Like any pioneer settlement, frontier conditions in Isle Royale promoted a spirit of independence and a lack of discipline. Compounding the difficulties of establishing a colony in a hostile environment was the nature of the settlement of Louisbourg. Hardly a typical New World community, Louisbourg was a heavily fortified garrison town. The Compagnies Franches de la Marine, established in the 17th century, made up the core of the Isle Royale garrison. Six to eight companies of approximately 60 men each served at Isle Royale from 1713 to 1745. Prior to 1745 the Compagnies Franches were also supplemented by approximately 150 men of the Swiss Karrer Regiment employed by the Ministry of the Marine. By the late 1730s the military in Louisbourg comprised approximately 1/4 of the town's population of 2,000. After Isle Royale was returned to the French in 1749, the garrison included 24 regiments of the Compagnies Franches, together with a number of battalions of regular French infantry. By the mid-1750s the military accounted for approximately one-third of Louisbourg's permanent population of 5,000 residents.

Contact between the military and civilian population of France was both frequent and intimate during the first half of the 18th century. Town patrols, drills, and punishments of the soldiers were familiar features to practically all French citizens. Military-civilian contacts would have been even more intimate in 18th century Louisbourg primarily because of the isolation of the colony. Civilians had little choice but to mix and interact socially with soldiers in places such as the garrison chapel, taverns, and inns, and work sites on the fortifications.

The use of barracks instead of private homes for billeting soldiers, a relatively recent innovation in the early years of the 18th century, was introduced at Louisbourg. The Louisbourg barracks did not necessarily separate military personnel from the townspeople because the barracks was located within the walls of the town. Moreover, there is evidence that most of the skilled soldiers employed on the fortifications were billeted among the townspeople ... Military personnel in the colony had to be paid by the royal treasury and thus visits to the colony by the king's vessels carrying monies for the troops became a regular occurrence at Cape Breton. The L'Atalante was one such vessel which carried provisions, reinforcements and pay for the military to Louisbourg. The L'Atalante arrived at Louisbourg in mid-September, 1716. One of the officers on board, Louis Chancels de Lagrange, kept a detailed journal during his three-week visit to Isle Royale. He described the town of Louisbourg: 

The inside of the part is surrounded by various huts or cabins of wood forming a town at the edge of the harbour, with a parish served by the Récollets. The land is quite high, covered with fir trees which are green and half burnt. The low wooden houses are at a distance from one another on poor land, strewn with rocks, where many scaffolds and tents for the cod 2 fishermen are seen ...

Constructed on the edge of the wilderness, Louisbourg appeared to be a peaceful fishing village protected by a few hundred soldiers. The serenity of the village, however, was soon to be disturbed for L'Atalante was a pay ship with 60,000 livres in cash for the military garrison ... With such large amounts of capital coming to the colony to pay for the troops, it was hardly surprising that from the time of the initial settlement of Cape Breton, government officials complained of the drinking and gambling by the soldiers of the garrison. In June 1715 Jerome Phelypeaux, France's Minister of the Marine, called upon Isle Royale's governor, Pasteur de Costebelle, to eliminate the "libertinage" or licenticious ways of the officers as well as the troops ...

At Port Dauphin, commissaire-ordonnateur Pierre-Auguste de Soubras sold wine and brandy to soldiers in exchange for money and liquor. But not all the soldiers could afford to purchase liquor. On 15 February 1717, two days before Ash Wednesday, new recruits, who did not have money asked for "something to finish the carnival". For most Catholics, Lent ushered in a somber period characterized by fasting and frequent church attendance. The last week before Lent provided an opportunity for a final celebration prior to the beginning of a 40-day period of penitence from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday were known as meat days, culminating in the festivity of the Mardi Gras on Tuesday. The new recruits were determined to have liquor for the Mardi Gras. Soubras refused to supply liquor to those troops without money, threatening to "break the head of anyone who entered his house". When Soubras came out of his house brandishing a pistol, a riot ensued. With a drum beating, 28 to 30 men approached Soubras' house in a threatening fashion. Cooler heads prevailed as officers intervened and quelled the disturbance. The worst offenders were subsequently punished on the wooden horse ...

