Summer

Introduction: My name is Bernardo Debussy and I am a Coureurs de Bois working for Montreal Merchants to the interior to trade with Indians for beaver furs. Today was the first day of my second voyage travelling with the other Coureur de Boises. I woke up early today in the midnight. My house was a birch - bark-made wooden house aside the Wood Lake. (my house is all filled with shabby furniture.) My sister stays at home all the time, and this morning when I left, she said she wanted me to stay with her more at home, anyways. I could still remember last time when we had finished our tasks, we came back and had a big party to celebrate our success in the wood around the lake! What a sweet memory! Because we live around the lakes, fish is the main food resource for us in our daily lives. When we were travelling today, we car ried biscuits, cooked fish, kegs of brandy, wild cooked rice, pork fat, and cigarettes with us. Some experienced Coureurs de Boises in our group told me today while we were having lunch that w hen we really have insufficient of food, we have to eat boiled furs or rock lichens. The birch canoes were ready in the morning, and as soon as everyone had loaded their packages on to the canoes, we left New France and followed the wild rivers that led far into the North and West. After a while, we arrived at the trading post of Michilimackinac and traded with the First Nations, Ojibwas. We exchanged some goods such as clothing, muskets ,  copper pots  and even alcohol in order to get beaver furs from them. They were very friendly to us and they treated us as real friends. It was so much fun communicating and working with the Natives! That both of the Natives and our trading group had benefited from the fur dealing is a very good side of my job in terms of developing the economics and diplomatic relations with the Indians. It is eleven o’clock right now. We have travelled a really long distance today and everyone has gone to sleep already. We have set up a crude tent ( it was a tarpaulin) to protect us from the coldness. Because I am wearing a woollen shirt inside and a fur jacket with some thatch outside, I feel it is pretty warm in the tent now. After we had dinner today, we seated in a circle around a bonfire and prayed to Jesus. I don't know why we are always blamed by the church. Yes, we never work on the land as what a good colonist could do; yes, we are living like Indians; but also yes, our hearts belong to God. Tomorrow we will have to travel more in order to achieve our goal--- get more beaver fur, and I hope our trading group could return our hometown safely. I could not wait until returning to New France! 4.17th, 1686
 * __Diary of Bernardo Debussy__  **

Reference: 1. Baldwin, Douglas. //New France and the Fur Trade//. Calgary: Weigl Educational Assoc, 2003. Print. 2. Plane, Ann Marie. //Colonial Intimacies: Indian Marriage in Early New England//. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. Print. 3. "Coureurs de bois." //The Canadian Encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. "coureur de bois - 4. //Google Images//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. . 5. " coureurs de bois – FREE coureurs de bois information | Encyclopedia.com: Find coureurs de bois research." //Encyclopedia - Online Dictionary | Encyclopedia.com: Get facts, articles, pictures, video//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2010. . >  > > Dear Diary, > Thanks god that we have finished our works and returned home already!!! The trip was tedious when we were on the way back--- it was raining heavily and we had insufficient of food resources! When I arrived home today, my wife __Helen__, my sister and my three boys had prepared a delicious and scrumptious meal for me to celebrate our success! I have such a nice family. I have been missing my wife and my children so much, and I was so excited today when I saw my wife wearing her beautiful dressing! I feel so lucky that I have such a pretty and kind and wonderful wife in my home waiting for me. Today I also saw the animals that we have been feeding being quiet well! Our ox, cow, two pigs, and the two chickens are still alive and strong. I am so happy for having such an able and capable wife. She has also educated and fed my three boys while I was not at home. Thanks God! > Oh, right! This afternoon,  __Jacques Dupont,__ the seigneur who has been assigned by the bishop to manage and settle on some of the church’s land came to us and said that he wanted the taxes paid to him… He has got the best living condition on the entire land and he has been living in luxury, what he still wants from us? We work one hundred times harder than he does and how come he gets more money than we do and we still need to pay him taxes to him? !Unreasonable! However, that’s how the society works and no one is to disobey the rules that have been in this way for more than ten decades we still get to pay the taxes. All right all right… I do not want to get into troubles, I will pay him tomorrow probably. .. > Tomorrow will be Sunday--- the day when we need to be at the church! I haven’t been there since I was gone for the fur trading trip, and we are always blamed by the church for not being a dedicated follower of God. But it is not how it is! In God we trust and our hearts belong to God forever! It’s time to go to sleep, and I will enjoy and first night sleeping at home after returning. > April. 30th. 1686 