“After his emigration to the borders of the Mississippi, his chief occupation became that of a boatman, and none pulled a better oar, or sung with truer cadence the animating notes of the boat song, than Michel de Coucy. The Canadian boatmen are the hardiest and merriest of men; if their boat is stranded, they plunge into the water, in all weathers, diving and swimming about as if in their native element; if it storms, they sleep or revel, under the protection of a high bank; and when pulling down the stream, or pushing laboriously against it, the shores ring with their voices. One will recount his adventures, another will imitate the Indian yell, the roar of the aligator, the hissing of the snake, or the chattering of the paroquet, and anon the whole will chant their rude ditties concerning the dangers of rapids, snags, and sawyers, or the pleasures of home, the vintage, and the dance. Michel was an adept at all these things, and he loved them, as a Cossack loves plunder, or Dutchman hard work and money. He was the darling of the crew; for he could skin a deer, cook a fish, scrape a chin or a fiddle, with equal adroitness; and always performed such offices so good humouredly, that his companions in compliment to his universal genius, kept it in continual employment. When the boat was in motion he was always tugging at the oar, or the fiddle-bow; when it landed, and the crew sat round their camp fire, he cooked, sung, and told merry stories; on Sunday he shaved the whole company, even at the risk of neglecting his own visage, and was after all the merriest and most respectable man in the boat."
[Michel de Coucy, Illinois Monthly Magazine, Vol.1, 1831]