This attempted revolt by soldiers of the Ile Royale garrison, although an isolated incident, demonstrated that new recruits were not always the most disciplined individuals. While there had been marked improvements in European armies by the beginning of the 18th century, the typical European soldier was hardly noted for his self control. For the most part, European armies, even as late as the 18th century, were comprised of men who were "among the roughest and least civilized in society"... The Louisbourg documentation attests to the crude behaviour of numerous men in the garrison. Inevitably, most of the offenses were related to the consumption of alcohol. In November, 1720, Governor Saint Ovide referred to the soldier of the Rouville company who had been given a pair of shoes and stockings which he sold in order to obtain liquor. The soldier was punished on the wooden horse ... Sentencing soldiers to be punished on the wooden horse may well have been a frequent occurrence at Louisbourg, for numerous men sold their shoes, vests, pants, and rations of bread in order to get drunk ... In spite of the errant behaviour associated with alcohol, drunkenness was encouraged as a pastime by the military authorities for they made substantial profits by selling liquor to the soldiers in their canteens. Small wonder Louisbourg officials issued a litany of complaints to France bemoaning the "debauchery and libertinage" among the soldiers caused by the abuse of alcohol ... In 1721 Governor Saint Ovide noted that the soldiers and workers disappear as soon as they are paid because of the number of taverns scattered throughout the town. Paid once every 15 days, the soldier-workers were usually in a drunken stupor on Sundays and Mondays. Drunkenness, however, could not be tolerated if it interfered with the progress of the work on the fortifications. Hence, in November 1721, an ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquor to workers on work days was passed ... Judging by the number of times it was reissued, the ordinance had little effect, for it was repeated on eight separate occasions between 1722 and 1754 ...

With 11-hour working days, few eligible females and a lack of social amenities, liquor, gambling, and prostitution were accepted social diversions among the military. French officials acknowledged as much in 1728, when the Comte de Maurepas, Minister of the Marine, noted that the money soldiers earn working on Isle Royale permits them to lead an easy life which makes them "delicate and difficult" ... Louisbourg officials concurred. The Louisbourg engineer, Etienne Verrier, noted that while he never opposed the workers' right to a profit, "... the soldiers are so debauched and of such great expense ..." that contractors prices will have to be raised for future projects ... Because of the shortage of workers, the soldiers could demand high wages for their labour. In view of the vast amount of money circulating in the colony to pay for the construction of the fortifications, the authorities appeared powerless to act against drunkenness, gambling, and prostitution. By 1727 drinking had been permitted in the barracks with the introduction of the first canteen, and gambling, while officially prohibited, was tolerated as well. "The ovens in the cellar of the barracks" wrote commissaire-ordonnateur De Mesy in 1727, "are always filled with soldiers who go there continually to play and to drink with the bakers, which we can't prevent ... Gambling was so much a part of the lifestyle of Louisbourg soldiers that it was not uncommon for some recruits to offer the clothes on their back as stakes in a game of chance ... Dice and playing cards were constant companion pieces of most soldiers. In 1733, two soldiers, La Rigeur and La France, members of Dailleboust's company and roofers by profession, were employed to work on a new house in Louisbourg. While building the roof, the owner of the house provided them with such necessities as laundry service,, bread, cheese, wine and dice ...

If dice and playing cards were considered staples of life by some individuals, they paled in comparison to sexual gratification, the most basic human desire after food and shelter. Unfortunately, at Louisbourg, it was much easier to satiate the demand for food and shelter than sexual release. As in any garrison town where there were few women, homosexuality and prostitution were inevitable developments resulting from unnatural living conditions. While there was little or no mention of homosexuality among official Louisbourg documentation, there were some feeble attempts by the administration to control prostitution. In June 1715 Jerome Phelypeaux, French Minister of the Marine, ordered Wuisbourg governor Costebelle to arrest captain Ste. Marie who was on guard the night two "filles de mauvaise vie" escaped from prison ... Prostitution, like gambling, however, could not be eradicated by mere prison terms, for there would be other reports of "filles de mauvaise vie" escaping from custody ...

