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Category Archives: Folksongs

The Voyageur & his Canoe

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian History, Folksongs, Métis, Voyageurs

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

canoes, Grace Lee Nute, hivernant, homme du nord, La Vérendrye, Lewis Parker, Simon Fraser, voyageurs, W. J. Phillips, York Factory

“Voyageurs at Dawn” by Frances Anne Hopkins, (1871) (1838–1919)

Grace Lee Nute, a pioneer

Several books have been written about the voyageurs, but Grace Lee Nute is our pioneer. She published her The Voyageur in 1931 (D. Appleton and Company). That book is still one’s best reference.

The Voyageur‘s clothes

At the beginning of her second chapter, Nute quotes missionnary Sherman Hall:

[m]y man dresses 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 waiste, the aziōn [breech cloth] of the Indians, and a pair of deer skin moccasins without stocking on the feet. The thigh are left bare.  This is the dress of voyageurs in summer and winter.[i]

As Grace Lee Nute writes, there are missing items: “a blue capote, the inevitable pipe, a gaudy sash.” The gaudy sash is “une ceinture fléchée,” a wool belt with an arrow (une flêche) design, made by French Canadians. It resembles the Irish woven belt but is wider and features the arrows.

Nute adds that the voyageur also wore a “gay beeded bag or pouch hung from the sash,” quite similar to the Scottish Highlander’s hair horse sporran. The voyageur stood out in a crowd.

Dr Bigsby, whom we will meet in my next voyageur post,

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 dress fellows in their parti-coloured sashes and ostrich-feathers; 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 [ii]

“Quetico Superior Route, passing a Waterfall“ by Frances Ann Hopkins (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

A Hierarchy among Voyageurs

There was a hierarchy among voyageurs. We had:

  • hivernants (winterers): they stayed during the winter, trading and manning the “fort;”
  • hommes du Nord (northern men): outstanding voyageurs who travelled further inland and opened up Forts from Athabasca to Fort Vancouver, established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821. Sometimes these voyageurs accompanied explorers such as Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November  1685 – 5 December 1749) and his four sons and Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862), an employee of the North West Company until its merger with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821.
  • mangeurs de lard (pork-eaters), who went back and forth between Montreal and trading posts such as Grand-Portage.

The Canoes

One voyageur song is entitled “Épouser le voyage,” or to marry the voyage. The voyageur saw his work as a profession. As for the canoe, it was his home. Voyageurs travelled in their canoe and the canoe was the voyageur’s roof for the night. He slept underneath his upside-down canoe.

Origins of the Canoe

A voyageur learned how to make a canoe from what he could find in the wood. The birchbark canoe was of course borrowed from the Amerindians, but it was pointed out to me that there is a resemblance between the Longships used by Vikings and the York boat. However, the York boat was a boat, not a canoe. Yet the canoe resembled the Longships, except that it was relatively small. Europeans have long fished off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. There is a pre-history to history (recorded history) just as there is an oral tradition preceding the written tradition.

In Newfoundland, there is a town named Port aux Basques, which would indicate that Basques fishermen probably fished nearby or used the channel located close to Port aux Basques. The Trans-Canada highway ends, or begins, at Port aux Basques.

Voyageurs used birchbark canoes:

Making a Birch Bark Canoe (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

“In building a canoe, bark is stripped from the birch, placed inside a staked frame, sewn and attached. Ribs are fixed in position and seams sealed with spruce gum (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [iii]

—ooo—

There were several types of canoes used by voyageurs, but the first two were the most important.

  • “The famous canot du maître or canot de Montréal, on which the fur trade depended, was up to 12 m long and carried 6 to 12 crew and a load of 2300 kg over the route from Montréal to Lake Superior.” [iv]
  • “The smaller canot du nord  or North canoe carried a crew of 5 or 6 and a cargo of 1360 kg over the smaller lakes, rivers and streams of the Northwest.” [v]
  • The canot bâtard or bastard canoe was a mid-size canoe.

However, voyageurs also used Amerindian canoes.

  • “The birchbark canoe of the Algonkian peoples was ideal for travel by rivers and lakes separated by narrow watersheds or portages (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [vi]
  • “The Kootenay-Salish canoe was built for the rapid rivers of southern BC, with both ends extending out under the water (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [vii]

The Algonkian Canoe, Lewis Parker (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The York Boat was named after the Hudson’s Bay Co’s York Factory. “It was one of 3 types of inland boats (the others being scows and sturgeon-heads) used by the HBC, and the most suitable for lake travel.” [viii]

 

York Boats on Lake Winnipeg by W. J. Phillips (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia [courtesy Glenbow/4615])

Love to everyone ♥

_________________________
[i] Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageurs (St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987 [1931]), p. 13.

