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D. Fur Traders & Missionaries
From HCO Jr
| Part 3. New France → A. Founding of New France → B. Acadian Saga → C. The Royal Colony → D. Fur Traders & Missionaries → E. Daily Life → F. Wars with the English |
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Beaver Pelts and Canada
Contents |
Europeans came to Canada to find resources. At first, Europeans sailed to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to fish for cod. Fishing remained important in Canadian history for a long time. Over time, however, another important resource began to bring over even more Europeans: the beaver. This animal was so important that it was placed on the Canadian nickel as a symbol of Canadian history.
In the 1600s a new fashion craze started in Europe: beaver felt hats. Men and women wore these hats. Beaver fur was taken, and the long outer hairs were removed. This left a very soft, short fur. Beaver felt hats became very expensive. Only very wealthy people could afford to buy them.
When Champlain founded Quebec the fur trade quickly became the most important part of the economy. This did not change for hundreds of years. French fur traders travelled deep into the forests to trade with First Nations. First Nations men trapped different fur bearing animals: beaver, muskrat, otter, moose, deer, bear, fisher and martin. First Nations women skinned the animals and prepared the furs for trade. Beaver pelts were the most valuable.
At first Europeans wanted to buy old furs that the First Nations wore as clothing. First Nations wore their clothes with the fur against their skin. Over time the long hair fell off the fur, and left only soft felt. This is what fur traders wanted. French and English traders gave First Nations metal goods (axes, knives, pots, and other tools), cloth, muskets and glass beads (to make jewellery) in exchange for beaver pelts.
European traders thought they were getting a good deal. They did not think that a metal knife or axe was worth very much. However, First Nations thought they were getting the best deal. A metal axe or knife was very valuable to them. First Nations did not understand why the French wanted to purchase their old clothes.
Fur Trading Companies
You read earlier how the fall of Huronia affected the fur trade between First Nations and the French. French traders now travelled further into the forest to trade and find furs. Soon these traders lived year round in the forest with different Native groups.
These traders worked for fur trading companies. When New France became a Crown colony in 1663 the French government wanted to control the fur trade even more. All traders now had to carry a trading license. Traders who had a license were called voyageurs ("travelers"). They worked for a fur trading company.
Some men traded without a license. They were called the coureurs du bois (runners of the woods). They traded illegally. This is how they received their name: they had to run to stay away from French authorities who wanted to stop them from trading. This did not stop the coureurs du bois. A person could make a lot of money trading illegally with Native peoples.
Soon there were many fur trading companies. Most of them were in Montreal since it was further up the St. Lawrence than the settlement at Quebec. These companies made a lot of money trading in furs.
Another fur trading company, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), operated on the shores of Hudson's and James' Bay. The HBC started in 1670 with a royal charter from King Charles II. It was an English fur trading company. Eventually the HBC and the Montreal fur companies began to compete with each other for beaver pelts and other furs.
How First Nations People Helped the Fur Traders
First Nations people were very important for later explorers. When Europeans travelled further west or north they entered lands they knew nothing about. They needed First Nations to guide them along the rivers and paths.
Explorers also needed First Nations to teach them how to survive. The environment around the St. Lawrence and in Huronia is very different than the environment in western and northern Canada. First Nations knew how to adapt to these environments. They taught explorers and fur traders how to find food and shelter.
Early English traders had no experience in Canada. They were similar to the first French explorers who started trading on the St. Lawrence River in the early 1600s. English traders relied on the First Nations to teach them just as the early French traders did. They learned how to make snow shoes, tobaggans and sleds to travel in the winter. Traders also learned how to make and repair their own canoes.
English and French traders were taught how to cure scurvy with aboriginal medicines. They also learned what animals to trap or hunt during certain times of the year, and how to catch those animals.
Having a First Nations wife was very useful for other reasons. She knew how to make warm winter clothing for her husband, and mended clothes when they became torn. She hunted and fished to supply her husband with food.
