[Pichon, Thomas] (1760) (Secretary to the governor at Louisbourg). Lettres et Memoires pour servir a‘ 
     
     l’Histoire Nature/le, Civi/e et Politique du Cap Breton. P. Gosse, La Haye; J. Nourse, London. xvi, 327 pp. 
     
     [Reprinted 1966 by S. R. Publishers Ltd., Johnson Reprint Corporation, Mouton & Co. N. V.] 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     There is a problem with Thomas Pichon (b. 7700, d. 778 7): it is a question of how much faith to place in anything 
     
     connected with him or written by him. In 775 7 he arrived at Louisbourg with the new governor, the Count de Raymond, 
     
     in the post of secretary. When Raymond returned to France in 7 753 Pichon requested a transfer to Fort Beauséjour, 
     
     where shortly after, he secret/y transferred his allegiance to the British side and began to pass information to the 
     
     commander of nearby Fort Lawrence — information useful to the British in their successful assault on Fort Beausé/our 
     
     in 7755. Thereafter he went to London where he lived for some years on a British pension, before ending up in Jersey. 
     
     It was in London in 7 760 that he published anonymously in both a French and English edition his Lettres et Memoires 
     
     on Cape Breton, which includes a substantial section on I79 Saint-Jean. However, it is patently clear that most of his 
     
     material on l/e Saint-Jean has been copied from the 7752 census report of Joseph de La Roque — without any 
     
     acknowledgement whatsoever! In his Memoires Pichon not only uses La Roque’s report, but has in effect assumed the 
     
     persona of La Roque, claiming to have made the exact journeys on the very dates himself. Presumably as secretary 
     
     to the governor of Louisbourg, he would have had access to such a report and he could easily have made a copy for 
     
     himself. Though it is very unlikely that Pichon travelled with La Roque during the census, he did accompany Governor 
     
     Raymond during his visit to the island in the summer of 7752. Because of his treachery, Pichon has had a black name 
     
     in Canadian history. His one redeeming legacy has been considered to be his Lettres et Memoires — Crowley considered 
     
     it to be ”one of the few reliable published sources about the French in Acadia in the 78th century”. This reliability, at 
     
     least for the I7e Saint-Jean part of his book, is due to Joseph de la Roque. Thus with regard to his forest descriptions, 
     
     there is little that is not the product of La Roque, and even here there are sometimes erroneous interpretations. Among 
     
     the few parts not from La Roque are his digression on the red and white cedars and his comments on game animals at 
     
     various localities. However/ find that the former is also not his own work: apart from the sentence on the Acadian 
     
     women chewing cedar gum, Pichon has lifted it from the Journal of the Jesuit explorer Pierre Char/evoix that had been 
     
     published in 7744. 
     
    
   
   
    
     REFERENCES: 
     
     Charlevoix, P. F. X. de (1744) Journal d'un voyage dans l’Amerique septentriona/e. Nyon, Paris. (Vol. 5, p. 236). 
     
     Crowley, T.A. (1979) Pichon, Thomas. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, IV: 630-32. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     See Figure 7 (p. 7 74) for a map showing the location of the forest descriptions. 
     
    
   
   
    
     L’isle Saint Jean est la plus grande de toutes celles qu'on trouve dans le golphe St. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Laurent. Elle a méme sur l’lsle Ro'ialle l’avantage d’avoir des terres trés fertiles. Elle 
     
     a des bois de toutes especes en quantité [p. 54] 
     
    
   
   
    
     Fortune Riven Le havre de la fortune [Fortune River] Les terres des environs sont bonnes et propres 
     
     a la culture. On y trouve de plusieurs sortes de bois,et prodigieusement de renards, 
     
     martres, lapins et perdrix qui s'y cachent. [pp. 55-56] 
     
    
   
   
    
     . nous passémes un peu au large du havre a la Souris [Co/ville Bay]. Son entrée n’est 
     
     practicable qu’avec des chaloupes du port de trois a quatre cordes de bois. H y a peu 
     
     de foin dans ce lieu, mais les terres, quoiqu’un peu hautes, y paroissent bonnes a étre 
     
     cultivées. Elles sont couvertes de bois de toutes especes propres a la construction de 
     
    
   
   
    
     Souris Harbour. 
     
    
   
   
    
     petits batimens. [pp. 56—571 
     
    

    
     ’2 firePat nous doublémes Ia pointe de l’est que nous trouvémes deserte, parcequ’un incendie 
     
     ast 0/nt. avoit obligé les habitans a la quitter pour aller s’établir deux lieues plus loin encore sur 
     
     la cote du nord. [p. 57] 
     
    

    
     The fire in the Nous continuames notre route en cotoyant la mer pendant six lieues jusqu’a l’étang du 
     
     north-east. naufrage. Cette cote, quoi qu’assés unie, ne presente a la vfie que desert ou le feu a 
     
     passé, et plus avant les terres sont couvertes de bois franc. [p. 58] 
     
    

    
     Game animals La cote depuis le havre de la fortune jusqu’a celui de Saint Pierre fourmille de gibier do 
     
     at Naufrage. mer et de la terre. Cette abondance fut d’un grand secours aux malheureux qui s’y 
     
    
   
   
    
     sauverent {i.e. at Naufrage} les sauvages leur partagerent méme leur chasse dont les 
     
    
   
   
    
     111