[ii] Op. cit., p. 15.

[iii] “Birchbark Canoes,” The Canadian Encyclopedia. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/birchbark-canoe/>

[iv] loc. cit.

[v] loc. cit.

[vii] loc. cit.

[viii] “York Boat,” The Canadian Encyclopedia <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/york-boat/>

—ooo—

The Tonquin, 1811

The Tonquin, 1811

© Micheline Walker
14 January 2012
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A Folksong: Alouette, gentille alouette

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Folksongs

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Alouettes, Beak, Lark, Neck, Steffan Johnson, Theodore C. Blegen, Université de Moncton, voyageurs

  

edge sparrow & robin by Steffan Johnson*

A Folksong:  Alouette (Lark)

This song is an enumerative song.  In each stanza, a body part is added.
Here, a lark (une alouette) loses first its head, then its eyes, its beak, its back, its neck .
 
12 Alouette (please click on the title to hear the music)
 
CHORUS
Alouette, gentille alouette,              Lark, gentle lark,
Alouette, je t’y plumerai. (2)           I’ll take your feathers off.
 
1. Je t’y plumerai la tête. (4)          I’ll take the feathers off your head
Et la tête, et la tête.                       And your head, and your head.
Alouette, alouette, oh! 
CHORUS
 
2. Je t’y plumerai les yeux. (4)        I’ll take the feathers off your eyes
Et les yeux, et les yeux,                 And your eyes, and your eyes
Et la tête, et la tête.
Alouette, alouette, oh!
 
3. Je t’y plumerai le bec. (4)           I’ll take the feathers off your beak
Et le bec, et le bec,                        And your beak, and your beak
Et les yeux, et les yeux, (2)
Et la tête, et la tête. (2)
 
4. Je t’y plumerai le dos. (4)           I’ll take the feathers off you back
Et le dos, et le dos,                        And your back, and your back
Et le bec, et le bec, (2)                   beak, eyes, head 
Et les yeux, et les yeux, (2)
Et la tête, et la tête. (2)
 
5. Je t’y plumerai le cou. (4)           I’ll take the feathers off your neck
Et le cou, et le cou,                        And your neck, and your neck
Et le dos, et le dos, (2)                   back, beak, eyes, head
Et le bec, et le bec, (2) 
Et les yeux, et les yeux, (2)          
Et la tête, et la tête. (2)
 
_________________________
Theodore C. Blegen, Songs of the Voyageurs (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1998[1966]), p. 46.
*http://steffspainting.blogspot.com/
 

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9 March 2012
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A Voyageur Song: “Mon merle”

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Folksongs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Voyageur folksong, words and music

Mon merle

Mon merle (My Blackbird)

This song is difficult to translate as the blackbird, le merle, loses first its beak, then an eye, then its head, its neck, its back, its wing and, finally its tail.

In each stanza, the last lost body part is added to the previous loss.  The song grows.

CHORUS:

Comment veux-tu mon merle, mon merle?
Comment veux-tu mon merle chanter?
How do you want my blackbird, my blackbird?
How do you want my blackbird to sing ?
 
1.  Mon merle a perdu son bec. (2) its beak
(My blackbird has lost its beak.)
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo. one…, two… three…, marlo
CHORUS
 
2.  Mon merle a perdu son œil. (2) its eye: un œil (plural: yeux)
(My blackbird has lost its eye.)
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
3.  Mon merle a perdu sa tête. (2) its head
(My blackbird has lost its head.)
Une tête, deux têtes, trois têtes,
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
4.  Mon merle a perdu son cou. (2) its neck
(My blackbird has lost its neck.)
Un cou, deux cous, trois cous,
Une tête, deux têtes, trois têtes,
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
5.  Mon merle a perdu son dos. (2) its back
(My blackbird has lost its back.)
Un dos, deux dos, trois dos,
Un cou, deux cous, trois cous,
Une tête, deux têtes, trois têtes,
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
6. Mon merle a perdu son aile. (2) its wing
(My blackbird has lost its wing.)
Une aile, deux ailes, trois ailes,
Un dos, deux dos, trois dos,
Un cou, deux cous, trois cous,
Une tête, deux têtes, trois têtes,
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
7. Mon merle a perdu sa queue. (2)  its tale
(My blackbird has lost its tale.)
Une queue, deux queues, trois queues,
Un dos, deux dos, trois dos,
Un cou, deux cous, trois cous,
Une tête, deux têtes, trois têtes
Un œil, deux yeux, trois yeux,
Un bec, deux becs, trois becs, marlo.
CHORUS
 
 
imagesCAXYWP38
 
 
(please click on the tile to hear the song) 
06 Mon merle 
_________________________
Theodore C. Blegen, Songs of the Voyageurs
(St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998 [1966])
Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, 30-voice male choir  
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Le Margoton s’en va-t-à l’eau: a folksong

11 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Folksongs

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Group of Seven, memories, Tom Tomson, Voyageur song

Tom Tomson, Group of Seven

Le Margoton s’en va-t-à l’eau
 
1. Le Margoton s’en va-t-à l’eau
La fontaine était creuse, elle est tombée au fond.
Aie, aie, aie, aie ! se dit Margoton.
 
