[Frontispiece: Stealing from the Fort by Night. ]

Pathfinders of the West

BEING

THE THRILLING STORY OF THE ADVENTURES

OF THE MEN WHO DISCOVERED THE GREAT NORTHWEST

RADISSON, LA VÉRENDRYE, LEWIS AND CLARK

BY

A. C. LAUT

AUTHOR OF "LORDS OF THE NORTH, " "HERALDS OF EMPIRE, " "STORY OF THE TRAPPER"

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

REMINGTON, GOODWIN, MARCHAND

AND OTHERS

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1904, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1904. Reprinted February, 1906. 

WILDWOOD PLACE, WASSAIC, N. Y. 

August 15, 1904. 

DEAR MR. SULTE:

A few years ago, when I was a resident of the Far West and tried to tracethe paths of early explorers, I found that all authorities--first, second, and third rate--alike referred to one source of information fortheir facts. The name in the tell-tale footnote was invariably your own. 

While I assume _all_ responsibility for upsetting the apple cart ofestablished opinions by this book, will you permit me to dedicate it toyou as a slight token of esteem to the greatest living French-Canadianhistorian, from whom we have all borrowed and to whom few of us haverendered the tribute due?

Faithfully, AGNES C. LAUT. 

 MR. BENJAMIN SULTE, PRESIDENT ROYAL SOCIETY, OTTAWA, CANADA. 

 THE GREAT NORTHWEST

 I love thee, O thou great, wild, rugged land Of fenceless field and snowy mountain height, Uprearing crests all starry-diademed Above the silver clouds! A sea of light Swims o'er thy prairies, shimmering to the sight A rolling world of glossy yellow wheat That runs before the wind in billows bright As waves beneath the beat of unseen feet, And ripples far as eye can see--as far and fleet!

 Here's chances for every man! The hands that work Become the hands that rule! Thy harvests yield Only to him who toils; and hands that shirk Must empty go! And here the hands that wield The sceptre work! O glorious golden field! O bounteous, plenteous land of poet's dream! O'er thy broad plain the cloudless sun ne'er wheeled But some dull heart was brightened by its gleam To seize on hope and realize life's highest dream!

 Thy roaring tempests sweep from out the north-- Ten thousand cohorts on the wind's wild mane-- No hand can check thy frost-steeds bursting forth To gambol madly on the storm-swept plain! Thy hissing snow-drifts wreathe their serpent train, With stormy laughter shrieks the joy of might-- Or lifts, or falls, or wails upon the wane-- Thy tempests sweep their stormy trail of white Across the deepening drifts--and man must die, or fight!

 Yes, man must sink or fight, be strong or die! That is thy law, O great, free, strenuous West! The weak thou wilt make strong till he defy Thy bufferings; but spacious prairie breast Will never nourish weakling as its guest! He must grow strong or die! Thou givest all An equal chance--to work, to do their best-- Free land, free hand--thy son must work or fall Grow strong or die! That message shrieks the storm-wind's call!

 And so I love thee, great, free, rugged land Of cloudless summer days, with west-wind croon, And prairie flowers all dewy-diademed, And twilights long, with blood-red, low-hung moon And mountain peaks that glisten white each noon Through purple haze that veils the western sky-- And well I know the meadow-lark's far rune As up and down he lilts and circles high And sings sheer joy--be strong, be free; be strong or die!

Foreword

The question will at once occur why no mention is made of Marquette andJolliet and La Salle in a work on the pathfinders of the West. Thesimple answer is--they were _not_ pathfinders. Contrary to the notionsimbibed at school, and repeated in all histories of the West, Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle did not discover the vast regionbeyond the Great Lakes. Twelve years before these explorers hadthought of visiting the land which the French hunter designated as the_Pays d'en Haut_, the West had already been discovered by the mostintrepid _voyageurs_ that France produced, --men whose wide-rangingexplorations exceeded the achievements of Cartier and Champlain and LaSalle put together. 

It naturally rouses resentment to find that names revered for more thantwo centuries as the first explorers of the Great Northwest must giveplace to a name almost unknown. It seems impossible that at this latedate history should have to be rewritten. Such is the fact _if wewould have our history true_. Not Marquette, Jolliet, and La Sallediscovered the West, but two poor adventurers, who sacrificed allearthly possessions to the enthusiasm for discovery, and incurred suchbitter hostility from the governments of France and England that theirnames have been hounded to infamy. These were Sieur Pierre EspritRadisson and Sieur Médard Chouart Groseillers, fur traders of ThreeRivers, Quebec. [1]

The explanation of the long oblivion obscuring the fame of these twomen is very simple. Radisson and Groseillers defied, first New France, then Old France, and lastly England. While on friendly terms with thechurch, they did not make their explorations subservient to thepropagation of the faith. In consequence, they were ignored by bothChurch and State. The _Jesuit Relations_ repeatedly refer to two youngFrenchmen who went beyond Lake Michigan to a "Forked River" (theMississippi), among the Sioux and other Indian tribes that used coalfor fire because wood did not grow large enough on the prairie. Contemporaneous documents mention the exploits of the young Frenchmen. The State Papers of the Marine Department, Paris, contain numerousreferences to Radisson and Groseillers. But, then, the _JesuitRelations_ were not accessible to scholars, let alone the generalpublic, until the middle of the last century, when a limited editionwas reprinted of the Cramoisy copies published at the time the priestssent their letters home to France. The contemporaneous writings ofMarie de l'Incarnation, the Abbé Belmont, and Dollier de Casson werenot known outside the circle of French savants until still later; andit is only within recent years that the Archives of Paris have beensearched for historical data. Meantime, the historians of France andEngland, animated by the hostility of their respective governments, either slurred over the discoveries of Radisson and Groseillersentirely, or blackened their memories without the slightest regard totruth. It would, in fact, take a large volume to contradict anddisprove half the lies written of these two men. Instead of consultingcontemporaneous documents, --which would have entailed both cost andlabor, --modern writers have, unfortunately, been satisfied to serve upa rehash of the detractions written by the old historians. In 1885came a discovery that punished such slovenly methods by practicallywiping out the work of the pseudo-historians. There was found in theBritish Museum, the Bodleian Library, and Hudson's Bay House, London, unmistakably authentic record of Radisson's voyages, written byhimself. The Prince Society of Boston printed two hundred and fiftycopies of the collected Journals. The Canadian Archives published thejournals of the two last voyages. Francis Parkman was tooconscientious to ignore the importance of the find; but his history ofthe West was already written. He made what reparation he could toRadisson's memory by appending a footnote to subsequent editions of twoof his books, stating that Radisson and Groseillers' travels took themto the "Forked River" before 1660. Some ten other lines are all thatMr. Parkman relates of Radisson; and the data for these briefreferences have evidently been drawn from Radisson's enemies, for theexplorer is called "a renegade. " It is necessary to state this, because some writers, whose zeal for criticism was much greater thantheir qualifications, wanted to know why any one should attempt towrite Radisson's life when Parkman had already done so. 

Radisson's life reads more like a second Robinson Crusoe than soberhistory. For that reason I have put the corroborative evidence infootnotes, rather than cumber the movement of the main theme. I amsorry to have loaded the opening parts with so many notes; butRadisson's voyages change the relative positions of the other explorersso radically that proofs must be given. The footnotes are for thestudent and may be omitted by the general reader. The study ofRadisson arose from, using his later exploits on Hudson Bay as thesubject of the novel, _Heralds of Empire_. On the publication of thatbook, several letters came from the Western states asking how far Ithought Radisson had gone beyond Lake Superior before he went to HudsonBay. Having in mind--I am sorry to say--mainly the early records ofRadisson's enemies, I at first answered that I thought it verydifficult to identify the discoverer's itinerary beyond the GreatLakes. So many letters continued to come on the subject that I beganto investigate contemporaneous documents. The path followed by theexplorer west of the Great Lakes--as given by Radisson himself--is herewritten. Full corroboration of all that Radisson relates is to befound--as already stated--in chronicles written at the period of hislife and in the State Papers. Copies of these I have in my possession. Samples of the papers bearing on Radisson's times, copied from theMarine Archives, will be found in the Appendix. One must either acceptthe explorer's word as conclusive, --even when he relates his owntrickery, --or in rejecting his journal also reject as fictions the_Jesuit Relations_, the _Marine Archives_, _Dollier de Casson_, _Mariede l'Incarnation_, and the _Abbé Belmont_, which record the same eventsas Radisson. In no case has reliance been placed on second-handchronicles. Oldmixon and Charlevoix must both have written fromhearsay; therefore, though quoted in the footnotes, they are not givenas conclusive proof. The only means of identifying Radisson's routesare (1) by his descriptions of the countries, (2) his notes of theIndian tribes; so that personal knowledge of the territory isabsolutely essential in following Radisson's narrative. All theregions traversed by Radisson--the Ottawa, the St. Lawrence, the GreatLakes, Labrador, and the Great Northwest--I have visited, some of themmany times, except the shores of Hudson Bay, and of that region I havesome hundreds of photographs. 

Material for the accounts of the other pathfinders of the West has beendrawn directly from the different explorers' journals. 

For historical matter I wish to express my indebtedness to Dr. N. E. Dionne of the Parliamentary Library, Quebec, whose splendid sketch ofRadisson and Groseillers, read before the Royal Society of Canada, doesmuch to redeem the memory of the discoverers from ignominy; to Dr. George Bryce of Winnipeg, whose investigation of Hudson's Bay Archivesadds a new chapter to Radisson's life; to Mr. Benjamin Sulte of Ottawa, whose destructive criticism of inaccuracies in old and modern recordshas done so much to stop people writing history out of their heads andto put research on an honest basis; and to M. Edouard Richard forscholarly advice relating to the Marine Archives, which he hasexploited so thoroughly. For transcripts and archives now out ofprint, thanks are due Mr. L. P. Sylvain of the Parliamentary Library, Ottawa, the officials of the Archives Department, Ottawa, Mr. F. C. Wurtele of Quebec, Professor Andrew Baird of Winnipeg, Mr. AlfredMatthews of the Prince Society, Boston, the Hon. Jacob V. Brower andMr. Warren Upham of St. Paul. Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee of Ottawa was sogood as to give me a reading of his exhaustive notes on La Vérendryeand of data found on the Radisson family. To Mrs. Fred Paget ofOttawa, the daughter of a Hudson's Bay Company officer, and to Mr. AndMrs. C. C. Farr of the Northern Ottawa, I am indebted for interestingfacts on life in the fur posts. Miss Talbot of Winnipeg obtained fromretired officers of the Hudson's Bay Company a most complete set ofphotographs relating to the fur trade. To her and to those officerswho loaned old heirlooms to be photographed, I beg to express mycordial appreciation. And the thanks of all who write on the North arepermanently due Mr. C. C. Chipman, Chief Commissioner of the Hudson'sBay Company, for unfailing courtesy in extending information. 

WILDWOOD PLACE, WASSAIC, N. Y. 

[1] I of course refer to the West as beyond the Great Lakes; forNicotet, in 1634, and two nameless Frenchmen--servants of Jean deLauzon--in 1654, had been beyond the Sault. 

Just as this volume was going to the printer, I received a copy of thevery valuable Minnesota _Memoir_, Vol. VI, compiled by the Hon. J. V. Brower of St. Paul, to whom my thanks are due for this excellentcontribution to Western annals. It may be said that the authors ofthis volume have done more than any other writers to vindicate Radissonand Groseillers as explorers of the West. The very differences ofopinion over the regions visited establish the fact that Radisson _did_explore parts of Minnesota. I have purposely avoided trying to say_what_ parts of Minnesota he exploited, because, it seems to me, thecontroversy is futile. Radisson's memory has been the subject ofcontroversy from the time of his life. The controversy--first betweenthe governments of France and England, subsequently between the Frenchand English historians--has eclipsed the real achievements of Radisson. To me it seems non-essential as to whether Radisson camped on an islandin the Mississippi, or only visited the region of that island. Thefact remains that he discovered the Great Northwest, meaning by thatthe region west of the Mississippi. The same dispute has obscured hisexplorations of Hudson Bay, French writers maintaining that he wentoverland to the North and put his feet in the waters of the bay, theEnglish writers insisting that he only crossed over the watershedtoward Hudson Bay. Again, the fact remains that he did what others hadfailed to do--discovered an overland route to the bay. I am sorry thatRadisson is accused in this _Memoir_ of intentionally falsifying hisrelations in two respects, (1) in adding a fanciful year to the1658-1660 voyage; (2) in saying that he had voyaged down theMississippi to Mexico. (1) Internal evidence plainly shows thatRadisson's first four voyages were written twenty years afterward, whenhe was in London, and not while on the voyage across the Atlantic withCartwright, the Boston commissioner. It is the most natural thing inthe world that Radisson, who had so often been to the wilds, shouldhave mixed his dates. Every slip as to dates is so easily checked bycontemporaneous records--which, themselves, need to be checked--that itseems too bad to accuse Radisson of wilfully lying in the matter. WhenRadisson lied it was to avoid bloodshed, and not to exalt himself. Ifhe had had glorification of self in mind, he would not have set downhis own faults so unblushingly; for instance, where he deceives M. Colbert of Paris. (2) Radisson does not try to give the impressionthat he went to Mexico. The sense of the context is that he met anIndian tribe--Illinois, Mandans, Omahas, or some other--who lived nextto another tribe who told _of_ the Spaniards. I feel almost sure thatthe scholarly Mr. Benjamin Sulte is right in his letter to me when hesuggests that Radisson's manuscript has been mixed by transposition ofpages or paragraphs, rather than that Radisson himself was confused inhis account. At the same time every one of the contributors to theMinnesota _Memoir_ deserves the thanks of all who love _true_ history. 

ADDENDUM

Since the above foreword was written, the contents of this volume haveappeared serially in four New York magazines. The context of the bookwas slightly abridged in these articles, so that a very vitaldistinction--namely, the difference between what is given as indispute, and what is given as incontrovertible fact--was lost; but whatwas my amusement to receive letters from all parts of the West all butchallenging me to a duel. One wants to know "how a reputable authordare" suggest that Radisson's voyages be taken as authentic. There isno "dare" about it. It is a fact. For any "reputable" historian tosuggest--as two recently have--that Radisson's voyages are afabrication, is to stamp that historian as a pretender who has notinvestigated a single record contemporaneous with Radisson's life. Onecannot consult documents contemporaneous with his life and not learninstantly that he was a very live fact of the most troublesome kind thegovernments of France and England ever had to accept. That is why itimpresses me as a presumption that is almost comical for any modernwriter to condescend to say that he "accepts" or "rejects" this or thatpart of Radisson's record. If he "rejects" Radisson, he also rejectsthe _Marine Archives of Paris_, and the _Jesuit Relations_, which arethe recognized sources of our early history. 

Another correspondent furiously denounces Radisson as a liar because hemixes his dates of the 1660 trip. It would be just as reasonable tocall La Salle a liar because there are discrepancies in the dates ofhis exploits, as to call Radisson a liar for the slips in his dates. When the mistakes can be checked from internal evidence, one is hardlyjustified in charging falsification. 

A third correspondent is troubled by the reference to the MascoutinIndians being _beyond_ the Mississippi. State documents establish thisfact. I am not responsible for it; and Radisson could not circlewest-northwest from the Mascoutins to the great encampments of theSioux without going far west of the Mississippi. Even if the Jesuitsmake a slip in referring to the Sioux's use of some kind of coal forfire because there was no wood on the prairie, and really mean turf orbuffalo refuse, --which I have seen the Sioux use for fire, --the fact isthat only the tribes far west of the Mississippi habitually used suchsubstitutes for wood. 

My Wisconsin correspondents I have offended by saying that Radissonwent beyond the Wisconsin; my Minnesota friends, by saying that he wentbeyond Minnesota; and my Manitoba co-workers of past days, bysuggesting that he ever went beyond Manitoba. The fact remains thatwhen we try to identify Radisson's voyages, we must take his ownaccount of his journeyings; and that account establishes him as theDiscoverer of the Northwest. 

For those who know, I surely do not need to state that there is nopicture of Radisson extant, and that some of the studies of his lifeare just as genuine (?) as alleged old prints of his likeness. 

CONTENTS

PART ONE

PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON

ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO EXPLORE THE WEST, THE NORTHWEST, AND THE NORTH

CHAPTER I

RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE

The Boy Radisson is captured by the Iroquois and carried to the MohawkValley--In League with Another Captive, he slays their Guards andescapes--He is overtaken in Sight of Home--Tortured and adopted in theTribe, he visits Orange, where the Dutch offer to ransom him--His Escape

CHAPTER II

RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE

Radisson returns to Quebec, where he joins the Jesuits to go to theIroquois Mission--He witnesses the Massacre of the Hurons among theThousand Islands--Besieged by the Iroquois, they pass the Winter asPrisoners of War--Conspiracy to massacre the French foiled by Radisson

CHAPTER III

RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE

The Discovery of the Great Northwest--Radisson and his Brother-in-law, Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and theCanadian Northwest--Radisson's Prophecy on first beholding theWest--Twelve Years before Marquette and Jolliet, Radisson sees theMississippi--The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight seen on the Waydown the Ottawa--Why Radisson's Explorations have been ignored

CHAPTER IV

RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE

The Success of the Explorers arouses Envy--It becomes known that theyhave heard of the Famous Sea of the North--When they ask Permission toresume their Explorations, the French Governor refuses except onCondition of receiving Half the Profits--In Defiance, the Explorerssteal off at Midnight--They return with a Fortune and are driven fromNew France

CHAPTER V

RADISSON RENOUNCES ALLEGIANCE TO TWO CROWNS

Rival Traders thwart the Plans of the Discoverers--Entangled inLawsuits, the Two French Explorers go to England--The Organization ofthe Hudson's Bay Fur Company--Radisson the Storm-centre ofInternational Intrigue--Boston Merchants in the Struggle to capture theFur Trade

CHAPTER VI

RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER IN THE NAVY FOR THE FUR TRADE

Though opposed by the Monopolists of Quebec, he secures Ships for aVoyage to Hudson Bay--Here he encounters a Pirate Ship from Boston andan English Ship of the Hudson's Bay Company--How he plays his Cards towin against Both Rivals

CHAPTER VII

THE LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON TO HUDSON BAY

France refuses to restore the Confiscated Furs and Radisson tries toredeem his Fortune--Reëngaged by England, he captures back Fort Nelson, but comes to Want in his Old Age--His Character

PART TWO

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OFTHE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE MISSOURI UPLANDS, AND THE VALLEY OF THESASKATCHEWAN

CHAPTER VIII

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA

M. De la Vérendrye continues the Exploration of the Great Northwest byestablishing a Chain of Fur Posts across the Continent--Privations ofthe Explorers and the Massacre of Twenty Followers--His Sons visit theMandans and discover the Rockies--The Valley of the Saskatchewan isnext explored, but Jealousy thwarts the Explorer, and he dies in Poverty

PART THREE

SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE LEADS SAMUEL HEARNE TO THE ARCTICCIRCLE AND ATHABASCA REGION

CHAPTER IX

SAMUEL HEARNE

The Adventures of Hearne in his Search for the Coppermine River andNorthwest Passage--Hilarious Life of Wassail led by GovernorNorton--The Massacre of the Eskimo by Hearne's Indians North of theArctic Circle--Discovery of the Athabasca Country--Hearne becomesResident Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but is captured by theFrench--Death of Norton and Suicide of Matonabbee

PART FOUR

FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES--HOW MACKENZIE CROSSED THE NORTHERN ROCKIESAND LEWIS AND CLARK WERE FIRST TO CROSS FROM MISSOURI TO COLUMBIA

CHAPTER X

FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES

How Mackenzie found the Great River named after him and then pushedacross the Mountains to the Pacific, forever settling the Question of aNorthwest Passage

CHAPTER XI

LEWIS AND CLARK

The First White Men to ascend the Missouri to its Sources and descendthe Columbia to the Pacific--Exciting Adventures on the Cañons of theMissouri, the Discovery of the Great Falls and the Yellowstone--Lewis'Escape from Hostiles

APPENDIX

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Stealing from the Fort by Night . . . . . . Frontispiece

Map of the Great Fur Country

Three Rivers in 1757

Map of the Iroquois Country in the Days of Radisson

Albany from an Old Print

The Battery, New York, in Radisson's Time

Fort Amsterdam, from an ancient engraving executed in Holland

One of the Earliest Maps of the Great Lakes

Paddling past Hostiles

Jogues, the Jesuit Missionary, who was tortured by the Mohawks

Château de Ramezay, Montreal

A Cree Brave, with the Wampum String

An Old-time Buffalo Hunt on the Plains among the Sioux

Father Marquette, from an old painting discovered in Montreal

Voyageurs running the Rapids of the Ottawa River

Montreal in 1760

Château St. Louis, Quebec, 1669

A Parley on the Plains

Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars--Three Rivers

Skin for Skin, Coat of Arms and Motto, Hudson's Bay Company

Hudson's Bay Company Coins, made of Lead melted from Tea-chests at York Factory

Hudson Bay Dog Trains laden with Furs arriving at Lower Fort Garry, Red River

Indians and Hunters spurring to the Fight

Fights at the Foothills of the Rockies, between Crows and Snakes

Each Man landed with Pack on his Back and trotted away over Portages

A Cree Indian of the Minnesota Borderlands

A Group of Cree Indians

The Soldiers marched out from Mount Royal for the Western Sea

Traders' Boats running the Rapids of the Athabasca River

The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains

Hungry Hall, 1870

A Monarch of the Plains

Fur Traders towed down the Saskatchewan in the Summer of 1900

Tepees dotted the Valley

An Eskimo Belle

Samuel Hearne

Eskimo using Double-bladed Paddle

Eskimo Family, taken by Light of Midnight Sun

Fort Garry, Winnipeg, a Century Ago

Plan of Fort Prince of Wales, from Robson's drawing, 1733-1747

Fort Prince of Wales

Beaver Coin of the Hudson's Bay Company

Alexander Mackenzie

Eskimo trading his Pipe, carved from Walrus Tusk, for the Value of Three Beaver Skins

Quill and Beadwork on Buckskin

Fort William, Headquarters Northwest Company, Lake Superior

Running a Rapid on Mackenzie River

Slave Lake Indians

Good Hope, Mackenzie River, Hudson's Bay Company Fort

The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight Sun

Captain Meriwether Lewis

Captain William Clark

Tracking up Stream

Typical Mountain Trapper

The Discovery of the Great Falls

Fighting a Grizzly

Packer carrying Goods across Portage

Spying on Enemy's Fort

Indian Camp at Foothills of Rockies

On Guard

Indians of the Up-country or Pays d'en Haut

PART I

PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON

ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO EXPLORE THE WEST, THE NORTHWEST, AND THE NORTH

[Illustration: Map of the Great Fur Company. ]

Pathfinders of the West

CHAPTER I

1651-1653

RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE

The Boy Radisson is captured by the Iroquois and carried to the MohawkValley--In League with Another Captive, he slays their Guards andescapes--He is overtaken in Sight of Home--Tortured and adopted in theTribe, he visits Orange, where the Dutch offer to ransom him--His Escape

Early one morning in the spring of 1652 three young men left the littlestockaded fort of Three Rivers, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, for a day's hunting in the marshes of Lake St. Peter. On one side werethe forested hills, purple with the mists of rising vapor and stillstreaked with white patches of snow where the dense woods shut out thesunlight. On the other lay the silver expanse of the St. Lawrence, more like a lake than a river, with mile on mile southwestward ofrush-grown marshes, where plover and curlew and duck and wild geeseflocked to their favorite feeding-grounds three hundred years ago justas they do to-day. Northeastward, the three mouths of the St. Mauricepoured their spring flood into the St. Lawrence. 

The hunters were very young. Only hunters rash with the courage ofuntried youth would have left the shelter of the fort walls when allthe world knew that the Iroquois had been lying in ambush round thelittle settlement of Three Rivers day and night for the preceding year. Not a week passed but some settler working on the outskirts of ThreeRivers was set upon and left dead in his fields by marauding Iroquois. The tortures suffered by Jogues, the great Jesuit missionary who hadbeen captured by the Iroquois a few years before, were still fresh inthe memory of every man, woman, and child in New France. It was fromThree Rivers that Piescaret, the famous Algonquin chief who couldoutrun a deer, had set out against the Iroquois, turning his snowshoesback to front, so that the track seemed to lead north when he wasreally going south, and then, having thrown his pursuers off the trail, coming back on his own footsteps, slipping up stealthily on theIroquois that were following the false scent, and tomahawking thelaggards. [1] It was from Three Rivers that the Mohawks had capturedthe Algonquin girl who escaped by slipping off the thongs that boundher. Stepping over the prostrate forms of her sleeping guards, such afury of revenge possessed her that she seized an axe and brained thenearest sleeper, then eluded her pursuers by first hiding in a hollowtree and afterward diving under the debris of a beaver dam. 

[Illustration: Three Rivers in 1757. ]

These things were known to every inhabitant of Three Rivers. Farmershad flocked into the little fort and could venture back to their fieldsonly when armed with a musket. [2] Yet the three young hunters rashlyleft the shelter of the fort walls and took the very dangerous paththat led between the forests and the water. One of the young men wasbarely in his seventeenth year. [3] This was Pierre Esprit Radisson, from St. Malo, the town of the famous Cartier. Young Radisson had onlycome to New France the year before, and therefore could not realize thedangers of Indian warfare. Like boys the world over, the three wentalong, boasting how they would fight if the Indians came. One skirtedthe forest, on the watch for Iroquois, the others kept to the water, onthe lookout for game. About a mile from Three Rivers they encountereda herdsman who warned them to keep out from the foot of the hills. Things that looked like a multitude of heads had risen out of the earthback there, he said, pointing to the forests. That set the younghunters loading their pistols and priming muskets. It must also havechilled their zest; for, shooting some ducks, one of the young menpresently declared that he had had enough--he was going back. Withthat daring which was to prove both the lodestar and the curse of hislife, young Radisson laughed to scorn the sudden change of mind. Thereupon the first hunter was joined by the second, and the two wentoff in high dudgeon. With a laugh, Pierre Radisson marched alongalone, foreshadowing his after life, --a type of every pathfinder facingthe dangers of the unknown with dauntless scorn, an immortal type ofthe world-hero. 

