USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 9
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There was no Protestant element before the British conquest of Can- ada, and the people were strongly attached to their churches; the clergy were accomplished and influential. Several of the early missionaries and pastors were men of great learning and scholarly ambition. We of today, are indebted to them for much of our knowledge of the Indians and their languages, and for a large share of the historical records which have been preserved.
There is always a strong temptation to dwell upon the domestic ways of our forebears, and to enjoy the pleasant memories of charming households and hospitable homes, of delightful summer and winter holi- days and festivals, of bounteous gardens and orchards, of gay, shouting throngs upon the waters of river and bay, of wedding trains in pony carts or caleches, of cariole vans and ox carts; the pony races on the river, when the stream was held in the fetters of winter.
Brief reference has been made to the Coureur de Bois, the most sturdy type of French pioneer, and around his personality gathers so much of interest and historic import that the following chapter is de- voted to him.
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FIN.NETON
COUREUR DE BOIS
CHAPTER V RANGERS BY LAND AND WATER
LA HONTAN'S "COUREUR DE BOIS"-DESCRIBED BY THE MISSIONARY -THE VENDOR OF STRONG DRINK-REGULATION OF THE COUREUR -HE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF-DID NATURE CALL HIM ?- SIEUR DU LHUT-THE FRENCH VOYAGEUR-THE UNIQUE BATTEAU-THE BIRCH CANOE-THE "DUG OUT" AND PIROGUE-THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY-MONROE COUNTY AS A GAME REGION-CHARLEVOIX'S DESCRIPTION-HENNEPIN'S RECORD
The most picturesque figure in the history of the settlement of the great northwest, and of which, perhaps the least is known and understood to-day, is the coureur de bois ("rover of the wood") he, who, at first glance has the appearance of a rollicking, dare-devil crea- ture, whose character conceals no psychological enigmas whatever. It was simply the free life of the woods proving too much for the young men, who frequently deserted civilization for the savage delights of the wilderness; if they had the stamina to hold to the pursuit of trapper and hunter, to preserve some of the semblances of "civilization treading on the heels of nature," the character is not an ignoble one, but the usual picture delineates a "vagabond of the wilderness" and nothing more.
There is much documentary evidence in support of this view.
LA HONTAN'S "COUREUR DE BOIS"
La Hontan was no friend of the Jesuits, but both had the same story to tell about the Coureur de Bois. The Baron (Hontan) says he was once in Montreal when fifty or seventy-five rovers returned from the northern wilderness to civilization, and describes their conduct after they had sold their furs. It is a picture which might have been painted of the wild proceedings in the "forty-nine" days of the gold diggings in California, or of the less remote scenes in the northwoods of Michigan and Wisconsin, when after weeks and months spent in the depths of the wilderness enduring hardship and privation, at the hardest toil, the "lumber-jacks" would rush with headlong impetuosity to the nearest village, or hamlet, or city-which ever offered the best facilities for con- verting their hard-earned dollars into headaches and physical miseries of all their infinite variety, where their four months' wages would promptly dissolve into nothingness-and the wretched men prepare again for another conflict with the woods, to be followed by the same falling into the depths of incredible folly. La Hontan's discription sets before us the ancestors of those who rushed from the gold diggings or the chop- per's camp, to the places where they could play ten pins with bottles of champagne.
The Baron Hontan does not write of these people for the pur-
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pose of sweeping condemnation. He has (at times) praise for the valor of the coureur, and accepts as truthful, his tales of life in the forest.
DESCRIBED BY THE MISSIONARY
It is otherwise when the Jesuit essays to describe the acts of this reprobate, which he does in the severest terms of censure. "What hope can we have," exclaim these good men, "of bringing the Indians to Christ, when all the sinners of the colony are permitted to come here and give Christianity the lie by their open exhibition of bad morals!" Particularly at the time of Frontenac does the vehement protest of the Fathers become charged with grief and upbraiding. From the mission- ary's standpoint the coureur was bad enough, even when the govern- ment opposed him; but, whether rightly or wrongly, it was said that Frontenac and these vagabonds "understood each other" very well, if indeed there was not a definite alliance between them, for Frontenac was a man who preferred himself before "priests, potentates and powers." Hence the Jesuits in the far west felt their position threatened by a compact between two forces, both inimical to them, either of which might well have caused them serious concern. They realized that no sooner had the missionary begun to lead the savage into the right path, than an unscrupulous French trader appears on the scene with his brandy bottle and his demoralizing example. There is little difference in the character of the charges brought against the coureur de bois by his enemies. When the advanced races first come into contact with their retarded brethren, the "white man's burden" is usually a bag of bul- lion, or a pack of beaver skins.