2. La fontaine était creuse, elle est tombée au fond.
Par là passèrent trois jeunes et si jolis garçons.
Aie,  aie, aie, aie ! se dit Margoton.
 
3. Par là passèrent trois jeunes et si jolis garçons.
Que donnerez-vous, la belle, si nous vous en tirerons.
Aie,  aie, aie, aie ! se dit Margoton. 
 
4. Que donnerez-vous, la belle, si nous vous en tirerons.
Un doux baiser, dit-elle, en guise de doublon.
Aie, aie, aie, aie ! se dirent les garçons.
 
5. Un doux baiser, dit-elle, en guise de doublon.
Et quand elle fut dehors elle tourna les talons.
Aie, aie, aie, aie ! se dirent les garçons.
 
6. Et quand elle fut dehors elle tourna les talons.
C’est ainsi que les filles attrapent les garçons.
Aie, aie, aie, se dit Margoton.
Aie, aie, aie, finit la chanson.
 
05 Margoton va-t-à l’eau (click on the title to hear the music)
 
1. Margoton is going to the well with her pitcher.
The fountain is deep, she falls to the bottom.
Aie…
 
2. The fountain is deep, she falls to the bottom.
Three fine looking lads happen to pass by.
Aie…
 
3. Three fine looking lads happen to pass by.
What will you give, my pretty one, if we pull you out?
Aie…
 
4. What will you give, my pretty one, if we pull you out?
A tender kiss, I’ll give in return.
Aie…
 
5. A tender kiss, I’ll give in return.
But once she was out, the girl showed her heels.
Aie…
 
6. But once she was out, the girl showed her heels.
And that is how, she says, a girl catches a lad.
Aie (4)     said Margoton
Aie (4)     the song is over.
 
_________________________
Theodore C. Blegen, Songs of the Voyageurs (St Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 1998[1966]).
Université de Moncton: 30-voice Male Choir

 

 
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En roulant ma boule: a Folksong & a Voyageur Song

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Folksongs

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

French folksong, Minnesota Historical Society, music and words, Theodore C. Blegen, U. of Moncton Male Choir, voyageurs

Jongleur *

* from the Encyclopædia Britannica [i]
This song is almost identical to “C’est le vent frivolant.”  With folksongs, substituion is not uncommon.  One changes the melody, but keeps the same lyrics or words or keeps the melody and gives it new words.

According to Theodore C. Blegen, this is a rollicking “jongleur” song.  Jongleurs could be described as minstrels, but some also “juggled” balls and where therefore  particularly entertaining.

04 En roulant ma boule (click on the title to hear the song) [ii]
 
 
Chorus 
En roulant ma boule roulant,   Rolling my ball…
En roulant ma boule (2: repeat chorus)
 
1.  Derrière chez nous y-a-t’un étang (a pond), 
En roulant ma boule.
Trois beaux canards (ducks) s’en vont baignant (are bathing),
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant.
Chorus
 
2. Le fils du roi s’en va chassant,
En roulant ma boule.
Avec son grand fusil d’argent,
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant. 
Chorus
 
3. Visa le noir, tua le blanc,
En roulant ma boule.
O, fils du roi tu es méchant,
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant. 
Chorus
 
4. D’avoir tué mon canard blanc,
En roulant ma boule.
Par-dessous l’aile, il perd son sang,
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant. 
Chorus
 
5. Et toutes ses plumes s’en vont au vent,
Trois dames s’en vont les ramassant,
En roulant ma boule.
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant 
Chorus
 
6. C’est pour en faire un lit de camp,
En roulant ma boule.
Pour y coucher tous les passants,
Rouli-roulant, ma boule roulant. 
Chorus
 
1.  At the back of our house, there is a pond,
Three lovely ducks are bathing in it.
2. The king’s son is going hunting,
With his large silver gun.
3. Aims for the black duck, kills the white,
O you, the king’s song, you are bad.
4. You have killed my white duck,
Beneath his wing, he’s losing blood.
5. All of his feathers are blowing in the wind,
Three ladies go about picking them up.
6. It’s to make a feather bed.
For all those who are passing by. 
 

