the commercial port of La Rochelle, some 28 kilometres to the north, were together the main ports through which trade and communications between France and New France were funnelled.16 Direct royal authority over the ports was exercised by the department of the Marine in the person of an intendant (with powers and responsibilities similar to those of the intendant of New France). Francois de Beauharnois is the only intendant in France who enters the records presented here — he corresponded with the minister at Versailles in the 17205 about masts shipped from lle Saint-Jean (Beauharnois 1726-1729).

The governor and commissaire at Louisbourg — Though in theory lle Saint-Jean, like all of the French possessions in North America, came under the official authority of the governor and intendant of New France based at Quebec, these officials appear to have rarely exercised this authority directly.17 Instead the equivalent authorities at Louisbourg, the governor and the commissaire- ordonnateur, had direct authority over both lle Royale [Cape Breton Island] and lie Saint-Jean and were authorised to communicate directly on all matters with the minister of the Marine in France. The governor was the head of the colony, with overall responsibility for military matters as well as for local dealings with the British in Nova Scotia and the Indians, while the commissaire had responsibility for the colony’s finances and for trade and related matters.18 During the period 1720 to 1758 there were eight successive governors and four commissaires,19 The governor of longest duration was Joseph de Monbeton de Brouillon (or 'de Saint-Ovide’ as he signed himself), who held the office from 1718 to 1739, a period which coincided with the commissaries of the two Mézys (Jacques-Ange Le Normant de Mézy, the father, and Sébastien Le Normant de Mézy, the son) (1718-1738), with both of whom for much of this time he was in a state of feud.20 Saint-Ovide visited lle Saint-Jean on several occasions, usually to hand out gifts and muskets to the Mi'kmaq who came from the mainland to Port La-Joie for the occasion — several of the documents included here come from his pen (Saint-Ovide 1719-1732). The

‘6 Miquelon 1987, pp. 126-30; Dubé 1974, p. 54.

‘7 Vachon 1969, p. xx.

‘8 See Crowley (1974) (p. 387) for the responsibilities of the

commissaire-ordonnate ur. ‘9 Clark 1968, p. 273.

2° Pothier 1974; Crowley 1974; Pritchard 1979.

only other governor that I am certain visited the island was the Count de Raymond in August 1752.21 Of the commissaires, documents from three are included here: Mézy (1726-1728), his son Le Normant de Mézy (1734-1737) and Francois Bigot (1742), the latter two of whom made visits to the island.”

The commandant and subdelegate at Port La-Joie — On lle Saint-Jean itself the king’s authority was vested in a commandant who was based at Port La-Joie, the ’capital’ of the tiny colony. From 1720 to 1725 the commandant (in those years when the post was filled) was in the direct employ of the Count of St. Pierre’s Company of lle Saint- Jean (to which the island had been granted in 1719), though at the same time the commandant was subject to the authority of the governor at Louisbourg. Two of the officials whose reports are included here were acting under the aegis of this company (Robert-David Gotteville 1720 and Louis Denys de La Ronde 1721) — the latter being seconded from Louisbourg in order to assist with the establishment of the new colony. In 1725 after the failure of the company, the governor at Louisbourg took the island directly under his administrative wing (though in fact the grant to the company was not officially revoked until 1730). He posted a commandant and a thirty-man garrison to Port La-Joie to represent his authority on the island. Between 1725 and 1758 this post was held by four different persons although there were three other acting commandants of shorter duration filling in during absences or vacancies in the post.23 Three of these commandants have left records of relevance to our topic: Jacques de Pensens (1725-1732), Louis Duchambon (1738- 1743) and Claude Bonnaventure (1753), and a fourth, the acting commandant Robert Duhaget, likely contributed information contained in the

reports of the commissaire (Le Normant de Mézy 1734-1737).

Apart from the commandant, there was a second person with authority at Port La-Joie: this was the subdelegate of the intendant of New France, though he actually reported to the commissaire at Louisbourg rather than to the intendant at Quebec. This post, which combined judicial and financial

21 Crowley 1979b, p. 656.

22 Sébastien Le Normant de Mézy visited the island in 1727 and 1734 (Pensens 1728; Le Normant de Mézy 1734) (see also footnote 8 in Appendix 3); while Bigot visited it in 1740.

23 Harvey 1926, p. 238. See also Schmeisser (2000) for details on the changes in the command at Port La-Joie.