The prostitute who catered to the men of the garrison were treated with disdain by the Louisbourg authorities much like the tavern keepers who permitted soldiers to gamble . and drink in their establishments ... On the night of 27 December 1719, 15 drunken soldiers arrived at the home of a man named La Jeunesse who lived in the vicinity of Louisbourg. upon entering the modest house, they discovered the drunken husband prostrate in front of the fire while the wife was in bed with a soldier. The drunken soldiers taunted and mocked La Jeunesse and his wife and were eventually arrested for creating a disturbance and stealing two shirts. In the end, however, the soldiers were merely reprimanded: two of the soldiers and the sailor were briefly put in irons and the soldiers had to run the gauntlet for three days. Taunting and disturbing a loose woman were hardly considered serious crimes for as ordonnateur De Mézy noted, she "had the reputation of a debauched woman but it was not public"...

Debauched women, to the Louisbourg authorities, were little better than parasites preying upon the men. Imagine the contempt reserved by Louisbourg officials for female slaves who had illegitimate children by the troops. Obviously exploited by their owners, some female slaves were doubtless considered chattel who functioned as whores ... Pious women were another matter. Commissaire-ordonnateur De Mézy suggested in 1720 that 30 "filles de pieté" be sent to Ile Royale under the supervision of the sisters. After having worked in the homes of local inhabitants and saved money for a dowry, the women could marry soldiers with skilled trades. De Mézy's proposal was an unrealistic scheme doomed to failure even if such pious women could be lured to Louisbourg ... De Mézy and his successors attempted to keep not only debauched women but married men separate from the soldiers. By 1723 there were eight married sergeants or privates in the companies. Governor St. Ovide recommended to his superiors in France that the soldiers be discharged and become colonists because their presence had a disruptive effect among the troops ...

Although the authorities attempted to keep married men and women away from the soldiers, prostitution could hardly be avoided in a garrison town. Periodic outbreaks of venereal disease occurred among the troops in the 1730s and by 1741 commissaire-ordonnateur Frangois Bigot complained that "we have several soldiers of this garrison attacked by venereal disease .... Since the health of the soldiers had been closely inspected prior to their departure for Cape Breton, there was little doubt that the men had contracted the disease in Louisbourg.

After the return of Louisbourg to the French in 1749, there were numerous references to prostitution because, in absolute terms, there were more females in Louisbourg and hence the soldiers would have been exposed to women more often on a daily basis throughout the town. During the second French occupation (1749-58) there was a larger concentration of people in Louisbourg than during the first occupation (1713-45) with the town accounting for approximately 60 per cent of Ile Royale's total population ... By 1750 there were 5,000 full-time residents in Louisbourg including the 24 regiments of the Compagnies Franches. In 1751 Louis Franquet, Louisbourg's chief engineer, inspected the three blockhouses built during the English occupation from 1745 to 1749. He recommended that the three buildings be torn down especially since the blockhouse at the barrachois was habitable and used by "bad subjects of both sexes" ... The following year there were reports of women of "mauvaise vie" living in the barracks. In May 1753 commissaire ordonnateur Jacques Prévost informed the minister that the engineer Brécon and his two sons, who were engineers, were guilty of immoral conduct. Brécon senior was living with a woman of "mauvaise vie" and was waiting for another, said to be "the widow of an Irish officer". In the same year, three women of "mauvaise vie", former inhabitants of the barracks, were expelled from the colony, while another soldier shared the same room with a woman of "mauvaise vie" ...

It was not only officers of the garrison but non-commissioned officers and enlisted men who were in frequent contact with women as well. In December 1752 private Fremault was arrested for stealing two pounds of soap from his laundress while sergeant Lesiamousier was arrested and imprisoned for one month for kicking a girl in the back ... The punishment given to soldiers for assaulting or insulting a woman depended upon the severity of the crime and the social status of the victim. Soldiers who assaulted whores or prostitutes generally received light sentences. In February 1752 two soldiers were arrested for beating women: private Sansquartier, a member of DuChambon's company, was apparently imprisoned for only three days, while Sans Soucy, a member of Captain Benoist's company, was imprisoned for 15 days ... Assaulting a woman of questionable character or loose morals was less serious than merely insulting a lady of social standing. In January 1753 private Langevin was sentenced to 15 days in prison for merely insulting a woman. On the other hand, sergeant St. Pierre was imprisoned for only five days for failing to respond to the appeal and using abusive language against the wife of private Livre, hardly a woman of social standing.

