He armed with nothing but his axe
He knew the river far and near,
Beyond the foaming dread Chaudiere,
Far far beyond that spot of fear
He'd been a hardy voyageur
Through the white swells of many assault
Had safely steered his bark canoe,
Knew how to pass each raging chute,
Though boiling like the wild Culbute
The wilds of nature were his home,
His paddle beat the fleecy foam
Of surging rapids' yeasty spray.
And bore him often far away
Beyond the pinefringed Allumette,
He saw the sun in glory set,
His boat song roused the lurking fox
From den beside the Oiseau rock
Upward upon the river's breast,
The highway to the wild Nor-west,
Past the long lake Temiscamingue,
Where wild drakes plume their glossy wing,
Oft had he urged his light canoe,
Hunting the moose and caribou;
He knew each portage on the way
To the far posts of Hudson's Bay,
And even its frozen waters saw,
When roaming _courier du bois_,
In the great Company's employ,
Which he had entered when a boy.
Comely he was, and blithe, and young,