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

The French in Gaspé, 1534 to 1760

by David Lee

Part II: The Communities

In the 150-year life of New France, five areas in the Gaspé peninsula were exploited by Europeans on a basis more permanent than the summer fisheries. Some saw only one or two years of development while others experienced rather extensive settlement. Some were vitally interested in fishing while one was interested exclusively in furs. The five areas were Matane, Mont-Louis, Gaspé Bay, Percé and Pabos, Grande-Rivière. It is at these sites that the distinctiveness and importance of the Gaspé peninsula can be illustrated.

Matane

When Champlain published his Voyages in 1632, he described Matane thus: "the river Matane... at high water, is open for twelve or thirteen leagues, so that average vessels of eighty to a hundred tons can enter. At low tide the harbour is shut by a sandbar, but in the river itself there is enough water to keep vessels afloat."¹ Matane is about 200 miles down-river from Quebec. It was the farthest point up the St. Lawrence to which the cod ascended but, although the French occasionally fished there, it was fur which attracted the only actual development.

In November, 1612, Louis XIII granted his nephew, the Prince of Condé, the title of Vice-Roy in Canada and a monopoly of all fur trade for 12 years. Condé based his operation on the Channel ports of St. Malo and Rouen from where he sent out his lieutenant, Samuel de Champlain, the following spring. Upon arriving, his ships found the Rochelais ship Le Soleil at Matane trading for furs. Even though Cond'sé monopoly began only at Quebec, his men apparently seized Le Soleil. For the next trading season Condé succeeded in forming a regular fur trading company with certain merchants of Rouen and St. Malo. There had long been a strong rivalry between the Normans of the Channel ports and the Rochelais of the Atlantic coast, but now it was seriously heightened as the Normans insisted that Condé entirely exclude the Rochelais from the monopoly which now included the stretch between Matane and Quebec. The Rochelais were angered enough to come right back and test the monopoly that year (1614), and again their ship was seized. By this time they had taken their case to court, but it took nearly 20 years for them to win their point. Stubbornly they returned in 1615, and this time succeeded in leaving a trading party of five men to stay the winter undetected at Matane. The men and the furs they had obtained from the Indians during the winter were picked up the following year and returned to La Rochelle.²

The Rochelais do not appear to have returned to test the monopoly once again. Perhaps they felt they had won a symbolic victory in successfully trading at Matane, or perhaps the furs traded were too few to attract them back again. But it is interesting that Condé (probably advised by Champlain) wanted to extend the monopoly to Matane, but no farther. Perhaps even at that early date people familiar with the St. Lawrence recognized some sort of economic or geographic point of division at Matane; Champlain probably felt that the Gaspé area down-river from Matane was not an easily accessible or rich fur-bearing region. The Rochelais could easily have moved down-river a little to Cap-Chat or Mont-Louis and been patently outside the restricted area, but they chose to remain at Matane perhaps as a symbolic matter of principle but also perhaps because it was believed to be the limit of good furs in the St. Lawrence Valley. Again, possibly because it was still believed that Gaspé was a poor area for the fur trade, the king could subsequently (1685) afford to confirm that the southern shore of the St. Lawrence below Matane be a free trading area for furs; anyone would now be allowed to trade for furs here if he were interested.³

Compared to the country farther up-river, Gaspé was poor in furs and there were fewer Indians, and transportation on the tributary rivers was difficult. Father Gabriel Druilletes accompanied a hunting party in the Matane River valley during the winter of 1647-48. He has left a story of extreme misery, of how the party barely survived starvation due to poor hunting and difficulty of travel.⁴ In any case, it seems that it did not take long for the French to recognize that, at least with respect to faunal resources, the St. Lawrence Valley below Matane was a region distinct from the St. Lawrence above Matane.

3 Bird's-eye view of Mont-Louis, probably 1699. a Rivière Mont-Louis b point of land already cleared c flakes d piles of fish e sandbars f rocky areas g natural rock formation suitable for a defensive position h magazine i salt bin l stages for clearing fish m storehouses (?) n silted cove o river basin P small islands Q habitations R Rivière St.-Croix S three capes beyond Mont-Louis (Original in Bibliothéque, Paris., click on image for a PDF version)