There are four staples which make up the greatest expense of this mission: the pork, butter, drinks, and flour, which are sent; in time, the country may furnish these things. As to pork, if from the beginning of this year we had had a building, no more of it, or not much, would have had to be sent next year; we have two fat sows which are each suckling four little pigs, and these we have been obliged to feed all summer in our open court. Father Masse has raised these animals for us. If that point of which I have spoken were enclosed, they could be put there and during the summer nothing need be given them to eat; I mean that in a short time we shall be provided with pork, an article which would save us 400 livres. As to butter, we have two cows, two little heifers, and a little bull. M. de Caen having left his cattle here when he saw that he was ruined, we took of them three cows, and for [147] the family which is here, three others; they and we each gave to M. Giffard[8] a cow, so we have remaining the number that I have just stated. For lack of a building, they cost us more than they are worth, for our working people are obliged to neglect more necessary things for them; they spoil what we have sown; and they cannot be tended in the woods, for the insects torment them. They have come three years too soon, but they would have died if we had not taken them in; we took them when they were running wild. In time they will provide butter, and the oxen can be used for plowing, and will occasionally furnish meat. Pour la boisson, il faudra faire de la bierre; mais nous attendrons encore que nous soyons bastis, et qu'il y ait une brasserie dressée: ces trois articles sont assurés avec le temps. Pour les blés, on a douté si la terre, où nous sommes, n'estoit point trop froide. Allons par ordre, et voyons la nature du sol: voicy deux années que tout ce qui est du jardinage, qui ne lève que trop, a été mangé par la vermine, qui provient ou du voisinage des bois, ou de ce que la terre n'est pas bien encor exercée et purifiée ny aérée. Au milieu de l'esté, cette vermine meurt, et nous avons de fort beaux jardinages. As to drinks, we shall have to make some beer; but we shall wait until we have built, and until a brewery is erected; these three articles are assured, with time. As to grains, some people are inclined to think that the land where we are is too cold. Let us proceed systematically, and consider the nature of the soil: these last two years all the vegetables, which come up only too fast, have been eaten by insects, which come either from the neighborhood of the woods, or from that land which has not yet been worked and purified, nor exposed to the air. In midsummer these insects die, and we have very fine vegetables.