Pine for masts common.

Mast trees inspected.

Extra soldiers for cutting masts.

The extra soldiers re turned.

Conserving the forest.

1726: 28 November: Letter 2.

This officer [Pensens] has made a memo which appears to me very correct (and which he has the honour to send to you) on the quality of the soils, on that of the different woods which are on this island, of which pine for masts seems to be the most common. Several people have used them for masts of 50 to 60 feet in length, useful for schooners and boats, with which they have been very pleased. Some captains and master charpentiers [carpenters/Shipwrights] of merchant ships assure me that this masting equals that of the north lie of Europe].

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 8, fols. 66v- 67]

1727: 10 November

I have the honour to inform you that Monsieur de Pensens had been the month of July last at lle Saint-Jean, I had instructed him to inspect the woods for masts and other timber suitable for building. As I am sure, Monseigneur, that this officer will report on his trip and on the findings that he has made there, I will not linger to make a repetition of it here.

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 9, fol. 52]

1727: 21 November

Monsieur de Pensens left here for lie Saint-Jean some time ago. At the request of Monsieur de Mezy, I have given him ten additional men for his company to be employed with the others in his detachment in cutting masts and small masts [matereaux] that Monsieur de Mezy is having done for the benefit of the government.

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 9, fol. 74v]

1728: 3 November

If last year I transferred ten men of Pensen’s company to lie Saint-Jean it was only at the request Monsieur de Mezy made to me to go to cut masts and to prepare planks there in accordance with the orders that he said he had from you Monseigneur. I did not think that I ought to refuse him the request that he made, believing it to be for the benefit of the government. These ten men returned here at the beginning of the month of May last in accordance with the order that I had given last autumn to Monsieur de Pensens.

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 20 [Sic], fols. 42-42v] 1732: 18 November [signed jointly by Saint-Ovide and Le Normant, acting commissaire]

We have the honour to reply to the dispatch of 19 June last concerning lle Saint- Jean. We assure Monseigneur that we will give all our attention to the conservation of the woods of that island, in the way that you have recommended to us.

[fo|. 210] the expenditure on these buildings [’the store for the supplies’ and 'the officer's lodgings’] by making them of timber-framing will not be great given that wood is cheap in that place. [foI. 212]

[PAC, AC, CHB, Vol. 12, fols. 210-212]

1 . Monsieur de L’Etenduere was a ship’s captain in the French Navy (see Proulx 1984, p. 133).