LOUIS PLANTE - DOCUMENT SIGNED - HFSID 43760

CANADA: EARLY COLONIAL EXPLORATION & TRADE
Partly Printed DS: "+" [the mark of Louis Plante], 1p, 73/4x121/2. Montreal, 1811. In French, with translation. In part: "Before the Notaries of the Province of Lower-Canada, residing there, undersigned, was present Louis Plante of Sorel who voluntarily hired himself out and hires himself out by the present document to...trading under the name of M'TAVISH, M'GILLIVRAYS & Co. and JOHN OGILVY and THOMAS THAIN, represented by Archibald Norman M'Leod Esquire, present to that effect and accepting, upon first request to leave from Montreal, in capacity of middleman in one of their canoes or flat-bottomed boats, to undertake the voyage, going as well as returning from Fort William on the Kaministiguia River, to pass through Michilimakinac and go to Rainy Lake...to help in carrying the canoes (three men per canoe) overland, and to take good and due care on the way, and upon arrival at the sites of Fort William or Rainy Lake, of the merchandise, supplies, furs, tools, and all things necessary for the voyage; to serve, obey, and faithfully execute, all what the said Sieurs Bourgeois or others representing them and to whom they may transfer the present contract, will order him legally and honestly; to work for their profit, to avoid damages to them, to notify them of such if such comes to his knowledge; and generally what a good 'engagé' has to do and is obligated to do, without being able to do any trading on his own, without absenting himself or leaving the said service...the said 'engagé' who, having declared not to know how to sign, after being requested to do so, has put his usual mark after reading." Fur trade played an important part in the history of Canada. The North West Company (NWCo), officially formed in 1784, consisted of a loose coalition of traders - largely of Scottish descent - based in Montreal. The NWCo soon challenged the long-established Hudson's Bay Company and its resourceful partners established the first interior shipment point for their goods. While Grand Portage near the Pigeon River was the first site, the resourceful Scots resurrected a former French route and fort along the Kaministiquia River in 1801. Fort Kaministiquia, near present day Thunder Bay in Ontario, became the distribution point in 1803. In 1807, its name was changed to Fort William in honor of William McGillivray, the company's chief director from 1804-1821. Fort William became an important transshipment point between Lake Superior and the interior waterways as well as the center of trade for the Fort William Department, which included the region around Lake Superior and as far west as Rainy Lake (Lac la Pluie). Engagés, or laborers, whose name derived from the contract or engagement each had with the NWCo, were usually French Canadians who paddled canoes and portaged furs and supplies. Those who journeyed between Montreal and Fort William were known as Mangeurs du Lard (Porkeaters). Lightly creased, else fine condition.