According to his record of the journey, Fornel devised an experiment to prove that the Inuit did not, as was commonly supposed, live on raw meat and salt water.
Fornel's claim to the Bay was never formally recognised until after his death, when it was granted to his widow, Marie-Anne Barbel, who carried on the family business.
Some time in the 1740s, Fornel bought a parcel of land adjacent to Notre-Dame-des-Anges – and perhaps more importantly, the status that came with the title of seigneur—which he named Bourg-Louis.