as given in the general statement aforesaid, also terminate at Clear- water Point or " la Baie appelee 1' Anse aux Espagnols,' agreeably to the description of that Seigniory quoted in the Memorandum,' " Les Isles et Islets appeles Mingan qui se suivent jusqu'a la Baie appelee I'Anse aux Espagnols," the group of Islands properly called Mingan Islands, (irrespective or exclusive of the Islands situate in " la Grande Anse " below Wolf's Head) containing, agreeable to a careful computation thereof from Bayfield's chart, on a large scale 15,900 acres, which would, however, include the Esquimaux Island, among the Islands, " qui se suirent jusqu'a la Baie appelee I'Anse aux Espagnols." Paragraph 25.— Mr. Stuart is evidently laboring here under some great misapprehension in his ardour of erecting a title for the seigniory of Terra Firma of Mingan, one higher and stronger even than a title from the Crown. 84 Ihe beigniorml Amendment Act of 1856, in its provisions had relation to those seigniories only that are held as bonufide properties, under duly re- cognized titles from th. Crown of France. The " Mingan," included with the seigniories mentioned in the Act applied to the seigniory " des Isles ot Islets de Mmgan," whereof there exists a registered" title, as well as the seigniory of '• I'Isle d'Anticosti," whilst there exists no record whatever of the stated seigniory ot " Terra Firma de Mingan" and the Act could not certainly create one. A' ^ i'^ fl The tract described in the seigniorial Schedule No. 108, as in possession 01 the heirs Richardson, is known to hold a considerable varied population of English, French and Canadian inhabi, .ats, occupying the fishing locali- ties and establishments scattered along the coast, more particularly in the vicinity of the " Poste de Mingan " and extending (o the River Goynish. This circumstance of the although partially settled character of the tract may have led the Commissioner to present the schedule No. 108, now of i^cord with similar schedules, cada.stres. in this Department according to law. Wherefore the word " Mingan " used after the name " Terra Firma " is only indicative of the locality of the " Poste de Mingan," or "la seignurie com- munement appelee "Poste de Mingan" that is where it lies, as opposite the Mmgan Islands. Bat on the other hand, it appears somewhat anomalous, to say nothing 01 the manrfest nngraciousness toward the seigniorial commissioner Henry Judah, Esqurre thatthe memorandum should erect a title on the seigniorial schedule No. 108, wh,lst the co-propne,ors most formally protest gainst it as deprtvmg them of the most valuable part of their Seigniory in limitin.^ therr " eastern boundary " at the Eiver Goyn.sh ; and although t gave them oO leagues Iront on the St. Lawrence, on a depth of two leagues, and ther" lore asuperac.es oi one hundred leagues of the territory of this Troviace the 26th July, 1661, n.voked by the pres.nt claimants, merely granted ac July, 1M.8, ■■ ladro.t et laculte dechasse et de ntehe da„s l.s endroi*. l-- -l- commodes, avec le bois et terre nec«ssaires pour faire le dit atabliisem^t'^ ions had relation 8, under duly re- icluded with the ies Isles et Islets as the seigniory rer of the stated d not certainly as in possession iried population e fishing locali- ticularly in the ver Goynish. iter of the tract, ^o. 108, now of cording to law. Firma " is only seignurie com- as opposite the to say nothing issioner Henry the seignior'al )test against it >ry in limiting h it gave them ies, and there- this Province, concession of y granted, ac- e, of the 11th droit,-? Ies plus ablissement," 85 a fishing ground, in fact, which under the pretensions of the claimants has grown into gigantic proportions, exceeding in area and dimensions any seigniory or tract hitherto granted in Canada. Paragraph 26.-If Mr. Stuart will read over with greater attention the report of Mr. Bouchette, he will find that it in fact conveys the reverse of what ho asserts respecting the acquiescence ol the proprietors in the des- cription contained in the schedule prepared byMr.Judah, whereas the report states "that the proprietors have unexceptionally acquiesced in the proposition for a survey or homage of the seigniory in conformity with the title deeds requested in the correspondence from this Department, copy of which correspondence is annexed to the Report, together with the copies of the concessions "short leases" granted along the Labrador coast of the St. Lawrence from Kegashka River to the Eastern limit of the Province. Paragraph 2n.