buy estates, as Murray did, they could not expect to get land in the
more settled parts of the country. For them Malbaie was a promising
field and in September, 1761, they went down to have a look at it. The
property was vested in the government, for which Murray could act. It
was not wholly untrodden wilderness, for some land was cleared and a
good deal of live stock still remained. The houses too had not been
entirely destroyed by Gorham's men. The war had not yet ended. It was
still uncertain whether Britain would hold Canada. But, for the moment,
there was little to do. It was possible that in Canada further
opportunities of military service would not be wanting. As seigneurs in
Canada the young officers would retain rank as gentlemen and would not
sink to the social level of mere cultivators of the soil. The experience
too of founding settlements in the Canadian wilderness had
compensations. Good sport was always to be had. They could pay at least
annual visits to Quebec for a few weeks, and were, perhaps, hardly more
remote from the cultivated world than some of the chieftains in their
own Scottish Highlands.

The survey of Malbaie must have proved satisfactory. It is true, as the
young officers said, that there was an over-abundance of "mountains and
morasses," with good land scattered only here and there. But in their
formal proposals to Murray they made this fact the plea for the grant of
a larger area. Nairne apparently had greater resources than Fraser and,
being now a captain, was his senior in rank. He asked for the more
important tract lying west of the little river at Malbaie and stretching
to the seigniory of Les Eboulements, Fraser for that lying east of the
river and stretching some eighteen miles along the St. Lawrence to the
Rivière Noire. The grants were to extend for three leagues into the
interior. They were to be held under seigniorial tenure but Nairne asked
for 3000 acres of freehold and Fraser for 2000. They thus close their