[mlennan] death of DULHUT 41 



home government. His hundred and fifty men were simply so many 

 representatives of the pomp and power of Old France, his reliance was 

 on the friendly Indian tribes who occupied this long stretch of border 

 territory. 



Their allegiance was obtained partly by judicious attention and de- 

 ference and partly by boldness through the medium of that large class 

 of wandering Frenchmen who were explorers, fur-traders and even cou- 

 reurs-de-bois. In the first class we find such men as LaSalle, Dulhut, 

 Péré, Perrot, ]S[icolet, Jolliet and others, all of whom were fur-traders 

 (but, nota bene, licensed fur-traders, holders of conges, that is, permits 

 to trade.) These men had an intimate knowledge of the savage and 

 many of them had remarkable influence over the wildest tribes; it was to 

 their personal influence that France secured and held effective allies 

 iiiong her ever-spreading borders. They conciliated the tribes, acted as 

 intermediaries bettween them and the governor, and, by just treatment 

 and marvellous courage bound the Indian so firmly to France that she 

 long held the West free from all intrusion. 



With the exception of the conspiracy of Pontiac, Canada has been 

 spared the horrors and miseries of Indian warfare since the conquest. 

 The wandering fur-trader and later the lonely settler in our Northwest 

 lived out their lives amid native and exiled tribes without danger or 

 even alarm, and this because England was wise enough, in Canada at 

 least, to accept and follow up the conciliatory policy towards the Indian 

 which France had so happily inaugurated. 



Apart from the explorers and licensed fur-traders, who were few in 

 number, there was a surprisingly large body of men who had taken to 

 the woods; some legitimately enough as voyageurs or employés, others 

 simply for the love of the free, vagabond life, that curious desire of the 

 return towards the savage. These were known as coureurs-de-bois; and, 

 although a constant anxiety, they were at times an effective aid in the 

 many expeditions set on foot by the ever-active government at Quebec. 



Whether it was an expedition towards the West to overawe or 

 combat unfriendly tribes, a raid to the North to surprise the English on 

 the shores of Hudson's Bay or a sea-flight with d'lberville to Newfound- 

 land, Maine or Louisiana, the coureur-de-bois was ever ready to sihare 

 in the adventure. Many of them lived the lives of outlaws with a price 

 upon their heads and too many were merely wandering vagabonds, far 

 below the Indian in every decency of life and honour. 



Coureur-de-bois was as bad a name as a man could well be called in 

 Canada two hundred and fifty years ago, and this was the stigma which 

 Duchesneau, the intendant, tried to fasten upon Daniel de Grreysolon,^x^i n ' 

 Sieur Dulhut, a man of the highest honour and unblemished life, /v os 



[uJ ( L I B n 



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