Q: What gave the voyageurs hope against impossible odds?
A: Two things: Protection from Ste. Anne, supplemented by a wealth of Native lore and seafaring beliefs.
Peter Pond, describing his brigade’s departure in 1773:
(Read Pond’s words aloud to better appreciate his unique spelling. I’ve added spaces for missing periods.)
“…as you Pass the End of the Island of Montreall to Go in a Small Lake Cald the Lake of the Two Mountans thare Stans a Small Roman Church Aganst a Small Rapead this Church is Dedacateed to St Ann who Protescts all Voigeers
Alms box (Note how well-secured it is.)
“heare is a Small Box with a Hole in the top for ye Reseption of a Lettle Muney for the Hole father to Say a Small Mass for those who Put a Small Sum in the Box Scars a Voigeer but Stops Hear and Puts in his mite and By that Meanes thay Suppose thay are Protacted while absant
“The Curch is not Locked But the Munney Box is well Sacured from theaves after the Saremoney of Crossing them Selves and Rapeting a Short Prayer we Crost the Lake and Entard the Grand River …” ~ From The Narrative of Peter Pond (in “Five Fur Traders of the Northwest”)
The American Peter Pond (1740-1807) was a founding partner of the North West Company. While impetuous and volatile, he had an energy and curiosity that drew him deep into northwest Canada where he traced the Mackenzie River. He wrote his autobiography in the early 1800s.
Pond wrote that voyageurs setting out from Lachine made Ste. Anne’s their very first stop, only a few miles into their journey. A small wooden mission was built in 1685 where fur traders portaged their canoes to bypass an intense rapids. Canoe brigades dropped small coins into the box to pay for a mass before facing the uncertain trip ahead and briefly prayed for their safe passage, the prosperity of their voyage and safe return to their friends and families.
Sainte Anne, bonne mêre, protêgez-nous!
French people had long appealed to Ste. Anne, so the first French-Canadian settlers, soldiers and pioneers continued to ask her protection. They had good reasons to need it — the harsh climate, lack of food or medicine and uncertain relations with the neighboring Iroquois, Erie and Huron Indians.
A commemorative chapel to Ste. Anne
Small wonder, then, that voyageurs sought reassurance from Ste. Anne. There would be no other places of worship for months or years — until they returned from the rendezvous or points far beyond. Even Protestant clerks and the bourgeois partners added their coins to the alms box.
(The historical shrine tied to Montreal’s voyageurs is Sainte Anne de Bellevue Church, at the western tip of Montreal Island.)
Voyageurs faced a fearsome future, navigating fast rivers, thundering rapids, vast inland lakes, heavy loads and long isolation from families. Spiritual protection was vital to their journey. Whenever a canoe brigade hit treacherous rapids or a sudden storm on an open lake, the crew would shout out short, urgent pleas to the grandmother of Jesus, who held special power over the wind and water to prevent capsizing.
“Sainte Anne, bonne mêre, protêgez-nous!” (Ste. Anne, good mother, protect us!)
When voyageurs saw the lashed-together paddles marking a rapid where fellow voyageurs had drowned, they invoked Ste. Anne — the men briefly stopped paddling and doffed their red wool tuques, crossed themselves and murmured quick prayers for the dead (the Notre Père, “Our Father” or the Je vous salue Marie, “Hail Mary”).
At least 28 diverse groups beg Ste. Anne’s assistance, according to CatholicSaints.info.
- Groups connected to pregnancy, family and child-rearing, plus childless people, grandparents, homemakers and those against sterility.
- Miners, who prize precious metals or gems from deep within, likened to Mary’s womb.
- Equestrians, lace makers, carpenters, old clothes dealers, broom makers and those struggling against poverty or unable to find lost articles.
But Ste. Anne — whose feast day is celebrated July 26 — is not mentioned as a patroness of voyageurs in CatholicEncyclopedia.Info. That apparently didn’t matter to the French-Canadian canoemen.
Ste. Anne de Beaupré
In French Canada, early settlers built a small chapel on the Beaupré hillside in 1658, dedicating it to Ste. Anne. In 1772, Abbot de Breslay personally experienced a miracle — during a snowstorm when he’d broken his leg, he prayed to Ste. Anne and credits her with saving him. In gratitude, he built and dedicated a chapel to her. Later a church was built, and then replaced in 1876 by an impressive stone cathedral (CatholicEncyclopedia.Info). (The Basilica of Ste. Anne du Beaupré, a primary national shrine in Canada is located near Quebec City, 3 hours east of Montreal.)