When she had children they also worked for the HBC or a French fur trading company. These children, eventually called the Métis, worked for either the HBC or the French. They were valued employees. They spoke a First Nation language, had experience living in the forest, and learned how to hunt, trap and trade at an early age.
Some First Nations started living close to the trading posts throughout the entire year. They were called the homeguard First Nations. They were not employees of fur trading posts, but lived close by a post for longer periods of time than other First Nations. Homeguard Cree, for example, caught fish for the traders, hunted geese and supplied the traders with food. Women helped prepare furs, and performed other functions around the trading post. In return they received European goods.
Exploration of Canada's west and north was almost impossible without the help of the First Nations. They knew how to live in the harsh environment of the north. For First Nations people this was their home. To the English and French it was a wilderness. First Nations saw the environment differently because they knew how to live, survive and be happy in this part of Canada. They passed some of this knowledge on to the traders.
Creating the Hudson's Bay Company
Europeans did not explore Canada's north until the creation of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1670. Some French explorers did travel into northern Ontario and Quebec, but never as far as the arctic. This changed with the HBC
Two French fur traders created the HBC:
At first they asked the French King to support their plan. He refused to. Fur traders in Montreal and Quebec thought that fur trading posts in the north would keep furs away from them. First Nations would not want to make the long trip south to Montreal or Quebec to trade any longer if they could trade closer to hom.
In 1665 Groseilliers and Radisson travelled to England to ask Prince Rupert, cousin of King Charles II, to support their plan. Rupert convinced his uncle, King Charles II, and rich noblemen and London merchants to invest in the plan.
In 1668 two ships, the Eaglet and the Nonsuch, left for Hudsons Bay. Two years later, in 1670, King Charles II gave the HBC (also called the Company of Adventurers) a royal charter. This Charter gave the HBC was control over all lands whose rivers and streams drain into Hudson Bay.
This area is known today as the Hudson Bay Drainage Basin. King Charles II did not know how large this area is. It covers approximately 2.4 million square kilometers.
The HBC is the oldest company in Canada. Over two hundred years its forts covered an area far greater than its original charter. Eventually it had forts in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. It had forts in British Columbia and the arctic. It also had forts in central Ontario, Quebec and parts of the United States.
Some of its fur traders explored and mapped large areas of Canada. At first, however, the HBC explored very little. As you will read below, English fur traders worried that too much exploration might actually harm them.
English Fur Traders vs. French Fur Traders
English fur traders followed very different rules compared to French fur traders. French traders lived with the First Nations. They often had an Aboriginal wife and children. For example, a French fur trader might marry the daughter of an important Anishinabe man. This created a close bond between that family and the trader.
French fur traders sometimes lived with their Aboriginal wife and family through the winter, and returned to Montreal or Quebec in the spring. They learned to speak different First Nations' languages. French fur traders also learned First Nations customs and cultures. They became very good at both trading and convincing First Nations to trade with the French.
English fur traders rarely left the fur trading post. Fort managers and HBC directors (i.e.: the men who owned the HBC) were afraid the men would become too much like the First Nations. They did not want them to give up their religion and English way of life.
For a while this worked well. Only English traders were in the far north. Once French fur traders began to explore into the north and west this policy no longer worked. They set up posts on the rivers First Nations used to travel to Hudsons Bay.
First Nations people started trading with the French because their trading posts were closer. French traders also offered better prices for furs.
When the HBC learned about this it realized it had to send men into the interior. English fur traders worried that the First Nations would stop travelling to Hudsons Bay altogether. Very slowly the HBC started sending men to explore the interior. At first they only tried to convince First Nations to travel to Hudsons Bay. When it became clear this would not work the HBC started building trading posts in the interior.
Henry Kelsey
In 1684 a teenaged boy travelled to a small fur trading post on Hudson Bay called York Fort. His name was Henry Kelsey, and he was 17 years old. Kelsey was the first HBC explorer to travel away from Hudson Bay and into the interior.
Historians know very little about Kelsey and his life in England. We do know that his family did not have very much money. Perhaps he joined the HBC because he needed work. When someone took a job with the HBC they signed a four year contract. Kelsey could not leave Canada until his contract ended.
