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In this year of Canada’s sesquicentennial we celebrate the vision that made Canada the great country it is today. Of course, there were people living in what would be Canada before 1867. Many of them were aboriginal but Europeans had been living in Canada for years, mainly because of the lucrative fur trade. The voyageurs or coureurs de bois lived off the land and travelled vast distances into the interior to trade with the aboriginals. This is a book that fictionalizes that fur trade era but in a way that explains what life was like.
Mark Greenhow had always looked after his younger sister Rachel so, when Rachel disappeared without a trace in the wilds of Michigan territory in 1810, he set out from the Lake District in England to find her. Rachel had come to North America with their aunt Judith to preach about Quaker life, the strict religion that the Greenhows followed. They went first to Philadelphia but made their way to Upper Canada to the Quaker settlements established by American Quakers because Governor Simcoe had promised the Quakers would be able to pursue their peaceful lifestyle without persecution. One of these settlements was on Yonge Street but a part of that long road that was well outside of Toronto (York as it was then called). From there Judith and Rachel went to Ste Marie du Sault to minister to the aboriginals in the area. A young Scots fur trader, Alan Mackenzie, became acquainted with Judith and Rachel. In a very short time Rachel had agreed to marry Alan and move with him to Mackinack Island, one of the islands in the strait between Lake Michi gan and Lake Huron. This marriage outside the faith resulted in Rachel being disowned by the church. The Greenhows heard nothing directly from Rachel but Judith wrote to them the news of her elopement and then the sadder news that, while on a trading expedition with her husband, Rachel had disappeared. Mark landed in Montreal in 1811 and enquired at the North West Company’s headquarters for Alan but found that he was no longer an employee since the Americans prohibited Canadians trading in their territory. Alan worked for an offshoot company from Mackinack Island. It was too late in the year for Mark to travel there so he went to the Yonge Street Quaker community for the winter. In the spring he went back to Montreal and was able to travel with a group of voyageurs as far as Ste. Marie du Sault. The descriptions of this part of the trip are some of the most poetic of the book. Viz this passage on p. 148:
The days passed. So many things I remember…the dark figures of our voyageurs silhouetted by our fire at night. The scent of resin in the smoke. The pattern of pine branches overhead and the stars in between. Nights full of stars, and strange sounds carried across still water. I mind well how I first heard the call of the loon, and it sound to me like a lost soul in the wilderness.
Mark’s quest is complicated by the war between the Americans and the British. One of the first battles of the War of 1812 took place on Mackinack Island while Mark was there. As a pacifist Mark was very conflicted by the war which his brother-in-law was espousing as an agent for the British government. Alan agreed to take Mark to the area where Rachel had disappeared but he had a secondary purpose to persuade the aboriginals to fight on the side of the British. Despite their contradictory stances on the war Mark and Alan become good friends, a fact that is borne out by the many footnotes in the book in which Mark mentions letters between him and Alan after Mark returns to England. So we know from the beginning that Mark and Alan survive but as to the question of Rachel’s fate we are left guessing until the end. I won’t spoil that in this review; you’ll just have to read for yourself. It’s worth it. ( )

This is a fascinating novel which tells the story of a young Cumbrian Quaker man whose sister goes as a travelling minister to the USA and then into Canada in the early 19th Century. She goes missing in the borders of the two. Her brother sets off to find what happened to her. He tells the story of his travels in canoes with the Voyageurs, finding his brother-in law and their search for her around Lake Michigan; they encounter the native Indian population and get caught up with the fighting along the disputed border between the USA and English held Canada. Mark struggles with his Quaker Testimonies, and questions some of the strict discipline of early 19th Century Quakers. I think it must have been very thoroughly researched as I found it hard to believe that this was not written by a Quaker!

As a Canadian living on a river that was part of the fur trade route, I found this a valuable book to understand the mechanics of the fur trade (the accomplishments of voyageurs paddling thousands of miles every trading season is truly amazing), how the fur trade played into the War of 1812, and the connections with Aboriginal people. All that in an engaging story that wove it all together while providing an affectionate but critical view of Quakers and the main character's struggles with his faith. ( )

This is a well written novel about a young man who is looking for his sister. The characters are rich, and the novel does a good job of showing what it might have been like at the time. There are parts where it drags a bit, but over all it was an enjoyable read. ( )