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The Voyageur's
Return
The idea of bringing
'The Geat Trade Canoes' to Scotland
to run trips in the Highlands had been
born several years earlier. It was one
of those ideas that once planted, demanded
to be tried. It was the genie in the
lamp and there seemed to be some good
reasons for letting it out. First it
hadn't been done before, at least not
over here. Second, it seemed that everyone
I discussed the idea with on either
side of the Atlantic got instantly excited
until I found myself being bowled along
on a wave of other people's enthusiasm.
And third, the canoes have a story to
tell.
 The
Great Trade Canoes and the Voyageurs
who paddled them were a huge influence
on development of Canada as a modern
nation. The fur trade was the motivating
force, the freight canoe was the vehicle.
The Voyageurs, truckers
of 18th and 19th Century North America
were originally French. These early
explorers and pioneers began to penetrate
Canada's interior by the only practicable
means available. They borrowed the technology
of the native peoples and travelled
by birch bark canoe on the rivers and
lakes of Canada. As trade developed,
the canoes became bigger to enable them
to carry loads of freight amounting
to several tons.
As the British Empire's
requirement for fur coats and hats increased,
British influence in the Canadian territories
began to overtake the French. At around
the same time there were some rather
unwholesome things happening back in
the Highlands of Scotland. The native
highland peoples were being 'persuaded'
out of their homes and off their lands
to make way for sheep. The Highlands
were to become an enormous sheep pen
arranged to satisfy the empire's equally
voracious appetite for wool. Highlanders
were herded ahead of the incoming sheep
to the coastal fringes where they were
left to scratch a living from smaller
and less productive crofts. Many were
encouraged to leave altogether and spilled
onto ships bound for Canada and North
America.
Thus began the Scot's
influence in North America and many
of these exiled Scotsmen became Voyageurs,
recruited by the two great trading companies,
The Hudson's Bay and The North West.
Between them these two rivals, who later
merged spread their influence and domain
over an area equivalent to 1/12 of the
earth's land surface in order to satisfy
the developed world's insatiable demand
for furs.
The Scots historian
James Hunter in his books about the
Scot's influence in North America draws
many parallels between the highland
clearances and the persecution of the
First Nation Peoples of North America.
It is sad to reflect that in many cases
the same Scots who were themselves persecuted
and driven from their ancestral lands
by the 'improvers', became responsible
for persecution and banishment of American
First Nation Peoples onto reservations,
many of which exhibited the same degree
of inadequacy to sustain a population
as those crofts on the Scottish coastal
fringes to which the highlanders had
been banished.
In bringing the
Great Trade Canoes to Scotland there
is a sense of completing an historical
loop. It seems fitting to be using replicas
of the Voyageur's canoes as the vehicle
for our explorations of those places
which many of the Voyageurs would once
have called home.
During our first
season we have travelled on Loch Shiel
and into Moidart, that most beautiful
and secluded corner of the highlands
where reminders of Charles II and old
clan conflicts are ever present to enrich
the natural tapestry of the area. Eagles
overhead and otters on the shore bring
the tapestry alive.
 Further
North in the Sound of Sleat a rush of
tide through the narrows at Kyle Rhea
accelerate us past seals fishing in
the eddy lines of the swirling waters.
Passing the ubiquitous fish farm, that
most common feature of the modern Highland
landscape, we approach our camp site.
Like the canoe, with its origins lost
in time, the tepee turns out to be an
immensely practical way to camp with
groups of guests. Fast to erect and
spacious for up to eight people, they
are quickly acquiring the unqualified
approval of those who use them.
We cook communally
on a mix of stove and open fire and
the whole group are involved in the
preparation of the evening meal. The
meal takes a while - good food needs
time to prepare and a meal together
becomes the main focus of this summer's
evening. There is also plenty of time
for personal reflection. Looking out
upon the now quiet hills its easy to
imagine the glens full of their peoples
tending the runrigs and the beasts.
The ancient form of our upturned canoes
now at rest on the shore makes it just
possible to be with the voyageurs too
on their journeys across a continent
and some of them perhaps harbouring
thoughts of home.
Scottish Voyageurs
organise and run Adventures by Trade
Canoe of one day to ten days on the
lochs, rivers and coastal waters of
Scotland. All trips are guided and fully
catered. More details from:-
Scottish Voyageurs
1 Craigdam Cottages
Tarves
Ellon
Aberdeenshire
AB41 7NR
Tel/Fax: 01651 851215
e-mail: scotvoyg@netcomuk.co.uk
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