Cordelle

Big men, bearded and powerful, pushing up stream with the cordelle on their shoulders!

Because this old town of St. Louis was then only a village, and we just had bought our unknown country of France, and this town was on the eastern edge of it, the gate of it--the gate to the West, it used to be, before steam came, while everything went by keel boat; oar or paddle and pole and sail and cordelle.

With only now and then the cordelle, and still more rarely the oars, they moved all day across the lands and waters that were once the fastnesses of the Baratarian pirates.

The former is much in the shape of a canal boat, long, slim-built, sharp at each end, and propelled by setting poles and the cordelle or long rope.