Canot du Maître to Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, 1797

In the sweltering August heat of 1797, as the sun baked the cobblestone streets of Montreal, ten hardy French-Canadians gathered at the notary office of Louis Chaboillez. They were men of the river: Jean-Baptiste Gagnier, the seasoned steersman from St-Constant, with his sharp eyes and callused hands; young Gabriel Pinsonneau from Laprairie, eager for the pay to support his growing family; and their comrades—Pierre Senecale, Julien Dupuis, François Fontaine, and Pierre Laporte, all Laprairie boys with the same parish mud on their boots; Ignace Robert di Lapommeraye from the Turtle lands nearby; Antoine Madore from Châteauguay's wilder shores; Jean-Baptiste Leber from Montreal's bustling faubourg; and Jean-Baptiste Tallard from St-Philippe. They'd each inked their marks on crisp contracts with the Lasselle brothers, Jacques and François—shrewd merchants who'd built a trading empire in Detroit, bridging the old French world with the new American frontier.

The Lasselles promised good wages—400 to 550 livres for the year—and advances to tide over families left behind. In exchange, the men received humble équipments: woolen blankets to ward off lake chills, bolts of cotton for mending shirts or trading, and tough beef-hide moccasins for the muddy portages. "To the strait," the papers read, but they all knew it meant Detroit, that bustling outpost on the narrow waterway between Lakes Erie and Huron, where furs flowed like rivers and fortunes awaited the bold.

By late August, they assembled at Lachine, the launching point west of Montreal where canoes bobbed like eager horses. Their vessel was a grand canot du maître, a 35-foot birchbark behemoth loaded with barrels of pork, flour, and trade goods—axes, kettles, and beads for Indigenous partners. Ten strong, they shoved off at dawn, paddles slicing the St. Lawrence in unison, singing old chansons like "À la claire fontaine" to keep rhythm. Gagnier barked orders from the stern, his rudder guiding them through the river's swift currents. The milieux—Gabriel and the others—dug deep, their shoulders burning as they powered upstream against the flow.

The first leg was familiar torment: battling the Lachine Rapids, then portaging loads over rocky trails where mosquitoes swarmed like black clouds. They pressed on to Lake Ontario, where open waters tested their nerve—winds whipping waves that could swallow a man whole. Days blurred into a grind: rising before sunup, paddling 50 miles or more, camping on sandy shores with fires crackling against the night. They shared tales around the flames—Leber spinning yarns of Montreal's taverns, Madore boasting of Châteauguay hunts, while Gabriel spoke quietly of his wife Marie and their little ones back in Laprairie. Bonds formed fast; in the canoe, they were brothers, sharing the ache of blistered hands and the thrill of spotting beaver lodges along the banks.

Crossing into Lake Erie meant skirting British forts and new American patrols, but the Lasselles' reputation smoothed the way. Portages around Niagara's thundering falls were brutal—each man hauling 180-pound packs twice over the mile-long trail, sweat mixing with the mist. Finally, after weeks of toil, Detroit's wooden stockades rose on the horizon. The town buzzed with traders, Odawa and Ojibwe allies, and French holdouts like the Lasselles, who greeted them with rum and relief. There, the crew unloaded goods, perhaps wintered over repairing canoes or clerking in warehouses, before the spring return with precious pelts—beaver, otter, and marten.

For Gabriel and his kin-like crew, the voyage was more than work; it was a rite of the river, etching their names into the fur trade's fading French legacy. Though hardships loomed—storms, sickness, the pull of home—they returned changed, pockets heavier, stories richer, in a world shifting from canoes to canals.

NOTES:

The voyageurs listed in our search were French-Canadian men from the Montreal region, primarily from small parishes like Laprairie (now La Prairie), St-Constant, St-Philippe, and nearby areas. They were hired in the summer of 1797 by brothers Jacques and François Lasselle, who were prominent French-Canadian merchants involved in the fur trade. The Lasselles operated out of Detroit (then recently ceded from British to American control in 1796), trading goods like furs, fabrics, and supplies across the Great Lakes region. These contracts, notarized by Louis Chaboillez in Montreal, were standard for the era: one-year engagements for a voyage to "the strait" (a reference to Detroit, as "Détroit" literally means strait in French). The men were part of a single canoe crew, with Jean-Baptiste Gagnier serving as gouvernail (steersman, a position requiring experience to navigate rivers and lakes), and the rest as milieux (middle paddlers, responsible for the bulk of the propulsion in large birchbark canoes).

Voyageurs like these were essential to the North American fur trade, hauling trade goods (such as blankets, tools, and cloth) westward from Montreal and returning with pelts. They faced grueling conditions: long days paddling, portaging heavy loads over rough terrain, exposure to weather, and risks from rapids or wildlife. Contracts often included wages in livres (French currency still used in Quebec at the time), cash advances for family support, and "équipements" like blankets (couvertes), lengths of cotton fabric (aunes, an old unit roughly 1.2 meters), and sturdy shoes (often souliers de bœuf, or beef-hide moccasins). Most of these men were in their prime working years, drawn from farming or laboring backgrounds in interconnected rural communities where fur trade stints supplemented income.

