May God be forever blessed. Now, at last, New France is about to experience the blessings of the mother country; and right, triumphing over injustice, will cause these countries to cease being what they have been for so many centuries,--boundless forests, the abode of [2] barbarism, and the land of infidelity. We begin to see some open country, through the clearings that have been made in different places. The families who come over every year are beginning to change the barbarism of the Savages into the courtesy natural to the French; and the slight progress we are making, through our stammerings, leads us to conjecture that the faith will banish infidelity from its Empire. In short, I hope to see, some day, these words fulfilled in our great deserts: _Multi filii desertæ, magis quàm eius quæ habet virum._ It is, indeed, proper that, in the Reign of so saintly a King, virtue should enter one of the great Seigniories of his Crown; that, under the favor and leadership of a Prince of the Church, we should see a new Church arise, _quæ extendet palmites suos usque ad mare, et usque ad flumen_ [3] _propagines eius_, which shall extend its branches even to the sea, and shall propagate itself along the shores of the chief of all rivers. A thousand considerations suggest these thoughts, and arouse in us these expectations. This enterprise is supported by persons of merit and rank, whose integrity, viewed by the eyes of all France, receives general approbation and praise, even from the lips of our great King. The exclusion of those who, having drained off the wealth that can be gathered in this country, left it without settlers and without cultivation,--not having, in all the years they enjoyed it, cleared a single arpent of land; the great sums that the Gentlemen of the Company of New France are expending, either upon the country or upon their establishments;[18] the disposition we [4] see in many persons to favor this project, some by their means, others by their personal labors: [all these considerations] lead us to conclude that God is conducting this enterprise.