Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/508

488 consisted of but seven persons, and was acting illegally, as the time for which Parliament had renewed its charter had expired.

As has been said, the profits of the traffic were enormous, as may be inferred when we read that a good gun, costing twenty-seven shillings sterling, sold for twenty beaver skins, valued at £25; and two yards of cloth, costing twelve shillings, were exchanged for £10 in beaver. At first a single ship was annually sent from England to the Bay, and wintered in the ice of some sheltered inlet; but it being found that a vessel could go in, exchange cargoes, and return within the year, a gratuity of £50 was given to the master who accomplished the feat. The rivalry of the French in Canada with the interests of the Company was very soon experienced, as the Indians were early provided with French guns and found to have a smattering of French words. The number of half-breeds, French and Indian in blood, was another significant token. The operations of the Company gave service and training to that remarkable class of men, daring, skilful, patient, and all-enduring, — as much the growth and product of forest and wilderness as the wild beasts, — who have been referred to as “coureurs de bois,” “voyageurs,” etc., who assimilated all the traits and qualities of the Indian, with the addition of some special acuteness and versatility of their own. These “voyageurs,” for the most part half-breeds, with a complement of the natives and in company with an agent from one of the factories, would course the way between the posts, navigating the rivers and lakes, carrying their burdens, peltries, and canoes over the portages, and employing dogs to drag their loaded sledges over the snow. They were a wild and daring and self-reliant race, capable of enduring exhaustive fatigue and sharp extremities of cold and hunger. They had their intervals of fun and license, of feasting and dancing, and riotous and reckless living at the posts, and the solaces without all of the responsibilities of matrimony.