Long Links

All of these Long Links pieces have begun with more or less the same words, so why stop now? This is an annotated parade of links to long-form pieces. Most people won’t have the time (nor the weird assortment of interests) to consume them all, but I hope that most readers will find one or two reward a visit.

Radisson (and Groseilliers) · I don’t know if it is still the case, but in my youth, Canadian elementary education included several overexcited units about the Coureurs des bois, early European settlers in “New France” (now Québec) who ventured, by foot and canoe, far to the north and west, mostly engaged in trading with the indigenous peoples: trinkets (and later, serious hardware including guns) for furs.

The names I remembered were Radisson and Groseilliers, but I don’t recall learning much about who they were and what they did. Then I ran across the 2019 book Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson and, wow… The writing is pedestrian but who cares because what a story! Radisson lived an absolutely astonishing life. He went as deep into the bush as anyone of his era, interacted intensely with the indigenous people as business partner,