Although taverns were usually the preserve of males, Louisbourg soldiers would not only have met women on the streets but would have occasionally seen them in their drinking establishments. By the 1750s military canteens had been re-established in Louisbourg, and in 1753 the canteen occupied four rooms in the former English barracks at the Queen's Bastion. The establishment was run by a number of unnamed women who paid 6,000 livres for the privilege of a monopoly of the canteen business ...

Although there were more women in Louisbourg during the 1750s there was still a chronic shortage of females and, in fact, men still outnumbered women by 10 to 1. In spite of the shortage of women, there was a feeble attempt at Isle Royale to emulate a policy adopted in Canada to encourage soldiers to take wives and develop the colony. In 1718 colonial officials were empowered to discharge any married men in the Compagnies Franches who wanted to settle in the colony ... A 1725 ordinance permitted one soldier per French company and two Catholic soldiers from the Karrer Regiment to settle in the colony each year. The 1725 ordinance, however, remained a dead letter until the 1750s ... Of the 586 marriages recorded in the Louisbourg parish records from 1722 to 1758, there were only 63 marriages of enlisted men. And 15 of those 63 marriages were celebrated on the same day, 2 October 1752 .... By 1756 Governor Augustin de Drucourt complained to officials in France that the soldiers who had been permitted to marry were the "worst subjects of the garrison" and the women were "the whores and the drunkards of the country" ...

Two years later it may well have been the same women that Governor Drucour complained about who befriended the British forces during the 1758 siege of Louisbourg. Writing in 1829, James Thompson, a member of the 78th Highland Regiment and veteran of the 1758 Louisbourg campaign, described how Louisbourg women approached the British forces: 

... Although the French women were constantly teazing our troops for something to appease their hunger, they could not be prevail'd upon to come near when any of the Highlanders were to be seen, until, at last, one of them who was more brave than the rest, volunteer'd to come into our Camp, and we got our master Tailor, Kanavan to interpret for the woman. She told us all about the fears they had, and getting plenty to eat, and being otherwise well treated, she left the camp, and afaith it wasn't long before we had a great deal too many of the Canadian women amongst us begging for victuals, as they were in a starving state. And so it turn'd out that the highlanders ... soon afterwards proved to be the greatest favourites with the women. 

Much to their delight, the 78th Highland Regiment discovered that the women of Louisbourg were receptive to their overtures. At first glance, it might appear that Louisbourg was a haven solely for prostitutes, drunkards, and gamblers. In order to understand the leisure activities of 18th century Louisbourg examined in this study, it is necessary to consider the social context of the community. The settlement of Louisbourg was not typical of pioneering communities in North America for the community grew rapidly with the infusion of large amounts of government capital. Each year the government spent in excess of 150,000 livres on the fortifications ... Soldiers had the opportunity to earn extra income, yet there were practically no activities, exclusive of liquor and gambling, on which to spend their new-found wealth.

And in the latter respect Louisbourg was not so different from other pioneer communities in North America. New settlements, at least in their initial stages of development, simply did not have the resources or infrastructure to provide their citizens with such 18th century leisure facilities as fairs, cafes, theatres, tennis courts, bowling greens, and billiard halls. In newly-established garrison communities the scarcity of leisure activities was aggravated by the lack of available women to provide wives for the hundreds of men. Witness the example of Fort Michilamackinac, a French garrisoned settlement on the south shore of the straits of Mackinac in present-day northern Michigan. A provincial outpost, Michilimackinac was founded for the purpose of exploiting the lucrative northwest fur trade. In 1702 Reverend Etienne de Carheil, a veteran of 15 years service in the wilderness communities of New France, described the social disruption characteristic of the community. The social life of Michilimackinac was strikingly similar to Louisbourg which was founded a decade later. For Father Carheil the four occupations of the soldiers were: 

• 1) keeping taverns; 
• 2) trading liquor to the Indians; 
• 3) harbouring prostitutes; and 
• 4) gambling. 

