DCHP-1 Online

engagé [< Cdn F < F servant] Hist.

• n. a fur-company employee, originally a French Canadian hired in Montreal to work in the inland trade.

  See also: voyageur (def. 1)  

  • 1765-75  (1933)  But all way in the Spring . . . the Engashea often went to Confes & git absolution.
  • 1796  Leave was also given to bring in a Bill for regulating the Engages to the Indian Country, &c.
  • 1824  (1931)  While at the Depot they shall be allowed per week four days ordinary rations as issued to Engages besides three loaves of Bread three pounds of Pork 1/4 ^lb Tea 1 1/4 ^lb sugar and one pint Rum.
  • 1955  After them came the engagés--post­masters, interpreters, tradesmen, guides, steersmen, bowsmen, voyageurs and labourers.
  • 1966  . . . voyageurs in general were mentioned as engages, or men who had engagements with the bourgeois.