Coureur Des Bois - The Type of Man

The Type of Man

“Coureurs des Bois came from all social ranks and all succumbed to the lure of the wilderness.” In 1680, the intendant Duchesneau estimated that there was not one family in New France who did not have a “son, brother, uncle or nephew” among the Coureur des Bois. It was not just the promise of adventure or the freedom to roam that enticed the Coureur des Bois; it was the profits earned by purchasing valuable pelts from natives in return for European goods.

A coureur des bois was an adventurer with many skills, including those of businessman, and of an expert canoeist. They engaged in a range of activities including fishing, snowshoeing and hunting. All these activities depended on skills learned through close contact with the indigenous peoples of North America. Native peoples were essential to the fur trade because they actually trapped the fur-bearing animals (above all beaver) and prepared the skins. The coureurs des bois were purchasers rather than producers of pelts. Often transactions took the form of reciprocal gift-giving. Radisson and his companions, for instance, “struck agreeable relations with Natives inland by giving European goods as gifts”. Relations between the coureur de bois and the Natives often included a sexual dimension; marriage "à la façon du pays" was common. Although the term "Coureurs des Bois" is most strongly associated with those who engaged in the fur trade, the most prominent coureurs des bois gained fame as explorers.