Kelsey arrived the same year the first York Fort was built. It had only a few log buildings, and a log wall around it. It was a dangerous fort to work at. French soldiers attacked it more than once.
What was Kelsey's life like at York Fort? We are not sure. We know he worked very hard just like all the other men there. They had to find wood for fires, repair the buildings, fix tools, and trade and store furs brought by the Cree. Life at a fur trading post was very hard. There was always work to do.
He does not appear very often in the journal or letters written by the fort manager. In 1688 the fort manager made the first reference to Kelsey. He wrote that Kelsey was:
- a very active lad [who] delighted much in the Indians Company, being never better pleased then when he is travelling amongst them.
Kelsey seemed to enjoy his life at York Fort, and being with the First Nations who traded at York Fort. In 1689 Kelsey was sent to take letters from York Fort to fur traders working at New Severn Post. Kelsey was now 22 years old. He left with a Cree trapper who was the same age. Kelsey and his guide walked over 440 kms to bring the letters and return to York Fort.
Kelsey's First Exploration
Perhaps the fort manager was impressed by Kelsey. In 1689 he sent Kelsey with an expedition north to the Churchill River. Kelsey was not the leader of this expedition. He sailed with a man named Captain James Young on a small boat called the Hopewell north past the mouth of the Churchill River.
This expedition was sent to encourage the Cree who lived north of York Fort to trade with the English.
It was a hard voyage. The Hopewell did not travel far before it was stopped by Ice (even though it was June). Kelsey volunteered to walk inland with a guide to explore. Kelsey and his guide walked over 200 kms into the interior. Kelsey did not find very much. He saw musk-oxen, and the remains of some Cree camps. Eventually he turned and walked back to the coast. Then he had to walk another 148 kms south to the mouth of the Churchill River.
Henry Kelsey did not have much success with his first attempt at exploring. However, the fort manager had a very good opinion of the young man. He soon sent Henry on a much longer and more important trip.
Kelsey's Second Exploration
Kelsey went exploring again in June, 1690. This is his most famous trip. Kelsey travelled south to Lake Winnipeg and even further on to the prairies. Kelsey's mission was to explore, and encourage First Nations to travel to York Fort to trade. Kelsey brought examples of the trade good available at York Fort: muskets, tobacco, brass kettles and pots, blankets, and hatchets. He hoped this would convince the First Nations to travel to York Fort each spring to trade.
Kelsey's journal of his trip is very interesting. He wrote all of his journal entries like poems. He tried to rhyme words. This is an example from his journal:
- I set forth as plainly may appear,
- Through God's assistance for to understand
- The natives' language & to see their land.
- And from my masters' interest I did soon,
- Set from the house they twelfth of June.
- Then up the River I with heavy heart
- Did take my way & from all English part.
(Kelsey wrote this poem more than 300 years ago. You can read another poem about his trip to the Prairies and see a picture of the original paper at CanaText)
Kelsey travelled all the way to the Saskatchewan River. He followed it into he arrived in what is today Sasktachewan. Eventually he had to abandon his canoes. He and the First Nations he travelled with walked for three days through swamp and muskeg. Finally he arrived on the prairie grasslands in August, 1691.
Kelsey met with a group of First Nations called the Assiniboine. With them he became the first European to see buffalo and grizzly bears.
Kelsey learned that the Assiniboine were at war with another First Nation (maybe the Sioux who lived to the south). They said they wanted to trade at Hudsons Bay, but could not leave as long as they were at war. Kelsey tried to find a way to make peace between the Assiniboine and the Sioux, but he failed. It was impossible for one man, who was new to the land and the people, to stop a war between two nations.
In July of 1692, Kelsey started his journey back to York Fort with a full load of furs.
Kelsey's Later Life
That was Kelsey's last voyage into the west. Kesley left and rejoined the HBC several times. On a few occassions the French navy attacked and captured York Fort. This forced Kelsey to return to England. Each time England retook the fort Kelsey signed back with the HBC.
