Voyageurs
Additionally, they differed from engagés (hired men, actually indentured servants),[6] who were much smaller-scale merchants and general laborers.
[8] After the French presence in Canada ended following the British conquest during the Seven Years' War, fur trade was still continued by their descendants.
By the late 18th century, demand in Europe grew substantially for marten, otter, lynx, mink and especially beaver furs, expanding the trade and adding thousands to the ranks of voyageurs.
Some voyageurs stayed in the back country over the winter and transported the trade goods from the posts to farther away French outposts.
The majority of these canoe men were French Canadian; they were usually from Island of Montreal or seigneuries and parishes along or near the Saint Lawrence River; many others were from France.
[19] The terms voyageur, explorateur, and coureur des bois have had broad and overlapping uses, but their meanings in the context of the fur trade business were more distinct.
Athabasca was one of the most profitable fur-trade regions in the colonies because pelts from further north were thicker and of superior quality to those trapped further south.
However, once the NWC began sending voyageurs into Athabasca it became easier for indigenous trappers to simply trade with them than to make the long trek to Hudson Bay.
[24] As a result, Colin Robertson sent a message to the HBC London Committee in 1810 suggesting that they begin hiring French Canadian voyageurs of their own:[25] I would warmly recommend to your notice the Canadians; these people I believe, are the best voyageurs in the world; they are spirited, enterprising, & extremely fond of the Country; they are easily commanded; never will you have any difficulty in setting a place with them Men; however dismal the prospect is for subsistence, they follow their Master wherever he goes.
Colin Robertson led the first of these HBC expeditions and claimed to have difficulty hiring voyageurs in Montreal because of NWC efforts to thwart him.
[28][3]After the British conquered Canada in 1763, management of the Montreal trade was taken over by English speakers, while the trapping and physical labour continued to be done by French Canadians.
Since the west country was too far for a round trip in one season, each spring when the ice broke up, boats set out from Montreal and winterers started east.
The Hudson Bay trade was diverted southwest to the edge of the prairie, where pemmican was picked up to feed the voyageurs on their journey northwest to the Athabasca country.
After the merger of the NWC and HBC, much trade shifted to York Factory (the Hudson Bay route) and later some went south to Minnesota.
The presence and eventual dominance of the Hudson Bay York boat-based entry into the fur trade areas eliminated a significant part of the canoe travel, reducing the need for voyageurs.
[11] Completion of the Canadian Pacific rail line in 1882 finally eliminated the need for long-distance transportation of furs by voyageurs.
[29] With the completion of the railway and the closure of Fort William as a rendezvous point, both occurring in 1892, that year is considered by some to mark the end of the voyageur era.
[12] Later, many French Canadians stayed in the bush for the prospecting and mineral exploration trades that grew from the middle of the 19th century into viable industries, especially in Northern Ontario.
Nonetheless, the voyageurs enjoyed one prominent revival in the minds of the British public – at the end of 1884, Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley was dispatched to Khartoum with the Nile Expedition to relieve Major General Charles George Gordon, who had been besieged by the Islamist Mahdist movement.
[15] Most routes ended at the limits of what could be travelled in a round trip from a major transfer point (such as Grand Portage) in one season.
[15] Voyageur canoes typically were made from the bark of large paper birch trees, stretched over a frame of white cedar.
[15] There is a report of a voyageur named La Bonga, a 6-foot-5-inch (196 cm) freed slave carrying 7 bales (630 lbs.)
Outdoor living also added to the hazards to life and limb with swarms of black flies and mosquitoes, often kept away by sleeping with a smudge fire that caused respiratory, sinus and eye problems.
Métis would go southwest onto the prairie in Red River carts, slaughter bison, convert the meat into pemmican, which they carried north to trade at NWC posts.
For voyageur-based fur trade, that main route was divided into two (occasionally three) segments, each traversed by a different set of voyageurs.
The largest gatherings occurred at transfer points on the shore of Lake Superior at Grand Portage or Fort William.
There are a variety of explanations possible for this (including the higher than normal death rates for voyageurs and the opportunity to marry native and Métis women at the rendezvous through local custom weddings).
[35] As French-Canadian voyageurs engaged and brought the fur-trade West, they established multiple settlements in the North-West Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Yukon.
The Métis Nation (Indigenous/Michif), Franco-Manitobans, Fransaskois, Franco-Albertans, Franco-Columbians, Franco-Ténois and Franco-Yukonais all have origins heavily linked to voyageurs.
Additionally, French and Francophone communities across Canada wear the ceinture fléchée as part of their traditional clothing and cultures.
