** Frontenac a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672. This year only eleven girls had been sent. The scarcity was due to the indiscretion of Talon, who had written to the minister that, as many of the old settlers had daughters just becoming marriageable, it would be well, in order that they might find husbands, to send no more girls from France at present. The next year, 1673, the king writes that, though he is involved in a great war, which needs all his resources, he has nevertheless sent sixty more girls. flock. There was wherewith to content the most fantastical in these three harems; for here were to be seen the tall and the short, the blond and the brown, the plump and the lean; everybody, in short, found a shoe to fit him. At the end of a fortnight not one was left. I am told that the plumpest were taken first, because it was thought that, being less active, they were more likely to keep at home, and that they could resist the winter cold better. Those who wanted a wife applied to the directresses, to whom they were obliged to make known their possessions and means of livelihood before taking from one of the three classes the girl whom they found most to their liking. The marriage was concluded forthwith, with the help of a priest and a notary, and the next day the governor-general caused the couple to be presented with an ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat, and eleven crowns in money.” * As regards the character of the girls, there can be no doubt that this amusing sketch is, in the main, maliciously untrue. Since the colony began, it had been the practice to send back to France women of the class alluded to by La Hontan, as soon as they became notorious. ** Those who were * La Hontan, Nouveaux Voyages, I. 11 (1709). In some of the other editions, the same account is given in different words, equally lively and scandalous. ** This is the statement of Boucher, a good authority. A case of the sort in 1658 is mentioned in the correspondence of Argenson. Boucher says further, that an assurance of good character was required from the relations or friends of the girl who wished to embark. This refers to a period anterior to 1663, when Boucher wrote his book. Colbert evidently cared for no qualification except the capacity of maternity.