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Canadian voyager

Obs.

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

one of the canoemen or boatmen, usually a French Canadian, Orkneyman, Indian, or Métis, who crewed the vessels of the inland fur trade.

See: voyageur(def. 1)

The Anglicized form was in common use among English traders of the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Quotations

1793

I was also compelled to put the people up in short allowance, and confine them to two meals a day, a regulation peculiarly offensive to a Canadian voyager.

1820

It was not very uncommon, amongst the Canadian voyagers for one woman to be common to, and maintained at the joint expense of, two men; nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a season, or altogether, for a sum of money, proportioned to her beauty and good qualities, but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs.

1826

Here we embarked in two canoes, manned by 24 Canadian voyagers.