WASHINGTON IIlVING's ASTORIA. 561 



the great Canadian provinces. Being destitute of the precious metals, they 

 were long neglected by the parent country. The French, however, who had 

 settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence, soon found that in the rich peltries 

 of the interior they had sources of wealth that might almost rival the mines 

 of Mexico and Peru. The Indians, as yet unacquainted with the artificial 

 value given to some descriptions of furs in civilized life, brought quantities of 

 the most precious kinds, and bartered them away for European trinkets and 

 cheap commodities. Immense profits were thus made by the early traders, 

 and the traffic was pursued with avidity. 



" As the valuable furs soon became scarce in the neighbourhood of the 

 settlements, the Indians of the vicinity were stimulated to take a wider range 

 in their huntings ; they were generally accompanied by some of the traders 

 or their dependants, who shared the toils and perils of the chase, and at the 

 same time made themselves acquainted with the best hunting and trapping 

 grounds, and with the remote tribes, whom they encouraged to bring their 

 peltries to the settlements. In this way the trade augmented, and was drawn 

 from remote quarters to Montreal. Every now and then a large body of 

 Ottawas, Hurons, and other tribes who hunted the countries bordering on" the 

 great lakes, would come down in squadrons of light canoes laden with beaver 

 skins and other spoils of their year's hunting. The canoes would be unladen, 

 taken on shore, and their contents deposited in order. A camp of birch bark 

 would be pitched outside the town, and a kind of primitive fair opened with 

 that grave ceremonial so dear to the Indians. An audience would be de- 

 manded of the governor- general, who would hold a conference with becoming 

 state, seated in an elbow chair, with the Indians ranged in semicircles before 

 him, seated on the ground, and silently smoking their pipes. Speeches would 

 be made, presents exchanged, and the audience break up in universal good 

 humour. Now would ensue a brisk traffic with the merchants, and all 

 Montreal would be alive with naked Indians running from shop to shop bar- 

 gaining for knives, kettles, axes, blankets, &c. ; upon all which, says an old 

 French writer, the merchants were sure to clear at least two hundred per 

 cent. There was no money used in this traffic ; and after a time all payment 

 in spirituous liquors was prohibited in consequence of the frantic excesses 

 and bloody broils they were apt to occasion. Their wants and caprices being 

 supplied, they would take leave of the governor, strike their tents, launch their 

 canoes, and ply their way up the Ottawa to the lakes. 



" A new and anomalous class of men gradually grew out of this trade. 

 These were called coureurs des bois, originally men who had accompanied the 

 Indians in their huntings, and made themselves acquainted with remote tracts 

 and tribes, and who now became, as it were, pedlars of the wilderness. These 

 men would set out from Montreal with canoes well stocked with goods, with 

 arms and ammunition, and would make their way up the mazy and wander- 

 ing rivers that interlace the vast forests of the Canadas, coasting the most 

 remote lakes, and creating new wants and habitudes among the natives. 

 Sometimes they sojourn for months among them, assimilating to their tastes 

 and habits with the happy felicity of Frenchmen, adopting in some degree the 

 Indian dress, and not unfrequently taking to themselves Indian wives. 

 Twelve, fifteen, eighteen months would often elapse without any tidings of 

 them, when they would come sweeping their way down the Ottawa in full 

 glee, their canoes laden down with packs of beaver-skins. Now came their 

 turn for revelry and extravagance. They lavish, eat, drink, and play all 

 away as long as the goods hold out ; and, when these are gone, they even sell 

 their embroidery, lace, and clothes. This done, they are forced on a new 

 voyage for subsistence. 



" Many of these coureurs des bois became so accustomed to the Indian 

 mode of living and the perfect freedom of the wilderness, that they lost all 

 relish for civilization, and identified themselves with the savages among whom 

 they dwelt, or could only be distinguished from them by superior licentious- 



