goods hold out; and when
these are gone, they even sell their embroidery, their lace, and their
clothes. This done, they are forced upon a new voyage for subsistence."

Many of these coureurs des bois became so accustomed to the Indian mode
of living, and the perfect freedom of the wilderness, that they lost
relish for civilization, and identified themselves with the savages
among whom they dwelt, or could only be distinguished from them by
superior licentiousness. Their conduct and example gradually corrupted
the natives, and impeded the works of the Catholic missionaries, who
were at this time prosecuting their pious labors in the wilds of Canada.

To check these abuses, and to protect the fur trade from various
irregularities practiced by these loose adventurers, an order was issued
by the French government prohibiting all persons, on pain of death, from
trading into the interior of the country without a license.

These licenses were granted in writing by the governor-general, and
at first were given only to persons of respectability; to gentlemen of
broken fortunes; to old officers of the army who had families to provide
for; or to their widows. Each license permitted the fitting out of
two large canoes with merchandise for the lakes, and no more than
twenty-five licenses were to be issued in one year. By degrees, however,
private licenses were also granted, and the number rapidly increased.
Those who did not choose to fit out the expeditions themselves, were
permitted to sell them to the merchants; these employed the coureurs des
bois, or rangers of the woods, to undertake the long voyages on shares,
and thus the abuses of the old system were revived and continued.

The pious missionaries employed by the Roman Catholic Church to convert
the Indians, did everything in their power to counteract the profligacy
caused and propagated by these men in the heart of the wilderness. The
Catholic chapel might often be seen planted beside the trading house,
and its spire surmounted by a cross, towering from the midst of an
Indian village, on the banks of a river or a lake. The missions had
often a beneficial effect on the simple sons of the forest, but had
little power over the renegades from civilization.

At length it was found necessary to establish fortified posts at the
confluence of the rivers and the lakes for the protection of the trade,
and the restraint of these profligates of the wilderness. The most
important