Malcolm Mills - Beyond the Shickshock Mountains: A Canadian Talon Saga

BEYOND

THE SHICKSHOCK

MOUNTAINS

A Canadian TalonSaga

Beyond

the Shickshock

Mountains

A Canadian TalonSaga

by MalcolmMills

Asteroid Publishing

Beyond the ShickshockMountains

A Canadian Talon Saga

Copyright 2011 by Malcolm Mills

All rights reserved. No part of this bookmay be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system,without the written permission of the publisher.

Library and Archives CanadaCataloguing in Publication

Mills, Malcolm, 1953

Beyond the Shickshock Mountains[electronic resource] : a

Canadian Talon saga / byMalcolm Mills.

Electronic monograph in PDFformat.

Issued also in printformat.

ISBN 978-1-926720-14-2

1. Canada--History--To 1763(New France)--Juvenile fiction.

I. Title.

PS8576.I573B49 2011a jC813'.54C2010-907724-5

Beyond the ShickshockMountains is a work of fiction. Names,characters and events are the products of authors imagination. Anyresemblance to real persons, organizations or events iscoincidental and not intended by the author.

Book cover by Maryna Bzhezitska

www.asteroidpiblishing.ca

editor@asteroidpublishing.ca

Foreword

Long beforethe Rocky Mountains of western North America emerged from the soil, a languishing chain oftall green mountains known as the Appalachian Mountain Range, sprawled in a south-western arcon the opposite rim of the continent. In the days of their youth,these Appalachian Mountains scraped the skies from what wouldbecome the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland, New Brunswick, andQuebec swinging majestically southward along the eastern seaboard,to Central Alabama in the future eastern United States.

Not to beoutdone, running parallel attimes to these Appalachian Mountains grew other ranges such as theAdirondack, Allegheny, Blue Ridge, Smoky and GreenMountains.

O ur story takes placecirca 1750 when this vibrant, but confining, range of primordialbarriers with all of their verdant peaks and valleys, limited thewestward expansion of the British Thirteen Colonies.

Themountains knew not of theconclusion of the Seven Years War between France and Britain(1756-1763) which culminated to British satisfaction in 1763, orthat the continental interior and western lands would begin todevelop beyond its western slopes soon afterwards.

At theirnorthern tip, oblivious tothe invisible horizontal national divide which became the borderbetween Canada and the United States in the nineteenth century,heroic frontier men and frontier women had already begun to conquerthe Appalachian Mountains. They called these ranges ShickShock,Notre Dame and Long Range Mountains before leaving them behind in asurge westward to freedom and security of home andfamily.

The followingsaga captures, at least in part, the struggles and victories ofthree hardy yet unsung heroes of this westward migration beyond themountains.

Equallya s determined and as brave asJoliet, LaSalle, La Verendrye, Radisson, Hudson, and Kelsey,northern voyageur vanguards such as the Talon family, challengedthe identical barrier which had kept colonists to the south fromexpanding westward. In the 1600s, there existed as the firstGovernor of New France, an industrious and clever man by the nameof Jean Talon. It was from this surname the family in this story isderived. Approximately one hundred fifty years later, in the latterhalf of the sixteenth century, our pioneer family begins with JeanGeorge Talon, Trevallion Talon, Rebecca Talon, and Shannagan Talon.These characters play key roles in conquering not only the physicalmountainous barrier, but also the social, political, and personalbarriers so typical to real-life adventure and endurance in a newenvironment. And, as is often the case, the legacy of suchexplorers and adventurers becomes their contribution toward thefounding principles and social values for those whofollowed.

As a matterof perspective, one of thefirst celebrated American frontiersman to map a practical routewestward through the Appalachian mountains, was the colourfulDaniel Boone, who conquered the Kentucky region in 1778 when heblazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and on intothe Kentucky area of what would become the north-eastern UnitedStates. This famed trek led, in part, to a renewed westwardAmerican colonization.

I n the coloniesfurther south, another explorer of that era, an adventurer by thename of Kit Carson also blossomed into fame as a legendary westernhero, leading the likes of Fremont and Jean Nicollet (a Frenchfrontiersman) in their expedition to map what would become theAmerican Plains between the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers , an area at that time belonging to Spain andFrance.

Nearly onehundred years prior and tothe north, French explorers had explored, trapped, mapped, and evenclaimed in part, land west of the Iroquois, Cherokees, Sioux,Pawnee, and Blackfoot territories west of the Appalachians. Whilecoexisting with aboriginal inhabitants as equals, Franceessentially controlled the lands which would become the LouisianaPurchase in 1803.

The Talonfamily constructs the symbolic door through which other adventurerswould follow. Beginning with a single dream, a single historicalevent, a long-standing barrier is overcome as the first Talonpioneer begins this momentous journey beyond the ShickshockMountains.

Other Talons and other families wouldfollow.

My name isJean George Talon, and as far as I know, I am the last Talon uponthis shore . The wiser membersbearing our name have long since departed.

In the beginning, we bent to the mercyof God and to the sea; both being harsh masters by times but thencame the fish merchant who took up residence and netted men's soulsas if they were codfish.

At times,change cannot come soon enough. Having said that, it may well beour inherent enemies, the British, who bring that change, as theyarrive like locusts to invade the Gasp shore of Quebec todestroy, once more, what is inherently ours.

The Gasp Peninsula clung likea leaf to the southern shore of the majestic St. Lawrence River,the single large artery leading to the heart of the continent weFrench had founded two centuries earlier. The Shickshock Mountainsof Gasp stood sentinel over the fledgling nation westruggled so hard to build.

We were notpeople to sit idly by for ifby their numbers the Britishwere taking Gasp , it was not in meto remain under occupation. Besides, my life had taken a turnunexpected and I had little choice but to follow the path before mewherever it may lead.

Had my God favoured me with exceptionalvision and a wisdom I had yet to experience; had I gazed throughthe eyes of the not too distant future and thought clearly onemoment longer, I may have kissed the old man and left him quicklyon the day of his burial.

There wasnaught but conscience to bind me , and revenge, perhaps, but neither emotion served a manwell enough in either this or any other time, where a level headwas required above an angry heart.

My feet craved distance,my soul sought justice, but my common sense told me to remainpatient and wary for these were most perilous times, especially forme. I was torn, not for myself so much, for my youthful arroganceand invincibility was still mine to savour, but I was being drawnand quartered between duty to those living and honour to onedead; and it plagued me deeply.

A dirge of sadness to an era suddenlylost composed itself darkly within my inner being. I quickly shookoff the spectre. The decision was a foregone one. I must depart mybeloved land.

There were those here yetliving who needed my services and I feared for the weaker ones inour midst. I feared for the tired and the weak, the children andthe women whose days and lives had yet to find peace.