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Pierre Collas was one of the many ephemeral migrants who contributed to the development of New France, although there are few traces of him in the archives as a result of both his mobility and his lack of roots in colonial society. A painstaking investigation conducted in the handwritten sources preserved in the French and Québec archive collections has provided an opportunity to trace, with a certain degree of accuracy, the eventful life journey of this little-known man. Between 1698 and 1703, Pierre Collas served as a soldier, seminarian, and ship's surgeon in New France. He therefore witnessed the transformation of civil, military and religious life during a key period in the evolution of the colony. His career path, which appears atypical at a first glance, resembles that of numerous non-permanent migrants, in certain respects. Thus, reconstituting his life serves, in a broader extent, to document an entire category of people that appears only rarely in archive sources. Moreover, Pierre Collas wrote a book of songs intended for the students of the Petit Séminaire de Québec, a truly original testimonial about one student's view of that educational institution and a remarkable accomplishment considering the lack of printing facilities under the French Régime.