Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 3

The French in Gaspé, 1534 to 1760

by David Lee

Part I: The Background

Economic Development in Gaspé

In New France, except for Newfoundland, Gaspé was the closest French settlement to the motherland but it was the more remote St. Lawrence River Valley which developed more than either. Development in New France required fur trade for a capital base and agriculture for a population base and Gaspé and Newfoundland had the potential for neither. Nor did Gaspé offer France much in the way of timber or minerals. Even if Gaspé had abounded in these resources, its relative proximity to Europe would not have been a particularly important advantage.

But there was one resource in which Gaspé and Newfoundland did abound and for which speedy delivery to Europe was an asset. It was the dried cod in which Gaspé specialized. The Newfoundland fisheries developed more quickly than those of Gaspé — perhaps because they were even closer to France — but when France lost Newfoundland in 1713 there was no resultant increase in development in Gaspé. The French directed their attention towards expanding the fisheries of Cape Breton, perhaps because they realized that the Gaspé fisheries could accommodate no more fishermen or ships. Dry-cod fisheries nowhere stimulated extensive permanent settlement.

There was some government interest in the 1720s in encouraging development in Gaspé but nothing came of it. In 1724 and 1725 the government had aveux et dénombrements (reports) prepared on seven seigneuries previously granted in Gaspé and found that only two had ever been occupied and that one of these was now abandoned. All the seigneurs claimed, however, that they were planning development in the very near future. Only one of the other six was ever developed and it by a later owner.¹

In 1724, two agents, Jacques l'Hermitte and Louis Gosselin, were sent along the St. Lawrence to search for new resources of spar masts for the French navy. After finding little timber of any promise there, they continued in 1726 farther along the coast to the Bay of Chaleurs. Here they reported "a considerable stand of fine pine and spruce proper for masts." A sample was sent to France where it all failed to pass inspection. P. W. Bamford feels that this failure was due to poor cutting and preparation rather than poor quality timber. But in any case, this failure resulted in the French never again trying to exploit the considerable timber resources of Gaspé.² The sawmill reported on the York River when the English destroyed the Gaspé Bay settlement in 1758 was surely only for local use and not a source of lumber for export.

Explorers of the New World were always on the lookout for rich mineral deposits. As early as the 1580s there were rumours of silver deposits on the Cape of Gaspé. Over the years there were many other rumours of minerals awaiting exploitation in Gaspé: Pierre Boucher reported that the area was rich in coal and gypsum, while Denis Riverin reported copper, saltpetre and slate.³ But only two attempts were made to exploit the minerals of Gaspé.

One of the first projects to attract the enthusiasm of Jean Talon, Intendant of New France, was a lead mine near Gaspé Bay. He had a party of workmen including a German engineer sent from France in 1665 to spend several months digging for the ore. Serious accidents and two deaths plagued the project and in the end not enough ore was found to merit continuing the operation.⁴

From 1729 to 1734, a group of Quebec entrepreneurs expended considerable effort trying to develop a slate-works at Grand Etang on the northern shore of Gaspé. If they had succeeded, the quarry would have been a great asset to the colony, for few buildings in New France were covered with fire-resistant roofs and the towns were constantly battling serious fires. The government was naturally interested and tried to assist the project: it assisted, for example, by trying to provide qualified and willing workers. The work was hampered by difficulties of management, but in the end the slate-works failed when it could not produce slate of good enough quality or price to compete with slate imported from Europe.⁵ Neither of these mining ventures attracted any permanent settlers to Gaspé.

Agriculture in Gaspé could never be extensive, but as early as 1623, Gabriel Sagard reported that seamen had gardens in Gaspé where they grew sorrel and other herbs.⁶ As in this case, agriculture was always subordinate to the fishing industry. Despite reports of more extensive tracts of good land on the lower-lying coast of the Bay of Chaleurs, agriculture in Gaspé was confined to the much smaller pockets of arable land on the eastern and northern coasts of the peninsula where the fishing was more active. It is truer to say, as Louis Gosselin said of the area around Gaspé Bay, "the soil is good for gardening but not for agriculture."⁷

