On August 20, 1884, a telegram from Britain’s Colonial Secretary to Canada’s Governor General, Lord Lansdowne, made an unusual request. It asked that 300 “voyageurs” be recruited as steersmen for boats on a military expedition up the Nile River for the relief of Khartoum where Sir Charles (“Chinese”) Gordon, Governor General of the Sudan, was being besieged by a fanatical leader known as “The Mahdi” and his followers.

Initially, Britain’s Prime Minister Gladstone and his cabinet had debated whether to send relief, but worldwide press and public pressure resolved the issue, and General Garnet Wolseley was appointed to rescue Gordon.

Wolseley, a British Army officer who had taken part in quelling the 1870 Manitoba uprising, recalled the skills of the voyageurs handling the boats on that difficult expedition and believed they could be an essential factor in moving troops and supplies up the treacherous rapids and cataracts of the Nile River.

The telegram, probably written by Wolseley, offered the volunteers $40 a month for six months, a suit of work clothes, free travel and rations. It also suggested that they be under the command of three Canadian officers and accompanied by a priest. Lansdowne forwarded the wire to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald who, to avoid political reaction, suggested that Britain carry out and pay for the recruiting. As a result, Lansdowne’s military secretary, Lord Melgund (later Fourth Earl of Minto and a future Canadian Governor General), was put in charge of recruiting. In less than a month, 386 Canadian voyageurs boarded a British steamer at Quebec City bound for Alexandria.

While called voyageurs, they were not veteran canoeists of the fur trade but mostly raftsmen of the lumber trade, skilled at riding timber rafts and logs down turbulent rivers to the sawmills each spring. There were French, English, first nation peoples, and Métis recruits in the group that came mainly from the Ottawa and Peterborough areas of Ontario, the Caughnawagna reserve, and Trois Rivières in Quebec. The 92 from Winnipeg included not only Indians and expert canoeists but lawyers, teachers, and other men merely seeking adventure.

Accompanying them were four officers, a regular Canadian army doctor, and a priest. The priest, Father Arthur Bouchard, who had earlier served as a missionary in the Sudan, spoke Arabic and was thus a great help to both the men and officers under the command of Major Frederick Denison. Denison, a Toronto lawyer, alderman, and militia officer, won, with his tact and understanding, the respect of the tough and boisterous voyageur recruits.

At Quebec City, the Governor General saw them off and skilfully reminded them, in both French and English, that, even though they were not going to serve as soldiers, they nevertheless should display “many of the best qualities of a soldier” in their work on the Nile.

After stops in Sydney, Nova Scotia — where three decided to quit and one Nova Scotian was recruited — and Gibraltar to fuel the ship, they arrived at Alexandria and boarded 40 whalers towed behind the Khedive’s yacht for a pleasant voyage up the Nile River to Wadi Halfa. There they were welcomed by General Wolseley who noted privately that they “were a rough looking lot.”

This was an opinion shared by many British officers and journalists, one writing that they were mutinous, another reporting that many carried bowie knives and were drunk upon arrival at Wadi Halfa. The criticisms prompted Denison to write: “I hear some lying accounts of my men have been telegraphed out from Assuan, saying they were mutinous etc. It is all manufactured.” About their arrival at Wadi Halfa he wrote, “I rather fancy the man must be a fool,” pointing out that the story was written the day before they even arrived there.

At Wadi Halfa the Canadians soon won respect rather than scorn. Working from dawn to dusk — a 13- to 14-hour day — they skilfully guided the 30-foot whalers carrying three to four tons of supplies and as many as 12 fully equipped soldiers through rapids and cataracts. Their British commandant wrote, “It is extraordinary to see the rapidity with which the expedition travels since the Canadians have arrived.”

Progress, however, remained frustratingly slow despite the skills of the Canadians. Some of the cataracts became so swift and dangerous that the soldiers, normally equipped with oars to row the boats, went ashore to tow them with only the voyageurs remaining on board to manoeuvre the loaded vessels around treacherous rocks often hidden in muddy water. Six voyageurs were drowned, two were killed in an accident, and eight died of smallpox or typhoid fever.

The slow progress also created another problem: the six-month contract was running out and, despite an increase in pay to $60 a month and new clothing to those whom Denison wished to retain, fewer than 100 agreed to stay.

The need for boatmen, however, lessened considerably when Wolseley sent half his forces across the desert. Late in January 1885, those electing to return to Canada left Wadi Halfa for Cairo where they were given a grand tour of the city and the pyramids. A British General inspected them and praised their work.

This was one of several commendations they received. Lord Wolseley wrote to Lord Lansdowne at Ottawa, exclaiming that “the services of these voyageurs has been of the greatest possible value.” Another senior officer “doubted whether the boats would have got up at all ... and if they had ... the loss of life would have been much greater than has been the case.” One soldier wrote, “These imported voyageurs, greatly discredited by some of the commentators on this campaign, were absolutely indispensable.”

The returning voyageurs sailed on a troopship bound for Ireland where some stopped over, leaving 260 for the trip to Halifax. There they made a colourful scene on March 4, sporting turbans and pith helmets, and carrying spears, shields, and other African souvenirs that included cockatoos and monkeys. Two days later they were cheered by Ottawa crowds as they paraded to an armoury for a welcome home banquet. A local paper headlined its story: “Hurrah stout hearts, well and bravely have you done your duty.”

The voyageurs remaining in Egypt pushed further up the Nile until February when it was learned that Khartoum had fallen and that General Gordon had been among those massacred. By early April it became clear there was no further need for the boatmen. They then sailed from Wadi Halfa on a steamer to Cairo, where another tour of the city was arranged before they boarded a ship for England. Denison, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, was not with them as he had been hospitalized on arriving in Cairo with typhoid fever. Two others died of smallpox in London: a Peterborough boatman and William N. Kennedy, an officer who had enlisted and accompanied the Winnipeg volunteers.

The smallpox outbreak prevented a planned inspection by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle but she sent a message expressing how pleased she was “by the reports of the energy and devotion they had shown in the arduous duties performed by them on the Nile.”

The British war office also showed its appreciation by assigning a guide to show them “some places of interest and amusement” in London before the majority embarked on a Montreal-bound ship on May 15. Late in June, Denison arrived home in Toronto where he resumed his law practice and learned he was awarded the C.M.G. for his service in Egypt. Abbé Bouchard became a parish priest in Quebec and Trinidad, dying on the Caribbean island in 1896 at age 51 — the same year Denison also died of cancer at age 49, after serving as Federal Member of Parliament for a Toronto riding.

Mel James