Joseph-Patrice Truillier-Lacombe was born near present-day Oka, Quebec, on 20 February 1807, the son of a merchant, François-Xavier Truillier-Lacombe, and his wife Marie-Geneviève Adhémar Truillier-Lacombe. His father's business, situated on Lake of Two Mountains at the beginning and end of the fur-trade routes, must have given the young Patrice some understanding of the life of a voyageur, which one of his protagonists, Charles Chauvin, was later to follow. However, it would appear that a life of adventure and hardship was not for Lacombe himself, since he was a prize-winning student at the Collège de Montréal and then entered the profession of notary. After several years of practice on his own, he became business agent of the Society of Saint Sulpice in Montreal in 1832 and remained in their employ until his death. Lacombe married a widow, Léocadie Boucher, in...