Normandy, Poitou, Beauce, Perche, and Picardy. The Carignan-Salières
regiment brought men from all parts of the parent state. It does not
appear that any number of persons ever came from Brittany. The larger
proportion of the settlers were natives of the north-western provinces
of France, especially from Perche and Normandy, and formed an excellent
stock on which to build up a thrifty, moral people. The seigniorial
tenure of French Canada was an adaptation of the feudal system of France
to the conditions of a new country, and was calculated in some respects
to stimulate settlement. Ambitious persons of limited means were able to
form a class of colonial _noblesse_. But unless the seignior cleared a
certain portion of his grant within a limited time, he would forfeit it
all. The conditions by which the _censitaires_ or tenants of the
seigniorial domain held their grants of land were by no means
burdensome, but they signified a dependency of tenure inconsistent with
the free nature of American life. A large portion of the best lands of
French Canada were granted under this seigniorial system to men whose
names frequently occur in the records of the colony down to the present
day: Rimouski, Bic and Métis, Kamouraska, Nicolet, Verchères,
Lotbinière, Berthier, Beloeil, Rouville, Juliette, Terrebonne,
Champlain, Sillery, Beaupré, Bellechasse, Portneuf, Chambly, Sorel,
Longueuil, Boucherville, Chateauguay, Lachine, are memorials of the
seigniorial grants of the seventeenth century.

The whole population of the Acadian Peninsula in 1710-13, was not more
than 1500 souls, nearly all descendants of the people brought to the
country by Poutrincourt and his successors Razilly and Charnisay. At no
time did the French government interest itself in immigration to
neglected Acadia. Of the total population, nearly 1000 persons were
settled in the beautiful country which the industry and ingenuity of the
Acadian peasants, in the course of many years, reclaimed from the