CHAPTER III.

Colonial Emigrants.-Merchants.-Coureurs des Bois.-The Peasantry.-French Soldiers.-Legal Administration.-Policy of the French Government.-Indian Mythology of the Lakes.-Mode of Land Distribution.-Increase of Colonization.-The Fur-trade of the Lakes.-Canadian Boat-songs. -La Hontan's Account of the Fur-trade.

THE posts of the French upon the lakes, while the Western territory was under their government, exhibit a peculiar form of character, combined with institutions no less singular. The few feeble colonies that were scattered through this territory had emigrated principally from Brittany and Normandy, provinces of France. Working men, drawn from the more dense settlements around Quebec and Montreal, the seats of the bishops, the seigneurs, and the Jesuits, they were sent out for the purpose of building up the posts, and of protecting the fur-trade carried on through the chain of the great lakes. Despatched for these objects, they were expected to endure cheerfully the hardships they would be called on to encounter in their establishment. The population assembled at these posts consisted of the military by which they were garrisoned, Jesuits, priests, merchants,

traders, and peasants. But a small portion of this population, however, was stationary. It was moved from place to place, as the interests of the French government seemed to require.

The French commandants at these posts were the most prominent individuals, and, with their garrisons, constituted a little monarchy within themselves. Their power was arbitrary, extending to the right of doing whatever they might deem expedient for the welfare of the settlements, whether in making laws or in punishing crimes. Under this simple and imperfect form of government, the oldest merchants residing at the several posts were reverenced as the head men of their particular colony. Careful and frugal in their habits, without much of what we should call rigid virtue, it was their policy to exercise their influence among the settlers with paternal mildness, that they might secure their obedience, to keep on good terms with the Indians in order to retain their trade, and they often fostered a large number of half-breed children around their posts, who were the offspring of their licentiousness.

The Coureurs des Bois, or rangers of the woods, were either French or half-breeds, a hardy race, accustomed to labour and privation, and thoroughly conversant with the character and habits of the

* La Hontan's Voyages.

savage tribes from which they obtained their furs and peltry. They could, with no less skill than the Indians, ply the oar of the light canoe upon the waters of the lakes, were equally dexterous in hunting and trapping, and, as they pointed their rifles at the squirrel on the top of the tallest tree, they could confidently say to their ball, like the ancient warrior, "to the right eye." These half-breeds generally spoke the language both of their French and Indian parents, and knew just enough of their religion to be alike regardless of that of each. Employed by the French companies as voyageurs or guides, their forms, which were models of manly beauty, were developed to great strength by propelling the canoe along the lakes and rivers, and by carrying heavy packs of merchandise for the fur-trade across the portages, by means of leather straps, suspended from their shoulders or resting against their foreheads. From having travelled through numerous points of the wilderness, they became familiar with the trails of the most remote Indian tribes, and with the depth of the water in every inlet and stream of the lakes, as well as with every island, rock, and shoal. Their ordinary dress was a "moleton" or blanket-coat, a red cap, a belt of cloth passed around the middle, and a loose shirt.* Sometimes, in their voyages through

* Henry.

the lakes, they wore a brown coat or cloak, with a cape which could be drawn up from their shoulders over their heads like a hood. At other times they had on elkskin trowsers, the seams of which were ornamented with fringes, a surtout of coarse blue cloth reaching to the calf of the leg, a scarletcoloured worsted sash fastened about the waist, in which was stuck a broad knife employed in dissecting the animals taken in hunting, and moccasins made of buckskin. Affable, gay, and active, these men were employed by the French merchants either as guides, canoemen, carriers, or traders, to advance into the wilderness and procure their furs from the Indians, to transport them along the lakes and streams, and lodge them in the several depôts or factories which were established in connexion with the French forts.

The peasants, or that class of the lake settlers who cultivated small patches of ground within the narrow circle of their picket-fences, were few. Their dress was peculiar, and even wild. They wore surtouts of coarse blue cloth, fastened at the middle with a red sash, a scarlet woollen cap containing a scalping-knife, and moccasins made of deerskin. Civilization and barbarism were here strangely mingled. Groups of Indians from the remotest shores of the lakes, wild in their garb, would occasionally make their appearance at the

settlements with numerous canoes laden with beaver-skins, which they had brought down to these places of deposite. Among them were intermixed the French soldiers of the garrison, with their blue coats turned up with white facings,* and the Jesuits, with their long gowns and black bands, from which were suspended by silver chains the rosary and crucifix, who, with the priests, had their stations around the forts, and ministered in the chapels.

Agriculture was but little encouraged by the policy of the fur-trade or the character of the population. It was confined to a few patches of Indian corn and wheat, which they rudely cultivated, with little knowledge of correct husbandry. They ground their grain in windmills, which were scattered along the banks of Detroit River and the St. Clair lake. The recreations of the French colonists consisted in attending the religious services held in the rude chapels on the borders of the wilderness, in adorning their altars with wild flowers, in dancing to the sound of the violin at each other's houses, in hunting the deer through the oak-land openings, and in paddling their light canoes across the clear and silent streams. The women employed themselves in making coarse cotton and woollen cloths for the Indian trade. In

* Manuscript Journals from Detroit.