This Apparently Improbable Fact Will,
However, Appear Less Extraordinary When It Is Known That He Was A Sea-
Faring Man; And When It Is Considered How Close Was The Alliance And
How Frequent The Intercourse Which, For Centuries Before That Period,
Had Subsisted Between France And Scotland.
"This individual, whose name was Abraham Martin, is described in a
legal document, dated the 15th August, 1646, and
Preserved among the
archives of the Bishop's Palace, at Quebec, as (the King's) Pilot of
the St. Lawrence; an appointment which probably conferred on its
possessor considerable official rank; for we find that Jacques
Quartier, or Cartier, the enterprising discoverer and explorer of the
St. Lawrence, when about to proceed in 1540, on his third voyage to
Canada, was appointed by Francis I, Captain General and Master Pilot
of the expedition which consisted of four vessels.
"That Martin was a person of considerable importance in the then
infant colony of New France may also be inferred from the fact that,
in the journal of the Jesuits and in the parish register of Quebec, he
is usually designated by his Christian name only, Maitre Abraham; as
well as from the circumstance of Champlain, the distinguished founder
of Quebec and father of New France, having been god-father to one of
Abraham's daughters (Helene) and of Charles de St. Etienne, Sieur de
la Tour, of Acadian celebrity, having stood in the same relation to
Martin's youngest son, Charles Amador.
"The earliest mention of Martin's name occurs in the first entry of
the parish register of Quebec, viz., on, the 24th of October, 1621;
when his son Eustache, who died shortly afterwards, was baptized by
father Denis, a Franciscan Friar.
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