-m. Bouchette based the conclusions he arrived at in his report on the subject of the stated possession and occupation of the territory claimed for the Seigniory of Terra Firma of Mingau, upon the statement contained in the above mentioned correspondence with the co-proprietors, namely, Messrs. T. B. Anderson and H. D. Andrews, of Montreal. Upon further examination of the subject, however, which the printed memorandum has occasioned, that possession as based on the occupation considered in a fair and legitimate point of view, apart from anydisquisi^ tion on the legal question invoked, which is the province of the law oflicers to examine, appears reduced to nil for the following reasons : 1st. That from the year 1661 to 1733 (when the concession of " Isle aux CEufs" was revoked under the Ordinance of that year), supposing that Sieur Frs. Bissot, Sen., had commenced his settlement "I'etablissement au lieudit Mingan"or "Postede Mingan " at the period of his "acte d'aveu" in 1668, and that it afterwards was continued by his sons, the defendants until the time, when under the Ordinance of 1732, they were summoned by the authorities to produce their title for their occupation " au lieu dit Mingan," and although producing the said " Acte d'aveu " were condemned to pay redevance to the aovernment "pour la traite par eux faite avec Ies \ (■ i 86 '>'> A' ii I It eauvages depuis 1661," that is to say seventy-one years, this period of years cannot certainly be legitimately claimed as quiet and undisturbed posses- sion, the heirs Bissot being held in the light of trespassers on the Domain of His Majesty, until discovered on the complaint preferred before the Intendant for the illicit sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians carried on at the " Poste de Mingan." 2nd. That it is admitted in the memorandum " that for reasons best known of themselves," the heirs Bissot never took a new title as directed, therefore, knowingly and contrary to the recommendation of the Intendant Hocquart, persisted in occupying the said " Poste de Mingan " without any leave or license or any concession from the Government of the day, as far as ascertained from the published archives of the Province. 8rd. That whatever might have been the pretensions of the heirs Bissot the defendants in 1733. if 'indeed they even contemplated a claim of 400 miles frontage "de I'^tendue de pays a la cote du nord au-dessous de la Riviere Moisy " on the grounds of the concession "de I'Isle aux (Eufs " granted to their parent the 25th February, 1661, the Government of France deemed otherwise, as its Governors and Intendants had, as early as 1702 already granted the concession at the River Kegashka, and continued dis' posing of the vacant Domain of His Majesty for the purposes of sedentary fisheries on the Labrador coast, eastward, to the "Bale des Esquimaux" and beyond the Atlantic seaboard, as late as the year 1750. These concessions, defined by meets and bounds and fixed boundaries in Iront and depth, as exhibited in the general map annexed to the report being grants for a limited number of years, some few for a life-time which Mr. Stuart m consequence styles short-leases, and would according to his own admission, have terminated a century ago, that is a few yelrs after the cession of the Country by France to Great Britain in 1763, at which time however, all that portion of the Labrador coast, east from the River St. John, had fallen under and formed part of the Government of the adja- cent Province of Newfoundland. 4th. The provisions of the Imperial Act, 14 George III, ch. 83, aiming directly to the protection of the sedentary fisheries established by Canadian 87 I period of years sturbed posses- on the Domain •red before the lians carried on ■or reasons best tie as directed, f the Intendant ti " without any the day, as far the heirs Bissot, a claim of 400 i-dessous de la ie aur CEufs" nent of France early as 1702, continued dis- ss of sedentary i Esquimaux " :ed boundaries 1 to the report, fe-time, which cording to his 3W years after 763, at which om the River at of the adja- ch. 83, aiming i by Canadian subjects on the Labrador coast, and while restoring to the Province of Quebec the coast of the St. Lawrence, east of the River St. John, which had been detach ' 'rom it by the Proclamation of 1763, it may be fairly presumed that they were not enacted for the special benefit of the heirs Bissot, or that of their representatives, but indeed for the numerous estab- lishments effected at Labrador by the " concessionnaires en terre ferme " under the concessions granted them by the G-overnment of France. The same coast was, however again, by the Imperial Act 49 G-eorge III, ch. 27 (1809), re-united to the Province of Newfoundland, from the River St. John to Hudson's Bay, together with the Island of Anticosti and all the adjacent Islands, and by 6 G-eorge IV, ch. 59, restored to Canada. 5th. Therefore, between the years 1702 and 1800. occurs a lapse of 107 years, during which the j^oncessions of the " short leases " were held by the concessionnaires, or their agents, or as the terms of the concessions expired, had reverted in due course to the Crown. It may be asked in virtue of what right can the heirs Richardson now pretend to claim un- disturbed possession of 206 years, since 1661, of a territory half of which had been granted by the Crown to other parties, and so held for a period of a century, and the other half they occupied as tresspassing on the Public Domain ? 