This is the last section from this book. The whole section can be seen on the Iowa History Site. THE PALIMPSEST EDITED BY JOHN ELY BRIGGS _______________________________________________________________________ VOL. VI ISSUED IN JANUARY 1925 NO. 1 _______________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT 1925 BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA LIFE AMONG THE FUR TRADERS BY GEO. F. ROBESON The "easy waterway" leading to the Iowa county - the old Fox-Wisconsin route to the Upper Mississippi - marked the passage of many a frail French craft manned by sturdy voyageurs singing their rollicking boat songs. Then came the Spaniards up the Great River from New Orleans and St. Louis. The British, too, after the conquest of New France, arrived from Montreal and Quebec; and finally the Yankee, ever bent on driving a shrewd bargain, made his appearance to gather what was left of the harvest in peltries. The trip from the remote settlements to the appointed rendezvous for trading was long, dangerous, and withal an arduous one. The northern route particularly was interspersed with many portages "in consequence of rapids" necessitating the carriage of the "canoe, provisions and baggage" sometimes for miles "on the shoulders of the men". All in all it was indeed a venture for the "young and enterprising". Their canoes, constructed of "thin, but tough sheets of birch-bark" were both "light and strong, though frail in appearance". These the Indians commonly referred to as "a gift from the Great Spirit" so swiftly could they be paddled through streams and rapids. Heavier craft, usually called "freight canoes", were employed to carry the equipment. These "were manned by eight or nine men" and could be loaded with as much as "sixty-five packages of trading goods of ninety pounds each, six hundred pounds of biscuit, two hundred pounds of pork, three bushels of peas, two oil cloths to cover the goods, a sail, an axe, a towing line, a kettle, a sponge to bail out water, and gum and bark to repair vessels." Each trader's company, whether large or small, was not infrequently composed of various nationalities. The trader may have been French, Irish, Scotch, Spanish, British, or American; the boatmen or voyageurs were usually French-Canadians; the interpreters were half-breeds of uncertain mixture; while the clerks, runners, and hunters were for the most part unnamed and unknown. The voyageurs with so large a "share of the romantic in their composition" retained much of the "gayety and lightness of heart" so pronounced in their French ancestors. Their "patience and courage on long, rough expeditions" was only surpassed by their "love of the camp fire and the full pot"; their dexterity with paddles was only "exceeded by that of the song and dance". Dressed in "a coat made of a blanket", with leather leggings that reached "to the knees of their cloth trousers", and wearing "moccasins of deer skin" they seemed to fit readily into their wild surroundings. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/) IAGENWEB: Special History Project: http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm Gerischer Family Web Site: _http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/_ (http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/)