Shooting at every pace and hilarious over his luck, Radisson hadwandered some nine miles from the fort, when he came to a stream toodeep to ford and realized that he already had more game than he couldpossibly carry. Hiding in hollow trees what he could not bring back, he began trudging toward Three Rivers with a string of geese, ducks, and odd teal over his shoulders, Wading swollen brooks and scramblingover windfalls, he retraced his way without pause till he caught sightof the town chapel glimmering in the sunlight against the darkeninghorizon above the river. He was almost back where his comrades hadleft him; so he sat down to rest. The cowherd had driven his cattleback to Three Rivers. [4] The river came lapping through the rushes. There was a clacking of wild-fowl flocking down to their marsh nests;perhaps a crane flopped through the reeds; but Radisson, who hadlaughed the nervous fears of the others to scorn, suddenly gave a startat the lonely sounds of twilight. Then he noticed that his pistolswere water-soaked. Emptying the charges, he at once reloaded, and withcharacteristic daring crept softly back to reconnoitre the woods. Dodging from tree to tree, he peered up and down the river. Greatflocks of ducks were swimming on the water. That reassured him, forthe bird is more alert to alarm than man. The fort was almost withincall. Radisson determined to have a shot at such easy quarry; but ashe crept through the grass toward the game, he almost stumbled overwhat rooted him to the spot with horror. Just as they had fallen, naked and scalped, with bullet and hatchet wounds all over theirbodies, lay his comrades of the morning, dead among the rushes. Radisson was too far out to get back to the woods. Stooping, he triedto grope to the hiding of the rushes. As he bent, half a hundred headsrose from the grasses, peering which way he might go. They werebehind, before, on all sides--his only hope was a dash for thecane-grown river, where he might hide by diving and wading, tilldarkness gave a chance for a rush to the fort. Slipping bullet andshot in his musket as he ran, and ramming down the paper, hopingagainst hope that he had not been seen, he dashed through thebrushwood. A score of guns crashed from the forest. [5] Before herealized the penalty that the Iroquois might exact for such an act, hehad fired back; but they were upon him. He was thrown down anddisarmed. When he came giddily to his senses, he found himself beingdragged back to the woods, where the Iroquois flaunted the fresh scalpsof his dead friends. Half drawn, half driven, he was taken to theshore. Here, a flotilla of canoes lay concealed where he had beenhunting wild-fowl but a few hours before. Fires were kindled, and thecrotched sticks driven in the ground to boil the kettle for the eveningmeal. The young Frenchman was searched, stripped, and tied round thewaist with a rope, the Indians yelling and howling like so many wolvesall the while till a pause was given their jubilation by the alarm of ascout that the French and Algonquins were coming. In a trice, the firewas out and covered. A score of young braves set off to reconnoitre. Fifty remained at the boats; but if Radisson hoped for a rescue, he wasdoomed to disappointment. The warriors returned. Seventy Iroquoisgathered round a second fire for the night. The one predominatingpassion of the savage nature is bravery. Lying in ambush, they hadheard this French youth laugh at his comrades' fears. In defiance ofdanger, they had seen him go hunting alone. After he had heard analarm, he had daringly come out to shoot at the ducks. And, then, boyas he was, when attacked he had instantly fired back at numerous enoughenemies to have intimidated a score of grown men. There is not theslightest doubt it was Radisson's bravery that now saved him from thefate of his companions. 

His clothes were returned. While the evening meal was boiling, youngwarriors dressed and combed the Frenchman's hair after the manner ofbraves. They daubed his cheeks with war-paint; and when they saw thattheir rancid meats turned him faint, they boiled meat in clean waterand gave him meal browned on burning sand. [6] He did not struggle toescape, so he was now untied. That night he slept between two warriorsunder a common blanket, through which he counted the stars. For fiftyyears his home was to be under the stars. It is typically Radissonwhen he could add: "I slept a sound sleep; for they wakened me upon thebreaking of the day. " In the morning they embarked in thirty-sevencanoes, two Indians in each boat, with Radisson tied to the cross-barof one, the scalps lying at his feet. Spreading out on the river, theybeat their paddles on the gunwales of the canoes, shot off guns, anduttered the shrill war-cry--"Ah-oh! Ah-oh! Ah-oh!" [7] Lest thiswere not sufficient defiance to the penned-up fort on the river bank, the chief stood up in his canoe, signalled silence, and gave threeshouts. At once the whole company answered till the hills rang; andout swung the fleet of canoes with more shouting and singing and firingof guns, each paddle-stroke sounding the death knell to the youngFrenchman's hopes. 

By sunset they were among the islands at the mouth of the Richelieu, where muskrats scuttled through the rushes and wild-fowl clouded theair. The south shore of Lake St. Peter was heavily forested; thenorth, shallow. The lake was flooded with spring thaw, and the Mohawkscould scarcely find camping-ground among the islands. The youngprisoner was deathly sick from the rank food that he had eaten andheart-sick from the widening distance between himself and Three Rivers. Still, they treated him kindly, saying, "Chagon! Chagon!--Be merry!Cheer up!" The fourth day up the Richelieu, he was embarked withoutbeing fastened to the cross-bar, and he was given a paddle. Fresh tothe work, Radisson made a labor of his oar. The Iroquois took thepaddle and taught him how to give the light, deft, feather strokes ofthe Indian canoeman. On the river they met another band of warriors, and the prisoner was compelled to show himself a trophy of victory andto sing songs for his captors. That evening the united bands kindledan enormous campfire and with the scalps of the dead flaunting fromspear heads danced the scalp dance, reënacting in pantomime all theepisodes of the massacre to the monotonous chant-chant, of a recitativerelating the foray. At the next camping-ground, Radisson's hair wasshaved in front and decorated on top with the war-crest of a brave. Having translated the white man into a savage, they brought him one ofthe tin looking-glasses used by Indians to signal in the sun. "I, viewing myself all in a pickle, " relates Radisson, "smeared with redand black, covered with such a top, . . . Could not but fall in lovewith myself, if I had not had better instructions to shun the sin ofpride. "

Radisson saw that apparent compliance with the Mohawks might win him achance to escape; so he was the first to arise in the morning, wakeningthe others and urging them that it was time to break camp. The stolidIndians were not to be moved by an audacious white boy. Watching theyoung prisoner, the keepers lay still, feigning sleep. Radisson rose. They made no protest. He wandered casually down to the water side. One can guess that the half-closed eyelids of his guards opened atrifle: was the mouse trying to get away from the cat? To the Indians'amusement, instead of trying to escape, Radisson picked up a spear andpractised tossing it, till a Mohawk became so interested that he jumpedup and taught the young Frenchman the proper throws. That day theIndians gave him the present of a hunting-knife. North of LakeChamplain, the river became so turbulent that they were forced to landand make a _portage_. Instead of lagging, as captives frequently didfrom very fear as they approached nearer and nearer what was almostcertain to mean death-torture in the Iroquois villages--Radissonhurried over the rocks, helping the older warriors to carry theirpacks. At night he was the first to cut wood for the camp fire. 

About a week from the time they had left Lake St. Peter, they enteredLake Champlain. On the shores of the former had been enacted the mosthideous of all Indian customs--the scalp dance. On the shores of thelatter was performed one of the most redeeming rites of Indian warfare. Round a small pool of water a coppice of branches was interlaced. Intothe water were thrown hot stones till the enclosure was steaming. Hereeach warrior took a sweat-bath of purification to prepare for reunionwith his family. Invoking the spirits as they bathed, the warriorsemerged washed--as they thought--of all blood-guilt. [8]

[Illustration: Map of the Iroquois country in the days of Radisson. ]

In the night shots sounded through the heavy silence of the forest, andthe Mohawks embarked in alarm, compelling their white prisoner to lieflat in the bottom of the canoe. In the morning when he awakened, hefound the entire band hidden among the rushes of the lake. They spentseveral days on Lake Champlain, then glided past wooded mountains downa calm river to Lake George, where canoes were abandoned and thewarriors struck westward through dense forests to the country of theIroquois. Two days from the lake slave women met the returning braves, and in Radisson's words, "loaded themselves like mules with baggage. "On this woodland march Radisson won golden opinions for himself by twoacts: struck by an insolent young brave, he thrashed the culpritsoundly; seeing an old man staggering under too heavy a load, the whiteyouth took the burden on his own shoulders. 

The return of the warriors to their villages was always celebrated as atriumph. The tribe marched out to meet them, singing, firing guns, shouting a welcome, dancing as the Israelites danced of old whenvictors returned from battle. Men, women, and children lined up oneach side armed with clubs and whips to scourge the captives. Well forRadisson that he had won the warriors' favor; for when the time camefor him to run the gantlet of Iroquois _diableries_, instead of beingslowly led, with trussed arms and shackled feet, he was stripped freeand signalled to run so fast that his tormentors could not hit him. Shrieks of laughter from the women, shouts of applause from the men, always greeted the racer who reached the end of the line unscathed. Acaptive Huron woman, who had been adopted by the tribe, caught thewhite boy as he dashed free of a single blow clear through the lines oftormentors. Leading him to her cabin, she fed and clothed him. Presently a band of braves marched up, demanded the surrender ofRadisson, and took him to the Council Lodge of the Iroquois forjudgment. 

Old men sat solemnly round a central fire, smoking their calumets insilence. Radisson was ordered to sit down. A coal of fire was put inthe bowl of the great Council Pipe and passed reverently round theassemblage. Then the old Huron woman entered, gesticulating andpleading for the youth's life. The men smoked on silently with deep, guttural "ho-ho's, " meaning "yes, yes, we are pleased. " The woman wasgranted permission to adopt Radisson as a son. Radisson had won hisend. Diplomacy and courage had saved his life. It now remained toawait an opportunity for escape. 

Radisson bent all his energies to become a great hunter. He was givenfirearms, and daily hunted with the family of his adoption. It sohappened that the family had lost a son in the wars, whose name hadsignified the same as Radisson's--that is, "a stone"; so the Pierre ofThree Rivers became the Orimha of the Mohawks. The Iroquois husband ofthe woman who had befriended him gave such a feast to the Mohawk bravesas befitted the prestige of a warrior who had slain nineteen enemieswith his own hand. Three hundred young Mohawks sat down to a collationof moose nose and beaver tails and bears' paws, served by slaves. Tothis banquet Radisson was led, decked out in colored blankets withgarnished leggings and such a wealth of wampum strings hanging fromwrists, neck, hair, and waist that he could scarcely walk. Wampummeans more to the Indian than money to the white man. It representsnot only wealth but social standing, and its value may be compared tothe white man's estimate of pink pearls. Diamond-cutters seldom spendmore than two weeks in polishing a good stone. An Indian would spendthirty days in perfecting a single bit of shell into fine wampum. Radisson's friends had ornamented him for the feast in order to win therespect of the Mohawks for the French boy. Striking his hatchetthrough a kettle of sagamite to signify thus would he break peace toall Radisson's foes, the old Iroquois warrior made a speech to theassembled guests. The guests clapped their hands and shouted, "Chagon, Orimha!--Be merry, Pierre!" The Frenchman had been formally adopted asa Mohawk. 

The forests were now painted in all the glories of autumn. All thecreatures of the woodlands shook off the drowsy laziness of summer andcame down from the uplands seeking haunts for winter retreat. Mooseand deer were on the move. Beaver came splashing down-stream toplaster up their wattled homes before frost. Bear and lynx and marten, all were restless as the autumn winds instinct with coming storm. Thisis the season when the Indian sets out to hunt and fight. Furnishedwith clothing, food, and firearms, Radisson left the Mohawk Valley withthree hunters. By the middle of August, the rind of the birch is inperfect condition for peeling. The first thing the hunters did was toslit off the bark of a thick-girthed birch and with cedar linings makethemselves a skiff. Then they prepared to lay up a store of meat forthe winter's war-raids. Before ice forms a skim across the stillpools, nibbled chips betray where a beaver colony is at work; so thehunters began setting beaver traps. One night as they were returningto their wigwam, there came through the leafy darkness the weird soundof a man singing. It was a solitary Algonquin captive, who called outthat he had been on the track of a bear since daybreak. He probablybelonged to some well-known Iroquois, for he was welcomed to thecamp-fire. The sight of a face from Three Rivers roused theAlgonquin's memories of his northern home. In the noise of thecrackling fire, he succeeded in telling Radisson, without beingoverheard by the Iroquois, that he had been a captive for two years andlonged to escape. 

"Do you love the French?" the Algonquin asked Radisson. 

"Do you love the Algonquin?" returned Radisson, knowing they werewatched. 

"As I do my own nation. " Then leaning across to Radisson, "Brother--white man!--Let us escape! The Three Rivers--it is not faroff! Will you live like a Huron in bondage, or have your liberty withthe French?" Then, lowering his voice, "Let us kill all three thisnight when they are asleep!"

From such a way of escape, the French youth held back. The Algonquincontinued to urge him. By this time, Radisson must have heard fromreturning Iroquois warriors that they had slain the governor of ThreeRivers, Duplessis-Kerbodot, and eleven other Frenchmen, among whom wasthe husband of Radisson's eldest sister, Marguerite. [9]

While Radisson was still hesitating, the suspicious Iroquois demandedwhat so much whispering was about; but the alert Algonquin promptlyquieted their fears by trumping up some hunting story. Wearied fromtheir day's hunt, the three Mohawks slept heavily round the camp-fire. They had not the least suspicion of danger, for they had stacked theirarms carelessly against the trees of the forest. Terrified lest theAlgonquin should attempt to carry out his threat, Radisson pretended tobe asleep. Rising noiselessly, the Algonquin sat down by the fire. The Mohawks slept on. The Algonquin gave Radisson a push. The Frenchboy looked up to see the Algonquin studying the postures of thesleeping forms. The dying fire glimmered like a blotch of blood underthe trees. Stepping stealthy as a cat over the sleeping men, theIndian took possession of their firearms. Drawn by a kind of horror, Radisson had risen. The Algonquin thrust one of the tomahawks into theFrench lad's hands and pointed without a word at the three sleepingMohawks. Then the Indian began the black work. The Mohawk nearest thefire never knew that he had been struck, and died without a sound. Radisson tried to imitate the relentless Algonquin, but, unnerved withhorror, he bungled the blow and lost hold of the hatchet just as itstruck the Mohawk's head. The Iroquois sprang up with a shout thatawakened the third man, but the Algonquin was ready. Radisson's blowproved fatal. The victim reeled back dead, and the third man wasalready despatched by the Algonquin. 

Radisson was free. It was a black deed that freed him, but not half soblack as the deeds perpetrated in civilized wars for less cause; andfor that deed Radisson was to pay swift retribution. 

Taking the scalps as trophies to attest his word, the Algonquin threwthe bodies into the river. He seized all the belongings of the deadmen but one gun and then launched out with Radisson on the river. TheFrench youth was conscience-stricken. "I was sorry to have been insuch an encounter, " he writes, "but it was too late to repent. " Undercover of the night mist and shore foliage, they slipped away with thecurrent. At first dawn streak, while the mist still hid them, theylanded, carried their canoe to a sequestered spot in the dense forest, and lay hidden under the upturned skiff all that day, tormented byswarms of mosquitoes and flies, but not daring to move fromconcealment. At nightfall, they again launched down-stream, keepingalways in the shadows of the shore till mist and darkness shroudedthem, then sheering off for mid-current, where they paddled for dearlife. Where camp-fires glimmered on the banks, they glided past withmotionless paddles. Across Lake Champlain, across the Richelieu, overlong _portages_ where every shadow took the shape of an ambushedIroquois, for fourteen nights they travelled, when at last with manywindings and false alarms they swept out on the wide surface of LakeSt. Peter in the St. Lawrence. 

Within a day's journey of Three Rivers, they were really in greaterdanger than they had been in the forests of Lake Champlain. Iroquoishad infested that part of the St. Lawrence for more than a year. Theforest of the south shore, the rush-grown marshes, the wooded islands, all afforded impenetrable hiding. It was four in the morning when theyreached Lake St. Peter. Concealing their canoe, they withdrew to thewoods, cooked their breakfast, covered the fire, and lay down to sleep. In a couple of hours the Algonquin impatiently wakened Radisson andurged him to cross the lake to the north shore on the Three Riversside. Radisson warned the Indian that the Iroquois were ever lurkingabout Three Rivers. The Indian would not wait till sunset. "Let usgo, " he said. "We are past fear. Let us shake off the yoke of thesewhelps that have killed so many French and black robes (priests). . . . If you come not now that we are so near, I leave you, and will tell thegovernor you were afraid to come. "

Radisson's judgment was overruled by the impatient Indian. They pushedtheir skiff out from the rushes. The water lay calm as a sea ofsilver. They paddled directly across to get into hiding on the northshore. Halfway across Radisson, who was at the bow, called out that hesaw shadows on the water ahead. The Indian stood up and declared thatthe shadow was the reflection of a flying bird. Barely had they gone aboat length when the shadows multiplied. They were the reflections ofIroquois ambushed among the rushes. Heading the canoe back for thesouth shore, they raced for their lives. The Iroquois pursued in theirown boats. About a mile from the shore, the strength of the fugitivesfagged. Knowing that the Iroquois were gaining fast, Radisson threwout the loathsome scalps that the Algonquin had persisted in carrying. By that strange fatality which seems to follow crime, instead ofsinking, the hairy scalps floated on the surface of the water back tothe pursuing Iroquois. Shouts of rage broke from the warriors. Radisson's skiff was so near the south shore that he could see thepebbled bottom of the lake; but the water was too deep to wade and tooclear for a dive, and there was no driftwood to afford hiding. Then acrash of musketry from the Iroquois knocked the bottom out of thecanoe. The Algonquin fell dead with two bullet wounds in his head andthe canoe gradually filled, settled, and sank, with the young Frenchmanclinging to the cross-bar mute as stone. Just as it disappeared underwater, Radisson was seized, and the dead Algonquin was thrown into theMohawk boats. 

Radisson alone remained to pay the penalty of a double crime; and hemight well have prayed for the boat to sink. The victors shouted theirtriumph. Hurrying ashore, they kindled a great fire. They tore theheart from the dead Algonquin, transfixed the head on a pike, and castthe mutilated body into the flames for those cannibal rites in whichsavages thought they gained courage by eating the flesh of theirenemies. Radisson was rifled of clothes and arms, trussed at theelbows, roped round the waist, and driven with blows back to thecanoes. There were other captives among the Mohawks. As the canoesemerged from the islands, Radisson counted one hundred and fiftyIroquois warriors, with two French captives, one white woman, andseventeen Hurons. Flaunting from the canoe prows were the scalps ofeleven Algonquins. The victors fired off their muskets and shouteddefiance until the valley rang. As the seventy-five canoes turned upthe Richelieu River for the country of the Iroquois, hope died in thecaptive Hurons and there mingled with the chant of the Mohawks'war-songs, the low monotonous dirge of the prisoners:--

 "If I die, I die valiant! I go without fear To that land where brave men Have gone long before me-- If I die, I die valiant. "

Twelve miles up the Richelieu, the Iroquois landed to camp. Theprisoners were pegged out on the sand, elbows trussed to knees, eachcaptive tied to a post. In this fashion they lay every night ofencampment, tortured by sand-flies that they were powerless to driveoff. At the entrance to the Mohawk village, a yoke was fastened to thecaptives' necks by placing pairs of saplings one on each side down theline of prisoners. By the rope round the waist of the foremostprisoner, they were led slowly between the lines of tormentors. Thecaptives were ordered to sing. If one refused or showed fear, a Mohawkstruck off a finger with a hatchet, or tore the prisoners' nails out, or thrust red-hot irons into the muscles of the bound arms. [10] AsRadisson appeared, he was recognized with shouts of rage by the friendsof the murdered Mohawks. Men, women, and children armed with rods andskull-crackers--leather bags loaded with stones--rushed on the slowlymoving file of prisoners. 

"They began to cry from both sides, " says Radisson; "we marching oneafter another, environed with people to witness that hideous sight, which seriously may be called the image of Hell in this world. "

The prisoners moved mournfully on. The Hurons chanted their deathdirge. The Mohawk women uttered screams of mockery. Suddenly therebroke from the throng of onlookers the Iroquois family that had adoptedRadisson. Pushing through the crew of torturers, the mother caughtRadisson by the hair, calling him by the name of her dead son, "Orimha!Orimha!" She cut the thongs that bound him to the poles, and wrestinghim free shoved him to her husband, who led Radisson to their own lodge. 

"Thou fool, " cried the old chief, "thou wast my son! Thou makestthyself an enemy! Thou lovest us not, though we saved thy life!Wouldst kill me, too?" Then, with a rough push to a mat on the ground, "Chagon--now, be merry! It's a merry business you've got into! Givehim something to eat!"

Trembling with fear, young Radisson put as bold a face on as he couldand made a show of eating what the squaw placed before him. He wasstill relating his adventures when there came a roar of anger from theMohawks outside, who had discovered his absence from the line. Amoment later the rabble broke into the lodge. Jostling the friendlychief aside, the Mohawk warriors carried Radisson back to the orgies ofthe torture. The prisoners had been taken out of the stocks and placedon several scaffoldings. One poor Frenchman fell to the ground bruisedand unable to rise. The Iroquois tore the scalp from his head andthrew him into the fire. That was Radisson's first glimpse of what wasin store for him. Then he, too, stood on the scaffolding among theother prisoners, who never ceased singing their death song. In themidst of these horrors--_diableries_, the Jesuits called them--as ifthe very elements had been moved with pity, there burst over thedarkened forest a terrific hurricane of hail and rain. This put outthe fires and drove all the tormentors away but a few impish children, who stayed to pluck nails from the hands and feet of the captives andshoot arrows with barbed points at the naked bodies. Every iniquitythat cruelty could invent, these children practised on the captives. Red-hot spears were brought from the lodge fires and thrust into theprisoners. The mutilated finger ends were ground between stones. Thongs were twisted round wrists and ankles, by sticks put through aloop, till flesh was cut to the bone. As the rain ceased falling, awoman, who was probably the wife of one of the murdered Mohawks, brought her little boy to cut one of Radisson's fingers with a flintstone. The child was too young and ran away from the gruesome task. 

Gathering darkness fell over the horrible spectacle. The exhaustedcaptives, some in a delirium from pain, others unconscious, were led toseparate lodges, or dragged over the ground, and left tied for thenight. The next morning all were returned to the scaffolds, but thefirst day had glutted the Iroquois appetite for tortures. The friendlyfamily was permitted to approach Radisson. The mother brought him foodand told him that the Council Lodge had decided not to kill him forthat day--they wanted the young white warrior for their own ranks; buteven as the cheering hope was uttered, came a brave with a pipe of livecoals, in which he thrust and held Radisson's thumb. No sooner had thetormentor left than the woman bound up the burn and oiled Radisson'swounds. He suffered no abuse that day till night, when the soles ofboth feet were burned. The majority of the captives were flung into agreat bonfire. On the third day of torture he almost lost his life. First came a child to gnaw at his fingers. Then a man appeared armedfor the ghastly work of mutilation. Both these the Iroquois father ofRadisson sent away. Once, when none of the friendly family happened tobe near, Radisson was seized and bound for burning, but by chance thelighted faggot scorched his executioner. A friendly hand slashed thethongs that bound him, and he was drawn back to the scaffold. 

Past caring whether he lived or died, and in too great agony from theburns of his feet to realize where he was going, Radisson was conductedto the Great Council. Sixty old men sat on a circle of mats, smoking, round the central fire. Before them stood seven other captives. Radisson only was still bound. A gust of wind from the opening lodgedoor cleared the smoke for an instant and there entered Radisson'sIndian father, clad in the regalia of a mighty chief. Tomahawk andcalumet and medicine-bag were in his hands. He took his place in thecircle of councillors. Judgment was to be given on the remainingprisoners. 

After passing the Council Pipe from hand to hand in solemn silence, thesachems prepared to give their views. One arose, and offering thesmoke of incense to the four winds of heaven to invoke witness to thejustice of the trial, gave his opinion on the matter of life or death. Each of the chiefs in succession spoke. Without any warning whatever, one chief rose and summarily tomahawked three of the captives. Thathad been the sentence. The rest were driven, like sheep for theshambles, to life-long slavery. 

Radisson was left last. His case was important. He had sanctioned themurder of three Mohawks. Not for a moment since he was recaptured hadthey dared to untie the hands of so dangerous a prisoner. Amid deathlysilence, the Iroquois father stood up. Flinging down medicine-bag, furrobe, wampum belts, and tomahawk, he pointed to the nineteen scars uponhis side, each of which signified an enemy slain by his own hand. Thenthe old Mohawk broke into one of those impassioned rhapsodies ofeloquence which delighted the savage nature, calling back to each ofthe warriors recollection of victories for the Iroquois. His eyes tookfire from memory of heroic battle. The councillors shook off theirimperturbable gravity and shouted "Ho, ho!" Each man of them had amemory of his part in those past glories. And as they applauded, thereglided into the wigwam the mother, singing some battle-song of valor, dancing and gesticulating round and round the lodge in dizzy, serpentine circlings, that illustrated in pantomime those battles oflong ago. Gliding ghostily from the camp-fire to the outer dark, shesuddenly stopped, stood erect, advanced a step, and with all her mightthrew one belt of priceless wampum at the councillors' feet, onenecklace over the prisoner's head. 

Before the applause could cease or the councillors' ardor cool, theadopted brother sprang up, hatchet in hand, and sang of othervictories. Then, with a delicacy of etiquette which white pleaders donot always observe, father and son withdrew from the Council Lodge tolet the jury deliberate. The old sachems were disturbed. They hadbeen moved more than their wont. Twenty withdrew to confer. Duskgathered deeper and deeper over the forests of the Mohawk Valley. Tawny faces came peering at the doors, waiting for the decision. Outsiders tore the skins from the walls of the lodge that they, too, might witness the memorable trial of the boy prisoner. Sachem aftersachem rose and spoke. Tobacco was sacrificed to the fire-god. Wouldthe relatives of the dead Mohawks consider the wampum belts fullcompensation? Could the Iroquois suffer a youth to live who had joinedthe murderers of the Mohawks? Could the Mohawks afford to offend thegreat Iroquois chief who was the French youth's friend? As theydeliberated, the other councillors returned, accompanied by all themembers of Radisson's friendly family. Again the father sang andspoke. This time when he finished, instead of sitting down, he caughtthe necklace of wampum from Radisson's neck, threw it at the feet ofthe oldest sachem, cut the captive's bonds, and, amid shouts ofapplause, set the white youth free. 