Here's a summary of each man based on the contract details you provided, cross-referenced with historical context from voyageur records:

• Jean-Baptiste Gagnier (likely a variant of Gagné): From St-Régis or St-Constant parish. Signed August 4, 1797. As gouvernail, he earned 550 livres, with advances of 72 livres at signing and 28 upon departure. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 6 aunes of cotton, deer shoes. Note: Paid 30 livres monthly until 100 livres reached. He would have been the crew's leader on the water, steering from the stern.

• Gabriel Pinsonneau (contract above, our 4th great-grandfather, normalized as Pinsonneault): From Laprairie parish. Born August 5, 1770, in St-Philippe (part of La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine), son of Pierre Pinsonneau and Marie Louise Vielle. He married Marie Viau dit L'Espérance around 1793 and had several children before his death on August 19, 1807, in La Prairie (Notre-Dame parish). Signed August 11, 1797, as a milieu for 500 livres, with a 24-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 6 aunes of cotton, beef shoes. This was likely one of his fur trade ventures, common for men in his region.
• Jean-Baptiste Tallard: From St-Philippe parish. Signed August 4, 1797, as a milieu for 500 livres, with a 36-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 3 aunes of cotton, deer shoes.
• Pierre Senecale (normalized as Sénécal): From Laprairie. Signed August 11, 1797, as a milieu for 400 livres, with a 24-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 3 aunes of cotton, shoes (type unspecified).
• Ignace Robert di Lapommeraye: From "La Tortue" (likely a local nickname for a area near Laprairie, possibly referring to Turtle Creek or a farm). Signed July 28, 1797, as a milieu for 550 livres, with a 60-livres advance. Equipment: Blanket, 3 aunes of cotton, shoes.
• Antoine Madore: From Châteauguay (listed as "China," possibly a transcription error or old spelling). Signed August 16, 1797, as a milieu for 450 livres, with a 24-livres advance. Equipment: 2.5-point blanket (or "tips and covered 2 emy"), 3 aunes of cotton.
• Jean-Baptiste Leber (or Lebert): From Faubourg St-Joseph (a Montreal suburb). Signed August 7, 1797, as a milieu for 550 livres, with a 48-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 4 aunes of cotton.
• Pierre Laporte: From Laprairie. Signed August 4, 1797, as a milieu for 450 livres (no advance noted). Equipment: 3-point blanket, 3 aunes of cotton.
• François Fontaine (possibly Peras, normalized as Fontaine): From Laprairie. Signed August 11, 1797, as a milieu for 500 livres, with a 30-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 3 aunes of cotton, shoes.
• Julien Dupuis (normalized as Dupuy): From Laprairie. Signed August 11, 1797, as a milieu for 400 livres, with a 30-livres advance. Equipment: 3-point blanket, 6 aunes of cotton, beef shoes.

These men represent a typical voyageur crew: mostly young, fit laborers from tight-knit French-Canadian communities, motivated by adventure and pay (averaging 450-550 livres, equivalent to several months' farm wages). Records of similar contracts show many returned to farming or took multiple trips, though dangers like drowning or illness were common.

Regarding relations to Gabriel Pinsonneau: Historical searches didn't uncover direct, documented blood ties (e.g., siblings or first cousins) between Gabriel and the others, but that's not surprising given the fragmented nature of 18th-century Quebec records. However, the shared parishes (especially Laprairie, where Gabriel and at least five others hailed from) and the presence of surnames like Gagnier (Gagné), Leber, Sénécal, Dupuis, and Pinsonneau in our ancestral tree strongly suggest interconnections. In rural Quebec during this era, families intermarried frequently within small Seigneuries, leading to extended kin networks through cousins, in-laws, or godparent relationships. For instance, the Pinsonneau family had deep roots in Laprairie since the mid-1700s, with marriages linking to other local clans. It's very plausible that several were distant relatives or family allies—perhaps through Gabriel's mother Marie Vielle's side or via common ancestors like early settlers from France. Genealogy resources like WikiTree and Quebec church records (Drouin Collection) often reveal such links with deeper digging, but based on the patterns, our intuition about relations seems spot-on.

Voyageur canoe crews were teams of 4–12 hardy French-Canadian and Métis paddlers who transported fur trade cargo along Canadian waterways in large birch-bark canoes. Led by an avant (bowsman) for navigation and a gouvernail (steersman) in the stern, these brigades, often under a bourgeois (partner), worked from sunrise to sunset. 

Crew Roles and Structure

• Avant (Bowman): Experienced paddler at the front, responsible for scouting, navigating rapids, and setting the pace.
• Gouvernail (Steersman): Located at the stern, steering the large canoe.
• Milieu (Middlemen): The "middlemen" or avant-milieu who provided the main paddling power.
• Brigade: A group of 4 to 8 canoes that traveled together for safety.
• Size: Crews typically managed large canot du nord (North Canoes) or larger canot de maître (Montreal canoes). 

Key Aspects of the Crew

• Language: French was the primary language of the fur trade, used by all crew members.
• Physical Demands: Voyageurs were known for their strength, paddling up to 3,000 miles, often singing to keep pace.
• Apparel: Frequently wore red or blue tuques, moccasins, and arrow-head sashes.
• Cargo & Navigation: Transported 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of goods, requiring expert skills in portaging and running dangerous rapids. 

Thank you to Grok xAI and Gemini AI for updated material.