Concerning the latter topic he wrote: 

The 4th occupation of the soldiers is gambling which at the times when the traders assemble sometimes proceeds to such excess that they are not satisfied with passing the whole day, but they also spend the whole night in this pursuit ... But what makes their misconduct on this scene still worse is, that so persistent an attachment to the game is hardly ever unaccompanied by the general Intixication of all the players; and drunkenness is nearly always followed by quarrels that rise among them ...

Gambling, drunkenness and sexual laxity were common social traits in such 18th century communities as Michilimackinac, Quebec and Louisbourg, to name only a few. Authorities in France and Louisbourg attempted to curb the failings of the inhabitants but, as this report shall demonstrate, their paternalistic and sanctimonious legislation usually had little effect.

The Passion for Gaming 

In 18th century Louisbourg the willingness to speculate for financial or material gain was not merely a diversion but a commonly accepted form of recreation and amusement. And in that regard the inhabitants of Isle Royale appeared to be little different from the people of Canada. A number of Canadian clergy described drunkenness, gambling, and quarreling as being the "universal characteristics of the Canadians". Much more than a pastime, gaming in Louisbourg, as in Canada, was a passion, for almost any item could become the subject of a wager. Unfortunately, most minor wagers were not recorded in official documentation. However, there is one celebrated exception in the Louisbourg court records. In 1736, Jean Darraq, a navigator on a vessel visiting Louisbourg, agreed to a wager for a pair of shoes with a pregnant Marie Catherine Auge that the child she was about to have would be a boy. Marie Catherine, wife of Judokous Koller, a stonecutter and former sergeant in Louisbourg's Karrer Regiment, bet that she would have a girl and eventually won the wager when she gave birth to a girl on 6 August 1736 ... As he had prearranged, Monsieur Domingo, a Louisbourg shoemaker, delivered the winner's prize - a pair of shoes - to Marie Catherine. However, in early January 1737, Domingo, the shoemaker, took Jean Darraq to court claiming that he had not been paid the 5 livres owing for the shoes ...

For his part, Jean Darraq maintained that he had paid Marie Catherine the 5 livres before he left for France in 1736 while she denied having received the money. Since there was no written record of the wager, the Louisbourg court, as was customary in a case where the plaintiff and defendant were of equivalent social status and the evidence was inconclusive, ruled in favour of the permanent Louisbourg resident. Jean Darraq was instructed to pay the shoemaker 5 livres and to settle the court costs which amounted to 11 livres 11 sols ... Thus, even a friendly wager ended as a civil suit in the court.

One isolated court case hardly demonstrates the pervasive influence of gaming in Isle Royale. Public lotteries, encouraged by the authorities in France and Louisbourg, demonstrated the willingness of the people to engage in games of chance for they were a copular form of entertainment in 18th century Louisbourg. Lotteries originated in Italy during the Middle Ages and spread to France, Germany and Austria, where rulers used them to raise revenue. France first developed lotteries as a means for state funding in 1539, but lotteries had been permitted under the names of blanques by an edict of Francis I as early as 1520.

Introduced to France by the Italians, the blank lottery enabled the common people to try their luck by drawing for prizes. Any individual could draw for prizes as often as they wished, provided they purchased a ticket for each draw. The prizes for the blank lotteries usually consisted of such items as clothing, pictures, small jewellery, and toys ... Blank lotteries had become so popular in Louisbourg by the 1750s that the authorities passed an ordinance forbidding them without permission from the governor and commissaire-ordonnateur. In April 1753 Louisbourg's governor Jean Louis, Comte de Raymond, declared:

Lotteries on all sorts of merchandise - garments, personal belongings, liquors and comestibles - greatly increase the reasonable price of every thing, and are nothing but highly contrary to the general welfare and commerce of the colony. All persons have thus been forbidden to conduct lotteries in future without the permission of the governor and ordonnateur, or that of the police magistrate, under penalty of whatever fine is deemed appropriate, and greater penalties, depending upon the exigencies of the case ...