Kelsey also wrote a dictionary of different Cree words. One of his jobs at Albany was to teach new boys from England and Scotland how to speak Cree. The HBC guarded the dictionary carefully. If French traders discovered and stole it they could train their own men. Knowing a First Nation language was very important in the fur trade and exploration.
In 1717 Kelsey returned to York Fort as chief trader. In 1718 he became governor of all the HBC's forts on Hudson Bay.
In 1719 and 1721 Kelsey explored north again in search of copper. Neither trip was successful. In 1722 Kelsey was recalled to England. Kelsey was now in his fifties - an old age for this period of time. However, in January 1724 he applied for a job on a HBC sailing ship. It sailed before Kelsey could get the job.
Ten months later, in November 1724, Kelsey died at home. He did not die a rich man despite all of his work for the HBC. He was married with three children. After his death his wife (Elizabeth) asked the HBC to give her a little money every year as a pension. Historians do not know if she received it.
French Exploration: La Vérendrye
Hudson's Bay Company traders travelled west because French fur traders were building fur trading posts and exploring Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River. Their exploration and trading hurt the HBC fur trade.
By the time the HBC built trading posts in the interior the French fur trading companies had been taken over by English business people. Before that happened, however, French traders explored the Canadian west and built a system of forts. When Britain conquered New France, English business people bought French fur trading companies. They used the forts built by the French. They also hired back French fur traders to work for them.
One French trader/explorer in particular helped the French expand into western Canada: Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye. La Vérendrye explored the lands west of Lake Superior as far as Lake Winnipeg.
La Vérendrye and His First Westward Exploration
Why did La Vérendrye want to explore west? There were two very simple reasons. First, he did not have a great deal of money. La Vérendrye started his career in the French military. French officers were not paid very much money. When he left the military he tried to make money as a farmer and fur trader. La Vérendrye was not very successful.
In 1726 La Vérendrye's brother was given command of what was called the poste du nord (northern posts). He made La Vérendrye second in command. When the brother left to fight in the French military La Vérendrye took over.
La Vérendrye also hoped to make a good profit from the fur trade. French fur traders knew that the Cree north of Lake Winnipeg were bringing furs to the HBC. La Vérendrye hoped to get these furs first, and harm the English fur traders.
La Vérendrye questioned First Nations (Anishinabe and Sioux) who traded at Kaministiquia. They told him of a large lake called Ouinipigon (Winnipeg). La Vérendrye hoped that this lake would connect to rivers that led to the Pacific Ocean.
With backing from the French Crown and private business people in Quebec and Montreal, La Vérendrye sent men west of Lake Superior to build posts. He wanted to build eight posts in total that would link Lake Superior with Lake Winnipeg. The first one was built on Rainy Lake in autumn 1731 (Fort Saint-Pierre). By the spring of 1732 he had a post at Lake of the Woods near the Ontario-Manitoba border (Fort Saint-Charles).
In 1733 the fur traders at Lake of the Woods reported to La Vérendrye that there was a lot of rain in the area. They thought this was a good sign: it might mean they were close to the Pacific Ocean since coastal areas in Europe received a lot of rain.
War and Western Exploration
When La Vérendrye began to explore northwestern Ontario and Manitoba he discovered that many First Nations in this region were at war. The Assiniboine , Nishnabi-Aski (Cree) and another First Nation called the Monsoni were at war with the Sioux and Anishinabe. It made it very difficult for La Vérendrye to create posts and explore. If he built a post that helped the Assiniboine he would anger the Anishinabe. The might attack the post and kill the traders there.
La Vérendrye made the Sioux angry with this decision. In June, 1736, La Vérendrye sent a group of almost twenty men to other French trading posts to get supplies. They were attacked and killed by Sioux warriors who wanted revenge for the Cree attack in 1734. One of La Vérendrye's sons was also killed in that attack.
