They are generally
Canadians by birth, and of French descent, who have been employed for
a term of years by some fur company, but, their term being expired,
continue to hunt and trap on their own account, trading with the company
like the Indians. Hence they derive their appellation of Freemen, to
distinguish them from the trappers who are bound for a number of years,
and receive wages, or hunt on shares.
Having passed their early youth in the wilderness, separated almost
entirely from civilized man, and in frequent intercourse with the
Indians, they relapse, with a facility common to human nature, into
the habitudes of savage life. Though no longer bound by engagements to
continue in the interior, they have become so accustomed to the freedom
of the forest and the prairie, that they look back with repugnance
upon the restraints of civilization. Most of them intermarry with
the natives, and, like the latter, have often a plurality of wives.
Wanderers of the wilderness, according to the vicissitudes of the
seasons, the migrations of animals, and the plenty or scarcity of game,
they lead a precarious and unsettled existence; exposed to sun and
storm, and all kinds of hardships, until they resemble Indians in
complexion as well as in tastes and habits.
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