Voyageur

PREFACE

PREFACE It is time to write the story of the voyageur. His canoe has long since vanished from the northern waters; his red cap is seen no more, a bright spot against the blue of Lake Superior; his sprightly French conversation, punctuated with inimitable gesture, his exaggerated courtesy, his incurable romanticism, his songs, and his superstitions are gone. In certain old books and in many unpublished manuscripts , however, he still lives. Read the diaries of Montreal fur-traders and the books of travelers on the St. Lawrence, the Saskatchewan, and the Great Lakes in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From their pages peals the laughter of a gay-hearted, irrepressible race; over night waters floats the plaintive song of canoeman , swelled periodically in the chorus by the voices of his lusty mates; portage path and campfire, foaming rapids and placid fir-fringed lake, shallow winding stream and broad expanse of inland sea, whitewalled cottage of Quebec hamlet and frowning pickets of Nort}lwest post-become once more the voyageur's habitat; the French regz"me comes to its tragic close on the Plains of Abraham; the British rule lasts but a brief half-century in a large portion of the fur country; Washington supersedes London in the allegiance of many of the red children of the far western waters-still the VII PREFACE voyageur places his wooden crosses by dangerous sault and treacherous eddy, sings of love in sunny Provence, and claims his dram on New Year's morning, undisturbed by wars, treaties, and the running of invisible boundary lines. Though he is one of the most colorful figures in the history of a great continent, the voyageur remains unknown to all but a few. This little book seeks to do justice to his memory for the romance and color he has lent to American and Canadian history, and for the services he rendered in the exploration of the West. My thanks are hereby offered to the many persons who have given me assistance and encouragement in the preparation of this study. I am especially indebted to several members of the staff of the Minnesota Historical Society, who have called my attention to data relating to the voyageurs; and to my sister, Virginia Beveridge, who typed the manuscript for me. Mr. Marius Barbeau, of the National Museum, Ottawa, has been both generous and very helpful in supplying me with the airs and words of "La belle Lisette" and "Voici Ie printemps," as well as with some material that does not appear in this volume. To Mr. J. Murray Gibbon I also wish to extend my thanks for his generosity in translating several songs especially for this volume. I am also grateful to Miss Constance A. Hamilton for permission to use her translation of "Voici Ie printemps," and to Mrs. William H. Drummond fC?r permission to use her late husband's poem, "The Voyageur." G.L.N. viii ...