THE VENDOR OF STRONG DRINK
Theft, falsehood and cruelty are the stepping stones over which, too often, the adventurous European has advanced to the control of distant continents. But in the case of the coureur de bois there is no proof that the worst sins were perpetrated. He was not absolutely vicious. Carheil, the Jesuit missionary at Mackinac, sent in to the governor who succeeded Frontenac a long indictment, which contains a lengthy list of damaging details, principal among them being the license to use and sell the soul destroying brandy and rum.
"If that license be not revoked," he writes, "by positive orders, we need no longer remain in any of our missions in this country, to waste the remainder of our lives and all our efforts in useless labor, under the dominion of continual drunkenness and of universal immorality." It is a safe conclusion to draw, therefore, from the statements of La Hon- tan, Carheil and others, that the coureur de bois stood not only "on the fringe" of respectable society in New France, but quite outside the line of demarkation. When one reflects upon the austere piety of the first settlers, it does not appear in the least strange that these wild tales from the forest should have at first astonished and shocked their moral sensi- bilities. But unfortunately, there seems to be a spice of permeating evil that causes it to linger in the memory of even the most "proper." Hence there was in the courieur an element of fascination, which caused a glamour to overspread the profane and disreputable, and to add a savory odor to his misdeeds.
"As if h'all de devil way down below, was tak' heem some fancy ride,"
as Drummond has it. His recklessness kindles a spark of admir- ation, and the turmoil of his adventures contrasted sharply with the
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tameness of the life beneath the shadow of the church, and the monotony of the simple habitant's occupation. We hear something about the cour- eur de bois from the early pioneers of Monroe county, for in the Rivière aux Raisins country, the attractions that drew the hunter and trapper were most alluring, game was abundant, the animals which were clothed in the furs that found ready market at the best prices, from the aristo- cratic beaver to the humble musquash, were here in their natural habi- tat, and it is easily imagined that the coureur de bois found here and in the great forests his element. The good Fathers who exercised the influ- ence which kept all lawlessness in check, were sometimes sorely perplexed and at their wits end to keep them under restraint, though we do not at this time, hear of any serious infractions of discipline or troubles due to their presence in the territory hereabouts.
REGULATION OF THE COUREUR
But in considering the coureur de bois as a factor and a social type we are perforce, brought face to face with the fur trade. As we have noticed, in viewing the characteristics of the early French settlers, who, in their savage environments of the rugged wilderness, they did not at first feel the impulse to laborious efforts in clearing the land any fur- ther than to enable them to grow on the small clearings which they made sufficient for their subsistence through each year, but relied more upon the rifle, musket or trap, a much more congenial and profitable occupa- tion, for in the days of the coureur de bois, profits ruled high. Through- out the territory the beaver skin was the unit of value, being freely exchangeable for the "coins of the realm." When two beaver skins, bought at Frenchtown or Detroit for a comb or a looking glass, or a . string of beads or a pint of red rum could be sold in Montreal or Three Rivers for a guinea (or twenty shillings sterling) sometimes more, it is no wonder that the trade in furs flourished at the expense of agriculture. (In 1690 the Hudson Bay Company paid a dividend of seventy-five per cent.) The fur trade, it is true had its vicissitudes, for the biography of La Salle shows what disappointments it could bring to the adventurer who trafficked with the Indians of the pays d'en haut. Nevertheless, it was not, we may surmise, that the coureur de bois would enter the wilder- ness solely in the expectation of great gains; but in reality the excitement of the game counted for something-perhaps for as much as the money consideration. He bore the reputation of being neither virtuous nor poetical nor practical and it is quite believable that the best pay he received was the opportunity to test his powers in wrestling with the obstacles he encountered. Had there been restraint, the attraction, the fascination would have disappeared; but to escape from the stifling restrictions of government control to indulge in the liberty and license of the forest-was not that temptation enough ? Where else was there held out such promise of exciting and congenial pleasures ? The coureur de bois was a product of Canada, and of the times in which he flourished -and the first risk which he ran was that of being punished by the government. In a community where wealth could be gained in no other way than through the fur trade, every one wished to traffic with the Indians. A large part of the trade thus carried on was an infringement of the monopoly, and therefore a breach of law.
