Jun

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Diary of Jaynes Klouch Part 1 I have finally got my license from the Royal Highness King Louis the XI. Now I am officially a coureurs de bois- ‘runner of the woods’. The name thrills me every time I hear it and get more excited to hear that I am now a coureurs de bois. I am now going to my first voyage for the luxurious fur in the North West part of New France. Although I am excited to go onto the treacherous rivers of adventure on the birch back canoe, I am a little fearful. I heard the journey to the Natives town is dangerous and is harsh. Although the canoes are strong enough to carry a cargo of 2400kg, we need to keep a lot of room vacant to carry as much furs and pelts as we can. That means food will be scarce on the journey. My father’s friend told me that food came from games and fish from woods as they had no time to hunt. One time, myfather’s friend’s crew was so desperate that they cooked and ate their moccasin boots! Other than the usual breakfast and dinner, the voyageurs have to row the whole day except for an hourly rest to smoke our pipes and wipe the sweat off our face. Although the rowing is a bit too much, that much work is needed for the furs to be delivered on time. Such journey with little food and gruesome job that threatens to kill me will be harsh. Sometimes on our birch back canoes, we hang tarpaulin as a sail and use it as a blanket for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow I’m going to my first adventure.

Diary of Jaynes Klouche Part 2 My goodness! The whole journey to the town was like a trip to hell and back. Every frightening stories of the journey came true. The experience was like going into a book I have only read about. The treacherous waters and the harsh battle against time... this turly is an adventure found only in story books. Since the demand for the fur is so high, the schedule is really tight so we hardly have time for decent meal much less a decent rest. Especially the nights' sleeps. It comes quickly and goes quickly. Every night,my comapnions and I all get under our canoes for shelter and close our eyes and a second later, we open them to start our daily paddle. Same with our hourly breaks. When we get off our canoes, we rest for five minutes but to me, it feels like five seconds. I try to catch my breath, while wiping the sweat off my face, and then, I reach in for my pipe to smoke on but I will be too slow to get the pipe and would have to start paddling again without it. Another resting period is our meal. Our meals are really pitiful and is fit only for mice and such small animals. Our meal contains only a fraction of a can of beans we brought with our journey and if we have time, then we can hunt for small fishes, but only if we have enough energy to do it. Even after surviving the ordeal, we get to the native village and have to learn how to communicate with the chief to trade for furs. Luckily, one of the guy in our team can speak Native so we don't have a problem but I should learn the language anyways for the future. Right now I am relaxing and writing this diary in the village. I would not have any other time to write this down so I would do it while I have the chance. The journey back home would not be an easy one especially with the fur to be transported but we will manage. When I get back, I'm going to go to one of the very few friends house and relax in his (comfortable?) house and eating a decent meal.

Bibliography Baldwin, Douglas. //New France and the Fur Trade//. Calgary: Weigl Educational Assoc, 2003. Print "Coureurs de bois." //The Canadian Encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. "coureur de bois -