Fur Trade and Fisheries 15

romance about the fishery which appealed very strongly to the adventurers of seventeenth-century France, one of whom, Nicolas Denys, has preserved it for all time in his Description and Natural His- tory of Acadia. In his introduction to this book, Professor Ganong says: “The narrative gives us an understanding of that fascination in the fisherman’s life which led into it so many strong men regardless of its dangers and its labor. It gratified many of their most primitive instincts. There was adventure a-plenty, the joy of rugged health, the lure of the unknown just beyond, the charm of outdoor life beside a fair harbor during the beautiful Acadian _ summer, the gratification of taking wild things at will without any to hinder, the gaming it was to find perhaps no fish at all, but perhaps the greatest of loads, the triumph of overcoming physical difficul- ties, the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of hard labor growing daily in visible piles before the eyes, the delight of embarking much goodly spoils to return full sail to far away homes and families.”

Isle Saint Jean was first included in a grant to Nicholas Denys, La Grande Barbe, whose rather vague description of the island has already been quoted in the preceding chapter. That description had been published exactly forty years after his first appearance in the new world. He had come to Acadia in 1632 with the new Governor, Isaac de Razilly, who resumed possession for the French after the treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye. Until Razilly’s death

2 Pub. Champ. Soc., No. 2, p. 31. |