Samuel’s Dream 1: Bowsman
By:Charlietech

INTRO:
Voyageurs are people who worked for fur trading companies. They traded with the American Indians. Here is what a Dictionary said “voyageur” means:

“A man employed by a fur company to transport goods to and from remote stations especially in the Canadian Northwest.”

-WWWebster Dictionary (Online)

In the story, Samuel works for the NWC (Northwest Company). This is only one of his great adventures...

Samuel’s 7th story called “The Lost Story” by some people (He never named it):

2:32 AM Saturday November 15th 1684
It was morning. We (the other voyageurs, and I [Samuel]) had to get up at ten to three AM every day.This was a hard life.I normally get up earlier to write in my journal, as I am doing now. I only do things when I am not overtaken with other tasks, however.

5:03 AM Sunday November 16th 1684
We are now stopping for a rest. Not much time to write. Oh, I wish I had more time to write down my adventures! My dreams of being a King (hey, maybe I’ll tell you more about that later in another book!). Also, I might want to be a stearman. Stearmen watch for signals from the bowsman(who looks out for rocks, rapids, etc.), and respond with lightning speed, if they do their job right. Stearmen also get paid more. Those are my wishes.

8:28 AM Monday November 17th 1684
Yesterday was normal. Sorry I couldn’t write any more. Today we are going to get to the last church that we will go to for a long time. I am eating breakfast now. Today, we have leftovers from yesterday's dinner: Fish. I have to eat a lot of breakfast because we voyageurs almost never have lunch (and you thought you didn’t like your lunch yesterday)!

8:22 PM later that day...
Sundown is early tonight. That is good for us, because we have to canoe until sunset. We went to Church today. I won’t really miss it, but I bet others will. Near the rapids another middleman saw a bird. He was so excited that he made the canoe jump because he was “jumping” in his seat.

10:16 AM Tuesday November 18th 1684
We landed on a stretch of land blocking the river. We will have to carry the canoes and packs on our backs, or portage. This time it was only half a mile, lucky for us.

3:45 PM Tuesday November 18th 1684
Rapids Creek, here we come. I can see many grave posts, meaning many people have died here. For some reason, we will go by water anyway. I can’t wait until we start trading with the Indians!

4:53 PM Later that day...
We just got through Rapids Creek! Nobody died this time, lucky for us. I have been with crews where that has not happened... We were lucky.

7:40 PM Even later that day...
It is is dinner time now. Even though we got pork (my favorite), I am not hungry. Why? I wonder myself. Maybe it was/is the fact that Rapids Creek brought back sad memories. tomorrow, we will face the Bad Mountains.

9:20 PM
It is sundown now. It was a hard day. Got to go!

2:47 AM Wednesday November 19th 1684
I am ready for an exciting day --- or a really bad one! Either way, I am a voyageur, so I have little choice now.

8:04 AM Wednesday November 19th 1684
Only two groups have ever gotten through the Bad Mountains with everybody alive. We hope we make the third!

1:01 PM
Here the great challenge awaits us... The Bad Mountains. I hope we make the third! :

2:45 PM
Here is my detailed account of why we didn’t make the third: We were riding like normal. The bowsman signaled left. The steersman turned left. Then it hap

Ending:
The rest of Samuel’s 7th adventure was lost. We guess that the word he was trying to finish was “happened” but, we can never be sure. His diary got wet and ripped. Only 1/8 of the diary is left. A little more paper might have been left to write on, but after the “ruined” diary, and maybe also for some other reason, Samuel lost hope.
We also know that the bowsman did not detect a rock. Tragicly, the steersman and some others didn’t make it. Samuel then replaced the current bowsman, fulfilling his one dream that he thought possible. As you may learn, however, he did regain hope later, preserved what was left of his diary and learned that he could make other dreams come true, and wrote about them.
Samuel died in 1690. We think he died of natural causes. Being a voyageur was not easy. But Samuel was one of the best. He could think, direct, steer, dream, and touch people’s lives...

E-mail me at selle001@yahoo.com to tell me what you think about this story!

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