DCHP-1 Online

Montreal canoeman Fur Trade, Hist.

• n. in early use, an engagé of the North West Company who signed on to man the canoes plying between Montreal and the Grand Portage, so called because pork was the staple of their diet, as opposed to the pemmican and coarser foods endured by winterers and others who ventured into the interior.

  See also: engagé  porkeater (def. 1a)  

  • 1918  The north men . . . pointed with derision to the use of pork by the Montreal canoemen.