Fur trade, Fur traders -- Canada -- History, Fur traders -- Canada, Fur Traders, Fur Trade -- Canada, French-Canadians 

"The French term voyageur, meaning "traveler," was given to the French-Canadian men who guided and paddled the canoes of explorers and fur traders during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The voyageur was expert at traversing the treacherous rapids and eddies of the water routes leading westward from Quebec and Montreal to the regions bordering the Great Lakes, and on to the Mackenzie and Columbia rivers. Explorers like Peter Pond, Alexander Mackenzie, Jonathan Carver, Sir George Simpson, and the Arctic travelers of the nineteenth century, as well as the earlier French explorers, relied on the voyageur's know-how to open the vast reaches of the continent. After they left the fur-trade, many voyageurs settled around fur-trading posts and in spots that grew into modern cities, such as Detroit, St. Paul, St. Boniface across the Red River from Winnipeg, and Prarie du Chien on the Mississippi River. To hundreds of rivers, lakes, and towns they gave names that still survive either in French or in translation.

Originally published in 1931, The Voyaguer is the authoritative account of this unique and colorful class of men whose exploits, speech, terminology, songs, customs, and dress comprise an enduring and romantic legacy."--Back cover. 

Contents:
Furs and fur traders --
Portrait of the voyageur --
The voyageur's canoe --
Voyaging --
Fort life --
Voyageur songs --
The voyageur as soldier --
The voyageur as settler --
The voyageur as explorer.