Hedging their bets
But, now far from Ste. Anne, and because French-Canadian voyageurs could be a superstitious lot, they watched as their Métis crewmates sought other powers. They borrowed Indigenous spiritual practices, blending them with old seafaring myths into their own lore that helped them stay alive on the unpredictable and dangerous waterways. Some of those river beliefs included:
- “Paying the River” at a Rapids
“Canadian Express” by Arthur Henry Howard Heming (1870-1940)
Before navigating violent waters, voyageurs appeased river spirits. Into the churning foam, the men tossed bits of tobacco and even small cargo — musket balls, trade beads or silver coins. Forgetting or refusing to pay the river would cause sudden, violent whirlpools or heavy mists that could swallow the canoe whole.
- Refusing to Start on Fridays
Voyageurs believed Friday was an unlucky day to begin a journey, so canoe brigades would refuse to launch, push off or even sign new employment contracts on a Friday. All because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. This came from an ancient European sailing myth. - Shrieking Gulls
Voyageurs traveling large lakes, like Lake Superior or Lake Winnipeg, kept a nervous eye on the sky for gulls. For them, gulls housed the trapped souls of drowned voyageurs — their high-pitched shrieks mimicked cries from dead companions warning them of danger ahead. If one gull followed a birchbark canoe for days without landing, it meant a man on that boat was marked for death by drowning. - The Headless Voyageur
This tale was told around evening campfires, maybe to reckless young men: A phantom canoe would glide silently out of the river fog at night, paddled by a headless man wearing a capote (the traditional winter coat made from a blanket) and bright sash. If the headless specter touched a canoe, that boat was doomed to flip over and sink in the very next set of rapids. This ghost might appear if a crew broke the Sabbath by paddling on a Sunday, or if a young voyageur insisted on traveling after dark. - Phantom Splashing
Called “bush fever” and arising from their fear of deep woods, isolation and constant danger, voyageurs became very sensitized to the wilderness around them. Fur trade journals mention that voyageurs refused to camp at certain river bends, because men heard phantom splashing, frantic gasping and disembodied voices of drowned comrades echoing through the night mist. - Feu Follet (Will-o’-the-Wisp)
When navigating swampy riverbeds and bogs at twilight, voyageurs might notice floating, glowing globes of pale blue or green light (swamp gas?). The lights would remind them of a missing crewmate, trying to lure a voyageur into stepping off the safe trail to drown in the muck or the faint cries of a lost child. These lights, called feux follets (fiery spirits), were either damned souls or the devil trying to hypnotize them.
But they always came back to Ste. Anne.
“Saint Anne is the patroness of the Canadians, in all their travels by water.”
~ Alexander Henry (the Elder), 1804 journal about his 1761 venture into Canadian fur country
And at Ste. Anne’s shrine in 1793, after John Macdonell witnessed the burial of a voyageur who’d drowned a year earlier and 100 leagues up the river at Roche Capitaine, he added his mite and prayers — for the safe return to those engaged in their voyage.
So in my “Treacherous Waters” and “Uncharted Waters” (Books 2 and 3) of the “Chronicles of An Unlikely Voyageur,” André and his fellow milieux (middlemen paddlers) stopped at St. Anne’s to leave their coins and pray for their venture. And — at crucial moments — they also offered tobacco to the river spirits.
Sources:
CatholicEncyclopedia.Info (online)
CatholicSaints.info (online)
“Five Fur Traders of the Northwest; Being the Narrative of Peter Pond and the Diaries of John Macdonnell, Archibald N. McLeod, Hugh Faries and Thomas Connor (John Sayer)” by Charles M. Gates, editor. Minnesota Historical Society, (St. Paul, 1965)
Final Thoughts
Read my novels from a newbie’s view of the fur trade: Book 1: “Waters Like the Sky” Book 2: “Treacherous Waters” and Book 3: “Uncharted Waters” — all in paper and e-book form.
Visit me on Facebook and Instagram (@nlnlnraj) for snippets and quirky discoveries in my research. I enjoy your Comments.
Subscribe to this blog and read the backstory. You’ll get posts as soon as they’re published.
Book me as a speaker.
Ask your library, local school, gift shop to buy copies.
Be a voyageur for an hour — come to one of my presentations.
What I’m reading:
“George Drouillard: Hunter and Interpreter for Lewis and Clark & Fur Trader, 1807-1810” by M.O. Skarsten. University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, Nebraska, and London, 2005).
“Voyageurs: A Novel” by Margaret Elphinstone. Cannongate (New York, 2003).
