FRENCH OCCUPATION.                         15
the partner of Sieur Lachesnaye, ¦whom Sieur de Lasalle left in New France.
3. The late'Lord Colbert, moreover, obliged Sieur de Lasalle to keep twenty men there at his expense for the term of two years, and a permanent garrison equal to that of Montreal; which he did, as appears by the extract of Count de Frontenac's reports, and the expense thereof has been very great, and exceeded eighteen thousand livres a year, as well for men's wages as for the flour which cost eleven livres the minot, delivered at said fort, whither it was necessary to have it conveyed from Montreal, no grain having been got in during the first four years, through divers accidents which prevented advantage being taken of the fertility of the soil that has since proved very productive.
4 As the Iroquois who dwell around Lake Frontenac, which is one hundred leagues long and twenty wide, carry their peltries to New York, he, with a view to deprive the English of some of them, caused decked vessels to be built, in order that the Iroquois, finding at their door and on their road the things they required, might prefer this accommodation to the low prices of the English. Considerable advantage would have been derived from this, had not the various shipwrecks which occurred in the years 1678 and 1679, and domestic robberies, destroyed the means thereunto. No time has been lost in building two new vessels since, one of 35 @ 40 and the other of 25 tons.
The expense of these amounts to nearly nine thousand livres; and this is not surprising, inasmuch as the freight from Montreal to fort Frontenae, of iron, rigging, tow, sails, tar, pitch, anchors and other naval stores, is two sous per pound weight, because the difficulty of the rapids, in addition to the distance of the places, requires an increase in the wages of the hands.
5.  More than one hundred arpens of land have been cleared, which are now under tillage, and produce very good grain. Each arpent, it is known, is worth one hundred and ten livres in the remaining part of Canada, and it has cost more at Fort Frontenac for reasons already stated.
6.  A considerable number of cattle had been conveyed from Montreal.    This expense is easily calculated by the distance of seventy leagues, and the difficulty of the roads, which had not been opened and it was necessary to construct in very difficult places.    The cattle have been reduced to twenty through the disorder caused by Mr de Labarre at Fort Frontenac since he seized it.
7.  Sieur de Lasalle has likewise settled several inhabitants, whom he had conveyed at his own expense, with their families