One of the incomprehensible things to civilization is how a white man_can_ degenerate to savagery. Young Radisson's life is anillustration. In the first transports of his freedom, with the Mohawkwomen dancing and singing around him, the men shouting, he leaped up, oblivious of pain; but when the flush of ecstasy had passed, he sank tothe mat of the Iroquois lodge, and he was unable to use his burned feetfor more than a month. During this time the Iroquois dressed hiswounds, brought him the choice portions of the hunt, gave him cleanclothing purchased at Orange (Albany), and attended to his wants as ifhe had been a prince. No doubt the bright eyes of the swarthy youngFrench boy moved to pity the hearts of the Mohawk mothers, and hiscourage had won him favor among the warriors. He was treated like aking. The women waited upon him like slaves, and the men gave himpresents of firearms and ammunition--the Indian's most preciouspossessions. Between flattered vanity and indolence, other white men, similarly treated, have lost their self-respect. Beckworth, of theMissouri, became to all intents and purposes a savage; and Bird, of theBlackfeet, degenerated lower than the Indians. Other Frenchmencaptured from the St. Lawrence, and white women taken from the NewEngland colonies, became so enamored of savage life that they refusedto leave the Indian lodges when peace had liberated them. Not soRadisson. Though only seventeen, flattered vanity never caused him toforget the gratitude he owed the Mohawk family. Though he relates hislife with a frankness that leaves nothing untold, he never at any timereturned treachery for kindness. The very chivalry of the Frenchnature endangered him all the more. Would he forget his manhood, hisbirthright of a superior race, his inheritance of nobility from afamily that stood foremost among the _noblesse_ of New France?

[Illustration: Albany, from an Old Print. ]

The spring of 1653 came with unloosening of the rivers and stirring ofthe forest sap and fret of the warrior blood. Radisson's Iroquoisfather held great feasts in which he heaved up the hatchet to break thekettle of sagamite against all enemies. Would Radisson go on thewar-path with the braves, or stay at home with the women and so losethe respect of the tribe? In the hope of coming again within reach ofThree Rivers, he offered to join the Iroquois in their wars. TheMohawks were delighted with his spirit, but they feared to lose theiryoung warrior. Accepting his offer, they refused to let him accompanythem to Quebec, but assigned him to a band of young braves, who were toraid the border-lands between the Huron country of the Upper Lakes andthe St. Lawrence. This was not what Radisson wanted, but he could notdraw back. There followed months of wild wanderings round the regionsof Niagara. The band of young braves passed dangerous places withgreat precipices and a waterfall, where the river was a mile wide andunfrozen. Radisson was constrained to witness many acts against theEries, which must have one of two effects on white blood, --either turnthe white man into a complete savage, or disgust him utterly withsavage life. Leaving the Mohawk village amid a blare of guns andshouts, the young braves on their maiden venture passed successivelythrough the lodges of Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas, and Cayugas, wherethey were feasted almost to death by the Iroquois Confederacy. [11]Then they marched to the vast wilderness of snow-padded forests andheaped windfall between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. 

Snow still lay in great drifts under the shadow of hemlock and spruce;and the braves skimmed forward winged with the noiseless speed ofsnow-shoes. When the snow became too soft from thaw for snow-shoes, they paused to build themselves a skiff. It was too early to peel thebark off the birch, so they made themselves a dugout of the walnuttree. The wind changed from north to south, clearing the lakes of iceand filling the air with the earthy smells of up-bursting growth. "There was such a thawing, " writes Radisson, "ye little brookes flowedlike rivers, which made us embark to wander over that sweet sea. "Lounging in their skiff all day, carried from shore to shore with thewaves, and sleeping round camp-fires on the sand each night, the youngbraves luxuriated in all the delights of sunny idleness and springlife. But this was not war. It was play, and play of the sort thatweans the white man from civilization to savagery. 

One day a scout, who had climbed to the top of a tree, espied twostrange squaws. They were of a hostile tribe. The Mohawk bloodthirstwas up as a wolf's at the sight of lambs. In vain Radisson tried tosave the women by warning the Iroquois that if there were women, theremust be men, too, who would exact vengeance for the squaws' death. Theyoung braves only laid their plans the more carefully for his warningand massacred the entire encampment. Prisoners were taken, but whenfood became scarce they were brutally knocked on the head. Thesetribes had never heard guns before, and at the sound of shots fled asfrom diabolical enemies. It was an easy matter for the young braves inthe course of a few weeks to take a score of scalps and a dozenprisoners. At one place more than two hundred beaver were trapped. Atthe end of the raid, the booty was equally divided. Radisson askedthat the woman prisoner be given to him; and he saved her from tortureand death on the return to the Mohawks by presenting her as a slave tohis Indian mother. All his other share of booty he gave to thefriendly family. The raid was over. He had failed of his main objectin joining it. He had not escaped. But he had made one importantgain. His valor had reëstablished the confidence of the Indians sothat when they went on a free-booting expedition against the whites ofthe Dutch settlements at Orange (Albany), Radisson was taken with them. Orange, or Albany, consisted at that time of some fifty thatchedlog-houses surrounded by a settlement of perhaps a hundred and fiftyfarmers. This raid was bloodless. The warriors looted the farmers'cabins, emptied their cupboards, and drank their beer cellars dry tothe last drop. Once more Radisson kept his head. While the bravesentered Fort Orange roaring drunk, Radisson was alert and sober. Adrunk Indian falls an easy prey in the bartering of pelts. TheIroquois wanted guns. The Dutch wanted pelts. The whites treated thesavages like kings; and the Mohawks marched from house to housefeasting of the best. Radisson was dressed in garnished buckskin andhad been painted like a Mohawk. Suspecting some design to escape, hisIroquois friends never left him. The young Frenchman now saw white menfor the first time in almost two years; but the speech that he heardwas in a strange tongue. As Radisson went into the fort, he noticed asoldier among the Dutch. At the same instant the soldier recognizedhim as a Frenchman, and oblivious of the Mohawks' presence blurted outhis discovery in Iroquois dialect, vowing that for all the paint andgrease, this youth was a white man below. The fellow's blunderingmight have cost Radisson's life; but the youth had not been a captiveamong crafty Mohawks for nothing. Radisson feigned surprise at theaccusation. That quieted the Mohawk suspicions and they were presentlydeep in the beer pots of the Dutch. Again the soldier spoke, this timein French. It was the first time that Radisson had heard his nativetongue for months. He answered in French. At that the soldier emittedshouts of delight, for he, too, was French, and these strangers in analien land threw their arms about each other like a pair of long-lostbrothers with exclamations of joy too great for words. 

[Illustration: The Battery, New York, in Radisson's Time. ]

From that moment Radisson became the lion of Fort Orange. The womendragged him to their houses and forced more dainties on him than hecould eat. He was conducted from house to house in triumph, to theamazed delight of the Indians. The Dutch offered to ransom him at anyprice; but that would have exposed the Dutch settlement to theresentment of the Mohawks and placed Radisson under heavy obligation topeople who were the enemies of New France. Besides, his honor waspledged to return to his Indian parents; and it was a long way home tohave to sail to Europe and back again to Quebec. Perhaps, too, therewas deep in his heart what he did not realize--a rooted love for thewilds that was to follow him all through life. By the devious courseof captivity, he had tasted of a new freedom and could not give it up. He declined the offer of the Dutch. In two days he was back among theMohawks ten times more a hero than he had ever been. Mother andsisters were his slaves. 

But between love of the wilds and love of barbarism is a widedifference. He had not been back for two weeks when that glimpse ofcrude civilization at Orange recalled torturing memories of the Frenchhome in Three Rivers. The filthy food, the smoky lodges, the crueltiesof the Mohawks, filled him with loathing. The nature of the white man, which had been hidden under the grease and paint of the savage--and indanger of total eclipse--now came upper-most. With Radisson, to thinkwas to act. He determined to escape if it cost him his life. 

Taking only a hatchet as if he were going to cut wood, Radisson leftthe Indian lodge early one morning in the fall of 1653. Once out ofsight from the village, he broke into a run, following the trailthrough the dense forests of the Mohawk Valley toward Fort Orange. Onand on he ran, all that day, without pause to rest or eat, withoutbackward glance, with eye ever piercing through the long leafy vistasof the forest on the watch for the fresh-chipped bark of the trees thatguided his course, or the narrow indurated path over the spongy mouldworn by running warriors. And when night filled the forest with thehoot of owl, and the far, weird cries of wild creatures on the rove, there sped through the aisled columns of star light and shadow, theghostly figure of the French boy slim, and lithe as a willow, withmuscles tense as ironwood, and step silent as the mountain-cat. Allthat night he ran without a single stop. Chill daybreak found himstill staggering on, over rocks slippery with the night frost, overwindfall tree on tree in a barricade, through brawling mountain brookswhere his moccasins broke the skim of ice at the edge, past riverswhere he half waded, half swam. He was now faint from want of food;but fear spurred him on. The morning air was so cold that he found itbetter to run than rest. By four of the afternoon he came to aclearing in the forest, where was the cabin of a settler. A man waschopping wood. Radisson ascertained that there were no Iroquois in thecabin, and, hiding in it, persuaded the settler to carry a message toFort Orange, two miles farther on. While he waited Indians passed thecabin, singing and shouting. The settler's wife concealed him behindsacks of wheat and put out all lights. Within an hour came a rescueparty from Orange, who conducted him safely to the fort. For threedays Radisson hid in Orange, while the Mohawks wandered through thefort, calling him by name. 

Gifts of money from the Jesuit, Poncet, and from a Dutch merchant, enabled Radisson to take ship from Orange to New York, and from NewYork to Europe. 

[Illustration: Fort Amsterdam, from an ancient engraving executed inHolland. This view of Fort Amsterdam on the Manhattan is copied froman ancient engraving executed in Holland. The fort was erected in 1623but finished upon the above model by Governor Van Twiller in 1635. ]

Père Poncet had been captured by the Mohawks the preceding summer, buthad escaped to Orange. [12] Embarking on a small sloop, Radisson saileddown the Hudson to New York, which then consisted of some five hundredhouses, with stores, barracks, a stone church, and a dilapidated fort. Central Park was a forest; goats and cows pastured on what is now WallStreet; and to east and west was a howling wilderness of marsh andwoods. After a stay of three weeks, Radisson embarked for Amsterdam, which he reached in January, 1654. 

[1] Benjamin Sulte in _Chronique Trifluvienne_. 

[2] It was in August of this same year, 1652, that the governor ofThree Rivers was slain by the Iroquois. Parkman gives this date, 1653, Garneau, 1651, L'Abbé Tanguay, 1651; Dollier de Casson, 1651, Belmont, 1653. Sulte gives the name of the governor Duplessis-Kerbodot, notBochart, as given in Parkman. 

[3] Dr. Bryce has unearthed the fact that in a petition to the House ofCommons, 1698, Radisson sets down his age as sixty-two. This gives theyear of his birth as 1636. On the other hand, Sulte has record of aPierre Radisson registered at Quebec in 1681, aged fifty-one, whichwould make him slightly older, if it is the same Radisson. Mr. Sulte'sexplanation is as follows: Sébastien Hayet of St. Malo married MadelineHénault. Their daughter Marguerite married Chouart, known asGroseillers. Madeline Hénault then married Pierre Esprit Radisson ofParis, whose children were Pierre, our hero, and two daughters. 

[4] A despatch from M. Talon in 1666 shows there were 461 families inThree Rivers. State papers from the Minister to M. Frontenac in 1674show there were only 6705 French in all the colony. Averaging five afamily, there must have been 2000 people at Three Rivers. Fear of theIroquois must have driven the country people inside the fort, so thatthe population enrolled was larger than the real population of ThreeRivers. Sulte gives the normal population of Three Rivers in 1654 as38 married couples, 13 bachelors, 38 boys, 26 girls--in all not 200. 

[5] At first flush, this seems a slip in _Radisson's Relation_. Wheredid the Mohawks get their guns? _New York Colonial Documents_ showthat between 1640 and 1650 the Dutch at Fort Orange had supplied theMohawks alone with four hundred guns. 

[6] One of many instances of Radisson's accuracy in detail. All tribeshave a trick of browning food on hot stones or sand that has been takenfrom fire. The Assiniboines gained their name from this practice: theywere the users of "boiling stones. "

[7] I have asked both natives and old fur-traders what combination ofsounds in English most closely resembles the Indian war-cry, and theyhave all given the words that I have quoted. One daughter of a chieffactor, who went through a six weeks' siege by hostiles in her father'sfort, gave a still more graphic description. She said: "you canimagine the snarls of a pack of furiously vicious dogs saying 'ah-oh'with a whoop, you have it; and you will not forget it!"

[8] This practice was a binding law on many tribes. Catlin relates itof the Mandans, and Hearne of the Chipewyans. The latter considered ita crime to kiss wives and children after a massacre without the bath ofpurification. Could one know where and when that universal custom ofwashing blood-guilt arose, one mystery of existence would be unlocked. 

[9] I have throughout followed Mr. Sulte's correction of the name ofthis governor. The mistake followed by Parkman, Tanguay, andothers--it seems--was first made in 1820, and has been faithfullycopied since. Elsewhere will be found Mr. Sulte's complete elucidationof the hopeless dark in which all writers have involved Radisson'sfamily. 

[10] If there were not corroborative testimony, one might suspect theexcited French lad of gross exaggeration in his account of Iroquoistortures; but the Jesuits more than confirm the worst that Radissonrelates. Bad as these torments were, they were equalled by the deedsof white troops from civilized cities in the nineteenth century. Aband of Montana scouts came on the body of a comrade horribly mutilatedby the Indians. They caught the culprits a few days afterwards. Though the government report has no account of what happened, traderssay the bodies of the guilty Indians were found skinned and scalped bythe white troops. 

[11] Radisson puts the Senecas before the Cayugas, which is differentfrom the order given by the Jesuits. 

[12] The fact that Radisson confessed his sins to this priest seemspretty well to prove that Pierre was a Catholic and not a Protestant, as has been so often stated. 

CHAPTER II

1657-1658

RADISSON'S SECOND VOYAGE

Radisson returns to Quebec, where he joins the Jesuits to go to theIroquois Mission--He witnesses the Massacre of the Hurons among theThousand Islands--Besieged by the Iroquois, they pass the Winter asPrisoners of War--Conspiracy to massacre the French foiled by Radisson. 

From Amsterdam Radisson took ship to Rochelle. Here he found himself astranger in his native land. All his kin of whom there is anyrecord--Pierre Radisson, his father, Madeline Hénault, his mother, Marguerite and Françoise, his elder and younger sisters, his uncle andaunt, with their daughter, Elizabeth--were now living at Three Riversin New France. [1] Embarking with the fishing fleet that yearly leftFrance for the Grand Banks, Radisson came early in the spring of 1654to Isle Percée at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. He was still a week'sjourney from Three Rivers, but chance befriended him. Algonquin canoeswere on the way up the river to war on the Iroquois. Joining theIndian canoes, he slipped past the hilly shores of the St. Lawrence andin five days was between the main bank on the north side and the muddyshallows of the Isle of Orleans. Sheering out where the Montmorencyroars over a precipice in a shining cataract, the canoes glided acrossSt. Charles River among the forests of masts heaving to the tide belowthe beetling heights of Cape Diamond, Quebec. 

[Illustration: One of the earliest maps of the Great Lakes. ]

It was May, 1651, when he had first seen the turrets and spires ofQuebec glittering on the hillside in the sun; it was May, 1652, thatthe Iroquois had carried him off from Three Rivers; and it was May, 1654, when he came again to his own. He was welcomed back as from thedead. Changes had taken place in the interval of his captivity. Atruce had been arranged between the Iroquois and the French. Now thatthe Huron missions had been wiped out by Iroquois wars, the Jesuitsregarded the truce as a Divine provision for a mission among theIroquois. The year that Radisson escaped from the Mohawks, Jesuitpriests had gone among them. A still greater change that was to affecthis life more vitally had taken place in the Radisson family. The yearthat Radisson had been captured, the outraged people of Three Rivershad seized a Mohawk chief and burned him to death. In revenge, theMohawks murdered the governor of Three Rivers and a company ofFrenchmen. Among the slain was the husband of Radisson's sister, Marguerite. When Radisson returned, he found that his widowed sisterhad married Médard Chouart Groseillers, a famous fur trader of NewFrance, who had passed his youth as a lay helper to the Jesuit missionsof Lake Huron. [2] Radisson was now doubly bound to the Jesuits bygratitude and family ties. Never did pagan heart hear an evangel moregladly than the Mohawks heard the Jesuits. The priests were welcomedwith acclaim, led to the Council Lodge, and presented with belts ofwampum. Not a suspicion of foul play seems to have entered theJesuits' mind. When the Iroquois proposed to incorporate into theConfederacy the remnants of the Hurons, the Jesuits discerned nothingin the plan but the most excellent means to convert pagan Iroquois byChristian Hurons. Having gained an inch, the Iroquois demanded theproverbial ell. They asked that a French settlement be made in theIroquois country. The Indians wanted a supply of firearms to waragainst all enemies; and with a French settlement miles away from help, the Iroquois could wage what war they pleased against the Algonquinswithout fear of reprisals from Quebec--the settlement of white menamong hostiles would be hostage of generous treatment from New France. Of these designs, neither priests nor governor had the slightestsuspicion. The Jesuits were thinking only of the Iroquois' soul; theFrench, of peace with the Iroquois at any cost. 

In 1656 Major Dupuis and fifty Frenchmen had established a Frenchcolony among the Iroquois. [3] The hardships of these pioneers form nopart of Radisson's life, and are, therefore, not set down here. Peacenot bought by a victory is an unstable foundation for Indian treaty. The Mohawks were jealous that their confederates, the Onondagas, hadobtained the French settlement. In 1657, eighty Iroquois came toQuebec to escort one hundred Huron refugees back to Onondaga foradoption into the Confederacy. These Hurons were Christians, and thetwo Jesuits, Paul Ragueneau and François du Péron, were appointed toaccompany them to their new abode. Twenty young Frenchmen joined theparty to seek their fortunes at the new settlement; but a man wasneeded who could speak Iroquois. Glad to repay his debt to theJesuits, young Radisson volunteered to go as a _donné_, that is, a layhelper vowed to gratuitous services. 

It was midsummer before all preparations had been made. On July 26, the party of two hundred, made up of twenty Frenchmen, eighty Iroquois, and a hundred Hurons, filed out of the gates of Montreal, and windinground the foot of the mountain followed a trail through the forest thattook them past the Lachine Rapids. The Onondaga _voyageurs_ carriedthe long birch canoes inverted on their shoulders, two Indians at eachend; and the other Iroquois trotted over the rocks with the Frenchmen'sbaggage on their backs. The day was hot, the _portage_ long andslippery with dank moisture. The Huron children fagged and fellbehind. At nightfall, thirty of the haughty Iroquois lost patience, and throwing down their bundles made off for Quebec with the avowedpurpose of raiding the Algonquins. On the way, they paused to scalpthree Frenchmen at Montreal, cynically explaining that if the Frenchpersisted in taking Algonquins into their arms, the white men need notbe surprised if the blow aimed at an Algonquin sometimes struck aFrenchman. That act opened the eyes of the French to the real meaningof the peace made with the Iroquois; but the little colony was beyondrecall. To insure the safety of the French among the Onondagas, theFrench governor at Quebec seized a dozen Iroquois and kept them ashostages of good conduct. 

Meanwhile, all was confusion on Lake St. Louis, where the last band ofcolonists had encamped. The Iroquois had cast the Frenchmen's baggageon the rocks and refused to carry it farther. Leaving the whites allembarrassed, the Onondagas hurriedly embarked the Hurons and paddledquickly out of sight. The act was too suddenly unanimous not to havebeen premeditated. Why had the Iroquois carried the Hurons away fromthe Frenchmen? Father Ragueneau at once suspected some sinisterpurpose. Taking only a single sack of flour for food, he called forvolunteers among the twenty Frenchmen to embark in a leaky, old canoeand follow the treacherous Onondagas. Young Radisson was one of thefirst to offer himself. Six others followed his example; and the sevenFrenchmen led by the priest struck across the lake, leaving the othersto gather up the scattered baggage. 

The Onondagas were too deep to reveal their plots with seven armedFrenchmen in pursuit. The Indians permitted the French boats to comeup with the main band. All camped together in the most friendlyfashion that night; but the next morning one Iroquois offered passagein his canoe to one Frenchman, another Iroquois to another of thewhites, and by the third day, when they came to Lake St. Francis, theold canoe had been abandoned. The French were scattered promiscuouslyamong the Iroquois, with no two whites in one boat. The Hurons werequicker to read the signs of treachery than the French. There wererumors of one hundred Mohawks lying in ambush at the Thousand Islandsto massacre the coming Hurons. On the morning of August 3 four Huronwarriors and two women seized a canoe, and to the great astonishment ofthe encampment launched out before they could be stopped. Heading thecanoe back for Montreal, they broke out in a war chant of defiance tothe Iroquois. 

The Onondagas made no sign, but they evidently took council to delay nolonger. Again, when they embarked, they allowed no two whites in onecanoe. The boats spread out. Nothing was said to indicate anythingunusual. The lake lay like a silver mirror in the August sun. Thewater was so clear that the Indians frequently paused to spear fishlying below on the stones. At places the canoes skirted close to thewood-fringed shore, and braves landed to shoot wild-fowl. Radisson andRagueneau seemed simultaneously to have noticed the same thing. Without any signal, at about four in the afternoon, the Onondagassteered their canoes for a wooded island in the middle of the St. Lawrence. With Radisson were three Iroquois and a Huron. As the canoegrated shore, the bowman loaded his musket and sprang into the thicket. Naturally, the Huron turned to gaze after the disappearing hunter. Instantly, the Onondaga standing directly behind buried his hatchet inthe Huron's head. The victim fell quivering across Radisson's feet andwas hacked to pieces by the other Iroquois. Not far along the shorefrom Radisson, the priest was landing. He noticed an Iroquois chiefapproach a Christian Huron girl. If the Huron had not been a convert, she might have saved her life by becoming one of the chief's manyslaves; but she had repulsed the Onondaga pagan. As Ragueneau looked, the girl fell dead with her skull split by the chief's war-axe. TheHurons on the lake now knew what awaited them; and a cry of terrorarose from the children. Then a silence of numb horror settled overthe incoming canoes. The women were driven ashore like lambs beforewolves; but the valiant Hurons would not die without striking one blowat their inveterate and treacherous enemies. They threw themselvestogether back to back, prepared to fight. For a moment this show ofresistance drove off the Iroquois. Then the Onondaga chieftain rushedforward, protesting that the two murders had been a personal quarrel. Striking back his own warriors with a great show of sincerity, he badethe Hurons run for refuge to the top of the hill. No sooner had theHurons broken rank, than there rushed from the woods scores ofIroquois, daubed in war-paint and shouting their war-cry. This was thehunt to which the young braves had dashed from the canoes to be inreadiness behind the thicket. Before the scattered Hurons could gettogether for defence, the Onondagas had closed around the hilltop in acordon. The priest ran here, there, everywhere, --comforting the dying, stopping mutilation, defending the women. All the Hurons weremassacred but one man, and the bodies were thrown into the river. Withblankets drawn over their heads that they might not see, the womenhuddled together, dumb with terror. When the Onondagas turned towardthe women, the Frenchmen stood with muskets levelled. The Onondagashalted, conferred, and drew off. 

[Illustration: Paddling past Hostiles. ]

The fight lasted for four hours. Darkness and the valor of the littleFrench band saved the women for the time. The Iroquois kindled a fireand gathered to celebrate their victory. Then the old priest took hislife in his hands. Borrowing three belts of wampum, he left thehuddling group of Huron women and Frenchmen and marched boldly into thecircle of hostiles. The lives of all the French and Hurons hung by athread. Ragueneau had been the spiritual guide of the murdered tribefor twenty years; and he was now sobbing like a child. The Iroquoisregarded his grief with sardonic scorn; but they misjudged the manhoodbelow the old priest's tears. Ragueneau asked leave to speak. Theygrunted permission. Springing up, he broke into impassioned, fearlessreproaches of the Iroquois for their treachery. Casting one belt ofwampum at the Onondaga chief's feet, the priest demanded pledges thatthe massacre cease. A second belt was given to register the Onondaga'svow to conduct the women and children safely to the Iroquois country. The third belt was for the safety of the French at Onondaga. 

The Iroquois were astonished. They had looked for womanish pleadings. They had heard stern demands coupled with fearless threats ofpunishment. When Ragueneau sat down, the Onondaga chief bestirredhimself to counteract the priest's powerful impression. Lounging tohis feet, the Onondaga impudently declared that the governor of Quebechad instigated the massacre. Ragueneau leaped up with a denial thattook the lie from the scoundrel's teeth. The chief sat down abashed. The Council grunted "Ho, ho!" accepting the wampum and promising allthat the Jesuit had asked. 

Among the Thousand Islands, the French who had remained behind togather up the baggage again joined the Onondagas. They brought withthem from the Isle of Massacres a poor Huron woman, whom they had foundlying insensible on a rock. During the massacre she had hidden in ahollow tree, where she remained for three days. In this region, Radisson almost lost his life by hoisting a blanket sail to his canoe. The wind drifted the boat so far out that Radisson had to throw allballast overboard to keep from being swamped. As they turned from theSt. Lawrence and Lake Ontario up the Oswego River for Onondaga, theymet other warriors of the Iroquois nation. In spite of pledges to thepriest, the meeting was celebrated by torturing the Huron women toentertain the newcomers. Not the sufferings of the early Christians inRome exceeded the martyrdom of the Christian Hurons among theOnondagas. As her mother mounted the scaffold of tortures, a littlegirl who had been educated by the Ursulines of Quebec broke out withloud weeping. The Huron mother turned calmly to the child:--

"Weep not my death, my little daughter! We shall this day be inheaven, " said she; "God will pity us to all eternity. The Iroquoiscannot rob us of that. "

As the flames crept about her, her voice was heard chanting in thecrooning monotone of Indian death dirge: "Jesu--have pity on us!Jesu--have pity on us!" The next moment the child was thrown into theflames, repeating the same words. 

The Iroquois recognized Radisson. He sent presents to his Mohawkparents, who afterwards played an important part in saving the Frenchof Onondaga. Having passed the falls, they came to the French fortsituated on the crest of a hill above a lake. Two high towersloopholed for musketry occupied the centre of the courtyard. Doublewalls, trenched between, ran round a space large enough to enable theFrench to keep their cattle inside the fort. The _voyageurs_ werewelcomed to Onondaga by Major Dupuis, fifty Frenchmen, and severalJesuits. 

