There was a newly-arrived parcel of letters from the bold,
enterprising Sieur de Verendrye, who was exploring the distant
waters of the Saskatchewan and the land of the Blackfeet, and many a
missive from missionaries, giving account of wild regions which
remain yet almost a terra incognita to the government which rules
over them.
At the Governor's elbow sat his friend Bishop Pontbriand with a
secretary immersed in papers. In front of him was the Intendant
with Varin, Penisault, and D'Estebe. On one side of the table, La
Corne St. Luc was examining some Indian despatches with Rigaud de
Vaudreuil; Claude Beauharnais and the venerable Abbe Piquet
overlooking with deep interest the rude pictorial despatches in the
hands of La Corne. Two gentlemen of the law, in furred gowns and
bands, stood waiting at one end of the room, with books under their
arms and budgets of papers in their hands ready to argue before the
Council some knotty point of controversy arising out of the
concession of certain fiefs and jurisdictions granted under the
feudal laws of the Colony.
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