The Voyageur

Animal furs were a valuable product of North America in the 17th century. The economy of New France (Quebec Province, Canada today) depended on the yearly collection and export of furs to France. You’d think the furs would be valued as a source of leather or a luxury item when fashioned into beautiful fur coats, stoles and gloves. Instead, it was the undercoat of the Beaver hair that was most prized as it was removed and processed into very fine, waterproof felt. This felt was fashioned into waterproof hats that were a stylish and very expensive accessory for well-dressed European gentlemen and ladys.

In North America, crews of French, French-Canadians and American Indians paddled 30’ birch-bark canoes, filled with up to three tons of supplies, into the back country. Thier job was to restock a chain of fortified trading posts the French had built throughout the Great Lakes and along major rivers. These posts secured the French fur-trade region.

The canoe men were called “voyageurs”, which means “travelers”. Their strength and endurance is legendary. They worked up to 14 hours a day, paddling 55 strokes per minute as they sang lively songs. Some days they could move their canoes up to 100 miles. When they could go no further by water, they portaged (carried) their canoes and supplies over dry land that separated the lakes and rivers they traveled. Few voyagers could swim. Many drowned in wild, white-water rapids or in sudden violent rain squalls as they were crossing the Great Lakes. It has been said that their huge Birch Bark canoes were so fragile that one large wave would snap them in half. Hence, if the weather was threatening, the voyageurs would wait ashore.

A bundle of furs weighed about 90 lbs. Bundles of trade goods were packed to weigh the same. A routine portage meant each voyageur must carry 2 bundles (180 pounds) at a time, across rugged, sometimes muddy trails. Every ½ mile or so the men set down their bundles and ran back for 2 more.

There were two categories of voyageurs: the pork eaters (mangeurs de lard)) and the winterers (hivernants).The men who paddled from Montreal to the rendezvous at Grand Portage and returned to civilization lived on a diet of salt pork. . . so were called pork eaters. Some men transported merchandise deeper into the wilderness, remained at a winter outpost and lived “off the land”. These men were called “winterers”. Winterers traded for furs in native villages and in the spring transported the furs to a rendezvous post.The furs were transported from these rendezvous posts to Montreal and Quebec where they were shipped to France