[2] One advantage in holding Montreal was that British supplies and presents for the savages could not reach the interior that way. Yet the Americans had little means of supplying the Indian trade. To meet the difficulty, the commissioners, desirous of being on good terms with the Indians up country, offered early on their arrival, passports to all traders who would enter into certain engagements to do nothing in the upper country prejudicial to the continental interests.
[3] The first book published in Canada is believed to be “Catéchisme du Diocèse de Sens Imprimé a Quebec, chez Brown et Gilmour, 1765.” The latter were the proprietors of the Quebec Gazette, the first journal, established on June 21, 1764. The Gazette Littéraire appeared in French, June 3, 1778, and in French and English.
[4] Mrs. Price, according to Franklin’s letter to the commissioners, had three wagon-loads of baggage with her. The Walkers “took such liberties in taunting at our conduct in Canada that it almost came to a quarrel. I think they both have an excellent talent in making themselves enemies and I believe even here they will never be long without them.” (Franklin’s Works, Vol. VIII, pp. 182-3.)
[5] On July 4, 1776, the American Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and in 1781, on July 9th, the Articles of Confederation were ratified.
[6] Cf. Lemoine’s “Picturesque Quebec.”
CHAPTER X
THE ASSEMBLY AT LAST
1776-1791
THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791