Among all these Companies the commander of a
Fort was called, "The Bourgeois" to suit the French tongue of the men.
He was naturally a man of no small importance.
"THE DUSKY RIDERS OF THE PLAINS."
But the conditions, in which both the traders and the voyageurs lived,
brought a disturbing shadow over the wide plains of the North-West. Now
under British rule, the Fur trade from Montreal became a settled
industry. From Curry's time (1766) they began to erect posts or depots
at important points to carry on their trade. Around these posts the
voyageurs built a few cabins and this new centre of trade afforded a
spot for the encampment near by of the Indian teepees made of tanned
skins. The meeting of the savage and the civilized is ever a contact of
peril. Among the traders or officers of the Fur trade a custom grew
up--not sanctioned by the decalogue--but somewhat like the German
Morganatic marriage. It was called "Marriage of the Country." By this in
many cases the trader married the Indian wife; she bore children to him,
and afterwards when he retired from the country, she was given in real
marriage to some other voyageur, or other employee, or pensioned off.
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