Déjà à l’époque où ce beau grand pays qui nous verra mourir n’était encore qu’immensité, richesses et sauvagerie, on observait chez les premiers européens à fouler ce territoire inconnu les signes précurseurs de l’esprit du FAS :
A highligh of the Beaver Club gatherings was the restaging of le grand voyage. Using that narrow window of opportunity between being uproariously drunk and actually passing out, the Nor’Westers would stumble around until they were seated on the floor, arranged two abreast, pretending they were steering a fast-moving canot du nord. Grasping fire-tongs, pokers, walking sticks, swords annd other likely looking implements as imaginary paddles, they bawled voyageur songs as they stroked ever faster, their eyes glazed, their faces beet-red with exertion. But even make-beleive northern canoes must eventually encounter rapids – and they required a change of tactic. With the false shrewdness of the very drunk, the Nor’Westers would consider the possibilities, then clamber up on the dinner-tables and ride the rapids by « shooting » to the floor astride empty wine casks, bellowing a variation on Indian war whoops that verged on Highland battle cries. By this time it might have been four or five in the morning, and the rented dining-room resembled the field hospital of a vanquished army. The few members still upright would adjourn the meeting and stagger home.
Peter C. Newman, Caesars of the Wilderness
