Roma at Three Rivers 79

Commissaire Ordonnateur at Ile Royale that, after he had gone to the trouble of taking out from France two girls as servants, these girls had been lured away from him by habitans, assisted by the Father Supe- rior of the Récollets. In an indignant letter he de- manded the return of the girls and amends from the Father Superior, urging the plea that the behavior of the latter was all the more culpable because of his high position!

Since similar conduct has hitherto been regarded as criminal on the part of a layman it is worse on the part of a monk who because of his position is expected to preach more by his actions than by his words. But to scheme and cabal to destroy a man’s reputation is an action that deeply offends the principle of charity. On the other hand all the laws forbid him to slander or calumniate a supplicant either directly or indirectly and in case of difficulty in this respect permits the latter to publish against the said Father Superior what honest people think of him.’

With his partners in the Company of the East, also, Roma had his difficulties and, as in the conflict with the priest, he was supported by the officials at Port La Joye and Louisburg. In this case the opinions of the men on the spot must carry more weight than the less disinterested views of share- holders in France, who were intent only upon profits regardless of the fate of the colony or of the hard- ships of the director. However impatient one may become with the rhetoric of Roma, his rigid logic and

9 F, Vol, 151, p. 71.