different tree species occurring on the island (eight recorders give these), as well as descriptions of the trees or forests of specific areas — both of these aspects are analysed in Appendix 1. There are also comments on the forest as a source of timber — either actual or potential — especially of oak and pine, two trees that attracted particular attention because of their importance in ship— building. Finally, there are many comments of a miscellaneous nature on topics ranging from the occurrence and effects of forest fires to the presence and use of forest animals, as well as the recording, casual and otherwise, of attitudes and opinions towards various aspects of the forest.

THE HIERARCHY 0F FRENCH RULE ON in; SAINT-JEAN

Since a knowledge of the position of each recorder in the hierarchy of French rule on ile Saint-Jean helps in an understanding of the extracts, it is useful to outline the structure of the administration (Figure 2).

The king - Throughout the period of active French settlement on Prince Edward Island (1720-1758 — excluding 1745-1748 when the island was under nominal British control), the king was Louis XV. He had succeeded his great—grandfather Louis XIV in 1715 at the age of five, though the government was in the hands of a regency until 1723. France was an absolute monarchy with all power being vested in the king — the French parliament, the Estates General, had not been summoned since 1614. The colonies were part of the royal domain and were treated in the same way as the provinces of metropolitan France.la

In theory the king had direct control over all aspects of colonial government, though all of the official correspondence, including that concerning lle Saint-Jean, was dealt with by officials.9 Thus only two of the documents — the two letters patent granting all or part of lle Saint-Jean to private entrepreneurs (Louis XV 1719, 1731) — were issued directly in the name of the king and carried his signature.10

° Fieldhouse 1966, pp. 36-39.

9 See Eccles (1964) (pp. 28—29) for the procedure followed under

Louis XIV.

1° In 1719 Louis was only nine years old and his governing role

would have been carried out by the regency. But even in 1731 it is likely that, as was so for his great-grandfather, the king's signature would have been 'forged' by the first secretary ‘qui avait la plume’. (Eccles 1964, p. 29).

The minister and department of the Marine — From 1669 royal authority in the colonies had been exercised by means of a department of the Marine which had responsibility not only for the colonies, but also for French ports, the navy, and maritime trade. The department, comprising in 1740 about fifty civil servants, was located at Versailles and was under the direction of a minister.11 The minister for almost the whole of our period was Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, the Count of Maurepas — he is the ’votre grandeur’ to whom almost all of the reports and letters gathered together here were addressed. Maurepas had nominally succeeded his father as minister in 1715 at the age of only 14. During the regency (1715-1723) however, the powers of the minister were vested in a Council of the Marine which functioned without the young minister’s participation. It was in 1723, when aged 22, that he assumed full responsibilities for the department, and he was to continue in the post until 1749.12 Throughout his career he kept a close scrutiny over all matters, and even if he did not personally deal with every letter that arrived at the department, it is likely that his chief clerks (his premier comm/s) informed him of their contents before drafting a reply for his signature.13 Seemingly, even the most trivial of decisions required the minister’s approval before being put into action. Extractions from seventeen letters bearing Maurepas' signature are included here, many of these concerning an attempt to extract mast trees from ile Saint-Jean in the 17205 (Maurepas 1726-1732).

Two other documents (Anon. 1730; Anon. 1743) have been extracted from what appear to be policy summaries that were written at some level in the department of the Marine, and another two (Boulaye 1733; Anon. 17605?) seem also to have originated in the department.

The only other French-based recorder included here is Francois de Beauharnois, the intendant at Rochefort, who also had responsibility for La Rochelle.” Rochefort was the principal French naval dockyard on the Bay of Biscay‘s, and it and

1‘ Miquelon 1987, p. 88. ‘2 Miquelon 1987, pp. 90-91.

'3 According to Eccles (1964) (pp. 28-29). this was the system set up in the 1660s by Colbert under Louis XIV, and I am assuming that it continued for the rest of the ancien régime.

“ Dubé 1974, pp. 51—54.

‘5 Bamford 1956, pp. 108-09 and passim.