Jongleurs, minstrels

_________________________
[i] “jongleur.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 08 Feb. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306035/jongleur>.
 
[ii] Theodore C. Blegen, Songs of the Voyageurs  (Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998[1966].
Université de Moncton’s 30-voice Male Choir
 

  

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The Voyageur Mythified

20 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian History, Folksongs, Voyageurs

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

anamnesis, Antoine Gérin-Lajoie, Cadieux's Lament, Henri-Raymond Casgrain, J.-C. Taché, La Patrie littéraire, Marius Barbeau, Petit Rocher, Roses blanches, Tom Tomson

The Canoe, by Tom Tomson

Tom Tomson was a member of the Group of Seven, Canadian artists.

The Voyageur’s Repertoire

The voyageurs’ repertoire consisted mainly of songs inherited from the trouvères, troubadours and the folklore of France. Different versions of this songs were composed, but they can nevertheless be traced back to the motherland.

As I noted in my last post, The Singing Voyageur, we know for certain that three songs were genuine voyageur songs.

  • Épouser le voyage (To Wed the Voyage),
  • Les Bois-Brûlés (The Brullis),
  • Le Six Mai de l’année dernière (Last year on the Sixth of May).

To this list, Barbeau [i] adds a song entitled Les Roses blanches (The White Roses). However, because there is a French song, not a folksong, entitled Les Roses blanches, it was somewhat difficult for me to call it a voyageur’s song. But we know that the voyageurs sang Roses blanches. In fact, I few days ago, I heard a folkloric Roses blanches on the radio. The song I heard could be the Roses blanches Marius Barbeau deems a genuine voyageur song.

As well, in the Beaver, Anne Frances Hopkins, an accomplished artist and the wife of an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Edward Hopkins, writes that “[m]any old chansons from Normandy—‘À la claire fontaine,’ ‘Rose blanche’—were popular canoe song.” [ii] Frances Anne Hopkins kept a record of a few songs, all of which are French folksongs, not voyageur songs. She travelled west in the ‘canot du gouverneur,’ when she journeyed west. She is a mostly reliable source. The eleven songs collected by Edward Ermatinger are folksongs brought to Nouvelle-France. [iii]

I also reread a paper I wrote on the voyageurs and I listed Rose blanche. To avoid confusion, I will add it to the three songs I listed yesterday.

Marius Barbeau’s authentic voyageur songs are:

  • Les Roses blanches (White Roses),
  • Épouser le voyage (To Wed the Voyage),
  • Les Bois-Brûlés (The Brullis),
  • Le Six Mai de l’année dernière (Last year on the Sixth of May).

We then have two songs discussed in Nute’s Voyageur, [iv] the first of wich could be a logger’s song or both a forestier and a voyageur song.

  • C’est dans la ville de Bytown (It’s in the Town of Ottawa)
  • Parmi les voyageurs (Among the Voyageurs)

We therefore know of six authentic voyageur songs, i.e. songs composed by voyageurs. If we do not include C’est dans la ville de Bytown (Ottawa) which could be a forestier song, the number goes down to six.

North West Company Coin

—ooo—

A Brief Look at Historical Events

In 1874, the Quebec Act made French-speaking Canadians into full fledged British subjects and Canada was named Quebec. Guy Carleton, 1st Lord Dorchester  (September 3, 1724 – November 10, 1808) was then Governor of Quebec. Later, in 1791, Canada was divided into the Upper Canada and the Lower Canada under the terms of the Constitutional Act. It was no longer Quebec. There were English-speaking Canadians in Lower-Canada, but the majority of citizens were French-speaking Canadians

However, in 1837-1838, both Canadas rebelled against England because the Crown was helping itself to money levied in the Canadas. There were reprisals in both Canadas and Britain asked John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792-1840), the governor-in-chief of British North America, to investigate the matter, particularly as it presented itself in Bas-Canada. In his Report, Lord Durham proposed that the two Canadas be joined, but he also stated that French Canadians did not have a literature and that they also lacked a history. For Canadiens, this was an insult, and some have yet to recover.

—ooo—

La Patrie littéraire or The Literary Homeland

In her superb selection of voyageur songs, twenty songs notated (musical notation) and translated, Nute includes:

  • Petit Rocher (also known as La Complainte de Cadieux or Cadieux’s Lament, and
  • Mon Canot d’Écorce or Le Canotier (My Birchbark Canoe or The Canoeman).

It seems unlikely that these are voyageur songs. First, they were written in the 1860s when the voyageur had ceased to transport fur. Second, and more importantly, these two songs are part of the literature which, according to Lord Durham, French-speaking Canadians did not have. As soon as the Union-Act was passed (1841), French-speaking Canadians gave themselves the history and the literature which, according to Lord Durham, they did not possess. That period of French-Canadian literature is known as The Literary Homeland or La Patrie littéraire.