HE SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF
A wise or consistent policy was not always followed in dealing with offenders, but it always placed restrictions of some kind on bartering for
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peltries, ranging from a complete prohibition of private trading, to the granting of a license at the Governor's discretion. As the King had a long arm, defiance of his authority and commands necessarily involved grave danger. Still, the coureur de bois had something to say in justifi- cation of his side of the argument, when told that he must not hunt in the forests at a distance of more than two or three miles from his hut, he reasonably asked how the King expected to extend his authority over the continent if no one explored it, and obviously exploration could not proceed without the help of trade. Whoever entered the lands of the Indian must carry presents, and unless the permission were given to trade, how could the costs of the expedition be met ? Likewise, when the Church hurled anathemas at him for selling fire water, he replied: "If you prevent me from taking good brandy to the Indians is it that. you want them to buy bad rum from the English and the Dutch ?"
One of the most ingenious arguments related to the question of faith. Addressing the missionaries he would say: "By making the Indians go south for rum, by cutting off the brandy you will throw them into the arms of the Calvinists. Therefore it is your fault if they become heretics."
DID NATURE CALL HIM
What ever the threats of the Governor and the Intendant, the official who stood next to the imperial ruler, they could never prevent a con- siderable part of the population from "taking to the woods." Duches- neau (Intendant in 1680), who disliked the coureur de bois with an intensity amounting to hatred, stated that they numbered nearly eight hundred, which was one third the total number of adult males in the Province, which is thought to be an error or an exaggeration. Still, it must be remembered that the demand for stalwart men among the popu- . lation made it seem an unmitigated wrong that a man should desert civilization for the hardships of life in the wilderness. If he remained at home, he would found a family and raise up valiant sons to resist the Iroquois and English. Both church and state were very much more concerned that there should be a progeny of valiant habitants at home than that Wisconsin and Michigan and the country around the great lakes should be peopled with a "mongrel" race.
Just how far the glories of nature appealed to the coureur in reality, is a matter difficult to determine. When these swearing, hard drinking Frenchmen of the seventeenth century careered over the grand waters of Huron and Superior and plowed their way in batteaux through the mani- fest streams and bays that abound in the west and entered the vast nat- ural temples and archways of the primeval forests, they probably were not moved by emotions aroused by the grandeur of the scenes through which they passed. But they loved the wilderness, and paid it the com- pliment of living there until their health failed or death ended it.
Parkman, who gave to the woods the intense affection of an enthusi- astic lover of nature, and wrote some of his most admirable lyrics upon the theme, concluded, after a study in his most earnest manner, that "the coureur de bois loved the woods because there he was emancipated from restraint." Probably he was right.
SIEUR DULHUT
One naturally seeks for a representative of any type which may interest him, and in the type of the coureur de bois, there suggests very forcibly a man who stands for the best characteristic, and almost alone, but who is the preeminent choice of those who wish to believe in the best
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY
of this unique personality. This is Daniel Gresolon, Sieur DuLhut, (known to the reader of today, as Duluth, the founder of that thriving city at the head of the "unsalted seas.") In the city of Montreal, in one of the best quarters of the city, on the Place d'Armes, upon a prominent building near Notre Dame church, there is to be seen a bronze tablet bearing this inscription : "In 1675, here lived Daniel de Gresolon, Sieur DuLhut, one of the explorers of the Upper Mississippi; after whom the city of Duluth is named."
