Note 246 — THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS

The Engagés of the South and Southwest corresponded to the Coureurs de Bois, of whom Irving says, in his "Astoria," p. 36: "Originally men who had accompanied the Indians in their hunting expeditions, and made themselves acquainted with remote tracts and tribes.... Many became so accustomed to the Indian mode of living that they lost all relish for civilization, and identified themselves with the savages among whom they dwelt.... They may be said to have sprung up out of the fur trade."