Notes
194 Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre NOTES 1. La Jonquiere aSt. Pierre, Montreal, Ie 11 mai 1750, Archives du Seminaire de Quebec (hereafter cited as ASQ), Fonds Verreau, carton 5, no. 26; La Jonquiere aSt. Pierre, Montreal, ASQ, Fonds Verreau, carton 5, no. 33. 2. Etienne Taillemite, "Taffanel de La Jonquiere, Jacques-Pierre de, Marquis de La Jonquiere," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 12 vols. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966-1991; hereafter cited as DCB), 3:611. Some of the governor -generals known to have been questionably involved in the fur trade were Louis de Buade de Frontenac (1672-82 and 1689-98); Joseph-Antoine Lefebvre de La Barre (1682-85); Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (1703-25); and JacquesPierre de Taffanel de La Jonquiere (1749-52). 3. The signature on the 1752 letter (see note 4, following) is not entirely legible. I initially read it as "Meret" or "Meuret," and W. J. Eccles saw it in 1969 and 1983 as "M. Neul (?)" in note 29 on page 203 of his revised The Canadian Frontier. In 1981 and 1987, Eccles read the signature as "Meuvret" as reported in "La Mer de I'Ouest: Outpost of Empire" in his Essays on New France (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987), 101, 200, identifying this shadowy figure only as a "business associate." In 1935 Pierre-Georges Roy published biographical information on the secretaries of New France's governor-generals. He lists "Ie sieur Meret" as Governor Duquesne's secretary on the basis of his countersignature on an order signed by Duquesne on 24 April 1754 (Bulletin des recherches historiques, vol. 41:92, and vol. 35:201). In addition to Meret's signature on his 1752 private letter to St. Pierre, I subsequently located his countersignature on three letters written by Duquesne (ASQ, Fonds Verreau: carton 1, no. 37 112, 25 December 1753; carton 3, no. 179, 25 December 1753; and carton 5, no. 39, 25 December 1753); and in the 1754 journal of Chaussegros de Lery (ASQ, Fonds Verreau, carton 11, #55-65, Ms no. 094, March 1754; also in the copy dated May 1754) as "Meret" [sic]. When Governor La Jonquiere arrived from France in 1749, he was accompanied by his secretary, Andre Grasset de Saint-Sauveur. Saint-Sauveur remained in office until La Jonquiere's death on 17 March 1752. Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil served as acting governor-general until Duquesne arrived on 1 July 1752. Meret's 15 May 1752 letter to St. Pierre (document 61 translated above) states that he had received letters from St. Pierre in 1751, during Saint-Sauveur's service as governor's secretary. Meret may have served as an assistant secretary to the governor, becoming secretary upon the death of La Jonquiere. See Andre Lachance, "Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, Andre," DCB, 4:311-12, for details on Saint-Sauveur's illicit trading while in the governor's service. 4. Meret aSaint-Pierre, Quebec, Ie 15 mai 1752, ASQ, Fonds Verreau, carton 5, no. 38 112. The Western Sea (Part II), 1752-1753 195 5. See note 33 in chap. 4 for details on Uchelle. 6. Joseph Fleury Deschambault was agent-general for the Compagnie des Indes, and a merchant. Working for the company, he financed or granted credit to numerous traders and merchants. He held trade licenses for a number of posts, including Fort St. Joseph and Michilimackinac. At the latter he owned a house which he rented out (Andrew Rodger, "Fleury Deschambault, Joseph," DCB, 4:268-70). 7. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in his lengthy report on the state of New France in 1757 (Rapport de I'Archiviste de la Province de Quebec [(hereafter cited as RAPQ)] pour 1923-24, 51) stated that the Western Sea post annually produced "50 to 60 red slaves or Pawnees from Iatchilinine, a nation located on the Missouri and which plays, in America, the role of Negroes in Europe. It is only at this post that this traffic takes place." Much of this report is translated in Collectiolls of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1908; hereafter cited as WHC), 18:167-95. Transcripts are in the RAPQ pour 1923-24, 42-70 and in Pierre Margry, Relations et memoires inCdits pour servir a l'histoire de la France dans les pays d'outre-mer (Paris: Challamel aine, 1867), 39-84. The foregoing excerpt also is transcribed in Antoine Champagne, Nouvelles Crudes sur les La Verendrye et Ie poste de I'ouest...
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