of the wool of the sheep which the king had sent out; encouraged others to establish a tannery, and also a factory of hats and of shoes. The Sieur Follin was induced by the grant of a monopoly to begin the making of soap and potash. * The people were ordered to grow hemp, ** and urged to gather the nettles of the country as material for cordage; and the Ursulines were supplied with flax and wool, in order that they might teach girls to weave and spin. Talon was especially anxious to establish trade between Canada and the West Indies; and, to make a beginning, he freighted the vessel he had built with salted cod, salmon, eels, pease, fish-oil, staves, and planks, and sent her thither to exchange her cargo for sugar, which she was in turn to exchange in France for goods suited for the Canadian market. *** Another favorite object with him was the fishery of seals and white porpoises for the sake of their oil; and some of the chief merchants were urged to undertake it, as well as the establishment of stationary cod-fisheries along the Lower St. Lawrence. But, with every encouragement, many years passed before this valuable industry was placed on a firm basis. Talon saw with concern the huge consumption of wine and brandy among the settlers, costing them, as he wrote to Colbert, a hundred thousand livres a year; and, to keep this money in the * Registre du Conseil Souverain. ** Marie de l’Incarnation, Choix des Lettres de 871. *** Le Mercier, Rel. 1667, 3; Dépêches de Talon colony, he declared his intention of building a brewery. The minister approved the plan, not only on economic grounds, but because “the vice of drunkenness would thereafter cause no more scandal by reason of the cold nature of beer, the vapors whereof rarely deprive men of the use of judgment.” * The brewery was accordingly built, to the great satisfaction of the poorer colonists. Nor did the active intendant fail to acquit himself of the duty of domiciliary visits, enjoined upon him by the royal instructions; a point on which he was of one mind with his superiors, for he writes that “those charged in this country with his Majesty’s affairs are under a strict obligation to enter into the detail of families.” ** Accordingly we learn from Mother Juchereau, that "he studied with the affection of a father how to succor the poor and cause the colony to grow; entered into the minutest particulars; visited the houses of the inhabitants, and caused them to visit him; learned what crops each one was raising; taught those who had wheat to sell it at a profit, helped those who had none, and encouraged everybody.” And Dollier de Casson represents him as visiting in turn every house at Montreal, and giving aid from the king to such as needed it. *** Horses, cattle, sheep, and other domestic animals, were sent out at the royal charge in considerable numbers, and * Colbert à Talon, 20 Fev., 1668. ** Mémoire de 1667.