The Unusual Trade

The Unusual Trade

A Short Story About Life In New France

Logan Wickstone

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The Pocket Compass

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This is a pocket compass found approximately in the year 1750; it was built in Paris, France by a man named Pierre Le Maire and found in the New World. It was made with the intention to be used to help navigate the unexplored land in New France. The compass was used by a French officer during the Seven Years War. The longitude and latitude of twelve towns and posts in New France were engraved on the compasses back. The story you are about to read has been inspired by this artifact, as well as people, settlement, and life In New France.

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It was May 15th, 1649, a day like every other; Antoine was getting fed up of the same lifestyle for all 21 years of his life and wanted change. He wanted to do something with his life and not just sit in his house in Bordeaux, France. Luckily for him, his father Pierre had something up his sleeve. “Antoine, we’re going to the New World!”

Seven days had passed and both Pierre and Antoine were ready for their expedition, they’d set sail in a matter of minutes with the intent of living a better life in the New World. It had reached the time to board the ship and there was no going back from there. It took 90 days at sea until they finally reached their destination and it was a one of a kind experience for them, they’d never seen anything like it. Antoine didn’t know what it meant do be a coeur de bois and he only had a blurry idea; it was soon after they arrived when Antoine found out what he was doing, it was

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The Unusual Trade

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It was May 15th, 1649, a day like every other; Antoine was getting fed up of the same lifestyle for all 21 years of his life and wanted change. He wanted to do something with his life and not just sit in his house in Bordeaux, France. Luckily for him, his father Pierre had something up his sleeve. “Antoine, we’re going to the New World!”

Seven days had passed and both Pierre and Antoine were ready for their expedition, they’d set sail in a matter of minutes with the intent of living a better life in the New World. It had reached the time to board the ship and there was no going back from there. It took 90 days at sea until they finally reached their destination and it was a one of a kind experience for them, they’d never seen anything like it. Antoine didn’t know what it meant do be a coeur de bois and he only had a blurry idea; it was soon after they arrived when Antoine found out what he was doing, it was

exactly what he has always wanted. It took a few days to fully realize what they’ve got their selves into but it was for the better. Building their homes was the first task on their agenda and also the hardest. Each house was built completely from scratch and they had no one to teach them. It was an on and off job because they had to take part in their role as coeur de bois. Since Antoine was quite young he hasn’t had any experience with people outside of France so communicating with the natives wasn’t easy in the slightest. Antoine was also a very honest person so being an unlicensed trader was tough to get in his mind, he needed to adapt his personality to fit his role. He’d finally adjusted to the lifestyle in the New World and wanted to start trading. He stumbled across a group of natives that wanted his European goods and in return he’d receive a compass. Antoine being a first time trader, he thought that was a brilliant trade and didn’t hesitate. He returned home to show his coeur de bois group what he managed to get; everyone including his father shouted at him because they said he got scammed. However, Antoine didn’t think so and thought he did good because New France is a large place so he’d need something to help him navigate. His father told him to give him the compass so he can see exactly what it is and examine it. In Pierre’s eyes it looked broken and useless

but he kept in his bag just in case. Antoine felt like he was in a bad spot and nobody liked him so he needed to regain his groups trust, he did this by trading cloth for a load of beaver pelts and giving them to his father.

Antoine was still curious about the compass and he decided to get it back from his father without him knowing. He searched through his fathers bag and there it was, everyone thought it was broken because it only pointed one way, but Antoine read between the lines and thought it was a clue pointing in the way he needed to go. He was on the run once again looking for any sort of thing that could be useful that the compass is leading him to. Since he was a coeur de bois he travelled great distances so he was fit enough to walk for hours. He wasn’t finding anything until he came across a large group of natives. They were speaking a language that he couldn’t understand but he needed their help. He showed them the compass and they responded with laughter. Maybe it was useless after all and he is just wasting his time, but he didn’t give up. He kept on going, trading with more natives to try and get some sort of idea if this thing was useful. He ran into a trade that looked to good to be true, the native was offering beaver pelts for some cooking utensils and Antoine has plenty of those. What he didn’t know was that his father had been to this native and had a very bad experience, the native was trying to get the coeur de bois killed because he

doesn’t want them on his land. He was telling everyone that they are trading without a license. Antoine carried on going and after a good few days of walking he finally reached something. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He saw a dead body next to a map with a large “X” on it, and it was close by. He knew something was on the map so he carried on walking and didn’t really think too much about the body. It had appeared that someone was trying to get this “treasure” before him. This told Antoine that New France is very undiscovered. He got to where the X marked and saw nothing but a large dam, which he assumed that the beavers where living in. He needed to know more so he went closer and saw something like no other. It was masses of beaver pelts that someone must have traded for. If he brought them home he would definitely get caught but he couldn’t just leave that there, he would be rich. He was in a predicament but decided to tell his father. Weeks had passed until Pierre and Antoine went looking for the beaver pelts. They managed to find the dead body once again and Pierre told Antoine something very important. That isn’t just any dead body. That was Pierre’s father, making him Antoine’s grandfather that he never saw because one day he just “disappeared.” They found the pelts and Pierre was in disbelief, he’d never seen anything like this.

They didn’t want anybody knowing so they built a new home there.

Years had passed and nobody had seen Antoine or Pierre, the whole of New France thought they had died but instead they were the most wealthy people alive. They lived their best life and Antoine received the one thing he had always wanted, change in his life

The End

About The Author

Logan Wickstone is currently a grade eight student in the Performance Learning Program at Seycove Secondary. When he is not doing school work, he enjoys playing soccer, mountain biking, and has recently found a passion for architecture. Although he isn’t the fondest of history, Logan has pushed himself to learn about New France. This short story is based on the lives of a father and son that have sailed over to the New World and find something unusual. Logan has combined his interest in exploring with history and life in New France to create this story. You can find Logan playing soccer or mountain biking in his community of North Vancouver, British Columbia.