Antoine Gérin-Lajoie composed his lovely and famous Un Canadien errant or Un Acadien errant. We have heard this song, but I will nevertheless include it at the bottom of this blog. In theory, the melody is from the French-Canadian folk tune “J’ai fait une maîtresse.” I do not think this is the case. Moreover, French-speaking Canadians quickly endowed themselves with two literary schools, one in Montreal and the other, in Quebec city.

In  the wake of Lord Durham’s Report, François-Xavier Garneau [v] published his three-volume Histoire du Canada (1845-1848) and added a supplement, published in 1852. Canadiens, later called Québécois (1960) were also writing poetry and novels.

Le Canotier and La Complainte de Cadieux

Le Canotier was published in Casgrain’s Légendes canadiennes et Œuvres diverses (1861). L’abbé Henri-Raymond Casgrain [vi] (December 16, 1831 – February 11, 1904) was a prolific and excellent writer. Consequently, although some would like Le Canotier to be a folksong, it is a poem by l’abbé Casgrain.

However there are sixty-five (65) versions of Le Canotier or Mon canot d’écorce. Therefore, although l’abbé Casgrain’s wrote Le Canotier or Mon canot d’écorce poem, it was incorporated into the anamnesis, Plato’s theory, that followed the loss of the Canadiens’s Bas-Canada. The concept of anamnesis suggests remembrance and reincarnation. French-speaking Canadians started remembering and gave the voyageur mythic dimension.

The brothers Grimm collected folklore, thereby reaching into the past. As for Richard Wagner, he gave Germany a mythology and in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, he remembered Hans Sachs. He brought him back to life .

La Complainte de Cadieux, or Petit Rocher, it is a legend told by Joseph Charles Taché [vii] (December 24, 1820 – April 16, 1894) a nephew of Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché (5 September 1795 – 30 July 1865), in his Forestiers et voyageurs (1863). Cadieux’s Lament is a legend dating back to the seventeenth century. It had been passed down orally and was now entering a learned tradition. According to Marius Barbeau, it is not a voyageur song, but a forestier song.

As the legend goes, Cadieux “died in May 1709 after defending his family against the Iroquois at the Sept-Chutes portage on the Ottawa River. Cadieux diverted the Indians’ attention while his family, protected by the Virgin Mary, managed to navigate the rapids in a canoe. Prior to dying of exhaustion, he dug his own grave and lay in it.” [viii]

For Taché, [ix]

The mind of man can no more live on realism than his soul can live on the natural truths it perceives; [the mind] must venture into the unknown, [the soul] must find repose through faith in mysteries. Hence the need for our imagination to feed on magical notions. Herein lies the charm of legends and tales.

In short, the voyageur is now larger than life, but I am fascinated by the fact that he turned miserable circumstances into a source of pride and into pleasure. He had a job. He was un homme engagé, rather than unemployed. And he endeared himself to his employers. Besides, he was busy naming rivers, lakes, forts and he was taking explorers all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

 

Grey Day, by Tom Thomson

I have a recording of songs Voyageurs sang but I do not know how to incorporate it into a blog.

  • Antoine Gérin-Lajoie: Un Canadien errant, Nana Mouskouri
  • Folklore: À la claire fontaine, Nana Mouskouri
  • Folklore: J’ai fait une maîtresse, Le Diabl’ dans la Fourche

_________________________

[i] Marius Barbeau, “The Ermatinger Collection of Voyageur Songs (ca. 1830),” The Journal of American Folklore (New York:  Kraus Reprint Corporation, Vol. 67, 1966 [1954]), pp. 147-161. 

[ii] “Hopkins Book of Canoe Songs,” The Beaver, (Outfit 302.2, Autumn 1971), pp. 54-58.

[iii] Marius Barbeau, “The Ermatinger Collection of Voyageur Songs (ca. 1830),” The Journal of American Folklore (New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, Vol. 67, 1966 [1954], pp. 147-161

[iv] Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageur (St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987 [1931]).

[v] Pierre Savard, “François-Xavier Garneau” http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/francoisxavier-garneau

[vi] Henri-Raymond Casgrain                                         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri-Raymond_Casgrain

[vii] “Joseph-Charles Taché”                                                                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph-Charles_Tach%C3%A9

[viii] Hélène Plouffe, “Petit rocher de la haute montagne,” Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/petit-rocher-de-la-haute-montagne

[ix] Jean-Guy Nadeau, “Jean-Charles Taché,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=40576.

