Some years later the governor Denonville answered those
who enlarged on the danger of throwing the Indians on
the friendship of the Dutch and English if they were
refused brandy. 'Those who maintain,' he said, 'that if
we refuse liquor to the Indians they will go to the
English, are not trustworthy, for the Indians are not
anxious to drink when they do not see the liquor; and
the most sensible of them wish that brandy had never
existed, because they ruin themselves in giving away
their furs and even their clothes for drink: Denonville's
opinion was the more justified in that at one time the
New England authorities proposed to the French a joint
prohibition of the sale of brandy to Indians, and actually
passed an ordinance to that effect.

There were many other articles besides brandy that were
needed by the Indians, and for which they were obliged
to exchange their furs. But even had the prohibition
caused a decrease in the fur trade, would the evil have
been so great? Fewer colonists would have been diverted
from agriculture. As it was, the exodus from the settlements
of bushrangers in search of furs was a source of weakness,
and the flower of Canadian youth disappeared every year
in the wilderness. Had this drain of national vitality
been avoided, the settlement of Canada would have been
more rapid. Even from the material point of view it can
be maintained that the opponents of the brandy traffic
understood better than its supporters the true interests
of New France.