Volume 1

226 A PICTURESQUE PROCESSION.
of the principal causes. Let us view the bustle and noise
which attended the transportation of five pieces of goods to
a place where the houses were built in 1801-02. The men
were up at break of day and their horses tackled long before
sunrise ;
but they weri^ not ready to move before ten o'clock,
when I had the curiosity to climb on top of my house to
watch their motions and observe their order of march.
Antoine Payet, guide and second in command, leads the
van, with a cart drawn by two horses and loaded with his
private baggage, cassetetes,' bags, kettles, and mashqueminctes
[?]. Madame Payet follows the cart with a child a
year old on her back, very merry, Charles Bottineau,' with
two horses and a cart loaded with lyi packs, his own baggage,
and two young children with kettles and other trash
hanging on to it. Madame Bottineau with a squalling infant
on her back, scolding and tossing it about. Joseph Dubord
goes on foot, with his long pipe-stem and calumet in his
hand ;
Madame Dubord follows on foot, carrying his tobacco
pouch with a broad bead tail. Antoine Thellier,' with a cart
and two horses, loaded with i>^ packs of goods and Dubois'
baggage. Antoine La Pointe ' with another cart and
horses, loaded with two pieces of goods and with baggage
belonging to Brisebois, Jasmin, and Pouliot, and a kettle
hung on each side. Auguste Brisebois ^ follows with only
>
Cassefete is good French for tomahawk, literally something to break a head
with, and may be intended here ;
copy so reads plainly. But F. cassette, casket,
was the usual word with the voyageurs for any sort of
a box in which they
carried small articles, as distinguished from the large packs, sacks, bales, or
other "pieces" of which most of their loads consisted. The curious word
which follows kettles I cannot make out. For Payet or Paget, see note ^, p. 204.
^Name reappearing in MS. and print as Battineau, Battimeau, and Bottureau.
Charles is listed as voyageur N. W. Co., Lower Red r., 1804, and we shall find
him with Henry to 1808.
^ Plainly so in copy : no other record noted.
* Antoine Lapointe, voyageur N. \V. Co., remains with Henry to 1808 ;
he
had been about 15 years in this country in Oct., 1818, when he was in Toronto
as a witness in the Semple case.— Joseph Lapointe is listed voyageur N. W.
Co., Fort Dauphin, 1804.—Michel Lapointe, listed, Nepigon, 1804.
*
Auguste Brisebois appears in print as Angus, evidently by mistaking the