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The Voyageurs: from Sea to Sea

16 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canadian History, Folksongs, Métis, United States, Voyageurs

≈ 99 Comments

Tags

Alexander Henry, Athabasca men, disobedience, from coast to coast, hivernants, pemmican, Simon Fraser, Sir Alexander MacKenzie, Sir George Back, voyageurs

fort_george

Fort Astoria (also called Fort George) (Photo credit: Fort Astoria, Wikipedia)

Grace Lee Nute writes that “[t]hey [the voyageurs] named the lakes and Rivers, prepared the Indians for the incursion of the white, and made it possible for missionaries to go among the tribes and convert and civilize them. They were humble, unassuming men, but this fact should not obscure their services and importance in American and Canadian history.” [i]

They may indeed have been “humble, unassuming men.” Ramsay Crooks, John Jacob Astor’s employee and then his successor, was also of this opinion, to the point that an exception was made to the Embargo Act of 1807. John Jacob Astor was allowed to hire British subjects.Truth be told, John Jacob Astor would have trusted Gabriel Franchère with his life. He had so much confidence in him that he asked him to take voyageurs around Cape Horn and back up to the west coast of the current United States. So there had to be more to men who jumped the rapids recklessly than mere recklessness.

Trapper’s Bride, Marriage Between an Amerindian and a Voyageur by Alfred Jacob Miller (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Voyageur and the Amerindians

If we were to draw a portrait of the voyageur, his relationship with the Amerindians would be an important factor. The hivernants or winterers, sometimes Métis, who signed a three-year contract and manned, first, the one fort and, later, the many forts as fur traders and explorers moved further and further into the interior learned the language of Amerindians and married Amerindians. Others would have killed them or exploited them. 

The voyageurs were indeed very capable men. They woke at three in the morning, washed, shaved, loaded the canoes and put them in the water in less than forty-five minutes. They travelled a reassuring distance before having breakfast. However, they depended on the Amerindians for guidance and they also depended on Amerindians and Métis for food. That kept the voyageurs humble.

Pemmican: food

The mangeurs de lard or ‘pork-eaters,’ the voyageurs who went back and forth between Montreal and a trading post ate “dried peas or beans, sea biscuit salt pork” and maize. (Wikipedia).  But the hommes du Nord, or North men, and the élite among them, the Athabasca men (North West Company), who went further and further west, did not have time to prepare food. They therefore ate pemmican. It was brought to the forts first by Amerindians and, later, by Amerindians and Métis. The pemmican trade grew in importance as forts were built that soon reached what is now northeast Alberta.

Jumping or “shooting” the Rapids: disobedience

Besides, they so wanted to avoid portages that they were not as docile as portrayed by Ramsay Crooks. In his diary, Nicholas Garry reports that his crew disobeyed orders. “A few minutes paddling brought us to the Portage de Petite Roche which is a dangerous Rapid but the Water being high we run it, which was great Folly…” Garry goes on to speak about Portage de l’Isle. “This is a very dangerous Rapid, and so many fatal Accidents have attended the Sauting [sic] of it that it has been interdicted [forbidden] to the Servants of both Companies [the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company  before the merger in 1821]. Our Men forgetting Orders and wishing to avoid the Trouble of carrying the Canoe run it and we escaped, though an Absolution of Sin in a severe Ducking would not have justified this Rashness. . . . In half an Hour we arrived at a Décharge* but our Steerman preferred running it and we had a narrow escape having just touched. A harder Knock would have broken our Canoe.”[iii]  

*at a décharge, the cargo could be left in the canoe and the men pulled the canoe with ropes, walking on each side of a river or channel.

Garry then speaks about an accident. A huge hole was made in the canoe. “It became necessary to consider how we should get on but the Canadian Voyageur soon find a Remedy and our Men were immediately occupied in repairing the Hole. The Wood furnished the material. Bark from the Birch Tree Wattape from the Root of the Pine, Splints made from the Cedar Tree and the Crossbars. In the Evening all was ready to start in the morning.”[iv]

I had imagined that the Canadians who accompanied me were the most expert canoe-men in the world. (Alexander MacKenzie)

From Coast to Coast

Were they disobedient or simply stretching their ability in preparation for travelling the River, the afore-mentioned Fraser River. They knew that they would face the worst possible conditions for canoeing. Before the trains, there had to be voyageurs to trace the path to the Pacific coast. Sir Alexander MacKenzie (1764 [Scotland] – 12 March 1820 [Scotland]), his voyageurs and Amerindians did reach the Pacific: “Here two canoes and seven natives took them down the river. In a few days the mouth of the stream and the sea came into sight. The great feat had been accomplished: North America had been crossed in northern latitudes from coast to coast for the first time.”[v] (See South Pass (Wyoming), Wikipedia.)

