Engagé ouest
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Engagé pour l’ouest
An engagé pour l’ouest or simply engagé ouest was a person contracted to transport furs by canoe (from the “west”) during the fur trade years. They were voyageurs. Contrary to the coureur des bois, an engagé was legally hired under a contract to a merchant or an engageur; these contracts, drawn by notaries, usually stated the conditions under which the engagé was to canoe and carry merchandise up to various posts in the Great Lakes or Illinois, and come back with furs that they bartered the merchandise for. These men normally did not trap and process the animal pelts themselves — indigenous people did. Ouest (west) could mean anywhere west of the Ottawa river, following rivers, lakes and rapids.
The specific term “engagé ouest” has been included here because of its use in René Jetté’s Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730. See voyageur.
Fur traders on Lake Superior ("Lake Superior", 1873 print by Frances Ann Hopkins, Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN No 2934739).
Sources and further reading:
John E. Foster and William John Eccles, "Fur Trade", The Canadian Encyclopedia (23 Jul 2013; modified 18 May 2018); electronic edition, Historica Canada (https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fur-trade).
Foster, John E., and Suzanne Gousse, "Voyageur". In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published June 07, 2007; Last Edited June 06, 2019. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/voyageur
Morse, Eric W. 1969. Fur Trade Canoe Route of Canada : Then and Now. Ottawa : Queen’s Printer. Government of Canada Publications, http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/pc/R64-35-1968-eng.pdf.
Boivin Sommerville, Suzanne. “The Fur Trade in Nouvelle France: Coureurs de Bois and Voyageurs and Engagés”, Michigan’s Habitant Heritage, The French-Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan, Vol. 26, 4, October 2005, 156-161. Updated 2012, https://habitantheritage.org/upload/files/Create_Subfolders/Fur_Trade/Fur_Trade_in_Nouvelle_France_-_Suzanne_2014.pdf.
Lessard, Rénald. “Engagés pour l’ouest”. L’Ancêtre, number 303, volume 39, summer 2013. Société de généalogie de Québec, https://www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ARC-ENGAGES-OUEST.pdf.