 French "voyageurs" travelled deep into the hinterlands (of what is today Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, as well as what is now the American Midwest and the Mississippi Valley), trading with First Nations as they went – guns, gunpowder, cloth, knives, and kettles for beaver furs.The fur trade kept the interest in France's overseas colonies alive, yet only encouraged a small colonial population, as minimal labour was required.The trade also discouraged the development of agriculture, the surest foundation of a colony in the New World.