Voyageur

II. PORTRAIT OF THE VOYAGEUR

II PORTRAIT OF THE VOYAGEUR 11 12 MY man dressed himself in the habit of a voyageur, that is, a short shirt, a red woolen cap, a pair of deer skin leggins which reach from the ancles a little above the knees, and are held up by a string secured to a belt about the waist, the azion ["breech cloth"] of the Indians, and a pair of deer skin moccasins without stockings on the feet. The thighs are left bare. This is the dress of voyageurs in summer and winter." 1 Add a few items which the worthy missionary, Sherman Hall, neglected to mention -a blue capote, the inevitable pipe, a gaudy sash, and a gay beaded bag or pouch hung from the sashand you have the voyageur as he appeared speeding over lakes, advancing cautiously up narrow creeks, toiling over portages, cracking his whip over the heads of his dogs, laughing down rapids, fiddling in log forts, and singing wherever he was. One would expect voyageurs to be men of heroic proportions , but usually they were not. The average voyageur was :five feet six inches in height. Few were more than five feet eight inches. Had they been taller, they would have occupied too much of the precious space in a canoe already overcrowded with cargo. But though the voyageur was short, he was strong. He could paddle fifteen-yes, if necessary, eighteen-hours per day for weeks on end and joke beside the camp fire at the close 13 THE VOYAGEUR of each day's toil. He could carry from 200 to 450 pounds of merchandise on his back over rocky portage trails at a pace which made unburdened travelers pant for breath in their endeavor not to be left behind. A distinguished traveler on the Great Lakes'in 1826, Thomas L..McKenney, later of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, wrote how his men took the canoe out of the water, mended a breach in it, reloaded, cooked breakfast, shaved, washed, ate, and reembarked-all in fifty-seven minutes! "Some estimate may be formed from this," says McKenney, "of the celerity of the movements of these voyageurs. I can liken them to nothing but their own ponies. They are short, thick set, and active, and never tire. A Canadian, if born to be a labourer, deems himself to be very unfortunate if he should chance to grow over five feet five, or six inches;-and if he shall reach five feet ten or eleven, it forever excludes him from the privilege of becoming voyageur. There is no room for the legs of such people, in these canoes. But if he shall stop growing at about five feet four inches, and be gifted with a good voice, and lungs that never tire, he is considered as having been born under a most favourable star." .2 One result of the voyageur's mode of life was the overdevelopment of arms and shoulders at the expense of other parts of the body. This fact is brought out in a description by Dr. John J. Bigsby, the secretary of the commission that marked out the international boundary between Canada and the United States according to the provisions of the Treaty of Ghent of 1814. His portraits of the canoemen of his party as he saw them first at 14 PORTRAIT OF THE VOYAGEUR Lachine are probably more realistic than those of any other contemporary writer.s "I was disappointed and not a little surprised at the appearance of the voyageurs. On Sundays, as they stand round the door of the village churches, they are proud dressy fellows in their parti-coloured sashes and ostrichfeathers ; but here they were a motley set to the eye: but the truth was that all of them were picked men, with extra wages as serving in a light canoe. "Some were well made, but all looked weak in the legs, and were of light weight. A Falstaff would have put his foot through the canoe to the 'yellow sands' beneath. The collection of faces among them chanced to be extraordinary, as they squatted, paddle in hand, in two rows, each on his slender bag of necessaries. By the bye, all their finery (and they love it) was left at home. One man's face, with a large Jewish nose, seemed to...