Much of the agriculture practised in Gaspé was by visiting sailors or fishermen. Some were only summer visitors to Gaspé, but others were residents who required locally procurable non-fish supplements to their diet during the winter months when no ships came from France. Large-scale farming on the northern and eastern coasts was impossible in the French regime because of the mountainous and heavily forested terrain. Clearing the land would have required a large amount of capital investment from which returns would have been slow to materialize. Some agriculture was practised at Denys' Percé establishment but this post was always in serious financial difficulty due to lack of capital and it was wiped out by the English in 1690. Denis Riverin's subsequent project to establish a sedentary fishery with a solid agricultural base at Mont-Louis was in an area much less exposed to English attack but it, too, failed because of disputes between him and his financial supporters who wanted the surer and quicker returns on capital which trade in furs usually produced.

The only viable and permanent communities in Gaspé during the French regime were centered in Gaspé Bay and in the Pabos, Grand-Rivière area and, in these, agriculture was secondary to fishing. In 1752, the Minister of Marine wanted the governor at Quebec to encourage agricultural settlements in the valleys of the rivers flowing southward into the Bay of Chaleurs. He felt that fishing must be de-emphasized in Gaspé in favour of agriculture. Obviously no one in France or Quebec knew anything about the particular problems or resources of Gaspé.⁸ Nothing was done: nothing could be done.

Minerals and furs were the principal attractions of the New World to the early explorers. Although they were disappointed by the minerals of New France, the furs brought them back again. While coasting the shores of the Bay of Chaleurs, Cartier's crew twice traded with the Indians for their fur until "nothing was left to them but their naked bodies."⁹ The early fishing voyages to Gaspé apparently came with the intention of trading for furs as well as fishing,¹⁰ but fish must still have been the first prize. The first year Europeans are known to have wintered in Gaspé was that of 1615-16 when five men from La Rochelle were left at Matane to trade with the Indians. The financiers of the project had sent earlier trading expeditions there and intended to have some men winter there again in 1617, but they were forced out by the monopoly of the Prince of Condé.¹¹ The Rochelais were solely interested in furs and when they did not return in 1617, the centre of French interest in the fur trade moved irrevocably up the St. Lawrence River and into the fur-rich interior of New France. After this abortive attempt, the fur trade of Gaspé remained only as an occasionally profitable supplement to the fisheries. This secondary fur trade in Gaspé was considered exempt from the monopolies in force in the heart of New France and this exemption was confirmed in 1685 by a royal ordinance.¹²

Apparently another sideline was the smuggling of furs from the interior of New France to Gaspé where they would be loaded on fishing ships headed, for example, for Bilbao in Spain.¹³

The fur trade was dependent on good river transportation and, of course, on good furs, and both were lacking in Gaspé. For those interested in furs it became evident that fur in Gaspé would always be of very minor importance and that greater profits were to be made in the larger, more accessible and richer fur-bearing areas in the interior of the continent. For those interested in investing in Gaspé it became evident that fishing would be the more lucrative field.

Occasionally the king instructed his governor at Quebec that for military and commercial reasons, he must promote the settlement of the land between Acadia and Canada. He could not specify what kind of settlement he wished because few people in France understood the special geography of Gaspé. Nor did the king follow his instructions with any money to encourage development in Gaspé.¹⁴

New France, like any underdeveloped region, was always short of investment capital. Capital invested in the colony was naturally directed towards those activities which would produce the largest return in the shortest possible period. Generally, most investment was directed to the St. Lawrence Valley rather than to Gaspé or Newfoundland with their difficult terrains. Rich mineral deposits in Gaspé could certainly have produced large and quick profits but the two mining ventures which were begun were both within sight of the sea. No one found minerals in the interior of the peninsula (where, as we know today, rich deposits do exist) because Europeans simply never ventured into the wild interior. Any money coming to New France for agricultural investment naturally went to Acadia or the St. Lawrence Valley where larger tracts of more easily cleared land were available.

Without immigration or capital for investment in mining or fur trading or agricultural settlement, development in Gaspé could never be extensive. Fishing settlements were never large but they could be established on the more amenable coast, always within sight of the sea. The whale and seal fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence did not require landing spots or nearby settlements at all, but the cod fishery, which did require landing, was even more important and profitable. It was the cod which attracted capital investment and those Europeans who did come to Gaspé.