Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/311

Rh simply on the ground of kinder, more sympathizing, and, so to speak, more wise and reasonable courses in her treatment of the savages. Indeed, her influence does survive through her old affiliations with them. The history of French enterprise and adventure on this continent draws some of its most romantic and picturesque elements for narrative and for quiet musing from the men already referred to under the titles of “Voyageurs” and “Coureurs de Bois.” Often they were identical in traits, character, and habits. For whoever had the inclination, skill, and other qualities for one of these capacities could easily conform himself to the other. So far as the characters were distinguishable, the voyageur might be regarded as the expert in canoe navigation, while the coureur found his principal occupation in coursing the wilderness. The voyageur was commonly in the employ of some association of traders or individual traders. The coureur de bois acted on his own account. The same person often combined both characters. How readily a large number of a large class, too, of Frenchmen took to these airy, free, and hazardous ways of spending their existence, and how soon they became adepts and experts in their wild life, needs no comment here. They took Indian wives, at their discretion or ability to pay for them. They have left behind them a numerous progeny of half-breeds, who, while sometimes troublesome, have proved largely serviceable to hunting and trapping parties of whites, to private and Government explorers, and officers at our posts, as scouts and interpreters, and as needful go-betweens for the two races. They led a reckless and lawless life, often with dubious loyalty to either party. They ministered to the Indian's passion for strong drink. They became often so troublesome, intractable, and lawless in their occasional returns to civilized spots, and in their bad influence over the natives, that the local and foreign governments made many though always vain efforts to restrain and suppress them. The historian Charlevoix