Simon Fraser travels down the River: the Fraser River  

The River is named the Fraser River, after Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862) a fur trader and an explorer. However, when reading and account of their descent, one is amazed at the feats of the voyageurs.  

“His [Fraser’s] name still attaches to the river he explored in 1808 at the greatest hazard to himself, his nineteen voyageurs, and four other companions.” Fraser writes that at one point “The nature of our situation . . . left us no choice, we were under the necessity, either of running down the Canoes, or of abandoning them: we therefore unloaded and provided each of them with five men.”[vi] 

Fraser also writes that they “were obliged to pass on a declivity which formed the border of a huge precipice, on loose stones and gravel which constantly gave way under their feet.”[vii]

According to Nute, one voyageur lost his way and got stuck among the rocks because of the material he was carrying on his back. Fraser writes that he “got so engaged among the rocks that he could neither move forward nor backward, nor yet unload himself, without imminent danger.” He was saved by the “leader of the party himself who crawled to the poor wretch’s assistance and by cutting the load loose and allowing it to be lost over the precipice saved his canoeman’s life.”[viii]

An Incident: the gun taken away

A little later, they met Amerindians who had never seen white men. One took a gun away from a voyageur and was about to shoot another Amerindian, not knowing the consequences, when a voyageur rushed to push the gun up so no one would be killed. “Once, when a curious Indian took the interpreter’s gun, one of the voyageurs saved the situation by knocking up the muzzle, which was aimed directly at some of the Indians, when the would-be investigator pulled the trigger.” Nute writes that “[t]he men had to be eternally vigilant standing guard at night, keeping the natives from the luggage, and yet convincing them of the friendliness of the whites.”[ix]

—ooo—

Making sense of the voyageurs is rather difficult. Yes, they were docile but, at times, they did not pay attention to orders. They were the canoemen and probably measured the risks, terrible risks. Most of the men who accompanied Admiral Sir George Back, FRS (6 November 1796 – 23 June 1878) died of exposure, scurvy or hunger. However, from the very beginning of New France, they relied on North-American Indians, as they would not otherwise have survived. They were attacked by Amerindians, Iroquois in particular, and eight Jesuit missionaries, the Canadian martyrs, were the victims of Iroquois, also called Mohawks.   

Moreover, the habitants’ thirty acres started to shrink before Nouvelle-France was ceded to Britain. Families were large and the farms were divided among sons and could not be divided anymore. Voyageurs had a job, so families were proud when a boy did not grow too tall for the canoes. There had to be room for supplies and pelts under their seat.  As for the singing, it was better than feeling pity for oneself. These men found their happiness where they could. They were proud, so they turned obstacles into challenges and their singing entertained those who travelled with them. I like to compare them with the sailors who sang shanties while they toiled.

Canoe by Frances Anne Hopkins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Frances Anne Hopkins

Among explorers, we can name: Radisson, La Vérendrye, Lahontan, Pierre Le Sueur, Du Lhut, Perrot, La Salle, Nicolet; Alexander Henry, Jonathan Carver, Peter Pond, Sir Alexander MacKenzie, Simon Fraser, Sir John Franklin, Sir George Back and, to a lesser extent, Sir George Simpson and Norwegian W. F. Wentzel. Yet, we could also name the voyageur.

Love to everyone ♥

_________________________

[i] Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageur (St. Paul, Minneapolis: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987 [1931]), p.10.

[ii] Nute, Op. Cit., p. 236.

[iii] Nute, Op. Cit., p. 69, quoting the “Diary of Nicholas Garry,” p. 129, p.133.

[iv] Nute, Op. Cit., pp. 70-71, quoting Garry, pp. 149-150.

[v] Nute, Op. Cit., p. 236, quoting “Mr. Simon Fraser, Journal of a Voyage from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast 1808,” in L. R. Masson, Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, vol. 1 (London, 1824), pp. 157-221. 

[vi] Ibid. 

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Nute, Op. Cit., p. 239.

[ix] Nute, Op. Cit., p. 240.

[x] Wikipedia, Sir Alexander MacKenzie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Mackenzie_(explorer)

—ooo—

Johannes Brahms: Händel Variations, op. 24 -01
Grigory Sokolov  (born 1950)
 
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The Voyageur & his Canoe

14 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian History, Folksongs, Métis, United States, Voyageurs

≈ 134 Comments

Tags

canoes, Grace Lee Nute, hivernant, homme du nord, La Vérendrye, Lewis Parker, Simon Fraser, voyageurs, W. J. Phillips, York Factory

“Voyageurs at Dawn” by Frances Anne Hopkins, (1871) (1838–1919)

Grace Lee Nute, a pioneer

Several books have been written about the voyageurs, but Grace Lee Nute is our pioneer. She published her The Voyageur in 1931 (D. Appleton and Company). That book is still one’s best reference.

The Voyageur‘s clothes

At the beginning of her second chapter, Nute quotes missionnary Sherman Hall:

[m]y man dresses 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 waiste, the aziōn [breech cloth] of the Indians, and a pair of deer skin moccasins without stocking on the feet. The thigh are left bare.  This is the dress of voyageurs in summer and winter.[i]

As Grace Lee Nute writes, there are missing items: “a blue capote, the inevitable pipe, a gaudy sash.” The gaudy sash is “une ceinture fléchée,” a wool belt with an arrow (une flêche) design, made by French Canadians. It resembles the Irish woven belt but is wider and features the arrows.

Nute adds that the voyageur also wore a “gay beeded bag or pouch hung from the sash,” quite similar to the Scottish Highlander’s hair horse sporran. The voyageur stood out in a crowd.

Dr Bigsby, whom we will meet in my next post,

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 dress fellows in their parti-coloured sashes and ostrich-feathers; 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 [ii]

“Quetico Superior Route, passing a Waterfall,“ by Frances Ann Hopkins*

*Frances Anne Hopkins in The Canadian Encyclopedia

A Hierarchy among Voyageurs

There was a hierarchy among voyageurs. We had:

  • hivernants (winterers): they stayed during the winter, trading and manning the “fort;”
  • hommes du Nord (northern men): outstanding voyageurs who travelled further inland and opened up Forts from Athabasca to Fort Vancouver, established by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821. Sometimes these voyageurs accompanied explorers such as Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November  1685 – 5 December 1749) and his four sons and Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862), an employee of the North West Company until its merger with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821.
  • mangeurs de lard (pork-eaters), who went back and forth between Montreal and trading posts such as Grand-Portage.

The Canoes

One voyageur song is entitled “Épouser le voyage,” or to marry the voyage. A  voyageur was his profession. As for the canoe, it was his home. Voyageurs travelled in their canoe and the canoe was the voyageur’s roof for the night. He slept underneath his upside-down canoe.

Origins of the Canoe

A voyageur learned how to make a canoe from what he could find in the wood. The birchbark canoe was of course borrowed from the Amerindians, but it was pointed out to me that there is a resemblance between the Longships used by Vikings and the York boat. However, the York boat was a boat, not a canoe. Yet the canoe resembled the Longships, except that it was relatively small. Europeans have long fished off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. There is a pre-history to history (recorded history) just as there is an oral tradition preceding the written tradition.

In Newfoundland, there is a town named Port aux Basques, which would indicate that Basques fishermen probably fished nearby or used the channel located close to Port aux Basques. The Trans-Canada highway ends, or begins, at Port aux Basques.

Voyageurs used birchbark canoes:

Making a Birch Bark Canoe*

(Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

“In building a canoe, bark is stripped from the birch, placed inside a staked frame, sewn and attached. Ribs are fixed in position and seams sealed with spruce gum (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [iii]

—ooo—

There were several types of canoes used by voyageurs, but the first two were the most important.

  • “The famous canot du maître or canot de Montréal, on which the fur trade depended, was up to 12 m long and carried 6 to 12 crew and a load of 2300 kg over the route from Montréal to Lake Superior.” [iv]
  • “The smaller canot du nord  or North canoe carried a crew of 5 or 6 and a cargo of 1360 kg over the smaller lakes, rivers and streams of the Northwest.” [v]
  • The canot bâtard or bastard canoe was a mid-size canoe.

However, voyageurs also used Amerindian canoes.

  • “The birchbark canoe of the Algonkian peoples was ideal for travel by rivers and lakes separated by narrow watersheds or portages (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [vi]
  • “The Kootenay-Salish canoe was built for the rapid rivers of southern BC, with both ends extending out under the water (artwork by Lewis Parker).” [vii]

The Algonkian Canoe, Lewis Parker

(Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)

The York Boat was named after the Hudson’s Bay Co’s York Factory. “It was one of 3 types of inland boats (the others being scows and sturgeon-heads) used by the HBC, and the most suitable for lake travel.” [viii]

*W. J. Phillips  (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia [courtesy Glenbow/4615]).

_________________________
[i] Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageurs (St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987 [1931]), p. 13.

[ii] Op. cit., p. 15.

[iii] “Birchbark Canoes,” The Canadian Encyclopedia. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/birchbark-canoe/>

[iv] loc. cit.

[v] loc. cit.

[vii] loc. cit.

[viii] “York Boat,” The Canadian Encyclopedia <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/york-boat/>

—ooo—

The Tonquin, 1811

The Tonquin, 1811

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