Wild Waters: Inside a Voyageur’s World

In the Dictionary of Canadian Biography: 1851-1860*, one can read the following about Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company:

In 1828 Simpson returned to the west coast, this time to inspect the territory of New Caledonia, west of the Rockies and north of the Columbia district, which was reputed to be potentially the most lucrative area for furs west of the mountains. He also inspected the Fraser River as a possible alternative route to the coast. New Caledonia was indeed profitable, but his hopes to increase profits still further by using the Fraser route were dashed, almost literally, in the rapids and whirlpools of the river.

It is this 1828 journey that is the stuff of Wild Waters: Inside a Voyageur’s World, but, instead of the story being told by Sir George Simpson, as perhaps might be expected, Cree author Larry Loyie, with the assistance of Constance Brissenden, has selected as his main character one of the voyageurs who accompanied Simpson from Montreal to Fort Langley in present day British Columbia. While European names populate the history books related to this period of the fur trade, in reality their fame was built on the muscles of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Canadien paddlers who propelled the canoes. In many cases, as can be seen in the cover illustration, these European “explorers” were literally passengers just along for the ride.

And Loyie doesn’t create just any imaginary voyageur. As is explained in the “ABOUT THE BOOK” section that introduces Wild Waters:

After seeing his four times great-grandfather’s name, Tomma, in Chief Trader Archibald McDonald’s 1828 journal, Larry [Loyie], with partner and co-author Constance Brissenden, began researching and writing about a challenging canoe voyage from Montreal to Hudson Bay, and then on to the Pacific. Larry was determined to combine his creative vision of Tomma’s life with the entries in McDonald’s journal to honour the unacknowledged voices of history. Some of the people in Wild Waters existed; others are based on the authors’ view of the fur trade and its people. Wherever possible, real dialogue was used.

Wild Waters opens with an “old” Tomma briefly recalling his George Simpson-directed encounter with the Great River, the Fraser, with “its untamed waters surging like the talons of prey” before jumping back in time to Tomma’s Iroquois childhood in Montreal where he dreamed of becoming a voyageur like his Uncle Napoleon. When Tomma turned 18, “he signed his first contract with the Honourable Hudson’s Bay Company and joined the other voyageurs to prepare for their long journey.”

In school history classes, words like “voyageur” or “coureur des bois” have an almost romantic sound to them, but, as the book’s subtitle indicates, the authors are going to take readers “inside a voyageur’s world” and that they do, abundantly demonstrating that the life of a nineteenth century voyageur was extremely demanding, harsh and dangerous. Tomma’s contract was for two years as a middleman in a canoe. At the end of that term of engagement. Tomma would receive a salary of $50.00. He was supplied with a striped Hudson Bay Company blanket, an everyday tunic, a shirt, and two pairs of pants, all on credit and payable out of his wages on completion of his term.

Because this piece of historical fiction closely follows an existing historical record, there is little room for the authors to create a real “plot” though they find an antagonist for Tomma in another voyageur and an unrequited romantic interest. They do, however, provide much detail about the everyday life of a voyageur, and they do so without becoming didactic, instead just imbedding the details within daily events. For example, when the voyageurs must undertake a portage, it is then that the authors drop in the details that each voyageur was expected to carry at least two pièces, bales of trade goods wrapped in canvas, with each pièce weighing 90 lbs. over the portage.

As the details of a voyageur’s life emerge, so does another picture, that of the huge social gap between the white HBC employers and their Iroquois and Canadien employees. For example, the paddlers, who maintain 40 strokes a minute on as little as three hours of sleep with only 10 minute breaks from paddling every two hours, are also expected to carry their employers on their shoulders to or from the shore so that the HBC officials don’t get wet feet. While the voyageurs receive common pemmican to eat, that provided to the Europeans is of a higher quality. And there is also the matter of the Europeans taking “country wives” from the indigenous population and then abandoning them, or passing them on to their replacements, when they return to England. As Tomma’s more experienced Uncle Napoleon points out, “Remember this, Okimaw [Cree word for “king” and applied to Simpson] may praise us Iroquois and say we are the best of his paddlers. Truth is, he’s only interested in profit. If one of us is hurt, breaks a leg, or gets a hernia, it’s up to us to find a solution.” Ultimately, Tomma comes to his own realization: “Life as a voyageur was not the dream he once had....Without us, the great Hudson’s Bay Company would be nothing....The white men want our labour, our furs, our loyalty, and our women, and believe it is their right.”

The book’s cover art is “[a] painting of the canoe challenge of the Fraser River ... commissioned by the Hudson’s Bay Company, “Governor George Simpson and Chief Trader Archibald McDonald Descending the Fraser River, 1828" by Adam Sherriff Scott, ca. 1942.”

The book’s front matter includes a one-page map labelled “Main Waterways of the Canadian Fur Trade”. Spanning Quebec City to the Pacific Ocean, the map is too small to allow readers to easily follow Tomma’s/Simpson’s 15,000+ km (9,500 miles) travels.

And for those readers who need to know what happened after the book’s last page, the authors have provided an “Epilogue” that answers the question, “What became of Tomma, a voyageur?”

Wild Waters: Inside a Voyageur’s World, by giving a voice to the previously nameless and voiceless, makes its contribution to the ongoing process of reconciliation.