courageous and strong enough to go to the North West she 

 should follow her husband rather than let him depart alone. 



From Maskinonge M. Taj imoniere, with his wife, went 

 to Tachine, near Montreal, to await the departure of the canoes 

 by which they intended to take their passage. 



Each spring as soon as the rivers were navigable canoes 

 loaded with merchandise for fur trading, and provisions for 

 the employees at the forts of the Trading Companies, started 

 en route for the North. These canoes were manned by voya- 

 geurs, chiefly Canadians engaged throughout the towns and 

 country for the service of the powerful North- West Trading 

 Company. 



Madame Taj imoniere had no companion of her own sex 

 with her. She embarked in the canoe, with her husband, to 

 whom alone she trusted for protection, and began from the 

 first day her apprenticeship to the mode of life which she was 

 henceforth to lead for more than twelve years, for, with the 

 exception of a few times when she was lodged with her 

 children in the forts belonging to the Company, we are told 

 that until 1818 she made her home in a tent. 



During the voyage Madame Taj imoniere did not have to 

 handle the oar or to carry heavy burdens on her shoulders 

 like the men, nevertheless she found it very fatiguing to spend 

 the whole day at the bottom of a canoe without being able 

 to change her position, exposed to the rays of the sun, the 

 wind or the rain, then when night came to sleep on the shore 

 of a lake or river with no bed but the hard ground, facts 

 which are much more poetical in a book than in reality. 



After leaving Tachine the canoes went to Saint Anne, a 

 pi 1 ace about two miles distant from the farthest point of the 

 Island of Montreal. It was here that their first encampment 

 was made and the guides considered that the voyage only 

 really commenced after leaving this place. The next day they 

 bade farewell to Canada, launching the canoes after the ar- 

 rival of all their men at The Take of the Two Mountains. 

 These men were engaged to serve from Lachine to Fort Wil- 

 liam, at the head of Take Superior. Each canoe, rowed by 

 eighteen men, was under a master and required eight men 

 to carry it. All the merchandise and provisions which formed 

 the cargo of a canoe were put up in bales weighing from 

 eighty to ninety pounds. From Tachine to Take Huron they 

 were obliged to make at least twenty-six portages. This will 

 give one an idea of the fatigues and difficulties which the 



