tripmen

Birch canoes and good tripmen could, of course, as the Hudson's Bay men say, be most easily obtained in Quebec; but with a good organizer, the same could have been gathered up two thousand miles nearer York Factory, on Hudson Bay.

Lords of the North 1903

A liberal supply of rum, when stoppages were made, and of bread and meat for each meal -- better fare than was usually given by the trading companies -- did much to encourage the tripmen.

Lords of the North 1903

We had felt so sure Le Grand Diable's band of vagabonds would hang about till the brigades of the North-West Company's tripmen set out for the north, all our efforts were spent in a vain search for some trace of the rascals in the vicinity of Quebec.

Lords of the North 1903

Small wonder, indeed, that all our rough tripmen stopped paddling and with eyes on the spire of Notre Dame des Victoires muttered prayers for a prosperous voyage.

Lords of the North 1903

All the able bodied men of my mission excepting these two, were away serving the Hudson Bay Company as tripmen, which was the reason why I could not obtain men better acquainted with the long route.

On the Indian Trail Stories of Missionary Work among Cree and Salteaux Indians Egerton Ryerson Young 1874