Liquor, used clothing, and provisions were the usual prizes in Louisbourg's blank lotteries, which were doubtless viewed with contempt by the upper echelons of Louisbourg society. Because the tickets were inexpensive and the prizes of limited value, the blank lotteries provided entertainment for the lower classes of Louisbourg. Even a domestic servant, for example, could afford to purchase a ticket in a Louisbourg lottery. One contemporary observer had nothing but disdain for France's blank lotteries:

As these blank lotteries are commonly kept at the fairs in villages, so there are hardly any but the vulgar and contrary people who concern themselves in that sort of game, and take a diversion in it, without considering that most of these lotteries are only baubles and impositions ... 

Governor Raymond and his officials obviously felt that the Louisbourg lotteries were an imposition that had to be curtailed to prevent abuses. 

While the blank lotteries were popular among the lower orders of Louisbourg society, influential members of the community could participate in official games of chance. State-sponsored lottery tickets offering large cash prizes were purchased by Louisbourg citizens and at least on one occasion a house was advertised as the prize in a Louisbourg lottery. In 1730 Jean Amerleck, a Swiss sergeant in Louisbourg's Karrer Regiment, purchased property in Block 33 of the town. Amerleck subsequently built a large two-storey stone house on his lot. To satisfy the numerous contractors who had constructed the house and the creditors who had paid for the building materials, Amerleck was permitted to conduct a lottery with the house as a prize. Two experts were appointed who assessed the value of the house at 3,800 livres. The lottery was to be comprised of 380 tickets, valued at 10 livres each, and was to be drawn at the home of Nicolas Pigeot, clerk of the Bailliage Court who lived on Rue St. Louis. Louis Adam, process server of the Bailliage Court, posted the notices of the lottery at the usual locations throughout the town: the door of the church, the magasin, the door of the king's storehouse, the public place along the quay, the passage to the Barrachois, and on the door of the house to be offered as the prize ... The estimate of the value of the house was considerably below the cost of construction, which amounted to 5,228 livres. Doubtless, because of the efforts of a number of prominent Louisbourg citizens, the house lottery did not take place. On 5 October 1734, Duvivier purchased the house at an auction for only 2,200 livres, less than half the cost of construction ...

Although the lottery for Amerleck's house did not take place as scheduled, the preparations for the lottery were significant because the officials of Louisbourg's Bailliage Court were prepared to publicize and conduct the lottery. In ancien regime France and its overseas possessions, lotteries were viewed as a legitimate means of raising public funds. Writing in the 1780s, one social critic, Louis Sébastian Mercier, bemoaned the prevalence of gambling in Paris: 

Laws are powerless against this devouring passion; the desire for gain is at the root of it, a desire that runs through all classes alike. The government itself panders to it; what else are lotteries but gambling under another name? Public gambling is licensed, private gambling is illegal; that is how the law at present stands. 

The lottery was, in effect, a public game of chance. And for those who could afford it, lotteries could prove an expensive pastime. By 1750 Louisbourg's treasurer, Jacques Urbain Rondeau, had purchased two lottery tickets from the Royal Lottery at Paris. One ticket was valued at 500 livres, while another cost 250 livres ... In May 1757 Captain Jean Baptiste Philippe Destimaville of the Louisbourg garrison, purchased three Royal Lottery tickets at a cost of 1,934 livres ...

Lotteries were popular in the 18th century because the ratio of prizes to tickets was usually one to five, which ensured that there would be abundant ticket sales ... In view of the widespread appeal of lotteries, it is not surprising that lotto, a celebrated game of chance, was developed from the lotteries in the late 18th century. The game of lotto, which included lotto cards, counters, and a set of numbered slips, was the forerunner of bingo, one of the most popular forms of low-priced gambling in the world. Public lotteries for large cash prizes were prohibited in 18th century France with only the state having the opportunity to offer cash awards. In like manner, bingo is illegal in many countries and parts of Canada, except as conducted by churches and other charitable institutions. Lotteries were popular in 18th century France and Louisbourg much like bingo, a form of lottery, is popular in the western world today. [Extract from Kenneth Donovan, Debauchery and Libertinage: Games, Pastimes, and Popular Activities in Eighteenth Century Louisbourg: A Manual for Interpretation at the Fortress of Louisbourg, Unpublished Report, H F 76 (Fortress of Louisbourg, June 1983), pp. 2-15]