The pilgrims had scarcely settled at Onondaga before signs of thedangers that were gathering became too plain for the blind zeal of theJesuits to ignore. Cayugas, Onondagas, and Senecas, togged out inwar-gear, swarmed outside the palisades. There was no more dissemblingof hunger for the Jesuits' evangel. The warriors spoke no more softwords, but spent their time feasting, chanting war-songs, heaving upthe war-hatchet against the kettle of sagamite--which meant the ruptureof peace. Then came four hundred Mohawks, who not only shouted theirwar-songs, but built their wigwams before the fort gates andestablished themselves for the winter like a besieging army. That theintent of the entire Confederacy was hostile to Onondaga could not bemistaken; but what was holding the Indians back? Why did they delaythe massacre? Then Huron slaves brought word to the besieged fort ofthe twelve Iroquois hostages held at Quebec. The fort understood whatstayed the Iroquois blow. The Confederacy dared not attack theisolated fort lest Quebec should take terrible vengeance on thehostages. 

[Illustration: Jogues, the Jesuit missionary, who was tortured by theMohawks. From a painting in Château de Ramezay, Montreal. ]

The French decided to send messengers to Quebec for instructions beforeclosing navigation cut them off for the winter. Thirteen men and oneJesuit left the fort the first week of September. Mohawk spies knew ofthe departure and lay in ambush at each side of the narrow river tointercept the party; but the messengers eluded the trap by strikingthrough the forests back from the river directly to the St. Lawrence. Then the little fort closed its gates and awaited an answer fromQuebec. Winter settled over the land, blocking the rivers with ice andthe forest trails with drifts of snow; but no messengers came back fromQuebec. The Mohawks had missed the outgoing scouts: but they caughtthe return coureurs and destroyed the letters. Not a soul could leavethe fort but spies dogged his steps. The Jesuits continued going fromlodge to lodge, and in this way Onondaga gained vague knowledge of theplots outside the fort. The French could venture out only at the riskof their lives, and spent the winter as closely confined as prisonersof war. Of the ten drilled soldiers, nine threatened to desert. Onenight an unseen hand plunged through the dark, seized the sentry, anddragged him from the gate. The sentry drew his sword and shouted, "Toarms!" A band of Frenchmen sallied from the gates with swords andmuskets. In the tussle the sentry was rescued, and gifts were sent outin the morning to pacify the wounded Mohawks. Fortunately the besiegedhad plenty of food inside the stockades; but the Iroquois knew therecould be no escape till the ice broke up in spring, and were quitewilling to exchange ample supplies of corn for tobacco and firearms. The Huron slaves who carried the corn to the fort acted as spies amongthe Mohawks for the French. 

In the month of February the vague rumors of conspiracy crystallizedinto terrible reality. A dying Mohawk confessed to a Jesuit that theIroquois[4] Council had determined to massacre half the company ofFrench and to hold the other half till their own Mohawk hostages werereleased from Quebec. Among the hostiles encamped before the gates wasRadisson's Indian father. This Mohawk was still an influential memberof the Great Council. He, too, reported that the warriors were bent ondestroying Onondaga. [5] What was to be done? No answer had come fromQuebec, and no aid could come till the spring. The rivers were stillblocked with ice; and there were not sufficient boats in the fort tocarry fifty men down to Quebec. "What could we do?" writes Radisson. "We were in their hands. It was as hard to get away from them as for aship in full sea without a pilot. "

They at once began constructing two large flat-bottomed boats of lightenough draft to run the rapids in the flood-tide of spring. Carpentersworked hidden in an attic; but when the timbers were mortised together, the boats had to be brought downstairs, where one of the Huron slavescaught a glimpse of them. Boats of such a size he had never beforeseen. Each was capable of carrying fifteen passengers with fullcomplement of baggage. Spring rains were falling in floods. Theconvert Huron had heard the Jesuits tell of Noah's ark in the deluge. Returning to the Mohawks, he spread a terrifying report of an impendingflood and of strange arks of refuge built by the white men. Emissarieswere appointed to visit the French fort; but the garrison had beenforewarned. Radisson knew of the coming spies from his Indian father;and the Jesuits had learned of the Council from their converts. Beforethe spies arrived, the French had built a floor over their flatboats, and to cover the fresh floor had heaped up a dozen canoes. The spiesleft the fort satisfied that neither a deluge nor an escape wasimpending. Birch canoes would be crushed like egg-shells if they wererun through the ice jams of spring floods. Certain that their victimswere trapped, the Iroquois were in no haste to assault a double-walledfort, where musketry could mow them down as they rushed the hilltop. The Indian is bravest under cover; so the Mohawks spread themselves inambush on each side of the narrow river and placed guards at the fallswhere any boats must be _portaged_. 

Of what good were the boats? To allay suspicion of escape, the Jesuitscontinued to visit the wigwams. [6] The French were in despair. Theyconsulted Radisson, who could go among the Mohawks as with a charmedlife, and who knew the customs of the Confederacy so well. Radissonproposed a way to outwit the savages. With this plan the priests hadnothing to do. To the harum-scarum Radisson belong the sole credit anddiscredit of the escapade. On his device hung the lives of fiftyinnocent men. These men must either escape or be massacred. Ofbloodshed, Radisson had already seen too much; and the youth oftwenty-one now no more proposed to stickle over the means of victorythan generals who wear the Victoria cross stop to stickle over meansto-day. 

Radisson knew that the Indians had implicit faith in dreams; soRadisson had a dream. [7] He realized as critics of Indian customs failto understand that the fearful privations of savage life teach thecrime of waste. The Indian will eat the last morsel of food set beforehim if he dies for it. He believes that the gods punish waste of foodby famine. The belief is a religious principle and thefeasts--_festins à tout manger_--are a religious act; so Radissondreamed--whether sleeping or waking--that the white men were to give agreat festival to the Iroquois. This dream he related to his Indianfather. The Indian like his white brother can clothe a vice underreligious mantle. The Iroquois were gluttonous on a religiousprinciple. Radisson's dream was greeted with joy. _Coureurs_ ranthrough the forest, bidding the Mohawks to the feast. Leaving ambushof forest and waterfall, the warriors hastened to the walls ofOnondaga. To whet their appetite, they were kept waiting outside fortwo whole days. The French took turns in entertaining the waitingguests. Boisterous games, songs, dances, and music kept the Iroquoisawake and hilarious to the evening of the second day. Inside the fortbedlam reigned. Boats were dragged from floors to a sally-port at therear of the courtyard. Here firearms, ammunition, food, and baggagewere placed in readiness. Guns which could not be taken were burned orbroken. Ammunition was scattered in the snow. All the stock but onesolitary pig, a few chickens, and the dogs was sacrificed for thefeast, and in the barracks a score of men were laboring over enormouskettles of meat. Had an Indian spy climbed to the top of a tree andlooked over the palisades, all would have been discovered; but theFrench entertainers outside kept their guests busy. 

[Illustration: Château de Ramezay, Montreal, for years the residence ofthe governor, and later the storehouse of the fur companies. ]

On the evening of the second day a great fire was kindled in the outerenclosure, between the two walls. The trumpets blew a deafening blast. The Mohawks answered with a shout. The French clapped their hands. The outer gates were thrown wide open, and in trooped several hundredMohawk warriors, seating themselves in a circle round the fire. Another blare of trumpets, and twelve enormous kettles of mincemeatwere carried round the circle of guests. A Mohawk chief rose solemnlyand gave his deities of earth, air, and fire profuse thanks for havingbrought such generous people as the French among the Iroquois. Otherchiefs arose and declaimed to their hearers that earth did not containsuch hosts as the French. Before they had finished speaking there camea second and a third and a fourth relay of kettles round the circle offeasters. Not one Iroquois dared to refuse the food heaped before him. By the time the kettles of salted fowl and venison and bear had passedround the circle, each Indian was glancing furtively sideways to see ifhis neighbor could still eat. He who was compelled to forsake thefeast first was to become the butt of the company. All the while theFrench kept up a din of drums and trumpets and flageolets, dancing andsinging and shouting to drive off sleep. The eyes of the gorgingIndians began to roll. Never had they attempted to demolish such abanquet. Some shook their heads and drew back. Others fell over inthe dead sleep that results from long fasting and overfeeding and freshair. Radisson was everywhere, urging the Iroquois to "Cheer up! cheerup! If sleep overcomes you, you must awake! Beat the drum! Blow thetrumpet! Cheer up! Cheer up!"

But the end of the repulsive scene was at hand. By midnight theIndians had--in the language of the white man--"gone under themahogany. " They lay sprawled on the ground in sodden sleep. Perhaps, too, something had been dropped in the fleshpots to make their sleepthe sounder. Radisson does not say no, neither does the priest, andthey two were the only whites present who have written of theepisode. [8] But the French would hardly have been human if they hadnot assured their own safety by drugging the feasters. It was a commonthing for the fur traders of a later period to prevent massacre andquell riot by administering a quietus to Indians with a few drops oflaudanum. 

The French now retired to the inner court. The main gate was boltedand chained. Through the loophole of this gate ran a rope attached toa bell that was used to summon the sentry. To this rope themischievous Radisson tied the only remaining pig, so that when theIndians would pull the rope for admission, the noise of the disturbedpig would give the impression of a sentry's tramp-tramp on parade. Stuffed effigies of soldiers were then stuck about the barracks. If aspy climbed up to look over the palisades, he would see Frenchmen stillin the fort. While Radisson was busy with these precautions to delaypursuit, the soldiers and priests, led by Major Dupuis, had broken openthe sally-port, forced the boats through sideways, and launched out onthe river. Speaking in whispers, they stowed the baggage in theflat-boats, then brought out skiffs--dugouts to withstand the icejam--for the rest of the company. The night was raw and cold. A skimof ice had formed on the margins of the river. Through the pitchydarkness fell a sleet of rain and snow that washed out the footsteps ofthe fugitives. The current of mid-river ran a noisy mill-race of iceand log drift; and the _voyageurs_ could not see one boat length ahead. 

To men living in savagery come temptations that can neither be measurednor judged by civilization. To the French at Onondaga came such atemptation now. Their priests were busy launching the boats. Thedeparting soldiers seemed simultaneously to have become conscious of avery black suggestion. Cooped up against the outer wall in the deadsleep of torpid gluttony lay the leading warriors of the Iroquoisnation. Were these not the assassins of countless Frenchmen, themurderers of women, the torturers of children? Had Providence notplaced the treacherous Iroquois in the hands of fifty Frenchmen? Ifthese warriors were slain, it would be an easy matter to march to thevillages of the Confederacy, kill the old men, and take prisoners thewomen. New France would be forever free of her most deadly enemy. Like the Indians, the white men were trying to justify a wrong underpretence of good. By chance, word of the conspiracy was carried to theJesuits. With all the authority of the church, the priests forbade thecrime. "Their answer was, " relates Radisson, "that they were sent toinstruct in the faith of Jesus Christ and not to destroy, and that thecross must be their sword. "

Locking the sally-port, the company--as the Jesuit fatherrecords--"shook the dust of Onondaga from their feet, " launched out onthe swift-flowing, dark river and escaped "as the children of Israelescaped by night from the land of Egypt. " They had not gone farthrough the darkness before the roar of waters told them of a cataractahead. They were four hours carrying baggage and boats over this_portage_. Sleet beat upon their backs. The rocks were slippery withglazed ice; and through the rotten, half-thawed snow, the men sank tomid-waist. Navigation became worse on Lake Ontario; for the windtossed the lake like a sea, and ice had whirled against the St. Lawrence in a jam. On the St. Lawrence, they had to wait for thecurrent to carry the ice out. At places they cut a passage through thehoneycombed ice with their hatchets, and again they were compelled to_portage_ over the ice. The water was so high that the rapids weresafely ridden by all the boats but one, which was shipwrecked, andthree of the men were drowned. 

They had left Onondaga on the 20th of March, 1658. On the evening ofApril 3d they came to Montreal, where they learned that New France hadall winter suffered intolerable insolence from the Iroquois, lestpunishment of the hostiles should endanger the French at Onondaga. Thefleeing colonists waited twelve days at Montreal for the ice to clear, and were again held back by a jam at Three Rivers; but on April 23 theymoored safely under the heights of Quebec. 

_Coureurs_ from Onondaga brought word that the Mohawks had beendeceived by the pig and the ringing bell and the effigies for more thana week. Crowing came from the chicken yard, dogs bayed in theirkennels, and when a Mohawk pulled the bell at the gate, he could hearthe sentry's measured march. At the end of seven days not a white manhad come from the fort. At first the Mohawks had thought the "blackrobes" were at prayers; but now suspicions of trickery flashed on theIroquois. Warriors climbed the palisades and found the fort empty. Two hundred Mohawks set out in pursuit; but the bad weather held themback. And that was the way Radisson saved Onondaga. [9]

[1] The uncle, Pierre Esprit Radisson, is the one with whom carelesswriters have confused the young hero, owing to identity of name. Madeline Hénault has been described as the explorer's first wife, notwithstanding genealogical impossibilities which make the explorer'sdaughter thirty-six years old before he was seventeen. Even theinfallible Tanguay trips on Radisson's genealogy. I have before me thecomplete record of the family taken from the parish registers of ThreeRivers and Quebec, by the indefatigable Mr. Sulte, whose explanation ofthe case is this: that Radisson's mother, Madeline Hénault, firstmarried Sébastien Hayet, of St. Malo, to whom was born Marguerite about1630; that her second husband was Pierre Esprit Radisson of Paris, towhom were born our hero and the sisters Françoise and Elizabeth. 

[2] I have throughout referred to Médard Chouart, Sieur desGroseillers, as simply "Groseillers, " because that is the namereferring to him most commonly used in the _State Papers_ and oldhistories. He was from Charly-Saint-Cyr, near Meaux, and is supposedto have been born about 1621. His first wife was Helen Martin, daughter of Abraham Martin, who gave his name to the Plains of Abraham. 

[3] This is the story of Onondaga which Parkman has told. Unfortunately, when Parkman's account was written, _Radisson'sJournals_ were unknown and Mr. Parkman had to rely entirely on the_Letters of Marie de l'Incarnation_ and the _Jesuit Relations_. Afterthe discovery of _Radisson's Journals_, Parkman added a footnote to hisaccount of Onondaga, _quoting_ Radisson in confirmation. If Radissonmay be quoted to corroborate Parkman, Radisson may surely be acceptedas authentic. At the same time, I have compared this journal withFather Ragueneau's of the same party, and the two tally in every detail. 

[4] See _Jesuit Relations_, 1657-1658. 

[5] _Letters of Marie de l'Incarnation_. 

[6] See Ragueneau's account. 

[7] See _Marie de l'Incarnation_ and Dr. Dionne's modern monograph. 

[8] This account is drawn mainly from _Radisson's Journal_, partly fromFather Ragueneau, and in one detail from a letter of _Marie del'Incarnation_. Garneau says the feasters were drugged, but I cannotfind his authority for this, though from my knowledge of fur traders'escapes, I fancy it would hardly have been human nature not to add asleeping potion to the kettles. 

[9] The _festins à tout manger_ must not be too sweepingly condemned bythe self-righteous white man as long as drinking bouts are a part ofcivilized customs; and at least one civilized nation has the grossproverb, "Better burst than waste. "

CHAPTER III

1658-1660

RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE

The Discovery of the Great Northwest--Radisson and his Brother-in-law, Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and theCanadian Northwest--Radisson's Prophecy on first beholding theWest--Twelve Years before Marquette and Jolliet, Radisson sees theMississippi--The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight seen on the Waydown the Ottawa--Why Radisson's Explorations have been ignored

While Radisson was among the Iroquois, the little world of New Francehad not been asleep. Before Radisson was born, Jean Nicolet of ThreeRivers had passed westward through the straits of Mackinaw and coasteddown Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay. [1] Some years later the greatJesuit martyr, Jogues, had preached to the Indians of Sault Ste. Marie;but beyond the Sault was an unknown world that beckoned the youngadventurers of New France as with the hands of a siren. Of the greatbeyond--known to-day as the Great Northwest--nothing had been learnedbut this: from it came the priceless stores of beaver pelts yearlybrought down the Ottawa to Three Rivers by the Algonquins, and in itdwelt strange, wild races whose territory extended northwest and northto unknown nameless seas. 

The Great Beyond held the two things most coveted by ambitious youngmen of New France, --quick wealth by means of the fur trade and theimmortal fame of being a first explorer. Nicolet had gone only as faras Green Bay and Fox River; Jogues not far beyond the Sault. Whatsecrets lay in the Great Unknown? Year after year young Frenchmen, fired with the zeal of the explorer, joined wandering tribes ofAlgonquins going up the Ottawa, in the hope of being taken beyond theSault. In August, 1656, there came from Green Bay two young Frenchmenwith fifty canoes of Algonquins, who told of far-distant waters calledLake "Ouinipeg, " and tribes of wandering hunters called "Christinos"(Crees), who spent their winters in a land bare of trees (the prairie), and their summers on the North Sea (Hudson's Bay). They also told ofother tribes, who were great warriors, living to the south, --these werethe Sioux. But the two Frenchmen had not gone beyond the GreatLakes. [2] These Algonquins were received at Château St. Louis, Quebec, with pompous firing of cannon and other demonstrations of welcome. Soeager were the French to take possession of the new land that thirtyyoung men equipped themselves to go back with the Indians; and theJesuits sent out two priests, Leonard Gareau and Gabriel Dreuillettes, with a lay helper, Louis Boësme. The sixty canoes left Quebec withmore firing of guns for a God-speed; but at Lake St. Peter the Mohawksambushed the flotilla. The enterprise of exploring the Great Beyondwas abandoned by all the French but two. Gareau, who was mortallywounded on the Ottawa, probably by a Frenchman or renegade hunter, diedat Montreal; and Dreuillettes did not go farther than Lake Nipissing. Here, Dreuillettes learned much of the Unknown from an old Nipissingchief. He heard of six overland routes to the bay of the North, whencecame such store of peltry. [3] He, too, like the two Frenchmen fromGreen Bay, heard of wandering tribes who had no settled lodge like theHurons and Iroquois, but lived by the chase, --Crees and Sioux andAssiniboines of the prairie, at constant war round a lake called"Ouinipegouek. "

[Illustration: A Cree brave, with the wampum string. ]

By one of those curious coincidences of destiny which mark the lives ofnations and men, the young Frenchman who had gone with the Jesuit, Dreuillettes, to Lake Nipissing when the other Frenchmen turned back, was Médard Chouart Groseillers, the fur trader married to Radisson'swidowed sister, Marguerite. [4]

When Radisson came back from Onondaga, he found his brother-in-law, Groseillers, at Three Rivers, with ambitious designs of exploration inthe unknown land of which he had heard at Green Bay and on LakeNipissing. Jacques Cartier had discovered only one great river, hadlaid the foundations of only one small province; Champlain had onlymade the circuit of the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, and the Great Lakes;but here was a country--if the Indians spoke the truth--greater thanall the empires of Europe together, a country bounded only by threegreat seas, the Sea of the North, the Sea of the South, and the Sea ofJapan, a country so vast as to stagger the utmost conception of littleNew France. 

It was unnecessary for Groseillers to say more. The ambition of youngRadisson took fire. Long ago, when a captive among the Mohawks, he hadcherished boyish dreams that it was to be his "destiny to discover manywild nations"; and here was that destiny opening the door for him, pointing the way, beckoning to the toils and dangers and glories of thediscoverer's life. Radisson had been tortured among the Mohawks andbesieged among the Onondagas. Groseillers had been among the Huronmissions that were destroyed and among the Algonquin canoes that wereattacked. Both explorers knew what perils awaited them; but whatyouthful blood ever chilled at prospect of danger when a single _coup_might win both wealth and fame? Radisson had not been home one month;but he had no sooner heard the plan than he "longed to see himself in aboat. "

A hundred and fifty Algonquins had come down the Ottawa from the GreatBeyond shortly after Radisson returned from Onondaga. Six of theseAlgonquins had brought their furs to Three Rivers. Some emissaries hadgone to Quebec to meet the governor; but the majority of the Indiansremained at Montreal to avoid the ambuscade of the Mohawks on Lake St. Peter. Radisson and Groseillers were not the only Frenchmen conspiringto wrest fame and fortune from the Upper Country. When the Indianscame back from Quebec, they were accompanied by thirty young Frenchadventurers, gay as boys out of school or gold hunters before the firstcheck to their plans. There were also two Jesuits sent out to win thenew domain for the cross. [5] As ignorant as children of the hardshipsahead, the other treasure-seekers kept up nonchalant boasting thatroused the irony of such seasoned men as Radisson and Groseillers. "What fairer bastion than a good tongue, " Radisson demands cynically, "especially when one sees his own chimney smoke? . . . It is differentwhen food is wanting, work necessary day and night, sleep taken on thebare ground or to mid-waist in water, with an empty stomach, wearinessin the bones, and bad weather overhead. "

Giving the slip to their noisy companions, Radisson and Groseillersstole out from Three Rivers late one night in June, accompanied byAlgonquin guides. Travelling only at night to avoid Iroquois spies, they came to Montreal in three days. Here were gathered one hundredand forty Indians from the Upper Country, the thirty French, and thetwo priests. No gun was fired at Montreal, lest the Mohawks should getwind of the departure; and the flotilla of sixty canoes spread overLake St. Louis for the far venture of the _Pays d'en Haut_. Three daysof work had silenced the boasting of the gay adventurers; and the_voyageurs_, white and red, were now paddling in swift silence. Safetyengendered carelessness. As the fleet seemed to be safe from Iroquoisambush, the canoes began to scatter. Some loitered behind. Hunterswent ashore to shoot. The hills began to ring with shot and call. Atthe first _portage_ many of the canoes were nine and ten miles apart. Enemies could have set on the Algonquins in some narrow defile andslaughtered the entire company like sheep in a pen. Radisson andGroseillers warned the Indians of the risk they were running. Many ofthese Algonquins had never before possessed firearms. With the musketsobtained in trade at Three Rivers, they thought themselves invincibleand laughed all warning to scorn. Radisson and Groseillers were toldthat they were a pair of timid squaws; and the canoes spread apart tillnot twenty were within call. As they skirted the wooded shores, a mansuddenly dashed from the forest with an upraised war-hatchet in onehand and a blanket streaming from his shoulders. He shouted for themto come to him. The Algonquins were panic-stricken. Was the manpursued by Mohawks, or laying a trap to lure them within shootingrange? Seeing them hesitate, the Indian threw down blanket and hatchetto signify that he was defenceless, and rushed into the water to hisarmpits. 

"I would save you, " he shouted in Iroquois. 

The Algonquins did not understand. They only knew that he spoke thetongue of the hated enemy and was unarmed. In a trice, the Algonquinsin the nearest canoe had thrown out a well-aimed lasso, roped the manround the waist, and drawn him a captive into the canoe. 

"Brothers, " protested the captive, who seems to have been either aHuron slave or an Iroquois magician, "your enemies are spread up anddown! Sleep not! They have heard your noise! They wait for you!They are sure of their prey! Believe me--keep together! Spend notyour powder in vain to frighten your enemies by noise! See that thestones of your arrows be not bent! Bend your bows! Keep your hatchetssharp! Build a fort! Make haste!"

But the Algonquins, intoxicated with the new power of firearms, wouldhear no warning. They did not understand his words and refused to heedRadisson's interpretation. Beating paddles on their canoes and firingoff guns, they shouted derisively that the man was "a dog and a hen. "All the same, they did not land to encamp that night, but slept inmidstream, with their boats tied to the rushes or on the lee side offloating trees. The French lost heart. If this were the beginning, what of the end? Daylight had scarcely broken when the paddles of theeager _voyageurs_ were cutting the thick gray mist that rose from theriver to get away from observation while the fog still hid the fleet. From afar came the dull, heavy rumble of a waterfall. [6]

There was a rush of the twelve foremost canoes to reach the landing andcross the _portage_ before the thinning mist lifted entirely. Twelveboats had got ashore when the fog was cleft by a tremendous crashing ofguns, and Iroquois ambushed in the bordering forest let go a salute ofmusketry. Everything was instantly in confusion. Abandoning theirbaggage to the enemy, the Algonquins and French rushed for the woods toerect a barricade. This would protect the landing of the other canoes. The Iroquois immediately threw up a defence of fallen logs likewise, and each canoe that came ashore was greeted with a cross fire betweenthe two barricades. Four canoes were destroyed and thirteen of theIndians from the Upper Country killed. As day wore on, the Iroquois'shots ceased, and the Algonquins celebrated the truce by killing anddevouring all the prisoners they had taken, among whom was the magicianwho had given them warning. Radisson and Groseillers wondered if theIroquois were reserving their powder for a night raid. The Algonquinsdid not wait to know. As soon as darkness fell, there was a wildscramble for the shore. A long, low trumpet call, such as hunters use, signalled the Algonquins to rally and rush for the boats. The Frenchembarked as best they could. The Indians swam and paddled for theopposite shore of the river. Here, in the dark, hurried council wastaken. The most of the baggage had been lost. The Indians refused tohelp either the Jesuits or the French, and it was impossible for thewhite _voyageurs_ to keep up the pace in the dash across an unknown_portage_ through the dark. The French adventurers turned back forMontreal. Of the white men, Radisson and Groseillers alone went on. 

Frightened into their senses by the encounter, the Algonquins nowtravelled only at night till they were far beyond range of theIroquois. All day the fugitive band lay hidden in the woods. Theycould not hunt, lest Mohawk spies might hear the gunshots. Provisionsdwindled. In a short time the food consisted of _tripe de roche_--agreenish moss boiled into a soup--and the few fish that might be caughtduring hurried nightly launch or morning landing. Sometimes they hidin a berry patch, when the fruit was gathered and boiled, butcamp-fires were stamped out and covered. Turning westward, theycrossed the barren region of iron-capped rocks and dwarf growth betweenthe Upper Ottawa and the Great Lakes. Now they were farther from theIroquois, and staved off famine by shooting an occasional bear in theberry patches. For a thousand miles they had travelled against stream, carrying their boats across sixty _portages_. Now they glided with thecurrent westward to Lake Nipissing. On the lake, the Upper Indiansalways _cached_ provisions. Fish, otter, and beaver were plentiful;but again they refrained from using firearms, for Iroquois footprintshad been found on the sand. 

