In fact, arrangements were made by those who had been put into possession of the Recollects' former estates, held prior to 1629, to cede them, and the friars now had an estate of ten by ten arpents, for which the governor general gave them new titles by an act of October 23, 1670.
We have now to record the appointment of a new governor for Montreal, left officially vacant since de Maisonneuve's departure, three and a half years ago, although several commandants had represented the Seigneurs. The choice fell upon M. Marie François Perrot, a gentilhomme by birth, and captain of an Auvergne regiment, who was then on the point of crossing over with his regiment to establish himself with his wife in Canada and doubtless make his fortune.
M. Perrot had married Talon's niece, Madeleine de Laguide, and it was the former intendant, then about to revisit Canada for a second time, who solicited the vacant post from M. de Bretonvilliers, the superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris who granted it by a letter addressed to M. Perrot on June 13, 1669, being "duly informed of your good life and character, talents, capacity and good qualities, we have made choice of your person to fill and exercise the office of governor ... without you at the same time being able to make pretensions to any salary or remuneration other than the country has been accustomed to give."
On the voyage, Perrot, his wife and Talon were shipwrecked, and they saved their lives on a broken mast by having promised a large sum of money to the sailors for having assisted them to it. Five hundred emigrants came with this expedition.
But on Perrot's arrival in Montreal, where he and his wife were well received, in pity for their shipwreck and out of interest in the lady governor—for Maisonneuve had been a sorry bachelor—he sought to have his commission made more certain by letters patent from the king. Accordingly, this was finally effected through Talon and Colbert, by letters dated March 14, 1671, and with the consent of M. Bretonvilliers, whose rights seemed not to be infringed, since it had been the custom for the governor generals named by the seigneur companies, also to receive a royal commission.
FOOTNOTES:
[94] M. Jacques Viger, the antiquarian and mayor of Montreal, by comparing Grandet's notice of Dollier de Casson with the "ecclesiastic" spoken of in the "Histoire de Montreal," established in 1888 the identity of Dollier with the "ecclesiastic," the writer and Sulpician who came in 1666. Hence the "Histoire de Montreal" is now attributed to Dollier de Casson.
[95] Abridged Family Roll of the Colony of New France—1666:
| Quebec | 555 |
| Beaupré | 678 |
| Beauport | 172 |
| Island of Orleans | 471 |
| St. Jean, St. François and St. Michel | 156 |
| Sillery | 217 |
| Notre-Dame des Anges and Rivière St. Charles | 118 |
| Côte de Lauson | 6 |
| Montreal | 584 |
| Trois Rivières | 461 |
| ----- | |
| 3418 | |
| Number of males between the ages of 16 and 50 years of age, capable of bearing arms | 1344 |