6th. That at the time the co-proprietors of the seigniory of Terra Firma de Mingan were negotiating with and did effect, through Mr. Grant, a lease to the late North-West Company in 1803 of Mingan, extending to the strait of Belle-Isle, as in the possession of and used by the proprietors for the purposes of trade, as had been the case /or more than a century and a half before, " which would exclude all competition in their trade along the coast as far as the ''Bate des Esquimaux;" that part>f the said coast extending from the Kegashka River to the " Bale des Esquimaux" was in point of fact not in the possession of, nor used by the pretended co-proprietors of the stated seigniory, as it either belonged to the " concessionnaires" or " pro- prietaircs en terre ferme," carrying on the sedentary fisheries in virtue of the concessions styled " short leases," or formed part of the Domain of the Crown at the expiration of the term giA-^en in these concessions not other- wise renewed. I, J.-.. 86 r„li.h r T " " "'"'"''' •""''" "'"'^^ '"^» «l"'ly 'hewn from r» able an ,.o,. y ,h.t .he •■ liai« ^ :* Para,rapk 2S.-m. Bouchette has "volunteered no opinion upon the fir K :^^^V^°P-^y ^«'-^- to the province of the law officer yatione he has now prepared, he has dealt professionally with the docu- ments arut authorities adduced or preferred as evidences of titles by the co-propnetors, consistently, and within the latitude allowed him under the pro^sjons of the Surveyor's Act, which confer on him the right of exam'n- ing titles m the matters of surveys, &c.. and, accordingly, in the two-fold Xs'offi ^'fr 'r '''''''''' ""'''' ^^^-^--* «'^-- ^-^ -' of his office of Deputy Surveyor- General of the Province, duly commissioned by sanction of the Imperial Government in 1826, having given the subject of ^e boundaries claimed by the Heirs Richardson for the stated seign ory of Mau,.n, in the correspondence of the co-proprietor and in the ^intel Me. .. mdum, undersigned by George Okill Stuart, Esquire, and carefully ex,..T-n.u the statements and authorities therein referred to, whether as 8uppm^..,g the existence of a title or sustaining their claim on the grounds of undisturbed possession or occupation, the undersigned begs respectfully to submit, that, apart from the consideration of any documentary evidence adduced of the nature of Sheriff's sales, legal proceedings, or the validity of vanou ,,tarial deeds and transactions relative to the land situate beyond the Ws of the Province at the dates thereof, no title has been produced by the Heirs Richardson to the territory claimed by them under the desig- nation of the seigniory of Terra Firma of Mingan, from " Cap Cormorant ' along the coast of the St. Lawrence to the " Bale des Esquimaux" or the Baie Phehppeaux," nor any claim thereto by any valid occupation or pos- session thereof, whether by themselves or "through their lessees," inas- much as, furthermore, were even the supposed burned title "of the conces- won of Isle aux (Eufs" of the 2/;f.h Pphmov^r ifi«i ^.^ . „.. , ., ,, j> -^"Oi, now iuuiid, it could not confer more rights than are described or accorded under the " acte d aveu 89 arly shewn from e Phelippeaux, " lal judg-ment of ! " Baie a'ppelee JoUiet hereunto )inion upon the the law officers as in the obser- with the docu- af titles by the him under the ight of examin- n the two-fold iwn Lands, and T commissioned i^en the subject tated seigniory in the printed , and carefully to, whether as u the grounds IS respectfully itary evidence the validity of iituate beyond >een produced der the desig- p Cormorant." imaux" or the pation or pos- lessees," inas- af the conces- ., ii could not ' acte d'aveu" aforesaid, defining the concession of the 26th February, 1661, as granting to Sieur Francois Bissot de la Riviere the exclusive privileges of hunting and fishing in certain localities therein indicated whereat to establish " la p^che sedentaire des loups-marins, marsouins, et autre negoce, &c., avec les bois et terres neoessaires pour faire le dit ttablissement" ; consequently, no territorial area as claimed under the Memorandum for the stated seig- niory of Terra Firma de Mingau by the Heirs Richardson, in the pretended grounds of occupation .md vxndisturbed possession "by themselves or through their lessees" for upwards of two centuries, excepting possibly the grounds required for their establif<> t at the " Poste de Mingan," can with any color of right or title whui . be derived from the said conces- sion of the 25th February, 1661, by them invoked at evidence of title there- for, the Eastern limit whereof, for the purposes as above quoted, and as in- cluding " le dit Poste de Mingan et ses dependances," has been herein above shown to be located at or near " Clear- Water Point," on the North shore of the River St. Lawrence. All of which is nevertheless respectfully submitted. (Signed), True Copy. Department of Crown Lands, Quebec, 28d May, 1882. JOSEPH BOUCHETTE, Dep'y Surv.-Genl. E. E. TACHfi, Asst.-Commissioner. E. H. S. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // — 1 fH bn H bn ■^ W K a J3 a •/■ ■w i »-<.5 s, £1 5^ ■w a «■= o ■? ^iS o a ■2S O M I--2 Is fr^ SI 1-5 » o. -a o** ja 39 o n H «<1 a O M c §« QQ V .5 3 a ■" 2 •D a a « a£ O DO CO fr fl . oi p-^ fi '"' M c9 — a) 3 c ja o ^ ^ ^ -M o ;s ■4-1 o ^ » .H n g o •6 3 . 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