From Lake Nipissing they passed to Lake Huron, where the fleet divided. Radisson and Groseillers went with the Indians, who crossed Lake Huronfor Green Bay on Lake Michigan. The birch canoes could not ventureacross the lake in storms; so the boats rounded southward, keepingalong the shore of Georgian Bay. Cedar forests clustered down thesandy reaches of the lake. Rivers dark as cathedral aisles rolledtheir brown tides through the woods to the blue waters of Lake Huron. At one point Groseillers recognized the site of the ruined Jesuitmissions. The Indians waited the chance of a fair day, and paddledover to the straits at the entrance to Lake Michigan. At ManitoulinIsland were Huron refugees, among whom were, doubtless, the waitingfamilies of the Indians with Radisson. All struck south for Green Bay. So far Radisson and Groseillers had travelled over beaten ground. Nowthey were at the gateway of the Great Beyond, where no white man hadyet gone. 

The first thing done on taking up winter quarters on Green Bay was toappease the friends of those warriors slain by the Mohawks. Adistribution of gifts had barely dried up the tears of mourning whennews came of Iroquois on the war-path. Radisson did not wait for fearto unman the Algonquin warriors. Before making winter camp, he offeredto lead a band of volunteers against the marauders. For two days hefollowed vague tracks through the autumn-tinted forests. Here weremarkings of the dead leaves turned freshly up; there a moccasin printon the sand; and now the ashes of a hidden camp-fire lying in almostimperceptible powder on fallen logs told where the Mohawks hadbivouacked. On the third day Radisson caught the ambushed bandunprepared, and fell upon the Iroquois so furiously that not oneescaped. 

After that the Indians of the Upper Country could not do too much forthe white men. Radisson and Groseillers were conducted from camp tocamp in triumph. Feasts were held. Ambassadors went ahead with giftsfrom the Frenchmen; and companies of women marched to meet theexplorers, chanting songs of welcome. "But our mind was not to stayhere, " relates Radisson, "but to know the remotest people; and, becausewe had been willing to die in their defence, these Indians consented toconduct us. "

Before the opening of spring, 1659, Radisson and Groseillers had beenguided across what is now Wisconsin to "a mighty river, great, rushing, profound, and comparable to the St. Lawrence. " [7] On the shores ofthe river they found a vast nation--"the people of the fire, " prairietribes, a branch of the Sioux, who received them well. [8] This riverwas undoubtedly the Upper Mississippi, now for the first time seen bywhite men. Radisson and Groseillers had discovered the GreatNorthwest. [9] They were standing on the threshold of the Great Beyond. They saw before them not the Sea of China, as speculators had dreamed, not kingdoms for conquest, which the princes of Europe coveted; not ashort road to Asia, of which savants had spun a cobweb of theories. They saw what every Westerner sees to-day, --illimitable reaches ofprairie and ravine, forested hills sloping to mighty rivers, and openmeadow-lands watered by streams looped like a ribbon. They saw a landwaiting for its people, wealth waiting for possessors, an empirewaiting for the nation builders. 

[Illustration: An Old-time Buffalo Hunt on the Plains among the Sioux. ]

What were Radisson's thoughts? Did he realize the importance of hisdiscovery? Could he have the vaguest premonition that he had opened adoor of escape from stifled older lands to a higher type of manhood andfreedom than the most sanguine dreamer had ever hoped?[10] After anact has come to fruition, it is easy to read into the actor's mindfuller purpose than he could have intended. Columbus could not haverealized to what the discovery of America would lead. Did Radissonrealize what the discovery of the Great Northwest meant?

Here is what he says, in that curious medley of idioms which so oftenresults when a speaker knows many languages but is master of none:--

"The country was so pleasant, so beautiful, and so fruitful, that itgrieved me to see that the world could not discover such inticingcountries to live in. This, I say, because the Europeans fight for arock in the sea against one another, or for a steril land . . . Wherethe people by changement of air engender sickness and die. . . . Contrariwise, these kingdoms are so delicious and under so temperate aclimate, plentiful of all things, and the earth brings forth its fruittwice a year, that the people live long and lusty and wise in theirway. What a conquest would this be, at little or no cost? Whatpleasure should people have . . . Instead of misery and poverty! Whyshould not men reap of the love of God here? Surely, more is to begained converting souls here than in differences of creed, when wrongsare committed under pretence of religion! . . . It is true, Iconfess, . . . That access here is difficult . . . But nothing is to begained without labor and pains. " [11]

[Illustration: Father Marquette, from an old painting discovered inMontreal by Mr. McNab. The date on the picture is 1669. ]

Here Radisson foreshadows all the best gains that the West hasaccomplished for the human race. What are they? Mainly room, --room tolive and room for opportunity; equal chances for all classes, high andlow; plenty for all classes, high and low; the conquests not of war butof peace. The question arises, --when Radisson discovered the GreatNorthwest ten years before Marquette and Jolliet, twenty years beforeLa Salle, a hundred years before De la Vérendrye, why has his name beenslurred over and left in oblivion?[12] The reasons are plain. Radisson was a Christian, but he was not a slave to any creed. Suchliberality did not commend itself to the annalists of an age that wasstill rioting in a very carnival of religious persecution. Radissonalways invoked the blessing of Heaven on his enterprises and renderedthanks for his victories; but he was indifferent as to whether he wasacting as lay helper with the Jesuits, or allied to the Huguenots ofLondon and Boston. His discoveries were too important to be ignored bythe missionaries. They related his discoveries, but refrained frommentioning his name, though twice referring to Groseillers. What hurtRadisson's fame even more than his indifference to creeds was hisindifference to nationality. Like Columbus, he had little care whatflag floated at the prow, provided only that the prow pushed on and onand on, --into the Unknown. He sold his services alternately to Franceand England till he had offended both governments; and, in addition towithstanding a conspiracy of silence on the part of the Church, hisfame encountered the ill-will of state historians. He is mentioned as"the adventurer, " "the hang-dog, " "the renegade. " Only in 1885, whenthe manuscript of his travels was rescued from oblivion, did it becomeevident that history must be rewritten. Here was a man whosediscoveries were second only to those of Columbus, and whoseexplorations were more far-ranging and important than those ofChamplain and La Salle and De la Vérendrye put together. 

The spring of 1659 found the explorers still among the prairie tribesof the Mississippi. From these people Radisson learned of four otherraces occupying vast, undiscovered countries. He heard of the Sioux, awarlike nation to the west, who had no fixed abode but lived by thechase and were at constant war with another nomadic tribe to thenorth--the Crees. The Crees spent the summer time round the shores ofsalt water, and in winter came inland to hunt. Between these two was athird, --the Assiniboines, --who used earthen pots for cooking, heatedtheir food by throwing hot stones in water, and dressed themselves inbuckskin. These three tribes were wandering hunters; but the people ofthe fire told Radisson of yet another nation, who lived in villageslike the Iroquois, on "a great river that divided itself in two, " andwas called "the Forked River, " because "it had two branches, the onetoward the west, the other toward the south, . . . Toward Mexico. "These people were the Mandans or Omahas, or Iowas, or other people ofthe Missouri. [13]

A whole world of discoveries lay before them. In what direction shouldthey go? "We desired not to go to the north till we had made adiscovery in the south, " explains Radisson. The people of the firerefused to accompany the explorers farther; so the two "put themselvesin hazard, " as Radisson relates, and set out alone. They must havestruck across the height of land between the Mississippi and theMissouri; for Radisson records that they met several nations havingvillages, "all amazed to see us and very civil. The farther wesojourned, the delightfuller the land became. I can say that in all mylifetime I have never seen a finer country, for all that I have been inItaly. The people have very long hair. They reap twice a year. Theywar against the Sioux and the Cree. . . . It was very hot there. . . . Being among the people they told us . . . Of men that built greatcabins and have beards and have knives like the French. " The Indiansshowed Radisson a string of beads only used by Europeans. These peoplemust have been the Spaniards of the south. The tribes on the Missouriwere large men of well-formed figures. There were no deformities amongthe people. Radisson saw corn and pumpkins in their gardens. "Theirarrows were not of stone, but of fish bones. . . . Their dishes weremade of wood. . . . They had great calumets of red and greenstone . . . And great store of tobacco. . . . They had a kind of drinkthat made them mad for a whole day. " [14] "We had not yet seen theSioux, " relates Radisson. "We went toward the south and came back bythe north. " The _Jesuit Relations_ are more explicit. Written theyear that Radisson returned to Quebec, they state: "Continuing theirwanderings, our two young Frenchmen visited the Sioux, where they foundfive thousand warriors. They then left this nation for another warlikepeople, who with bows and arrows had rendered themselves redoubtable. "These were the Crees, with whom, say the Jesuits, wood is so rare andsmall that nature has taught them to make fire of a kind of coal and tocover their cabins with skins of the chase. The explorers seem to havespent the summer hunting antelope, buffalo, moose, and wild turkey. The Sioux received them cordially, supplied them with food, and gavethem an escort to the next encampments. They had set out southwest tothe Mascoutins, Mandans, and perhaps, also, the Omahas. They were nowcircling back northeastward toward the Sault between Lake Michigan andLake Superior. How far westward had they gone? Only two facts gaveany clew. Radisson reports that mountains lay far inland; and theJesuits record that the explorers were among tribes that used coal. This must have been a country far west of the Mandans and Mascoutinsand within sight of at least the Bad Lands, or that stretch of roughcountry between the prairie and outlying foothills of the Rockies. [15]The course of the first exploration seems to have circled over theterritory now known as Wisconsin, perhaps eastern Iowa and Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, and back over North Dakota and Minnesota to thenorth shore of Lake Superior. "The lake toward the north is full ofrocks, yet great ships can ride in it without danger, " writes Radisson. At the Sault they found the Crees and Sautaux in bitter war. They alsoheard of a French establishment, and going to visit it found that theJesuits had established a mission. 

Radisson had explored the Southwest. He now decided to essay theNorthwest. When the Sautaux were at war with the Crees, he met theCrees and heard of the great salt sea in the north. Surely this wasthe Sea of the North--Hudson Bay--of which the Nipissing chief had toldGroseillers long ago. Then the Crees had great store of beaver pelts;and trade must not be forgotten. No sooner had peace been arrangedbetween Sautaux and Crees, than Cree hunters flocked out of thenorthern forests to winter on Lake Superior. A rumor of Iroquois onthe war-path compelled Radisson and Groseillers to move their camp backfrom Lake Superior higher up the chain of lakes and rivers between whatis now Minnesota and Canada, toward the country of the Sioux. In thefall of 1659 Groseillers' health began to fail from the hardships; sohe remained in camp for the winter, attending to the trade, whileRadisson carried on the explorations alone. 

This was one of the coldest winters known in Canada. [16] The snow fellso heavily in the thick pine woods of Minnesota that Radisson says theforest became as sombre as a cellar. The colder the weather the betterthe fur, and, presenting gifts to insure safe conduct, Radisson set outwith a band of one hundred and fifty Cree hunters for the Northwest. They travelled on snow-shoes, hunting moose on the way and sleeping atnight round a camp-fire under the stars. League after league, with nosound through the deathly white forest but the soft crunch-crunch ofthe snowshoes, they travelled two hundred miles toward what is nowManitoba. When they had set out, the snow was like a cushion. Now itbegan to melt in the spring sun, and clogged the snow-shoes till it wasalmost impossible to travel. In the morning the surface was glazedice, and they could march without snow-shoes. Spring thaw called ahalt to their exploration. The Crees encamped for three weeks to buildboats. As soon as the ice cleared, the band launched back down-streamfor the appointed rendezvous on Green Bay. All that Radisson learnedon this trip was that the Bay of the North lay much farther from LakeSuperior than the old Nipissing chief had told Dreuillettes andGroseillers. [17]

Groseillers had all in readiness to depart for Quebec; and five hundredIndians from the Upper Country had come together to go down the Ottawaand St. Lawrence with the explorers. As they were about to embark, _coureurs_ came in from the woods with news that more than a thousandIroquois were on the war-path, boasting that they would exterminate theFrench. [18] Somewhere along the Ottawa a small band of Hurons had beenmassacred. The Indians with Groseillers and Radisson were terrified. A council of the elders was called. 

"Brothers, why are ye so foolish as to put yourselves in the hands ofthose that wait for you?" demanded an old chief, addressing the twowhite men. "The Iroquois will destroy you and carry you away captive. Will you have your brethren, that love you, slain? Who will baptizeour children?" (Radisson and Groseillers had baptized more than twohundred children. [19]) "Stay till next year! Then you may freely go!Our mothers will send their children to be taught in the way of theLord!"

Fear is like fire. It must be taken in the beginning, or it spreads. The explorers retired, decided on a course of action, and requested theIndians to meet them in council a second time. Eight hundred warriorsassembled, seating themselves in a circle. Radisson and Groseillerstook their station in the centre. [20]

"Who am I?" demanded Groseillers, hotly. "Am I a foe or a friend? Ifa foe, why did you suffer me to live? If a friend, listen what I say!You know that we risked our lives for you! If we have no courage, whydid you not tell us? If you have more wit than we, why did you not useit to defend yourselves against the Iroquois? How can you defend yourwives and children unless you get arms from the French!"

"Fools, " cried Radisson, striking a beaver skin across an Indian'sshoulder, "will you fight the Iroquois with beaver pelts? Do you notknow the French way? We fight with guns, not robes. The Iroquois willcoop you up here till you have used all your powder, and then despatchyou with ease! Shall your children be slaves because you are cowards?Do what you will! For my part I choose to die like a man rather thanlive like a beggar. Take back your beaver robes. We can live withoutyou--" and the white men strode out from the council. 

Consternation reigned among the Indians. There was an uproar ofargument. For six days the fate of the white men hung fire. Finallythe chiefs sent word that the five hundred young warriors would go toQuebec with the white men. Radisson did not give their ardor time tocool. They embarked at once. The fleet of canoes crossed the head ofthe lakes and came to the Upper Ottawa without adventure. Scouts wentahead to all the _portages_, and great care was taken to avoid anambush when passing overland. Below the Chaudière Falls the scoutsreported that four Iroquois boats had crossed the river. AgainRadisson did not give time for fear. He sent the lightest boats inpursuit; and while keeping the enemy thus engaged with half his owncompany on guard at the ends of the long _portage_, he hurriedly gotcargoes and canoes across the landing. The Iroquois had fled. By thatRadisson knew they were weak. Somewhere along the Long Sault Rapids, the scouts saw sixteen Iroquois canoes. The Indians would have throwndown their goods and fled, but Radisson instantly got his forces inhand and held them with a grip of steel. Distributing loaded musketsto the bravest warriors, he pursued the Iroquois with a picked companyof Hurons, Algonquins, Sautaux, and Sioux. Beating their paddles, Radisson's company shouted the war-cry till the hills rang; but all thewarriors were careful not to waste an ounce of powder till withinhitting range. The Iroquois were not used to this sort of defence. They fled. The Long Sault was always the most dangerous part of theOttawa. Radisson kept scouts to rear and fore, but the Iroquois haddeserted their boats and were hanging on the flanks of the company toattempt an ambush. It was apparent that a fort had been erected at thefoot of the rapids. Leaving half the band in their boats, Radissonmarched overland with two hundred warriors. Iroquois shots spatteredfrom each side; but the Huron muskets kept the assailants at adistance, and those of Radisson's warriors who had not guns were armedwith bows and arrows, and wore a shield of buffalo skin dried hard asmetal. The Iroquois rushed for the barricade at the foot of the Sault. Five of them were picked off as they ran. For a moment the Iroquoiswere out of cover, and their weakness was betrayed. They had only onehundred and fifty men, while Radisson had five hundred; but the oddswould not long be in his favor. Ammunition was running out, and theenemy must be dislodged without wasting a shot. Radisson called backencouragement to his followers. They answered with a shout. Tying thebeaver pelts in great bundles, the Indians rolled the fur in frontnearer and nearer the Iroquois boats, keeping under shelter from theshots of the fort. The Iroquois must either lose their boats and becut off from escape, or retire from the fort. It was not necessary forRadisson's warriors to fire a shot. Abandoning even their baggage andglad to get off with their lives, the Iroquois dashed to save theirboats. 

[Illustration: Voyageurs running the Rapids of the Ottawa River. ]

A terrible spectacle awaited Radisson inside the enclosure of thepalisades. [21] The scalps of dead Indians flaunted from the pickets. Not a tree but was spattered with bullet marks as with bird shot. Hereand there burnt holes gaped in the stockades like wounds. Outsidealong the river bank lay the charred bones of captives who had beenburned. The scarred fort told its own tale. Here refugees had beenpenned up by the Iroquois till thirst and starvation did their work. In the clay a hole had been dug for water by the parched victims, andthe ooze through the mud eagerly scooped up. Only when he reachedMontreal did Radisson learn the story of the dismantled fort. Therumor carried to the explorers on Lake Michigan of a thousand Iroquoisgoing on the war-path to exterminate the French had been only too true. Half the warriors were to assault Quebec, half to come down on Montrealfrom the Ottawa. One thing only could save the French--to keep thebands apart. Those on the Ottawa had been hunting all winter and mustnecessarily be short of powder. To intercept them, a gallant band ofseventeen French, four Algonquins, and sixty Hurons led by Dollard tooktheir stand at the Long Sault. The French and their Indian allies wereboiling their kettles when two hundred Iroquois broke from the woods. There was no time to build a fort. Leaving their food, Dollard and hismen threw themselves into the rude palisades which Indians had erectedthe previous year. The Iroquois kept up a constant fire and sent forreinforcements of six hundred warriors, who were on the Richelieu. Indefiance the Indians fighting for the French sallied out, scalped thefallen Iroquois, and hoisted the sanguinary trophies on long polesabove the pickets. The enraged Iroquois redoubled their fury. Thefort was too small to admit all the Hurons; and when the Iroquois cameup from the Richelieu with Huron renegades among their warriors, theHurons deserted their French allies and went over in a body to theenemy. For two days the French had fought against two hundredIroquois. For five more days they fought against eight hundred. "Theworst of it was, " relates Radisson, "the French had no water, as weplainly saw; for they had made a hole in the ground out of which theycould get but little because the fort was on a hill. It was pitiable. There was not a tree but what was shot with bullets. The Iroquois hadrushed to make a breach (in the wall). . . . The French set fire to abarrel of powder to drive the Iroquois back . . . But it fell insidethe fort. . . . Upon this, the Iroquois entered . . . So that not oneof the French escaped. . . . It was terrible . . . For we came thereeight days after the defeat. " [22]

Without a doubt it was Dollard's splendid fight that put fear in thehearts of the Iroquois who fled before Radisson. The passage toMontreal was clear. The boats ran the rapids without unloading; butGroseillers almost lost his life. His canoe caught on a rock inmidstream, but righting herself shot down safely to the landing with nogreater loss than a damaged keel. The next day, after two years'absence, Radisson and Groseillers arrived at Montreal. A brief stopwas made at Three Rivers for rest till twenty citizens had fitted outtwo shallops with cannon to escort the discoverers in fitting pomp toQuebec. As the fleet of canoes glided round Cape Diamond, battery andbastion thundered a welcome. Welcome they were, and thrice welcome;for so ceaseless had been the Iroquois wars that the three French shipslying at anchor would have returned to France without a single beaverskin if the explorers had not come. Citizens shouted from the terracedheights of Château St. Louis, and bells rang out the joy of all NewFrance over the discoverers' return. For a week Radisson andGroseillers were fêted. Viscomte d'Argenson, the new governor, presented them with gifts and sent two brigantines to carry them hometo Three Rivers. There they rested for the remainder of the year, Groseillers at his seigniory with his wife, Marguerite; Radisson, underthe parental roof. [23]

[1] Mr. Benjamin Sulte establishes this date as 1634. 

[2] See _Jesuit Relations_, 1656-57-58. I have purposely refrainedfrom entering into the heated controversy as to the identity of thesetwo men. It is apart from the subject, as there is no proof these menwent beyond the Green Bay region. 

[3] These routes were; (1) By the Saguenay, (2) by Three Rivers and theSt. Maurice, (3) by Lake Nipissing, (4) by Lake Huron, through the landof the Sautaux, (5) by Lake Superior overland, (6) by the Ottawa. See_Jesuit Relations_ for detailed accounts of these routes. Dreuilletteswent farther west to the Crees a few years later, but that does notconcern this narrative. 

[4] The dispute as to whether eastern Minnesota was discovered on the1654-55-56 trip, and whether Groseillers discovered it, is a point forsavants, but will, I think, remain an unsettled dispute. 

[5] The _Relations_ do not give the names of these two Jesuits, probably owing to the fact that the enterprise failed. They simplystate that two priests set out, but were compelled to remain behindowing to the caprice of the savages. 

[6] Whether they were now on the Ottawa or the St. Lawrence, it isimpossible to tell. Dr. Dionne thinks that the band went overland fromLake Ontario to Lake Huron. I know both waters--Lake Ontario and theOttawa--from many trips, and I think Radisson's description heretallies with his other descriptions of the Ottawa. It is certain thatthey must have been on the Ottawa before they came to the Lake of theCastors or Nipissing. The noise of the waterfall seems to point to theChaudière Falls of the Ottawa. If so, the landing place would be thetongue of land running out from Hull, opposite the city of Ottawa, andthe _portage_ would be the Aylmer Road beyond the rapids above thefalls. Mr. Benjamin Sulte, the scholarly historian, thinks they wentby way of the Ottawa, not Lake Ontario, as the St. Lawrence route wasnot used till 1702. 

[7] _Jesuit Relations_, 1660. 

[8] _Jesuit Relations_, 1660, and _Radisson's Journal_. These "peopleof the fire, " or Mascoutins, were in three regions, (1) Wisconsin, (2)Nebraska, (3) on the Missouri. See Appendix E. 

[9] Benjamin Sulte unequivocally states that the river was theMississippi. Of writers contemporaneous with Radisson, the Jesuits, Marie de l'Incarnation, and Charlevoix corroborate Radisson's account. In the face of this, what are we to think of modern writers with areputation to lose, who brush Radisson's exploits aside as a possiblefabrication? The only conclusion is that they have not read his_Journal_. 

[10] I refer to Radisson alone, because for half the time in 1659Groseillers was ill at the lake, and we cannot be sure that heaccompanied Radisson in all the journeys south and west, thoughRadisson generously always includes him as "we. " Besides, Groseillersseems to have attended to the trading, Radisson to the exploring. 

[11] If any one cares to render Radisson's peculiar jumble of French, English, Italian, and Indian idioms into more intelligent form, theymay try their hand at it. His meaning is quite clear; but the wordsare a medley. The passage is to be found on pp. 150-151, of the_Prince Society Reprint_. See also _Jesuit Relations_, 1660. 

[12] It will be noted that what I claim for Radisson is the honor ofdiscovering the Great Northwest, and refrain from trying to identifyhis movements with the modern place names of certain states. I havedone this intentionally--though it would have been easy to advanceopinions about Green Bay, Fox River, and the Wisconsin, and so becomeinvolved in the childish quarrel that has split the western historicalsocieties and obscured the main issue of Radisson's feat. Needless tosay, the world does not care whether Radisson went by way of theMenominee, or snow-shoed across country. The question is: Did he reachthe Mississippi Valley before Marquette and Jolliet and La Salle? Thatquestion this chapter answers. 

[13] I have refrained from quoting Radisson's names for the differentIndian tribes because it would only be "caviare to the general. " IfRadisson's manuscript be consulted it will be seen that the crucialpoint is the whereabouts of the Mascoutins--or people of the fire. Reference to the last part of Appendix E will show that these peopleextended far beyond the Wisconsin to the Missouri. It is ignorance ofthis fact that has created such bitter and childish controversy aboutthe exact direction taken by Radisson west-north-west of theMascoutins. The exact words of the document in the Marine Departmentare; "In the lower Missipy there are several other nations verynumerous with whom we have no commerce who are trading yet with nobody. Above Missoury river which is in the Mississippi below the riverIllinois, to the south, there are the Mascoutins, Nadoessioux (Sioux)with whom we trade and who are numerous. " Benjamin Sulte was one ofthe first to discover that the Mascoutins had been in Nebraska, thoughhe does not attempt to trace this part of Radisson's journey definitely. 

[14] The entire account of the people on "the Forked River" is so exactan account of the Mandans that it might be a page from Catlin'sdescriptions two centuries later. The long hair, the two crops a year, the tobacco, the soap-stone calumets, the stationary villages, theknowledge of the Spaniards, the warm climate--all point to a region farsouth of the Northern States, to which so many historians have stupidlyand with almost wilful ignorance insisted on limiting Radisson'stravels. Parkman has been thoroughly honest in the matter. His _LaSalle_ had been written before the discovery of the _RadissonJournals_; but in subsequent editions he acknowledges in a footnotethat Radisson had been to "the Forked River. " Other writers (with theexception of five) have been content to quote from Radisson's enemiesinstead of going directly to his journals. Even Garneau slurs overRadisson's explorations; but Garneau, too, wrote before the discoveryof the Radisson papers. Abbé Tanguay, who is almost infallible onFrench-Canadian matters, slips up on Radisson, because his writingspreceded the publication of the _Radisson Relations_. The five writerswho have attempted to redeem Radisson's memory from ignominy are: Dr. N. E. Dionne, of the Parliamentary Library, Quebec; Mr. JusticePrudhomme, of St. Boniface, Manitoba; Dr. George Bryce, of Winnepeg, Mr. Benjamin Sulte, of Ottawa; and Judge J. V. Brower, of St. Paul. Itever a monument be erected to Radisson--as one certainly ought in everyprovince and state west of the Great Lakes--the names of these fourchampions should be engraved upon it. 

[15] This claim will, I know, stagger preconceived ideas. In the lightof only Radisson's narrative, the third voyage has usually beenidentified with Wisconsin and Minnesota; but in the light of the_Jesuit Relations_, written the year that Radisson returned, to whattribes could the descriptions apply? Even Parkman's footnoteacknowledged that Radisson was among the people of the Missouri. Grantthat, and the question arises, What people on the Missouri answer thedescription? The Indians of the far west use not only coal for fire, but raw galena to make bullets for their guns. In fact, it was thatpractice of the tribes of Idaho that led prospectors to find the BlueBell Mine of Kootenay. Granting that the Jesuit account--which was ofcourse, from hearsay--mistook the use of turf, dry grass, or buffalorefuse for a kind of coal, the fact remains that only the very farwestern tribes had this custom. 

[16] _Letters of Marie de l'Incarnation_. 

[17] _Jesuit Relations_, 1658. 

[18] See Marie de l'Incarnation, Dollier de Casson, and Abbé Belmont. 

