French King Louis XIV imposed a form of administration on the colony of New France which lasted until the end of French rule in 1760. The new order consisted of a Governor, responsible for external relations and military matters, and an intendant, responsible for internal administration. The colony's economic mainstay remained the fur trade but this provided little appeal for immigrants and population grew slowly. Territorial expansion, however, pushed French colonial and fur trading frontiers north almost to Hudson Bay, west to the Great Plains and southwest to the Gulf of Mexico. Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643-1687), seen here near the Toronto Carrying Place on one of his many excursions southwest of the Great Lakes, is a prime example of the energetic trader whose enterprise permitted the French to claim colonial boundaries as far as the Gulf of Mexico.
Courtesy: Picture Division, Public Archives of Canada (C-73678)
