* Avaugour, Mémoire, Gaspé 4 Août 1663.
soldier; and he soon after died a soldier’s death, while defending the fortress of Zrin, in Croatia, against the Turks. *
* Lettre de Colbert au Marquis de Tracy, 1664. Mémoire du
Boy, pout servir d’instruction au Sieur Talon
CHAPTER VII. 1661-1664. LAVAL AND DUMESNIL
Péronne Dumesnil.—The Old Council.—Alleged Murder.—The New Council.—Bourdon And Villeray.—Strong Measures.—Escape Of Duhesnil.—Views Of Colbert.
Though the proposals of Avaugour’s memorial were not adopted, it seems to have produced a strong impression at court. For this impression the minds of the king and his minister had already been prepared. Two years before, the inhabitants of Canada had sent one of their number, Pierre Boucher, to represent their many grievances and ask for aid. * Boucher had had an audience of the young king, who listened with interest to his statements; and when in the following year he returned to Quebec, he was accompanied by an officer named Dumont, who had under his command a hundred soldiers for the colony, and was commissioned to report its condition and resources. The movement
* To promote the objects of his mission, Boucher wrote a
little book, Histoire Véritable et Naturelle des Mœurs et
Productions du Pays de la Nouvelle France. He dedicates it
to Colbert.
** A long journal of Dumont is printed anonymously in the
Relation of 1663.