It was a common saying, “Keep an engagé to his corn and tallow, he will serve you well—give him pork and bread, and he soon gets beyond your management.” They regard the terms of their engagement as binding to the letter. An old trader, M. Berthelet, engaged a crew at Montreal. The terms of agreement were, that they should eat when their bourgeois did, and what he did. It was a piece of fun on the part of the old gentleman, but the simple Canadians believed it to be a signal instance of good luck that had provided them such luxurious prospects. The bourgeois stuffed his pockets with crackers, and when sure of being quite unobserved, would slyly eat one. Pipe after pipe passed—the men grew hungry, but observing that there were no preparations of a meal for the bourgeois, they bore their fast without complaining.
At length the matter became too serious—they could stand it no longer. In their distress they begged off from the bargain, and gladly compounded to take the customary rations, instead of the dainty fare they had been promising themselves with their master.
On arriving at Mackinac, which was the entrepôt of the Fur Trade, a small proportion of the voyageur’s wages was advanced him, to furnish his winter’s outfit, his pipes and tobacco, his needles and thread, some pieces of bright-colored ribbons, and red and yellow gartering (quality binding), with which to purchase their little necessaries from the Indians. To these, if his destination were Lake Superior, or a post far to the north, where such articles could not be readily obtained, were added one or two smoked deer-skins for moccasins.
Thus equipped, he entered upon his three years' service, to toil by day, and laugh, joke, sing, and tell stories when the evening hour brought rest and liberty.
There was not wanting here and there an instance of obstinate adherence to the exact letter of the agreement in regard to the nature of employment, although, as a general thing, the engagé held himself ready to fulfil the behests of his bourgeois, as faithfully as ever did vassal those of his chief.
A story is told of M. St. Jean, a trader on the Upper Mississippi, who upon a certain occasion ordered one of his Frenchmen to accompany a party to the forest to chop wood. The man refused. “He was not hired,” he said, “to chop wood.”
“Ah! for what then were you hired?”
“To steer a boat.”
“Very well; steer a boat, then, since you prefer it.”
It was mid-winter. The recusant was marched to the river-side, and placed in the stern of the boat, which lay fastened in the ice.