Here DuLhut settled after his arrival from his birthplace, St. Ger- main-en-Laye, France, where he was enrolled in the Royal Guard, a regi- ment whose privates even, were required to show quarterings on their crests. At the noted battle of Senef, he won honors for gallantry, beside his compatriot, Louis Hennepin, another of the adventurous Frenchmen who were attracted to New France and who was the first white man to gaze upon the wonders of Niagara, and who, also, wrote his impression of the varied attractions of Rivière aux Raisins, if, indeed it was not him who bestowed that poetic name upon the Frenchmen's well loved stream.
DuLhut, continuing to hold his military rank, and to draw half pay, settled in Montreal and lived like a well-to-do citizen who had abandoned the career of a soldier, for business. Suddenly he sold his house and dis- appeared into the wilderness. His record is a good one and though he was a coureur de bois in the truer sense of the word than the young men who were given that name, he was evidently not in the forests solely for his health; he was a trader and an honorable one; he would neither cheat on his own part nor permit cheating by others, when he could pre- vent it; and so he won the confidence of the red men with whom he was constantly thrown. LaSalle, for some reason did not like DuLhut, and though they were in the same expedition, LaSalle was always inclined to belittle the efforts and achievements of DuLhut and magnify the im- portance and brilliancy of his own, manifesting a spirit of jealousy and injustice that seems foreign to the character of that great explorer.
After all, the coureur de bois seems to belong in a special sense to the young man who has about reached his majority, his impetuous haste to plunge into the unknown forest, and deal with the elements of nature at first hands, to indulge in the adventures and meet the perils of the grim woods, and to meet face to face with the mysteries which inhabited them-all these symptoms point to the fact that it was the young men who were found among the adventurous, lawless and dissolute of the coureurs de bois. If we follow the subject to investigate further, we shall discover other examples, besides DuLhut, who may come nearer the model which our minds or imaginations have set up, like Radisson, Gros- seltius or Nicholas Perrot, Père and LeSueur and even some of the later days, who flourished along the Rivière aux Raisins, like young Daveneau, Pierre Nadeau and Papreau Duvall.
THE FRENCH VOYAGEUR
Of a type different from the courieur de bois, though resembling him in some of his characteristics, is the Voyageur, who, instead of being a "rover of the woods," pursued his vocation of roaming over the waters of the northwest, the great lakes, and the streams which attended the adventurous explorers in search of advantageous sites for the fur trade, for the establishment of missions by the Jesuit missionaries, or for settle- ment by permanente habitants. The thoroughfares of these lakes and streams were constantly peopled by this moving throng of explorers, who, as Stevenson says, seemed to have a taste for "high, and what we call, Vol. 1-4
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PIERRE JEAN BAPTISTE CADOTTE DE LA REPENTIGNY A coureur de bois of the old regime.
JEAN BOUCHER
A mail carrier between Sault Ste. Marie and Detroit in the primitive days- An early day voyageur and guide. A half breed Chippewa born at Sault Ste. Marie.
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heroic forms of excitement." That certainly was what the early explor- ers got when they came to America. High and heroic forms of excite- ment abounded on every hand. For men like Champlain and LaSalle the wilderness of woods and waters was full of mystery and charm. America, for its first explorers, was seen through a golden haze of romance and adventure. Those who lost health or fortune in striving to unlock the secrets of the New World were many. Failure or misfortune however on the part of some, did not seem to dampen the ardor of successors, who pushed on and on, to some goal, they knew not where. They courted the friendship of the Indian as the means most likely to promote their success in their undertaking. It was not an alliance that was pleasur- able to their sense of rational enjoyment of social intercourse-it was simply-business, and a means to an end; for when one has prepared the best possible brief in behalf of the North American Indian, he must admit that only by a suppression of the most common facts can the red man be turned into material for romance, or even into an idealized people for amalgamation with the Anglo-Saxon, or the less particular, perhaps, Canadienne Française. That is what excites our admiration for the intrepidity of the early missionaries; not alone that they braved the dangers and privations and perils which they encountered day and night in the forests in their efforts to save the souls of these savages, but that they were compelled to eat their meals! Indian cookery! unspeakably gross and disgusting; abide in their wigwams with their vile smoke and filth, their hideous customs and unthinkable practices-they were, in deed, a heroic and devoted band of Christian Fathers!
