Of the Canadian voyageurs or engagés, a race that has now so nearly passed away, some notice may very properly here be given.
They were unlike any other class of men. Like the poet, they seemed born to their vocation. Sturdy, enduring, ingenious, and light-hearted, they possessed a spirit capable of adapting itself to any emergency. No difficulties baffled, no hardships discouraged them; while their affectionate nature led them to form attachments of the warmest character to their “bourgeois,” or master, as well as to the native inhabitants, among whom their engagements carried them.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN KINZIE, ESQ.
(The first house built in Chicago.) From sketch by Mrs. Kinzie, in original edition.
Montreal, or according to their own pronunciation, Marrialle, was their depôt. It was at that place that the agents commissioned to make up the quota for the different companies and traders found the material for their selections.
The terms of engagement were usually from four to six hundred livres (ancient Quebec currency) per annum as wages, with rations of one quart of lyed corn, and two ounces of tallow per diem, or “its equivalent in whatever sort of food is to be found in the Indian country.”
Instances have been known of their submitting cheerfully to fare upon fresh fish and maple sugar for a whole winter, when cut off from other supplies.