Coming up and down the river at this point the voyageurs often sang the song:—
"Dans mon chemin j'ai rencontré
Deux cavaliers très bien montés;"
with the refrain to every verse:—
"A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer,
A l'ombre d'un bois je m'en vais jouer."
("Under the shady tree I go to play.")
It is said that it was when struck with the movement and rhythm of this French chanson that Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, on his visit to Canada, while on its inland waters, wrote the "Canadian Boat Song," and made celebrated the good Ste. Anne of the voyageurs. Whether in the first lines he succeeded in imitating the original or not, his musical notes are agreeable:—
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime,