Voyageur

by Nute, Grace Lee

• ISBN13: 9780873512138
• ISBN10: 0873512138
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1987-01-01
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Pr

Summary

The Voyageuris the authoritative account of a unique and colorful group of men whose exploits, songs, and customs comprise an enduring legacy. French Canadians who guided and paddled the canoes of explorers and fur traders, the voyageurs were experts at traversing the treacherous rapids and dangerous open waters of the canoe routes from Quebec and Montreal to the regions bordering the Great Lakes and on to the Mackenzie and Columbia Rivers. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, explorers and fur traders relied on the voyageurs to open up the vast reaches of North America to settlement and trade. A noted scholar of the fur trade, Grace Lee Nute was a curator at the Minnesota Historical Society, a professor of history at Hamline University, and the author ofThe Voyageur's Highway.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Furs and Fur Traders	3	(10)
Portrait of the Voyageur	13	(10)
The Voyageur's Canoe	23	(12)
Voyaging	35	(42)
Fort Life	77	(26)
Voyageur Songs	103	(56)
The Voyageur as Soldier	159	(18)
The Voyageur as Settler	177	(50)
The Voyageur as Explorer	227	(37)
Notes	264	(19)
Index	283