La Vérendrye's Accomplishments
La Vérendrye learned a great deal about Lake Winnipeg and Lake Winnipegosis, and the rivers that are part of the Manitoba lake system such as the Saskatchewan River. His exploration and expansion of the fur trade allowed French traders to travel further into western Canada than in the past. La Vérendrye even travelled into North Dakota where he met a First Nation group called the Mandan.
La Vérendrye died in 1749 in Montreal. He travelled to Montreal and Quebec many times to find funding for his exploring and trading.
The Church in New France
Earlier in this textbook you read how Catholic missionaries travelled to Huronia and to other First Nations. Catholic priests and nuns also lived in the French settlements. These priests and nuns played an important role in the early life of the colony. These priests and nuns belonged to different orders. Some of these different orders were:
- Jesuit Priests
- Recollet Priests
- Sulpician Priests
- The Ursuline Nuns
- The Grey Nuns
Priests were often leaders in their communities. They were educated, and read and spoke French and Latin (and maybe other languages). In addition to performing Church duties such as baptisms, marriages, and funerals they often took part in the politics of French villages and towns.
Some French settlers did not like the power that priests had. For example, every French farmer (or habitant) had to give some of his crop the to the Church every year. This was called a tithe. At first the Bishop of Quebec wanted each farmer to give the local priest 1/13 of their crop each fall. The habitants thought this was too much. They protested against the tithe. This forced the bishop to make the tithe only 1/26 of the crop.
Priests and nuns did many different things in New France. All schools, for example, were run by the Church. Schools were not co-educational at this time. Girls had their own schools, and boys had their own schools. Nuns taught young girls, and the priests taught the boys.
The Catholic Church also ran all of this hospitals and welfare agencies. People who needed food or help turned to their local priest for assistance. Many of New France's social agencies were started by nuns. Mère Marie-Marguerite d'Youville founded the Grey Nuns, a charitable order that cared for abandoned children and the poor. Jeanne Mance, who co-founded Ville Marie (Montreal) with Paul de Maisonneuve, established one of the earliest hospitals in the colony, the Hôtel Dieu. Marguerite Bourgeoys opened the first domestic training school for girls in New France in 1658.
Marie de l'Incarnation
She lived with her sister and her husband. Even as a young girl Marie wanted to become a nun. When she was married this was not possible because nuns cannot be married. In 1633 she made the decision to join the Ursuline Order of nuns. She gave her son to her sister. When she became a nun she took a new name: Marie de l'Incarnation.
Marie wanted to travel to Canada. Like many other priests and nuns she wanted to convert First Nations people to the Catholic religion. In 1639 she left with a few other Ursulines for Quebec. Once there she created a school for French and First Nations girls.
Marie was a very smart woman. When she lived with her sister and brother-in-law she looked after all of their business accounts: paying servants, paying bills, and keeping track of the money they made and spent. She used these skills to run her school.
At first the school was very small. Families did not have a lot of money, and paid the school in goods instead of money. For example, one father paid the school with wood and other things so his daughter could attend. Marie welcomed all payments. The school also did not have a lot of money so food and fire wood was needed. Marie recorded all of the payments in the school account book:
13th January 3 1/2 cords of firewood.
6th March—4 cords of firewood.
13th March—1 pot of butter weighing 12 lbs.
13th November—fat pig, 1 barrel of peas.
12th December 1 barrel of salted eel.
While the Ursulines were successful teaching French girls, they were not successful teaching Native girls. Like the Jesuits and Recollets priests they did not understand First Nations' culture very well. Marie admitted in her letters and diary that she had not converted one Native girl to the Catholic religion.
She did not give up her desire to convert First Nations people. At the age of 40 she learned different Native languages. She translated prayers into both Algonquian and Iroquois languages. She also wrote an Algonquian-French dictionary and an Iroquois-French dictionary for missionaries.
Marie de l'Incarnation died in 1672 at the age of 72. She was buried in Quebec.
| Traders & Missionaries - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Vocab | Student Activities | Class Projects |
| Part 3. New France → A. Founding of New France → B. Acadian Saga → C. The Royal Colony → D. Fur Traders & Missionaries → E. Daily Life → F. Wars with the English |
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