Wiktionary
n. (plural of voyageur English)
Wikipedia
Voyageurs is the title of the 2003 novel by Scottish writer Margaret Elphinstone. It sets a young Quaker farmer from rural England in search of his missing missionary sister; he must work as a voyageur to have any hope of finding her.
Voyageurs is a French language and culture program at the Concordia Language Villages based in northern Minnesota. Recreating the life of the voyageurs, French fur traders of the 18th-century, campers cook over an open fire, bathe in the lake, and complete a grande voyage by canoe during the two- or four-week stay.
The voyageurs were French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs by canoe during the fur trade years. Voyageur is a French word, meaning "traveler". The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places ( Canada and the Upper Midwest of the United States) and times (primarily in the 18th and early 19th centuries) where transportation of materials was mainly over long distances. This major and challenging task of the fur trading business was done by canoe and largely by French Canadians. The term in its fur trade context also applied, at a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities. Being a voyageur also included being a part of a licensed, organized effort, one of the distinctions that set them apart from the coureurs des bois. Additionally, they were set apart from , who were much smaller merchants and general laborers. Mostly immigrants, were men who were obliged to go anywhere and do anything their masters told them as long as their indentureship was still in place. Until their contract expired, were at the full servitude of their master, which was most often a voyageur. Less than fifty percent of whose contracts ended chose to remain in New France (either because the others returned to France or because they died while working and never had a chance to leave).
The voyageurs were regarded as legendary, especially in French Canada. They were heroes celebrated in folklore and music. For reasons of promised celebrity status and wealth, this position was very coveted. James H. Baker was once told by an unnamed retired voyageur:
I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!
Despite the fame surrounding the voyageur, their life was one of toil and not nearly as glorious as folk tales make it out to be. For example, they had to be able to carry two bundles of fur over portage. Some carried up to four or five, and there is a report of a voyageur carrying seven for half of a mile. Hernias were common and frequently caused death. Most voyageurs would start working when they were twenty two and they would continue working until they were in their sixties. They never made enough money to consider an early retirement from what was a physically grueling lifestyle.
Usage examples of "voyageurs".
Again the swift coureurs de bois, half-savage in their ambassadorship of the woods, follow the traces of the most ancient roadmakers, the buffalo and deer, and the voyageurs carry their boats across the portage places.
As Iberville, with Sainte-Helene and Perrot, sat watching the canoes that followed, with voyageurs erect in bow and stern, a voice in the next canoe, with a half-chanting modulation, began a song of the wild-life.
He has even imagined primitive carpenter shops and ovens and huts on these paths where the voyageurs must stop for repairs, food, and rest--the precursors of garage, road-house, and hotel.
He turned, startled, and in the doorway stood Mademoiselle Ninon, her short skirt belted with a red silk scarf, -- the token of some trapper, -- her ankles protected with fringed leggins, her head covered with a beribboned hat of felt, such as the voyageurs wore.
At the Great Bear, overcome by the common dread of the Unknown Lands, their voyageurs began to desert, and Fort of Good Hope saw the last and bravest bending to the towlines as they bucked the current down which they had so treacherously glided.
Thus for the next few days we moved forward, the monotony of existence broken only by the great variety of mirage, the glare of heat-waves, and the silent signal in the sky of other voyageurs like ourselves.
Not presidents, popes, or premiers, and especially not obscure voyageurs running the Commune circuit.
It was an imposing fleet, for the outfit was large, and they were accompanied by a disreputable contingent of half-breed voyageurs with their women and children.