They came by here, those voyageurs over water sweet as wine
Those bold adventurers of a long forgotten time
Long before the riverboats, before the pioneers
Their chansons echoed through the wilderness frontier
On the 1st of May the spring brigades
Would departfrom old Lachine.
With sweat and blood they'd muscle through the hellish terrain
Over rocks or through white water over miles of cursed mire.
To winter in the Chipywan, cold and huddled by the fire Those nights went on forever with the cruel wind
howling at the door
When each man prayed to hear the bells of
sweet Saint Anne's once more
And die in the Harlot's Tavern! in tassels, sash and plume
Fol da, diddle di, re fol dadin-o Rise up you bold Nor'wester, this hour before the dawn
Your sun will set again before your toil is done (Solo) If you were here brave Voyageur, what stories you could tell
Of Fraser & MacKenzie & of Thompson as well Did you pulled upstream 'till your back was bent?
Did the weight on the tumpline twist your neck?
If you don't lie in the unmarked graves
Along the killing portages
You died in the Harlot's Tavern, a worn and twisted wretch
Fol da, diddle di, re fol dadin-o Rise up you bold Nor'wester, this hour before the dawn
Your song will rise again before the day is done
Rise up you bold Nor'wester, this hour before the dawn
Fol da, diddle di, re fol dadin-o | 