THE UNIQUE BATTEAU
The voyageur is never spoken of as simply a traveler-nor his craft which he used, as a boat; it is always the voyageur and his batteau. These are the distinctive names given and are his by right of possession. The batteaux were unlike any other craft in existence; they had to be; they were to traverse turbulent waters, rocky rapids; they were to shoot unexpected and foaming cataracts, plow their way through streams filled with fallen trees and rotting logs; carry cargoes of provisions, of furs and of humans, weighing sometimes tons. They must be light enough to be carried over portages, and strong enough to endure the most ex- acting strain of usage. They were usually, or preferably of cedar, with flaring sides and with bow and stern elevated and projecting far over the water-pointed both fore and aft, ranging in size from eighteen to thirty five feet in length, or larger, with a breadth of beam of four to six feet, the bow sometimes rudely decked over with bark for the protection of its often perishable cargo. This craft was propelled by the practiced boatmen, the voyageurs, with a paddle, light, strong and rigid ; the num- ber employed depending of course, upon the size of boat and weight of its burden. But whatever its size or burden these skilful "knights of the paddle" propelled the batteaux with incredible swiftness and perfect safety. Not the "Sho-wae-cae-mettes," in their four-oared shells, in their palmiest days would be considered any more than an even match for these boatmen of the great waters.
THE BIRCH CANOE
Another of the products of the wilderness and the tool of the voyageur was the birch canoe, a very wonder of construction, of beauty of outline and exquisite in form, of feathery lightness. The Indians were very expert in building these bark canoes, and in the selection of material for
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the purpose. The white birch or canoe birch was taken by preference, and cut into proper lengths for the various sized canoes. The bark was formed up over a sort of frame and the margins of bark sewed together with black spruce roots, which is obtained on high lands-but never near swamps. These fine, thread-like roots are tough and flexible and grow deep in the ground. The Indians say that bark for boat purposes is taken off the tree before the sap flows in the spring when it is tougher than if taken off in the summer; it is also much easier to remove from the tree trunk. The Indians and voyageurs have a very ingenious method of carrying the bark canoe, in this way : they take a cedar shingle or splint of the proper size, rounded at one end, that the corners may not be in the way, and tie it with strips of cedar bark, laced through holes made midway, near the edge of the boat on each side, to the middle crossbar, or thwart of the canoe. When the canoe is lifted upon his head bottom up, this shingle or splint, with its rounded end uppermost distributes the weight over his shoulders and head, while a band of cedar bark tied to the crossbar on each side of the shingle, passes around his breast, and another longer one, outside the last goes round his forehead; a hand on each side rail serves to steer the canoe and keep it from rocking. He thus carries his load distributed over his shoulders, head, breast, forehead and both hands, as if the upper part of his body were all one hand to grasp it. One of the paddles rests on the body thwart. One cannot possibly conceive of the convenience of this gear unless they have tried to carry a canoe on their head without it.
THE "DUG OUT" AND PIROGUE
The old "dug out" which used to be a familiar object on the River Raisin, to many now living, was simply a log of poplar, or white wood or sycamore of the required length, hewed flat on one side, then burned to a coal along the middle its entire length until the charred portion cov- ered the space designed for the hollowed-out cavity, this was finished with an axe or adz. This work took up considerable time in its execution, but when complete, and the exterior of the boat fashioned into shape it was a most convenient and useful craft, much heavier, of course than the batteaux or the birch canoe, yet, nevertheless a very good substitute for either, and much better for the young voyageur in his fishing days, it being staunch and steady. It was modeled after the lines of the birch canoe.
The voyageur was a vastly more common personage along the streams of our country than the coureur de bois.
Another sort of boat was called a pirogue. This word is defined by Webster as of American Indian origin, meaning a small boat, and is found to be commonly used by the earlier writers in their accounts of life in the wilderness. It was some time alluded to by the Indians and half-breeds along the River Raisin, but has been obsolete for many years in this neighborhood. The term evidently was applied to any sort of boat propelled by oars or paddled, but one local authority speaks of it as a sort of flat bottomed scow, used in moving produce on the river or troops in crossing streams and lakes. These were plentiful and popular because they were easily built, could be conveniently used on shallow water, and were safe for any purpose except where speed was required. They were usually propelled by a long oar or paddle at the stern, in the manner that yawls are operated by "sculling."
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