Talon was constantly begging for more men, till Louis XIV. at length took alarm. Colbert replied to the over-zealous intendant, that the king did not think it expedient to depopulate France, in order to people Canada; that he wanted men for his armies; and that the colony must rely chiefly on increase from within. Still the shipments did not cease; and, even while tempering the ardor of his agent, the king gave another * See a paper by Garneau in Le National of Quebec, 28 October, 1856, embodying the results of research among the papers of the early notaries of Quebec. The chief emigration was from Paris, Normandy, Poitou, Pays d’Aunis, Brittany, and Picardy. Nearly all those from Paris were sent by the king from houses of charity. ** “Une foule d'aventuriers, ramasses au hazard en France, presque tous de la lie du peuple, la plupart obérés de dettes ou chargés de crimes.” etc. La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. IV. “Le vice a obligé la plupart de chercher ce pays comme un asile pour se mettre à couvert de leurs crimes,” Meules, Dépêché de 1682. Meules was intendant in that year. Marie de l’Incarnation, after speaking of the emigrants as of a very mixed character, says that it would have been far better to send a few who were good Christians, rather than so many who give so much trouble. Lettre du--Oct., 1669. Le Clerc, on the other hand, is emphatic in praise, calling the early colonists, “très honnêtes gens, avant de la probité, de la droiture, et de la religion.... L’on a examiné et choisi les habitants, et renvoyé en France les personnes vicieuses.” If, he adds, any such were left “ils effacaient glorieusement par leur pénitence les taches de leur première condition.” Charlevoix is almost as strong in praise as La Tour in censure. Both of them wrote in the next century. We shall have means hereafter of judging between these conflicting statements. proof how much he had the growth of Canada at heart. *