C2AGAV PATE SR) soy: The Failure of le Comte de Saint Pierre

PRIOR to 1719 no permanent settlement had been effected in Isle Saint Jean. In August of that year a grant of Isle Saint Jean, Miscou, and adjacent is- lands was made to Comte de Saint Pierre, First Equerry to the Duchess of Orleans, whose husband was Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. From a petition signed by Gautier, Nicolas, de Crés, and others it would appear that they had offered the Count an interest of 10 per cent in the venture in return for his influence, but that he had betrayed their confidence and secured the concession in his own name, and that although they had ad- vanced 600 livres for the legal expenses he denied making any contract with them.’

Whatever truth may be contained in the petition, which bears all the marks of righteous. indignation, the fact remains that he secured to himself and his heirs forever in franc alew noble the islands in ques- tion on very liberal conditions. In his case, however, the administration of justice was reserved by the Crown; and of economic rights the Crown also re- served the products of mines which were to be used for the good of the colonists; such lands as might be necessary from time to time for the erection of public buildings or fortifications, and woods suitable for

111 I, Vol. 41, p. 177.