Journal of Etienne Mercier

In 1853, Etienne Mercier, a French-Canadian voyageur painter, is tasked by his employer to return to the Queen Charlotte Islands and document his travels into Haida territory. A wide-eyed and good-natured Mercier takes the opportunity to try to track down his long-lost friend, Clement, in the wilderness of what would later become the Canadian Pacific coast. Written in Mercier s own broken English, or Franglais, and punctuated with traditional Canadien folk songs, David Bouchard s candid glance into the everyday tribulations of a typical voyageur vividly depicts along with Gordon Miller s evocative illustrations life on the colonial frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.