[19] _Jesuit Relations_, 1660. 

[20] It may be well to state as nearly as possible exactly _what_tribes Radisson had met in this trip. Those rejoined on the way up atManitoulin Island were refugee Hurons and Ottawas. From the Hurons, Ottawas, and Algonquins of Green Bay, Radisson went west withPottowatomies, from them to the Escotecke or Sioux of the Fire, namelya branch of the Mascoutins. From these Wisconsin Mascoutins, he learnsof the Nadoneceroron, or Sioux proper, and of the Christinos or Crees. Going west with the Mascoutins, he comes to "sedentary" tribes. Arethese the Mandans? He compares this country to Italy. From them hehears of white men, that he thinks may be Spaniards. This tribe is atbitter war with Sioux and Crees. At Green Bay he hears of the Sautauxin war with Crees. His description of buffalo hunts among the Siouxtallies exactly with the Pembina hunts of a later day. Oldmixon saysthat it was from Crees and Assiniboines visiting at Green Bay thatRadisson learned of a way overland to the great game country of HudsonBay. 

[21] There is a mistake in Radisson's account here, which is easilychecked by contemporaneous accounts of Marie de l'Incarnation andDollier de Casson. Radisson describes Dollard's fight during hisfourth trip in 1664, when it is quite plain that he means 1660. Thefight has been so thoroughly described by Mr. Parkman, who drew hismaterial from the two authorities mentioned, and the _Jesuit Relations_that I do not give it in detail. I give a brief account of Radisson'sdescription of the tragedy. 

[22] It will be noticed that Radisson's account of the battle at theLong Sault--which I have given in his own words as far aspossible--differs in details from the only other accounts written bycontemporaries; namely, Marie de l'Incarnation, Dollier de Casson, theAbbé Belmont, and the Jesuits. All these must have written fromhearsay, for they were at Quebec and Montreal. Radisson was on thespot a week after the tragedy; so that his account may be supposed tobe as accurate as any. 

[23] Mr. Benjamin Sulte states that the explorers wintered on GreenBay, 1658-1659, then visited the tribes between Milwaukee and the riverWisconsin in the spring of 1659. Here they learn of the Sioux and theCrees. They push southwest first, where they see the Mississippibetween April and July, 1659. Thence they come back to the Sault. Then they winter, 1659-1660, among the Sioux. I have not attempted togive the dates of the itinerary; because it would be a matter ofspeculation open to contradiction; but if we accept Radisson's accountat all--and that account is corroborated by writers contemporaneouswith him--we must then accept _his_ account of _where_ he went, and notthe casual guesses of modern writers who have given his journal onehurried reading, and then sat down, without consulting documentscontemporaneous with Radisson, to inform the world of _where_ he went. Because this is such a very sore point with two or three westernhistorical societies, I beg to state the reasons why I have set downRadisson's itinerary as much farther west than has been generallybelieved, though how far west he went does not efface the main andessential fact _that Radisson was the true discoverer of the GreatNorthwest_. For that, let us give him a belated credit and not obscurethe feat by disputes. (1) The term "Forked River" referred to theMissouri and Mississippi, not the Wisconsin and Mississippi. (2) Noother rivers in that region are to be compared to the Ottawa and St. Lawrence but the Missouri and Mississippi. (3) The Mascoutins, orPeople of the Fire, among whom Radisson found himself when he descendedthe Wisconsin from Green Bay, conducted him westward only as far as thetribes allied to them, the Mascoutins of the Missouri or Nebraska. Hence, Radisson going west-north-west to the Sioux--as he says hedid--must have skirted much farther west than Wisconsin and Minnesota. (4) His descriptions of the Indians who knew tribes in trade with theSpaniards must refer to the Indians south of the Big Bend of theMissouri. (5) His description of the climate refers to the sameregion. (6) The _Jesuit Relations_ confirm beyond all doubt that hewas among the main body of the great Sioux Confederacy. (7) Both hisand the Jesuit reference is to the treeless prairie, which does notapply to the wooded lake regions of eastern Minnesota or northernWisconsin. 

To me, it is simply astounding--and that is putting it mildly--that anyone pretending to have read _Radisson's Journal_ can accuse him of"claiming" to have "descended to the salt sea" (Gulf of Mexico). Radisson makes no such claim; and to accuse him of such is likebuilding a straw enemy for the sake of knocking him down, or stirringup muddy waters to make them look deep. The exact words of Radisson'snarrative are: "We went into ye great river that divides itself in 2, where the hurrons with some Ottauake . . . Had retired. . . . Thisnation have warrs against those of the Forked River . . . So calledbecause it has 1 branches the one towards the west, the other towardsthe South, wch. We believe runns towards Mexico, by the tokens theygave us . . . They told us the prisoners they take tells them that theyhave warrs against a nation . . . That have great beards and suchknives as we have" . . . Etc. , etc. , etc. . . . "which made us believethey were Europeans. " This statement is _no_ claim that Radisson wentto Mexico, but only that he met tribes who knew tribes trading withSpaniards of Mexico. And yet, on the careless reading of thisstatement, one historian brands Radisson as a liar for "having claimedhe went to Mexico. " The thing would be comical in its impudence if itwere not that many such misrepresentations of what Radisson wrote havedimmed the glory of his real achievements. 

CHAPTER IV

1661-1664

RADISSON'S FOURTH VOYAGE

The Success of the Explorers arouses Envy--It becomes known that theyhave heard of the Famous Sea of the North--When they ask Permission toresume their Explorations, the French Governor refuses except onCondition of receiving Half the Profits--In Defiance, the Explorerssteal off at Midnight--They return with a Fortune and are driven fromNew France

Radisson was not yet twenty-six years of age, and his explorations ofthe Great Northwest had won him both fame and fortune. As Spain soughtgold in the New Word, so France sought precious furs. Furs were theonly possible means of wealth to the French colony, and for ten yearsthe fur trade had languished owing to the Iroquois wars. For a yearafter the migration of the Hurons to Onondaga, not a single beaver skinwas brought to Montreal. Then began the annual visits of the Indiansfrom the Upper Country to the forts of the St. Lawrence. Sweeping downthe northern rivers like wild-fowl, in far-spread, desultory flocks, came the Indians of the _Pays d'en Haut_. Down the Ottawa to Montreal, down the St. Maurice to Three Rivers, down the Saguenay and round toQuebec, came the treasure-craft, --light fleets of birch canoes laden tothe water-line with beaver skins. Whence came the wealth that revivedthe languishing trade of New France? From a vague, far Eldoradosomewhere round a sea in the North. Hudson had discovered this seahalf a century before Radisson's day; Jean Bourdon, a Frenchman, hadcoasted up Labrador in 1657 seeking the Bay of the North; and on theirlast trip the explorers had learned from the Crees who came through thedense forests of the hinterland that there lay round this Bay of theNorth a vast country with untold wealth of furs. The discovery of aroute overland to the north sea was to become the lodestar ofRadisson's life. [1]

[Illustration: Montreal in 1760: 1, the St. Lawrence; 20, the Dock;18-19, Arsenal; 16, the Church; 13-15, the Convent and Hospital; 8-12, Sally-ports, River Side; 17, Cannon and Wall; 3-4-5, Houses on Island. ]

"We considered whether to reveal what we had learned, " explainsRadisson, "for we had _not_ been in the Bay of the North, knowing onlywhat the Crees told us. We wished to discover it ourselves and haveassurance before revealing anything. " But the secret leaked out. Either Groseillers told his wife, or the Jesuits got wind of the newsfrom the Indians; for it was announced from Quebec that two priests, young La Vallière, the son of the governor at Three Rivers, six otherFrenchmen, and some Indians would set out for the Bay of the North upthe Saguenay. Radisson was invited to join the company as a guide. Needless to say that a man who had already discovered the GreatNorthwest and knew the secret of the road to the North, refused to playa second part among amateur explorers. Radisson promptly declined. Nevertheless, in May, 1661, the Jesuits, Gabriel Dreuillettes andClaude Dablon, accompanied by Couture, La Vallière, and three others, set out with Indian guides for the discovery of Hudson's Bay by land. On June 1 they began to ascend the Saguenay, pressing through vastsolitudes below the sombre precipices of the river. The rapids werefrequent, the heat was terrific, and the _portages_ arduous. Owing tothe obstinacy of the guides, the French were stopped north of Lake St. John. Here the priests established a mission, and messengers were sentto Quebec for instructions. 

Meanwhile, Radisson and Groseillers saw that no time must be lost. Ifthey would be first in the North, as they had been first in the West, they must set out at once. Two Indian guides from the Upper Countrychanced to be in Montreal. Groseillers secured them by bringing bothto Three Rivers. Then the explorers formally applied to the Frenchgovernor, D'Avaugour, for permission to go on the voyage of discovery. New France regulated the fur trade by license. Imprisonment, thegalleys for life, even death on a second offence, were the punishmentsof those who traded without a license. The governor's answer revealedthe real animus behind his enthusiasm for discovery. He would give theexplorers a license if they would share half the profits of the tripwith him and take along two of his servants as auditors of the returns. One can imagine the indignation of the dauntless explorers at thisanswer. Their cargo of furs the preceding year had saved New Francefrom bankruptcy. Offering to venture their lives a second time for theextension of the French domain, they were told they might do so if theywould share half the profits with an avaricious governor. Their answerwas characteristic. Discoverers were greater than governors; still, ifthe Indians of the Upper Country invited his Excellency, Radisson andGroseillers would be glad to have the honor of his company; as for hisservants--men who went on voyages of discovery had to act as bothmasters and servants. 

D'Avaugour was furious. He issued orders forbidding the explorers toleave Three Rivers without his express permission. Radisson andGroseillers knew the penalties of ignoring this order. They asked theJesuits to intercede for them. Though Gareau had been slain trying toascend the Ottawa and Father Ménard had by this time preached in theforests of Lake Michigan, the Jesuits had made no great discoveries inthe Northwest. All they got for their intercessions was a snub. [2]

While messages were still passing between the governor and theexplorers, there swept down the St. Lawrence to Three Rivers sevencanoes of Indians from the Upper Country, asking for Radisson andGroseillers. The explorers were honorable to a degree. They notifiedthe governor of Quebec that they intended to embark with the Indians. D'Avaugour stubbornly ordered the Indians to await the return of hisparty from the Saguenay. The Indians made off to hide in the rushes ofLake St. Peter. The sympathy of Three Rivers was with the explorers. Late one night in August Radisson and Groseillers--who was captain ofthe soldiers and carried the keys of the fort--slipped out from thegates, with a third Frenchman called Larivière. As they stepped intotheir canoe, the sentry demanded, "Who goes?" "Groseillers, " came theanswer through the dark. "God give you a good voyage, sir, " called thesentry, faithful to his captain rather than the governor. 

The skiff pushed out on the lapping tide. A bend in the river--and thelights of the fort glimmering in long lines across the water hadvanished behind. The prow of Radisson's boat was once more headingupstream for the Unknown. Paddling with all swiftness through thedark, the three Frenchmen had come to the rushes of Lake St. Peterbefore daybreak. No Indians could be found. Men of softer mettlemight have turned back. Not so Radisson. "We were well-armed and hada good boat, " he relates, "so we resolved to paddle day and night toovertake the Indians. " At the west end of the lake they came up withthe north-bound canoes. For three days and nights they pushed onwithout rest. Naturally, Radisson did not pause to report progress atMontreal. Game was so plentiful in the surrounding forests thatIroquois hunters were always abroad in the regions of the St. Lawrenceand Ottawa. [3] Once they heard guns. Turning a bend in the river, they discovered five Iroquois boats, just in time to avoid them. Thatnight the Frenchman, Larivière, dreamed that he had been captured bythe Mohawks, and he shouted out in such terror that the alarmed Indiansrushed to embark. The next day they again came on the trail ofIroquois. The frightened Indians from the Upper Country shoulderedtheir canoes and dashed through the woods. Larivière could not keep upand was afraid to go back from the river lest he should lose hisbearings. Fighting his way over windfall and rock, he sank exhaustedand fell asleep. Far ahead of the Iroquois boats the Upper CountryIndians came together again. The Frenchman was nowhere to be found. It was dark. The Indians would not wait to search. Radisson andGroseillers dared not turn back to face the irate governor. Larivièrewas abandoned. Two weeks afterwards some French hunters found himlying on the rocks almost dead from starvation. He was sent back toThree Rivers, where D'Avaugour had him imprisoned. This outrage theinhabitants of Three Rivers resented. They forced the jail and rescuedLarivière. 

Three days after the loss of Larivière Radisson and Groseillers caughtup with seven more canoes of Indians from the Upper Country. The unionof the two bands was just in time, for the next day they were set uponat a _portage_ by the Iroquois. Ordering the Indians to encasethemselves in bucklers of matting and buffalo hide, Radisson led theassault on the Iroquois barricade. Trees were cut down, and the UpperIndians rushed the rude fort with timbers extemporized intobattering-rams. In close range of the enemy, Radisson made a curiousdiscovery. Frenchmen were directing the Iroquois warriors. Who hadsent these French to intercept the explorers? If Radisson suspectedtreachery on the part of jealous rivals from Quebec, it must haveredoubled his fury; for the Indians from the Upper Country threwthemselves in the breached barricade with such force that the Iroquoislost heart and tossed belts of wampum over the stockades to supplicatepeace. It was almost night. Radisson's Indians drew off to considerthe terms of peace. When morning came, behold an empty fort! TheFrench renegades had fled with their Indian allies. 

[Illustration: Château St. Louis, Quebec, 1669, from one of the oldestprints in existence. ]

Glad to be rid of the first hindrance, the explorers once more spednorth. In the afternoon, Radisson's scouts ran full tilt into a bandof Iroquois laden with beaver pelts. The Iroquois were smarting fromtheir defeat of the previous night; and what was Radisson's amusementto see his own scouts and the Iroquois running from each other in equalfright, while the ground between lay strewn with booty! Radissonrushed his Indians for the waterside to intercept the Iroquois' flight. The Iroquois left their boats and swam for the opposite shore, wherethey threw up the usual barricade and entrenched themselves to shoot onRadisson's passing canoes. Using the captured beaver pelts as shields, the Upper Indians ran the gantlet of the Iroquois fire with the loss ofonly one man. 

The slightest defeat may turn well-ordered retreat into panic. If theexplorers went on, the Iroquois would hang to the rear of thetravelling Indians and pick off warriors till the Upper Country peoplebecame so weakened they would fall an easy prey. Not flight, butfight, was Radisson's motto. He ordered his men ashore to break up thebarricade. Darkness fell over the forest. The Iroquois could not seeto fire. "They spared not their powder, " relates Radisson, "but theymade more noise than hurt. " Attaching a fuse to a barrel of powder, Radisson threw this over into the Iroquois fort. The crash of theexplosion was followed by a blaze of the Iroquois musketry that killedthree of Radisson's men. Radisson then tore the bark off a birch tree, filled the bole with powder, and in the darkness crept close to theIroquois barricade and set fire to the logs. Red tongues of fireleaped up, there was a roar as of wind, and the Iroquois fort was onfire. Radisson's men dashed through the fire, hatchet in hand. TheIroquois answered with their death chant. Friend and foe merged in thesmoke and darkness. "We could not know one another in that skirmish ofblows, " says Radisson. "There was noise to terrify the stoutest man. "In the midst of the mêlée a frightful storm of thunder and sheeted rainrolled over the forest. "To my mind, " writes the disgusted Radisson, "that was something extraordinary. I think the Devil himself sent thatstorm to let those wretches escape, so that they might destroy moreinnocents. " The rain put out the fire. As soon as the storm hadpassed, Radisson kindled torches to search for the missing. Three ofhis men were slain, seven wounded. Of the enemy, eleven lay dead, fivewere prisoners. The rest of the Iroquois had fled to the forest. TheUpper Indians burned their prisoners according to their custom, and thenight was passed in mad orgies to celebrate the victory. "The sleep wetook did not make our heads giddy, " writes Radisson. 

The next day they encountered more Iroquois. Both sides at once beganbuilding forts; but when he could, Radisson always avoided war. Havinggained victory enough to hold the Iroquois in check, he wanted nomassacre. That night he embarked his men noiselessly; and never oncestopping to kindle camp-fire, they paddled from Friday night to Tuesdaymorning. The _portages _over rocks in the dark cut the _voyageurs'_moccasins to shreds. Every landing was marked with the blood ofbruised feet. Sometimes they avoided leaving any trace of themselvesby walking in the stream, dragging their boats along the edge of therapids. By Tuesday the Indians were so fagged that they could go nofarther without rest. Canoes were moored in the hiding of the rushestill the _voyageurs_ slept. They had been twenty-two days going fromThree Rivers to Lake Nipissing, and had not slept one hour on land. 

It was October when they came to Lake Superior. The forests werepainted in all the glory of autumn, and game abounded. White fishappeared under the clear, still waters of the lake like shoals offloating metal; bears were seen hulking away from the watering placesof sandy shores; and wild geese whistled overhead. After the terribledangers of the voyage, with scant sleep and scanter fare, the countryseemed, as Radisson says, a terrestrial paradise. The Indians gavesolemn thanks to their gods of earth and forest, "and we, " writesRadisson, "to the God of gods. " Indian summer lay on the land. November found the explorers coasting the south shore of Lake Superior. They passed the Island of Michilimackinac with its stone arches. Radisson heard from the Indians of the copper mines. He saw thepictured rocks that were to become famous for beauty. "I gave it thename of St. Peter because that was my name and I was the firstChristian to see it, " he writes of the stone arch. "There were inthese places very deep caves, caused by the violence of the waves. "Jesuits had been on the part of Lake Superior near the Sault, and poorMénard perished in the forests of Lake Michigan; but Radisson andGroseillers were the first white men to cruise from south to west andwest to north, where a chain of lakes and waterways leads from theMinnesota lake country to the prairies now known as Manitoba. Beforethe end of November the explorers rounded the western end of LakeSuperior and proceeded northwest. Radisson records that they came togreat winter encampments of the Crees; and the Crees did not ventureeast for fear of Sautaux and Iroquois. He mentions a river ofSturgeons, where was a great store of fish. 

The Crees wished to conduct the two white men to the wooded lakeregion, northwest towards the land of the Assiniboines, where Indianfamilies took refuge on islands from those tigers of the plains--theSioux--who were invincible on horseback but less skilful in canoes. The rivers were beginning to freeze. Boats were abandoned; but therewas no snow for snow-shoe travelling, and the explorers were unable totransport the goods brought for trade. Bidding the Crees go to theirfamilies and bring back slaves to carry the baggage, Radisson andGroseillers built themselves the first fort and the first fur postbetween the Missouri and the North Pole. It was evidently somewherewest of Duluth in either what is now Minnesota or northwestern Ontario. 

This fur post was the first habitation of civilization in all the GreatNorthwest. Not the railway, not the cattle trail, not the path offorward-marching empire purposely hewing a way through the wilderness, opened the West. It was the fur trade that found the West. It was thefur trade that explored the West. It was the fur trade that wrestedthe West from savagery. The beginning was in the little fort built byRadisson and Groseillers. No great factor in human progress ever had amore insignificant beginning. 

The fort was rushed up by two men almost starving for food. It was onthe side of a river, built in the shape of a triangle, with the base atthe water side. The walls were of unbarked logs, the roof of thatchedbranches interlaced, with the door at the river side. In the middle ofthe earth floor, so that the smoke would curl up where the branchesformed a funnel or chimney, was the fire. On the right of the fire, two hewn logs overlaid with pine boughs made a bed. On the left, another hewn log acted as a table. Jumbled everywhere, hanging frombranches and knobs of branches, were the firearms, clothing, andmerchandise of the two fur traders. Naturally, a fort two thousandmiles from help needed sentries. Radisson had not forgotten hisboyhood days of Onondaga. He strung carefully concealed cords throughthe grass and branches around the fort. To these bells were fastened, and the bells were the sentries. The two white men could now sleepsoundly without fear of approach. This fort, from which sprang thebuoyant, aggressive, prosperous, free life of the Great Northwest, wasfounded and built and completed in two days. 

The West had begun. [4]

It was a beginning which every Western pioneer was to repeat for thenext two hundred years: first, the log cabins; then, the fight with thewilderness for food. 

Radisson, being the younger, went into the woods to hunt, whileGroseillers kept house. Wild geese and ducks were whistling south, but"the whistling that I made, " writes Radisson, "was another music thantheirs; for I killed three and scared the rest. " Strange Indians camethrough the forest, but were not admitted to the tiny fort, lestknowledge of the traders' weakness should tempt theft. Many a nightthe explorers were roused by a sudden ringing of the bells or crashingthrough the underbrush, to find that wild animals had been attracted bythe smell of meat, and wolverine or wildcat was attempting to tearthrough the matted branches of the thatched roof. The desire forfirearms has tempted Indians to murder many a trader; so Radisson andGroseillers _cached_ all the supplies that they did not need in a holeacross the river. News of the two white men alone in the northernforest spread like wild-fire to the different Sautaux and Ojibwayencampments; and Radisson invented another protection in addition tothe bells. He rolled gunpowder in twisted tubes of birch bark, and rana circle of this round the fort. Putting a torch to the birch, hesurprised the Indians by displaying to them a circle of fire runningalong the ground in a series of jumps. To the Indians it was magic. The two white men were engirt with a mystery that defended them fromall harm. Thus white men passed their first winter in the GreatNorthwest. 

Toward winter four hundred Crees came to escort the explorers to thewooded lake region yet farther west towards the land of theAssiniboines, the modern Manitoba. "We were Caesars, " writes Radisson. "There was no one to contradict us. We went away free from any burden, while those poor miserables thought themselves happy to carry ourequipage in the hope of getting a brass ring, or an awl, or aneedle. . . . They admired our actions more than the fools of Paristheir king. . . . [5] They made a great noise, calling us gods anddevils. We marched four days through the woods. The country wasbeautiful with clear parks. At last we came within a league of theCree cabins, where we spent the night that we might enter theencampment with pomp the next day. The swiftest Indians ran ahead towarn the people of our coming. " Embarking in boats, where the waterwas open, the two explorers came to the Cree lodges. They werewelcomed with shouts. Messengers marched in front, scattering presentsfrom the white men, --kettles to call all to a feast of friendship;knives to encourage the warriors to be brave; swords to signify thatthe white men would fight all enemies of the Cree; and abundance oftrinkets--needles and awls and combs and tin mirrors--for the women. The Indians prostrated themselves as slaves; and the explorers wereconducted to a grand council of welcome. A feast was held, followed bya symbolic dance in celebration of the white men's presence. 

Their entry to the Great Northwest had been a triumph: but they couldnot escape the privations of the explorer's life. Winter set in with aseverity to make up for the long, late autumn. Snow fell continuouslytill day and night were as one, the sombre forests muffled to silencewith the wild creatures driven for shelter to secret haunts. Fourhundred men had brought the explorers north. Allowing an average offour to each family, there must have been sixteen hundred people in theencampment of Crees. To prevent famine, the Crees scattered to thewinter hunting-grounds, arranging to come together again in two monthsat a northern rendezvous. When Radisson and Groseillers came to therendezvous, they learned that the gathering hunters had had poor luck. Food was short. To make matters worse, heavy rains were followed bysharp frost. The snow became iced over, destroying rabbit and grouse, which feed the large game. Radisson noticed that the Indians oftensnatched food from the hands of hungry children. More starving Creescontinued to come into camp. Soon the husbands were taking the wives'share of food, and the women were subsisting on dried pelts. The Creesbecame too weak to carry their snow-shoes, or to gather wood for fire. The cries of the dying broke the deathly stillness of the winterforest; and the strong began to dog the footsteps of the weak. "GoodGod, have mercy on these innocent people, " writes Radisson; "have mercyon us who acknowledge Thee!" Digging through the snow with theirrackets, some of the Crees got roots to eat. Others tore the bark fromtrees and made a kind of soup that kept them alive. Two weeks afterthe famine set in, the Indians were boiling the pulverized bones of thewaste heap. After that the only food was the buckskin that had beentanned for clothing. "We ate it so eagerly, " writes Radisson, "thatour gums did bleed. . . . We became the image of death. " Before thespring five hundred Crees had died of famine. Radisson and Groseillersscarcely had strength to drag the dead from the tepees. The Indiansthought that Groseillers had been fed by some fiend, for his heavy, black beard covered his thin face. Radisson they loved, because hisbeardless face looked as gaunt as theirs. [6]

Relief came with the breaking of the weather. The rain washed the icedsnows away; deer began to roam; and with the opening of the rivers cametwo messengers from the Sioux to invite Radisson and Groseillers tovisit their nation. The two Sioux had a dog, which they refused tosell for all Radisson's gifts. The Crees dared not offend the Siouxambassadors by stealing the worthless cur on which such hungry eyeswere cast, but at night Radisson slipped up to the Sioux tepee. Thedog came prowling out. Radisson stabbed it so suddenly that it droppedwithout a sound. Hurrying back, he boiled and fed the meat to thefamishing Crees. When the Sioux returned to their own country, theysent a score of slaves with food for the starving encampment. No doubtRadisson had plied the first messengers with gifts; for the slavesbrought word that thirty picked runners from the Sioux were coming toescort the white men to the prairie. To receive their benefactors, andalso, perhaps, to show that they were not defenceless, the Crees atonce constructed a fort; for Cree and Sioux had been enemies from timeimmemorial. In two days came the runners, clad only in short garments, and carrying bow and quiver. The Crees led the young braves to thefort. Kettles were set out. Fagged from the long run, the Sioux atewithout a word. At the end of the meal one rose. Shooting an arrowinto the air as a sign that he called Deity to witness the truth of hiswords, he proclaimed in a loud voice that the elders of the Siouxnation would arrive next day at the fort to make a treaty with theFrench. 

The news was no proof of generosity. The Sioux were the great warriorsof the West. They knew very well that whoever formed an alliance withthe French would obtain firearms; and firearms meant victory againstall other tribes. The news set the Crees by the ears. Warriorshastened from the forests to defend the fort. The next day came theelders of the Sioux in pomp. They were preceded by the young bravesbearing bows and arrows and buffalo-skin shields on which were drawnfigures portraying victories. Their hair was turned up in a stiffcrest surmounted by eagle feathers, and their bodies were paintedbright vermilion. Behind came the elders, with medicine-bags ofrattlesnake skin streaming from their shoulders and long strings ofbears' claws hanging from neck and wrist. They were dressed inbuckskin, garnished with porcupine quills, and wore moccasins ofbuffalo hide, with the hair dangling from the heel. In the belt ofeach was a skull-cracker--a sort of sling stone with a long handle--anda war-hatchet. Each elder carried a peace pipe set with preciousstones, and stuck in the stem were the quills of the war eagle torepresent enemies slain. Women slaves followed, loaded with skins forthe elders' tents. 

[Illustration: A parley on the Plains. ]

A great fire had been kindled inside the court of the Cree stockades. Round the pavilion the Sioux elders seated themselves. First, theysolemnly smoked the calumet of peace. Then the chief of the Sioux roseand chanted a song, giving thanks for their safe journey. Settingaside gifts of rare beaver pelts, he declared that the Sioux had cometo make friends with the French, who were masters of peace and war;that the elders would conduct the white men back to the Sioux country;that the mountains were levelled and the valleys cast up, and the waymade smooth, and branches strewn on the ground for the white men'sfeet, and streams bridged, and the doors of the tepees open. Let theFrench come to the Sioux! The Indians would die for the French. Agift was presented to invoke the friendship of the Crees. Another richgift of furs let out the secret of the Sioux' anxiety: it was that theFrench might give the Sioux "thunder weapons, " meaning guns. 

The speech being finished, the Crees set a feast before their guests. To this feast Radisson and Groseillers came in a style that eclipsedthe Sioux. Cree warriors marched in front, carrying guns. Radissonand Groseillers were dressed in armor. [7] At their belts they worepistol, sword, and dagger. On their heads were crowns of coloredporcupine quills. Two pages carried the dishes and spoons to be usedat the feast; and four Cree magicians followed with smoking calumets intheir hands. Four Indian maids carried bearskins to place on theground when the two explorers deigned to sit down. Inside the fortmore than six hundred councillors had assembled. Outside were gathereda thousand spectators. As Radisson and Groseillers entered, an oldCree flung a peace pipe at the explorers' feet and sang a song ofthanksgiving to the sun that he had lived to see "those terrible menwhose words (guns) made the earth quake. " Stripping himself of hiscostly furs, he placed them on the white men's shoulders, shouting: "Yeare masters over us; dead or alive, dispose of us as you will. "

Then Radisson rose and chanted a song, in which he declared that theFrench took the Crees for brethren and would defend them. To prove hiswords, he threw powder in the fire and had twelve guns shot off, whichfrightened the Sioux almost out of their senses. A slave girl placed acoal in the calumet. Radisson then presented gifts; the first totestify that the French adopted the Sioux for friends; the second as atoken that the French also took the Crees for friends; the third as asign that the French "would reduce to powder with heavenly fire" anyone who disturbed the peace between these tribes. The fourth gift wasin grateful recognition of the Sioux' courtesy in granting free passagethrough their country. The gifts consisted of kettles and hatchets andawls and needles and looking-glasses and bells and combs and paint, but_not_ guns. Radisson's speech was received with "Ho, ho's" ofapplause. Sports began. Radisson offered prizes for racing, jumping, shooting with the bow, and climbing a greased post. All the while, musicians were singing and beating the tom-tom, a drum made of buffalohide stretched on hoops and filled with water. 

Fourteen days later Radisson and Groseillers set out for the Siouxcountry, or what are now known as the Northwestern states. [8] On thethird voyage Radisson came to the Sioux from the south. On thisvoyage, he came to them from the northeast. He found that the tribenumbered seven thousand men of fighting age. He remarked that theSioux used a kind of coke or peat for fire instead of wood. While heheard of the tribes that used coal for fire, he does not relate that hewent to them on this trip. Again he heard of the mountains far inland, where the Indians found copper and lead and a kind of stone that wastransparent. [9] He remained six weeks with the Sioux, hunting buffaloand deer. Between the Missouri and the Saskatchewan ran a well-beatentrail northeastward, which was used by the Crees and the Sioux in theirwars. It is probable that the Sioux escorted Radisson back to theCrees by this trail, till he was across what is now the boundarybetween Minnesota and Canada, and could strike directly eastward forthe Lake of the Woods region, or the hinterland between James Bay andLake Superior. 

In spring the Crees went to the Bay of the North, which Radisson wasseeking; and after leaving the Sioux, the two explorers struck for thelittle fort north of Lake Superior, where they had _cached_ theirgoods. Spring in the North was later than spring in the South; but theshore ice of the Northern lakes had already become soft. To save timethey cut across the lakes of Minnesota, dragging their sleighs on theice. Groseillers' sleigh was loaded with pelts obtained from theSioux, and the elder man began to fag. Radisson took the heavy sleigh, giving Groseillers the lighter one. About twelve miles out from theshore, on one of these lakes, the ice suddenly gave, and Radissonplunged through to his waist. It was as dangerous to turn back as togo on. If they deserted their merchandise, they would have nothing totrade with the Indians; but when Radisson succeeded in extricatinghimself, he was so badly strained that he could not go forward anotherstep. There was no sense in risking both their lives on the rottenice. He urged Groseillers to go on. Groseillers dared not hesitate. Laying two sleds as a wind-break on each side of Radisson, he coveredthe injured man with robes, consigned him to the keeping of God, andhurried over the ice to obtain help from the Crees. 

The Crees got Radisson ashore, and there he lay in agony for eightdays. The Indians were preparing to set out for the North. Theyinvited Radisson to go with them. His sprain had not healed; but hecould not miss the opportunity of approaching the Bay of the North. For two days he marched with the hunters, enduring torture at everystep. The third day he could go no farther and they deserted him. Groseillers had gone hunting with another band of Crees. Radisson hadneither gun nor hatchet, and the Indians left him only ten pounds ofpemmican. After a short rest he journeyed painfully on, following thetrail of the marching Crees. On the fifth day he found the frame of adeserted wigwam. Covering it with branches of trees and kindling afire to drive off beasts of prey, he crept in and lay down to sleep. He was awakened by a crackling of flame. The fire had caught the pineboughs and the tepee was in a blaze. Radisson flung his snow-shoes andclothing as far as he could, and broke from the fire-trap. Half-dressed and lame, shuddering with cold and hunger, he felt throughthe dark over the snow for his clothing. A far cry rang through theforest like the bay of the wolf pack. Radisson kept solitary watchtill morning, when he found that the cry came from Indians sent out tofind him by Groseillers. He was taken to an encampment, where theCrees were building canoes to go to the Bay of the North. 

The entire band, with the two explorers, then launched on the riversflowing north. "We were in danger to perish a thousand times from theice jam, " writes Radisson. ". . . At last we came full sail from adeep bay . . . We came to the seaside, where we found an old house alldemolished and battered with bullets. . . . They (the Crees) told usabout Europeans. . . . We went from isle to isle all thatsummer. . . . This region had a great store of cows (caribou). . . . We went farther to see the place that the Indians were to pass thesummer. . . . The river (where they went) came from the lake thatempties itself in . . . The Saguenay . . . A hundred leagues from thegreat river of Canada (the St. Lawrence) . . . To where we were in theBay of the North. . . . We passed the summer quietly coasting theseaside. . . . The people here burn not their prisoners, but knockthem on the head. . . . They have a store of turquoise. . . . Theyfind green stones, very fine, at the same Bay of the Sea(labradorite). . . . We went up another river to the Upper Lake(Winnipeg). " [10]

For years the dispute has been waged with zeal worthy of a better causewhether Radisson referred to Hudson Bay in this passage. The Frenchclaim that he did; the English that he did not. "The house demolishedwith bullets" was probably an old trading post, contend the English;but there was no trading post except Radisson's west of Lake Superiorat that time, retort the French. By "cows" Radisson meant buffalo, andno buffalo were found as far east as Hudson Bay, say the English; by"cows" Radisson meant caribou and deer, and herds of these frequentedthe shores of Hudson Bay, answer the French. No river comes from theSaguenay to Hudson Bay, declare the English; yes, but a river comesfrom the direction of the Saguenay, and was followed by subsequentexplorers, assert the French. [11] The stones of turquoise and greenwere agates from Lake Superior, explain the English; the stones werelabradorites from the east coast of the Bay, maintain the French. Sothe childish quarrel has gone on for two centuries. England and Francealike conspired to crush the man while he lived; and when he died theyquarrelled over the glory of his discoveries. The point is not whetherRadisson actually wet his oars in the different indentations of Hudsonand James bays. The point is that he found where it lay from the GreatLakes, and discovered the watershed sloping north from the Great Lakesto Hudson Bay. This was new ground, and entitled Radisson to the fameof a discoverer. 

From the Indians of the bay, Radisson heard of another lake leagues tothe north, whose upper end was always frozen. This was probably somevague story of the lakes in the region that was to become known twocenturies later as Mackenzie River. The spring of 1663 found theexplorers back in the Lake of the Woods region accompanied by sevenhundred Indians of the Upper Country. The company filled three hundredand sixty canoes. Indian girls dived into the lake to push the canoesoff, and stood chanting a song of good-speed till the boats had glidedout of sight through the long, narrow, rocky gaps of the Lake of theWoods. At Lake Superior the company paused to lay up a supply ofsmoked sturgeon. At the Sault four hundred Crees turned back. Therest of the Indians hoisted blankets on fishing-poles, and, with a westwind, scudded across Lake Huron to Lake Nipissing. From Lake Nipissingthey rode safely down the Ottawa to Montreal. Cannon were fired towelcome the discoverers, for New France was again on the verge ofbankruptcy from a beaver famine. 

A different welcome awaited them at Quebec. D'Argenson, the governor, was about to leave for France, and nothing had come of the Jesuitexpedition up the Saguenay. He had already sent Couture, for a secondtime, overland to find a way to Hudson Bay; but no word had come fromCouture, and the governor's time was up. The explorers had disobeyedhim in leaving without his permission. Their return with a fortune ofpelts was the salvation of the impecunious governor. From 1627 to 1663five distinct fur companies, organized under the patronage of royalty, had gone bankrupt in New France. [12] Therefore, it became a loyalgovernor to protect his Majesty's interests. Besides, the revenuecollectors could claim one-fourth of all returns in beaver except fromposts farmed expressly for the king. No sooner had Radisson andGroseillers come home than D'Argenson ordered Groseillers imprisoned. He then fined the explorers $20, 000, to build a fort at Three Rivers, giving them leave to put their coats-of-arms on the gate; a $30, 000fine was to go to the public treasury of New France; $70, 000 worth ofbeaver was seized as the tax due the revenue. Of a cargo worth$300, 000 in modern money, Radisson and Groseillers had less than$20, 000 left. [13]

Had D'Argenson and his successors encouraged instead of persecuted thediscoverers, France could have claimed all North America but the narrowstrip of New England on the east and the Spanish settlements on thesouth. Having repudiated Radisson and Groseillers, France could notclaim the fruits of deeds which she punished. [14]

[1] The childish dispute whether Bourdon sailed into the bay and up toits head, or only to 50 degrees N. Latitude, does not concernRadisson's life, and, therefore, is ignored. One thing I can statewith absolute certainty from having been up the coast of Labrador in amost inclement season, that Bourdon could not possibly have gone to andback from the inner waters of Hudson Bay between May 2 and August 11. J. Edmond Roy and Mr. Sulte both pronounce Bourdon a myth, and his tripa fabrication. 

[2] "Shame put upon them, " says Radisson. Ménard did _not_ go out withRadisson and Groseillers, as is erroneously recorded. 

[3] I have purposely avoided stating whether Radisson went by way ofLake Ontario or the Ottawa. Dr. Dionne thinks that he went by Ontarioand Niagara because Radisson refers to vast waterfalls under which aman could walk. Radisson gives the height of these falls as fortyfeet. Niagara are nearer three hundred; and the Chaudière of theOttawa would answer Radisson's description better, were it not that hesays a man could go under the falls for a quarter of a mile. "The Lakeof the Castors" plainly points to Lake Nipissing. 

[4] The two main reasons why I think that Radisson and Groseillers werenow moving up that chain of lakes and rivers between Minnesota andCanada, connecting Lake of the Woods with Lake Winnipeg, are: (1)Oldmixon says it was the report of the Assiniboine Indians from LakeAssiniboine (Lake Winnipeg) that led Radisson to seek for the Bay ofthe North overland. These Assiniboines did not go to the bay by way ofLake Superior, but by way of Lake Winnipeg. (2) A mémoire written byDe la Chesnaye in 1696--see _Documents Nouvelle France_, 1492-1712--distinctly refers to a _coureur's_ trail from Lake Superiorto Lake Assiniboine or Lake Winnipeg. There is no record of anyFrenchmen but Radisson and Groseillers having followed such a trail tothe land of the Assiniboines--the Manitoba of to-day--before 1676. 

[5] One can guess that a man who wrote in that spirit two centuriesbefore the French Revolution would not be a sycophant incourts, --which, perhaps, helps to explain the conspiracy of silencethat obscured Radisson's fame. 

[6] My reason for thinking that this region was farther north thanMinnesota is the size of the Cree winter camp; but I have refrainedfrom trying to localize this part of the trip, except to say it waswest and north of Duluth. Some writers recognize in the descriptionparts of Minnesota, others the hinterland between Lake Superior andJames Bay. In the light of the _mémoire_ of 1696 sent to the Frenchgovernment, I am unable to regard this itinerary as any other than thefamous fur traders' trail between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg byway of Sturgeon River and the Lake of the Woods. 

[7] _Radisson Relations_, p. 207. 

[8] We are now on safe ground. There was a well-known trail from whatis now known as the Rat Portage region to the great Sioux camps west ofthe Mississippi and Red River valleys. But again I refuse to laymyself open to controversy by trying definitely to give either thedates or exact places of this trip. 

[9] If any proof is wanted that Radisson's journeyings took him farwest of the Mississippi, these details afford it. 

[10] _Radisson's Journal_, pp. 224, 225, 226. 

[11] Mr. A. P. Low, who has made the most thorough exploration ofLabrador and Hudson Bay of any man living, says, "Rupert River formsthe discharge of the Mistassini lakes . . . And empties into Rupert Bayclose to the mouth of the Nottoway River, and rises in a number oflakes close to the height of land dividing it from the St. MauriceRiver, which joins the St. Lawrence at Three Rivers. "

[12] _Les Compagnies de Colonisation sous l'ancien régime_, byChailly-Bert. 

[13] Oldmixon says: "Radisson and Groseillers met with some savages onthe Lake of Assiniboin, and from them they learned that they might goby land to the bottom of Hudson's Bay, where the English had not beenyet, at James Bay; upon which they desired them to conduct themthither, and the savages accordingly did it. They returned to theUpper Lake the same way they came, and thence to Quebec, where theyoffered the principal merchants to carry ships to Hudson's Bay; buttheir project was rejected. " Vol. I, p. 548. Radisson's figures aregiven as "pounds "; but by "_L_" did he mean English "pound" or Frenchlivre, that is 17 cents? A franc in 1660 equalled the modern dollar. 

[14] The exact tribes mentioned in the _Mémoire of 1696_, with whom theFrench were in trade in the West are: On the "Missoury" and south ofit, the Mascoutins and Sioux; two hundred miles beyond the "Missisipy"the Issaguy, the Octbatons, the Omtous, of whom were Sioux capable ofmustering four thousand warriors, south of Lake Superior, the Sauteurs, on "Sipisagny, the river which is the discharge of Lake Asemipigon"(Winnipeg), the "Nation of the Grand Rat, " Algonquins numbering twothousand, who traded with the English of Hudson Bay, De la Chesnayeadds in his mémoire details of the trip from Lake Superior to the lakeof the Assiniboines. Knowing what close co-workers he and Radissonwere, we can guess where he got his information. 

CHAPTER V

1664-1676

RADISSON RENOUNCES ALLEGIANCE TO TWO CROWNS

Rival Traders thwart the Plans of the Discoverers--Entangled inLawsuits, the two French Explorers go to England--The Organization ofthe Hudson's Bay Fur Company--Radisson the Storm-centre ofInternational Intrigue--Boston Merchants in the Struggle to capture theFur Trade

Henceforth Radisson and Groseillers were men without a country. Twicetheir return from the North with cargoes of beaver had saved New Francefrom ruin. They had discovered more of America than all the otherexplorers combined. Their reward was jealous rivalry that reduced themto beggary; injustice that compelled them to renounce allegiance to twocrowns; obloquy during a lifetime; and oblivion for two centuries aftertheir death. The very force of unchecked impulse that carries the heroover all obstacles may also carry him over the bounds of caution andcompromise that regulate the conduct of other men. This was the casewith Radisson and Groseillers. They were powerless to resist theextortion of the French governor. The Company of One HundredAssociates had given place to the Company of the West Indies. Thistrading venture had been organized under the direct patronage of theking. [1] It had been proclaimed from the pulpits of France. Privileges were promised to all who subscribed for the stock. TheCompany was granted a blank list of titles to bestow on its patrons andservants. No one else in New France might engage in the beaver trade;no one else might buy skins from the Indians and sell the pelts inEurope; and one-fourth of the trade went for public revenue. In spiteof all the privileges, fur company after fur company failed in NewFrance; but to them Radisson had to sell his furs, and when the revenueofficers went over the cargo, the minions of the governor also seized ashare under pretence of a fine for trading without a license. 

Groseillers was furious, and sailed for France to demand restitution;but the intriguing courtiers proved too strong for him. Though hespent 10, 000 pounds, nothing was done. D'Avaugour had come back toFrance, and stockholders of the jealous fur company were all-powerfulat court. Groseillers then relinquished all idea of restitution, andtried to interest merchants in another expedition to Hudson Bay by wayof the sea. [2] He might have spared himself the trouble. Hisenthusiasm only aroused the quiet smile of supercilious indifference. His plans were regarded as chimerical. Finally a merchant of Rochellehalf promised to send a boat to Isle Percée at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in 1664. Groseillers had already wasted six months. Eagerfor action, he hurried back to Three Rivers, where Radisson awaitedhim. The two secretly took passage in a fishing schooner to Anticosti, and from Anticosti went south to Isle Percée. Here a Jesuit just outfrom France bore the message to them that no ship would come. Thepromise had been a put-off to rid France of the enthusiast. New Francehad treated them with injustice. Old France with mockery. Which wayshould they turn? They could not go back to Three Rivers. Thisattempt to go to Hudson Bay without a license laid them open to asecond fine. Baffled, but not beaten, the explorers did whatninety-nine men out of a hundred would have done in similarcircumstances--they left the country. Some rumor of their intention toabandon New France must have gone abroad; for when they reached CapeBreton, their servants grumbled so loudly that a mob of Frenchmenthreatened to burn the explorers. Dismissing their servants, Radissonand Groseillers escaped to Port Royal, Nova Scotia. 

[Illustration: Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars--ThreeRivers. ]

In Port Royal they met a sea-captain from Boston, Zechariah Gillam, whooffered his ship for a voyage to Hudson Bay, but the season was farspent when they set out. Captain Gillam was afraid to enter theice-locked bay so late in summer. The boat turned back, and the tripwas a loss. This run of ill-luck had now lasted for a year. Theystill had some money from the Northern trips, and they signed acontract with ship-owners of Boston to take two vessels to Hudson Baythe following spring. Provisions must be laid up for the long voyage. One of the ships was sent to the Grand Banks for fish. Roundingeastward past the crescent reefs of Sable Island, the ship was caughtby the beach-combers and totally wrecked on the drifts of sand. Instead of sailing for Hudson Bay in the spring of 1665, Radisson andGroseillers were summoned to Boston to defend themselves in a lawsuitfor the value of the lost vessel. They were acquitted; but lawsuits onthe heels of misfortune exhausted the resources of the adventurers. The exploits of the two Frenchmen had become the sensation of Boston. Sir Robert Carr, one of the British commissioners then in the NewEngland colonies, urged Radisson and Groseillers to renounce allegianceto a country that had shown only ingratitude, and to come toEngland. [3] When Sir George Cartwright sailed from Nantucket on August1, 1665, he was accompanied by Radisson and Groseillers. [4] Misfortunecontinued to dog them. Within a few days' sail of England, their shipencountered the Dutch cruiser _Caper_. For two hours the ships pouredbroadsides of shot into each other's hulls. The masts were torn fromthe English vessel. She was boarded and stripped, and the Frenchmenwere thoroughly questioned. Then the captives were all landed inSpain. Accompanied by the two Frenchmen, Sir George Cartwrighthastened to England early in 1666. The plague had driven the courtfrom London to Oxford. Cartwright laid the plans of the explorersbefore Charles II. The king ordered 40s. A week paid to Radisson andGroseillers for the winter. They took chambers in London. Later theyfollowed the court to Windsor, where they were received by King Charles. 

The English court favored the project of trade in Hudson Bay, butduring the Dutch war nothing could be done. The captain of the Dutchship _Caper_ had sent word of the French explorers to De Witt, thegreat statesman. De Witt despatched a spy from Picardy, France, oneEli Godefroy Touret, who chanced to know Groseillers, to meet theexplorers in London. Masking as Groseillers' nephew, Touret tried tobribe both men to join the Dutch. Failing this, he attempted toundermine their credit with the English by accusing Radisson andGroseillers of counterfeiting money; but the English court refused tobe deceived, and Touret was imprisoned. Owing to the plague and thewar, two years passed without the vague promises of the English courttaking shape. Montague, the English ambassador to France, heard of theexplorers' feats, and wrote to Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert was asoldier of fortune, who could enter into the spirit of the explorers. He had fought on the losing side against Cromwell, and then taken tothe high seas to replenish broken fortunes by piracy. The wealth ofthe beaver trade appealed to him. He gave all the influence of his_prestige_ to the explorers' plans. By the spring of 1668 money enoughhad been advanced to fit out two boats for Hudson Bay. In the _Eagle_, with Captain Stannard, went Radisson; in the _Nonsuch_, with CaptainZechariah Gillam of Boston, went Groseillers. North of Ireland furiousgales drove the ships apart. Radisson's vessel was damaged and drivenback to London; but his year was not wasted. It is likely that theaccount of his first voyages was written while Groseillers was away. [5]Sometime during his stay in London he married Mary Kirke, a daughter ofthe Huguenot John Kirke, whose family had long ago gone from Boston andcaptured Quebec. 

Gillam's journal records that the _Nonsuch_ left Gravesend the 3d ofJune, 1668, reached Resolution Island on August 4, and came to anchorat the south of James Bay on September 29. [6] It was here thatRadisson had come overland five years before, when he thought that hediscovered a river flowing from the direction of the St. Lawrence. Theriver was Nemisco. Groseillers called it Rupert in honor of hispatron. A palisaded fort was at once built, and named King Charlesafter the English monarch. By December, the bay was locked in thedeathly silence of northern frost. Snow fell till the air becamedarkened day after day, a ceaseless fall of muffling snow; theearth--as Gillam's journal says--"seemed frozen to death. " Gillamattended to the fort, Groseillers to the trade. Dual command was boundto cause a clash. By April, 1669, the terrible cold had relaxed. Theice swept out of the river with a roar. Wild fowl came winging northin myriad flocks. By June the fort was sweltering in almost tropicalheat. The _Nonsuch_ hoisted anchor and sailed for England, loaded tothe water-line with a cargo of furs. Honors awaited Groseillers inLondon. King Charles created him a _Knight de la Jarretière_, an orderfor princes of the royal blood. [7] In addition, he was granted a sumof money. Prince Rupert and Radisson had, meanwhile, been busyorganizing a fur company. The success of Groseillers' voyage nowassured this company a royal charter, which was granted in May, 1670. Such was the origin of the Hudson's Bay Company. Prince Rupert was itsfirst governor; Charles Bayly was appointed resident governor on thebay. Among the first shareholders were Prince Rupert, the Duke ofYork, Sir George Cartwright, the Duke of Albermarle, Shaftesbury, SirPeter Colleton, who had advanced Radisson a loan during the long periodof waiting, and Sir John Kirke, whose daughter had married Radisson. 

That spring, Radisson and Groseillers again sailed for the bay. In1671, three ships were sent out from England, and Radisson establisheda second post westward at Moose. With Governor Bayly, he sailed up andmet the Indians at what was to become the great fur capital of thenorth, Port Nelson, or York. The third year of the company'sexistence, Radisson and Groseillers perceived a change. Not so manyIndians came down to the English forts to trade. Those who came broughtfewer pelts and demanded higher prices. Rivals had been at work. TheEnglish learned that the French had come overland and were paying highprices to draw the Indians from the bay. In the spring a council washeld. [8] Should they continue on the east side of the bay, or movewest, where there would be no rivalry? Groseillers boldly counselledmoving inland and driving off French competition. Bayly was for movingwest. He even hinted that Groseillers' advice sprang from disloyaltyto the English. The clash that was inevitable from divided command wasthis time avoided by compromise. They would all sail west, and allcome back to Rupert's River. When they returned, they found that theEnglish ensign had been torn down and the French flag raised. [9] Aveteran Jesuit missionary of the Saguenay, Charles Albanel, two Frenchcompanions, and some Indian guides had ensconced themselves in theempty houses. [10] The priest now presented Governor Bayly with lettersfrom Count Frontenac commending the French to the good offices ofGovernor Bayly. [11]

France had not been idle. 

When it was too late, the country awakened to the injustice doneRadisson and Groseillers. While Radisson was still in Boston, allrestrictions were taken from the beaver trade, except the tax ofone-fourth to the revenue. The Jesuit Dablon, who was near the westernend of Lake Superior, gathered all the information he could from theIndians of the way to the Sea of the North. Father Marquette learnedof the Mississippi from the Indians. The Western tribes had beensummoned to the Sault, where Sieur de Saint-Lusson met them in treatyfor the French; and the French flag was raised in the presence of PèreClaude Allouez, who blessed the ceremony. M. Colbert sent instructionsto M. Talon, the intendant of New France, to grant titles of nobilityto Groseillers' nephew in order to keep him in the country. [12] On theSaguenay was a Jesuit, Charles Albanel, loyal to the French and ofEnglish birth, whose devotion to the Indians during the small-poxscourge of 1670 had given him unbounded influence. Talon, theintendant of New France, was keen to retrieve in the North whatD'Argenson's injustice had lost. Who could be better qualified to gooverland to Hudson Bay than the old missionary, loyal to France, ofEnglish birth, and beloved by the Indians? Albanel was summoned toQuebec and gladly accepted the commission. He chose for companionsSaint-Simon and young Couture, the son of the famous guide to theJesuits. The company left Quebec on August 6, 1671, and secured aguide at Tadoussac. Embarking in canoes, they ascended the shadowycañon of the Saguenay to Lake St. John. On the 7th of September theyleft the forest of Lake St. John and mounted the current of a windingriver, full of cataracts and rapids, toward Mistassini. On this streamthey met Indians who told them that two European vessels were on HudsonBay. The Indians showed Albanel tobacco which they had received fromthe English. 

It seemed futile to go on a voyage of discovery where English werealready in possession. The priest sent one of the Frenchmen and twoIndians back to Quebec for passports and instructions. What theinstructions were can only be guessed by subsequent developments. Themessengers left the depth of the forest on the 19th of September, andhad returned from Quebec by the 10th of October. Snow was falling. The streams had frozen, and the Indians had gone into camp for thewinter. Going from wigwam to wigwam through the drifted forest. FatherAlbanel passed the winter preaching to the savages. Skins of the chasewere laid on the wigwams. Against the pelts, snow was banked to closeup every chink. Inside, the air was blue with smoke and the steam ofthe simmering kettle. Indian hunters lay on the moss floor round thecentral fires. Children and dogs crouched heterogeneously against thesloping tent walls. Squaws plodded through the forest, setting trapsand baiting the fish-lines that hung through airholes of the thick ice. In these lodges Albanel wintered. He was among strange Indians andsuffered incredible hardships. Where there was room, he, too, satcrouched under the crowded tent walls, scoffed at by the braves, teasedby the unrebuked children, eating when the squaws threw waste food tohim, going hungry when his French companions failed to bring in game. Sometimes night overtook him on the trail. Shovelling a bed throughthe snow to the moss with his snow-shoes, piling shrubs as awind-break, and kindling a roaring fire, the priest passed the nightunder the stars. 

When spring came, the Indians opposed his passage down the river. Acouncil was called. Albanel explained that his message was to bringthe Indians down to Quebec and keep them from going to the English fortrade. The Indians, who had acted as middlemen between Quebec tradersand the Northern tribes, saw the advantage of undermining the Englishtrade. Gifts were presented by the Frenchmen, and the friendship ofthe Indians was secured. On June 1, 1672, sixteen savages embarkedwith the three Frenchmen. For the next ten days, the difficulties werealmost insurmountable. The river tore through a deep gorge of sheerprecipices which the _voyageurs_ could pass only by clinging to therock walls with hands and feet. One _portage_ was twelve miles longover a muskeg of quaking moss that floated on water. At every step thetravellers plunged through to their waists. Over this the long canoesand baggage had to be carried. On the 10th of June they reached theheight of land that divides the waters of Hudson Bay from the St. Lawrence. The watershed was a small plateau with two lakes, one ofwhich emptied north, the other, south. As they approached LakeMistassini, the Lake Indians again opposed their free passage down therivers. 

"You must wait, " they said, "till we notify the elders of your coming. "Shortly afterwards, the French met a score of canoes with the Indiansall painted for war. The idea of turning back never occurred to thepriest. By way of demonstrating his joy at meeting the warriors, hehad ten volleys of musketry fired off, which converted the war into acouncil of peace. At the assemblage, Albanel distributed gifts to thesavages. 

"Stop trading with the English at the sea, " he cried; "they do not prayto God; come to Lake St. John with your furs; there you will alwaysfind a _robe noire_ to instruct you and baptize you. "

The treaty was celebrated by a festival and a dance. In the morning, after solemn religious services, the French embarked. On the 18th ofJune they came to Lake Mistassini, an enormous body of water similar tothe Great Lakes. [13] From Mistassini, the course was down-stream andeasier. High water enabled them to run many of the rapids; and on the28th of June, after a voyage of eight hundred leagues, four hundredrapids, and two hundred waterfalls, they came to the deserted houses ofthe English. The very next day they found the Indians and heldreligious services, making solemn treaty, presenting presents, andhoisting the French flag. For the first three weeks of July theycoasted along the shores of James Bay, taking possession of the countryin the name of the French king. Then they cruised back to King CharlesFort on Rupert's River. [14] They were just in time to meet thereturned Englishmen. 

Governor Bayly of the Hudson's Bay Company was astounded to find theFrench at Rupert's River. Now he knew what had allured the Indiansfrom the bay, but he hardly relished finding foreigners in possessionof his own fort. The situation required delicate tact. Governor Baylywas a bluff tradesman with an insular dislike of Frenchmen andCatholics common in England at a time when bigoted fanaticism ran riot. King Charles was on friendly terms with France. Therefore, theJesuit's passport must be respected; so Albanel was received with atleast a show of courtesy. But Bayly was the governor of a fur company;and the rights of the company must be respected. To make mattersworse, the French voyageurs brought letters to Groseillers and Radissonfrom their relatives in Quebec. Bayly, no doubt, wished the Jesuitguest far enough. Albanel left in a few weeks. Then Bayly'ssuspicions blazed out in open accusations that the two French explorershad been playing a double game and acting against English interests. In September came the company ship to the fort with Captain Gillam, whohad never agreed with Radisson from the time that they had quarrelledabout going from Port Royal to the straits of Hudson Bay. It has beensaid that, at this stage, Radisson and Groseillers, feeling theprejudice too strong against them, deserted and passed overland throughthe forests to Quebec. The records of the Hudson's Bay Company do notcorroborate this report. Bayly in the heat of his wrath sent homeaccusations with the returning ship. The ship that came out in 1674requested Radisson to go to England and report. This he did, and socompletely refuted the charges of disloyalty that in 1675 the companyvoted him 100 pounds a year; but Radisson would not sit quietly inEngland on a pension. Owing to hostility toward him among the Englishemployees of the company, he could not go back to the bay. Meantime hehad wife and family and servants to maintain on 100 pounds a year. IfEngland had no more need of him, France realized the fact that she had. Debts were accumulating. Restless as a caged tiger, Radisson foundhimself baffled until a message came from the great Colbert of France, offering to pay all his debts and give him a position in the Frenchnavy. His pardon was signed and proclaimed. In 1676, France grantedhim fishing privileges on the island of Anticosti; but the lodestar ofthe fur trade still drew him, for that year he was called to Quebec tomeet a company of traders conferring on the price of beaver. [15] Inthat meeting assembled, among others, Jolliet, La Salle, Groseillers, and Radisson--men whose names were to become immortal. 

It was plain that the two adventurers could not long rest. [16]

[1] Chailly-Bert. 

[2] The Jesuit expeditions of Dablon and Dreuillettes in 1661 hadfailed to reach the bay overland. Cabot had coasted Labrador in 1497;Captain Davis had gone north of Hudson Bay in 1585-1587; Hudson hadlost his life there in 1610. Sir Thomas Button had explored Baffin'sLand, Nelson River, and the Button Islands in 1612; Munck, the Dane, had found the mouth of the Churchill River in 1619, James and Fox hadexplored the inland sea in 1631; Shapley had brought a ship up fromBoston in 1640; and Bourdon, the Frenchman, had gone up to the straitsin 1656-1657. 

[3] George Carr, writing to Lord Arlington on December 14, 1665, says:"Hearing some Frenchmen discourse in New England . . . Of a great tradeof beaver, and afterward making proof of what they had said, he thoughtthem the best present he could possibly make his Majesty and persuadedthem to come to England. "

[4] Colonel Richard Nicolls, writing on July 31, 1665, says he"supposes Col. Geo. Cartwright is now at sea. "

[5] It plainly could not have been written while _en route_ across theAtlantic with Sir George Cartwright, for it records events after thattime. 

[6] Robson's _Hudson Bay_. 

[7] See Dr. N. E. Dionne, also Marie de l'Incarnation, but Sultediscredits this granting of a title. 

[8] See Robson's _Hudson Bay_, containing reference to the journal keptby Gorst, Bayly's secretary, at Rupert Fort. 

[9] See State Papers, Canadian Archives, 1676, January 26, Whitehall:Memorial of the Hudson Bay Company complaining of Albanel, a Jesuit, attempting to seduce Radisson and Groseillers from the company'sservices; in absence of ships pulling down the British ensign andtampering with the Indians. 

[10] I am inclined to think that Albanel may not have been aware of thedocuments which he carried from Quebec to the traders being practicallyan offer to bribe Radisson and Groseillers to desert England. Someaccounts say that Albanel was accompanied by Groseillers' son, but Ifind no authority for this. On the other hand, Albanel does notmention the Englishmen being present. Just as Radisson andGroseillers, ten years before, had taken possession of the old housebattered with bullets, so Albanel took possession of the deserted huts. Here is what his account says (Cramoisy edition of the _Relations_):"Le 28 June à peine avions nous avancé un quart de lieue, que nousrencontrasmes à main gauche dans un petit ruisseau un heu avec sesagrez de dix ou dou tonneaux, qui portoit le Pavilion Anglois et lavoile latine; delà à la portée du fusil, nous entrasmes dans deuxmaisons desertes . . . Nous rencontrasmes deux ou trois cabanes et unchien abandonné. . . . " His tampering with the Indians was simply thepresentation of gifts to attract them to Quebec. 

[11] See State Papers, Canadian Archives: M. Frontenac, the commanderof French (?) king's troops at Hudson Bay, introduces and recommendsFather Albanel. 

[12] State Papers, Canadian Archives. 

[13] For some years there were sensational reports that Mistassini waslarger than Lake Superior. Mr. Low, of the Canadian Geological Survey, in a very exhaustive report, shows this is not so. Still, the lakeranks with the large lakes of America. Mr. Low gives its dimensions asone hundred miles long and twelve miles wide. 

[14] There is a discrepancy in dates here which I leave savants toworry out. _Albanel's Relation_ (Cramoisy) is of 1672. Thomas Gorst, secretary to Governor Bayly, says that the quarrel took place in 1674. Oldmixon, who wrote from hearsay, says in 1673. Robson, who had accessto Hudson's Bay records, says 1676; and I am inclined to think they allagree. In a word, Radisson and Groseillers were on bad terms with thelocal Hudson's Bay Company governor from the first, and the openquarrel took place only in 1675. Considering the bigotry of the times, the quarrel was only natural. Bayly was governor, but he could nottake precedence over Radisson and Groseillers. He was Protestant andEnglish. They were Catholics and French. Besides, they were really atthe English governor's mercy; for they could not go back to Canadauntil publicly pardoned by the French king. 

[15] State Papers, Canadian Archives, October 20, 1676, Quebec: Reportof proceedings regarding the price of beaver . . . By an ordinance, October 19, 1676, M. Jacques Duchesneau, Intendant, had called ameeting of the leading fur traders to consult about fixing the price ofbeaver. There were present, among others, Robert, Cavelier de laSalle, . . . Charles le Moyne, . . . Two Godefroys of ThreeRivers, . . . Groseillers, . . . Jolliet, . . . Pierre Radisson. 

[16] Mr. Low's geological report on Labrador contains interestingparticulars of the route followed by Father Albanel. He speaks of thegorge and swamps and difficult _portages_ in precisely the same way asthe priest, though Albanel must have encountered the worst possibledifficulties on the route, for he went down so early in the spring. 

CHAPTER VI

1682-1684

RADISSON GIVES UP A CAREER IN THE NAVY FOR THE FUR TRADE

Though opposed by the Monopolists of Quebec, he secures Ships for aVoyage to Hudson Bay--Here he encounters a Pirate Ship from Boston andan English Ship of the Hudson's Bay Company--How he plays his Cards towin against Both Rivals

A clever man may be a dangerous rival. Both France and Englandrecognized this in Radisson. The Hudson's Bay Company distrusted himbecause he was a foreigner. The fur traders of Quebec were jealous. The Hudson's Bay Company had offered him a pension of 100 pounds a yearto do nothing. France had pardoned his secession to England, paid hisdebts, and given him a position in the navy, and when the fleet waswrecked returning from the campaign against Dutch possessions in theWest Indies, the French king advanced money for Radisson to refithimself; but France distrusted the explorer because he had an Englishwife. All that France and England wanted Radisson to do was to keepquiet. What the haughty spirit of Radisson would _not_ do for all thefortunes which two nations could offer to bribe him--was to keep quiet. He cared more for the game than the winnings; and the game of sittingstill and drawing a pension for doing nothing was altogether too tamefor Radisson. Groseillers gave up the struggle and retired for thetime to his family at Three Rivers. At Quebec, in 1676, Radisson heardof others everywhere reaping where he had sown. Jolliet and La Sallewere preparing to push the fur trade of New France westward of theGreat Lakes, where Radisson had penetrated twenty years previously. Fur traders of Quebec, who organized under the name of the Company ofthe North, yearly sent their canoes up the Ottawa, St. Maurice, andSaguenay to the forests south of Hudson Bay, which Radisson hadtraversed. On the bay itself the English company were entrenched. North, northwest, and west, Radisson had been the explorer; but thereward of his labor had been snatched by other hands. 

[Illustration: "Skin for Skin, " Coat of Arms and Motto, Hudson's BayCompany. ]

Radisson must have served meritoriously on the fleet, for after thewreck he was offered the command of a man-of-war; but he asked for acommission to New France. From this request there arose complications. His wife's family, the Kirkes, had held claims against New France fromthe days when the Kirkes of Boston had captured Quebec. These claimsnow amounted to 40, 000 pounds. M. Colbert, the great French statesman, hesitated to give a commission to a man allied by marriage with theenemies of New France. Radisson at last learned why preferment hadbeen denied him. It was on account of his wife. Twice Radissonjourneyed to London for Mary Kirke. Those were times of an easy changein faith. Charles II was playing double with Catholics andProtestants. The Kirkes were closely attached to the court; and itwas, perhaps, not difficult for the Huguenot wife to abjureProtestantism and declare herself a convert to the religion of herhusband. But when Radisson proposed taking her back to France, thatwas another matter. Sir John Kirke forbade his daughter's departuretill the claims of the Kirke family against New France had been paid. When Radisson returned without his wife, he was reproached by M. Colbert for disloyalty. The government refused its patronage to hisplans for the fur trade; but M. Colbert sent him to confer with LaChesnaye, a prominent fur trader and member of the Council in NewFrance, who happened to be in Paris at that time. La Chesnaye had beensent out to Canada to look after the affairs of a Rouen fur-tradingcompany. Soon he became a commissioner of the West Indies Company; andwhen the merchants of Quebec organized the Company of the North, LaChesnaye became a director. No one knew better than he how bitterlythe monopolists of Quebec would oppose Radisson's plans for a trip toHudson Bay; but the prospects were alluring. La Chesnaye was deeplyinvolved in the fur trade and snatched at the chance of profits tostave off the bankruptcy that reduced him to beggary a few years later. In defiance of the rival companies and independent of those with whichhe was connected, he offered to furnish ships and share profits withRadisson and Groseillers for a voyage to Hudson Bay. 

M. Colbert did not give his patronage to the scheme; but he wishedRadisson a God-speed. The Jesuits advanced Radisson money to pay hispassage; and in the fall of 1681, he arrived in Quebec. La Chesnayemet him, and Groseillers was summoned. The three then went to theChâteau Saint-Louis to lay their plans before the governor. Though theprivileges of the West Indies Company had been curtailed, the fur tradewas again regulated by license. [1] Frontenac had granted a license tothe Company of the North for the fur trade of Hudson Bay. He could notopenly favor Radisson; but he winked at the expedition by grantingpassports to the explorers, and the three men who were to accompanyhim, Jean Baptiste, son of Groseillers, Pierre Allemand, the pilot whowas afterward given a commission to explore the Eskimo country, andJean Godefroy, an interpreter. [2] Jean Baptiste, Radisson's nephew, invested 500 pounds in goods for barter. Others of Three Rivers andQuebec advanced money, to provision the ship. [3] Ten days afterRadisson's arrival in Quebec, the explorers had left the high fortressof the St. Lawrence to winter in Acadia. When spring came, they wentwith the fishing fleets to Isle Percée, where La Chesnaye was to sendthe ships. Radisson's ship, the _St. Pierre_, --named afterhimself, --came first, a rickety sloop of fifty tons with a crew oftwelve mutinous, ill-fed men, a cargo of goods for barter, and scantenough supply of provisions. Groseillers' ship, the _St. Anne_, wassmaller and better built, with a crew of fifteen. The explorers setsail on the 11th of July. From the first there was trouble with thecrews. Fresh-water _voyageurs_ make bad ocean sailors. Food wasshort. The voyage was to be long. It was to unknown waters, famousfor disaster. The sea was boisterous. In the months of June and July, the North Atlantic is beset with fog and iceberg. The ice sweeps southin mountainous bergs that have thawed and split before they reach thetemperate zones. [4] On the 30th of July the two ships passed theStraits of Belle Isle. Fog-banks hung heavy on the blue of the farwatery horizon. Out of the fog, like ghosts in gloom, drifted theshadowy ice-floes. The coast of Labrador consists of bare, domed, lonely hills alternated with rock walls rising sheer from the sea assome giant masonry. Here the rock is buttressed by a sharp angleknife-edged in a precipice. There, the beetling walls are guarded bylong reefs like the teeth of a saw. Over these reefs, the driftingtide breaks with multitudinous voices. The French _voyageurs_ hadnever known such seafaring. In the wail of the white-foamed reefs, their superstition heard the shriek of the demons. The explorers hadanchored in one of the sheltered harbors, which the sailors call"holes-in-the-wall. " The crews mutinied. They would go no fartherthrough ice-drift and fog to an unknown sea. Radisson never waited forthe contagion of fear to work. He ordered anchors up and headed foropen sea. Then he tried to encourage the sailors with promises. Theywould not hear him; for the ship's galley was nearly empty of food. Then Radisson threatened the first mutineer to show rebellion with suchsevere punishment as the hard customs of the age permitted. The crewsulked, biding its time. At that moment the lookout shouted "Sail ho!"

All hands discerned a ship with a strange sail, such as Dutch andSpanish pirates carried, bearing down upon them shoreward. The lesserfear was forgotten in the greater. The _St. Pierre's_ crew crowdedsail. Heading about, the two explorers' ships threaded the rock reefslike pursued deer. The pirate came on full speed before the wind. Night fell while Radisson was still hiding among the rocks. Notwithstanding reefs and high seas, while the pirate ship hove to forthe night, Radisson stole out in the dark and gave his pursuer theslip. The chase had saved him a mutiny. 

As the vessels drove northward, the ice drifted past like a white worldafloat. When Radisson approached the entrance to Hudson Bay, he metfloes in impenetrable masses. So far the ships had avoided delay bytacking along the edges of the ice-fields, from lake to lake of oceansurrounded by ice. Now the ice began to crush together, driven by windand tide with furious enough force to snap the two ships likeegg-shells. Radisson watched for a free passage, and, with a wind torear, scudded for shelter of a hole-in-the-wall. Here he met theEskimo, and provisions were replenished; but the dangers of theice-fields had frightened the crews again. In two days Radisson put tosea to avoid a second mutiny. The wind was landward, driving the iceback from the straits, and they passed safely into Hudson Bay. The iceagain surrounded them; but it was useless for the men to mutiny. Iceblocked up all retreat. Jammed among the floes, Groseillers was afraidto carry sail, and fell behind. Radisson drove ahead, now skirting theice-floes, now pounded by breaking icebergs, now crashing into surfacebrash or puddled ice to the fore. "We were like to have perished, " hewrites, "but God was pleased to preserve us. "

On the 26th of August, six weeks after sailing from Isle Percée, Radisson rode triumphantly in on the tide to Hayes River, south ofNelson River, where he had been with the English ships ten yearsbefore. Two weeks later the _Ste. Anne_, with Groseillers, arrived. The two ships cautiously ascended the river, seeking a harbor. Fifteenmiles from salt water, Radisson anchored. At last he was back in hisnative element, the wilderness, where man must set himself to conquerand take dominion over earth. 

Groseillers was always the trader, Radisson the explorer. Leaving hisbrother-in-law to build the fort, Radisson launched a canoe on HayesRiver to explore inland. Young Jean Groseillers accompanied him tolook after the trade with the Indians. [5] For eight days they paddledup a river that was destined to be the path of countless traders andpioneers for two centuries, and that may yet be destined to become thepath of a northern commerce. By September the floodtide of Hayes Riverhad subsided. In a week the _voyageurs_ had travelled probably threehundred miles, and were within the region of Lake Winnipeg, where theCree hunters assemble in October for the winter. Radisson had come tothis region by way of Lake Superior with the Cree hunters twenty yearsbefore, and his visit had become a tradition among the tribes. Beaverare busy in October gnawing down young saplings for winter food. Radisson observed chips floating past the canoe. Where there arebeaver, there should be Indians; so the _voyageurs_ paddled on. Onenight, as they lay round the camp-fire, with canoes overturned, a deer, startled from its evening drinking-place, bounded from the thicket. Asharp whistle--and an Indian ran from the brush of an island oppositethe camp, signalling the white men to head the deer back; but whenRadisson called from the waterside, the savage took fright and dashedfor the woods. 

All that night the _voyageurs_ kept sleepless guard. In the morningthey moved to the island and kindled a signal-fire to call the Indians. In a little while canoes cautiously skirted the island, and the chiefof the band stood up, bow and arrow in hand. Pointing his arrows tothe deities of north, south, east, and west, he broke the shaft tosplinters, as a signal of peace, and chanted his welcome:--

 "Ho, young men, be not afraid! The sun is favorable to us! Our enemies shall fear us! This is the man we have wished Since the days of our fathers!"

With a leap, the chief sprang into the water and swam ashore, followedby all the canoes. Radisson called out to know who was commander. Thechief, with a sign as old and universal as humanity, bowed his head inservility. Radisson took the Indian by the hand, and, seating him bythe fire, chanted an answer in Cree:--

 "I know all the earth! Your friends shall be my friends! I come to bring you arms to destroy your enemies! Nor wife nor child shall die of hunger! For I have brought you merchandise! Be of good cheer! I will be thy son! I have brought thee a father! He is yonder below building a fort Where I have two great ships!" [6]

The chief kept pace with the profuse compliments by vowing the life ofhis tribe in service of the white man. Radisson presented pipes andtobacco to the Indians. For the chief he reserved a fowling-piece withpowder and shot. White man and Indian then exchanged blankets. Presents were sent for the absent wives. The savages were so gratefulthat they cast all their furs at Radisson's feet, and promised to bringtheir hunt to the fort in spring. In Paris and London Radisson hadbeen harassed by jealousy. In the wilderness he was master ofcircumstance; but a surprise awaited him at Groseillers' fort. 

The French habitation--called Fort Bourbon--had been built on the northshore of Hayes or Ste. Therese River. Directly north, overland, wasanother broad river with a gulflike entrance. This was the Nelson. Between the two rivers ran a narrow neck of swampy, bush-grown land. The day that Radisson returned to the newly erected fort, there rolledacross the marshes the ominous echo of cannon-firing. Who could thenewcomers be? A week's sail south at the head of the bay were theEnglish establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company. The season was faradvanced. Had English ships come to winter on Nelson River? OrderingJean Groseillers to go back inland to the Indians, Radisson launcheddown Hayes River in search of the strange ship. He went to the saltwater, but saw nothing. Upon returning, he found that Jean Groseillershad come back to the fort with news of more cannonading farther inland. Radisson rightly guessed that the ship had sailed up Nelson River, firing cannon as she went to notify Indians for trade. Picking outthree intrepid men, Radisson crossed the marsh by a creek which theIndian canoes used, to go to Nelson River. [7] Through the brush thescout spied a white tent on an island. All night the Frenchmen lay inthe woods, watching their rivals and hoping that some workman mightpass close enough to be seized and questioned. At noon, next day, Radisson's patience was exhausted. He paddled round the island, andshowed himself a cannon-shot distant from the fort. Holding up a pole, Radisson waved as if he were an Indian afraid to approach closer inorder to trade. The others hallooed a welcome and gabbled out Indianwords from a guide-book. Radisson paddled a length closer. The othersran eagerly down to the water side away from their cannon. In signalof friendship, they advanced unarmed. Radisson must have laughed tosee how well his ruse worked. 

"Who are you?" he demanded in plain English, "and what do you want?"The traders called back that they were Englishmen come for beaver. Again the crafty Frenchman must have laughed; for he knew very wellthat all English ships except those of the Hudson's Bay Company wereprohibited by law from coming here to trade. [8] Though the strangeship displayed an English ensign, the flag did not show the magicalletters "H. B. C. "

"Whose commission have you?" pursued Radisson. 

"No commission--New Englanders, " answered the others. 

"Contrabands, " thought Radisson to himself. Then he announced that hehad taken possession of all that country for France, had built a strongfort, and expected more ships. In a word, he advised the NewEnglanders to save themselves by instant flight; but his canoe hadglided nearer. To Radisson's surprise, he discovered that the leaderof the New England poachers was Ben Gillam of Boston, son of CaptainGillam, the trusted servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, who hadopposed Radisson and Groseillers on Rupert's River. It looked as ifthe contraband might be a venture of the father as well as the son. [9]Radisson and young Gillam recognized each other with a show offriendliness, Gillam inviting Radisson to inspect the ship with muchthe same motive that the fabled spider invited the fly. Radisson tooktactful precaution for his own liberty by graciously asking that two ofthe New England servants go down to the canoe with the three Frenchmen. No sooner had Radisson gone on the New England ship than young Gillamordered cannon fired and English flags run up. Having made that braveshow of strength, the young man proposed that the French and the NewEnglanders should divide the traffic between them for the winter. Radisson diplomatically suggested that such an important proposal belaid before his colleagues. In leaving, he advised Gillam to keep hismen from wandering beyond the island, lest they suffer wrong at thehands of the French soldiers. Incidentally, that advice would alsokeep the New Englanders from learning how desperately weak the Frenchreally were. Neither leader was in the slightest deceived by theother; each played for time to take the other unawares, and each knewthe game that was being played. 

[Illustration: Hudson's Bay Company Coins, made of Lead melted from TeaChests at York Factory, each Coin representing so many Beaver Skins. ]

Instead of returning by the creek that cut athwart the neck of landbetween the two rivers, Radisson decided to go down Nelson River to thebay, round the point, and ascend Hayes River to the French quarters. Cogitating how to frighten young Gillam out of the country or else toseize him, Radisson glided down the swift current of Nelson Rivertoward salt water. He had not gone nine miles from the New Englanderswhen he was astounded by the spectacle of a ship breasting withfull-blown sails up the tide of the Nelson directly in front of theFrench canoe. The French dashed for the hiding of the brushwood onshore. From their concealment they saw that the ship was a Hudson'sBay Company vessel, armed with cannon and commission for lawful trade. If once the Hudson's Bay Company ship and the New Englanders united, the English would be strong enough to overpower the French. 

The majority of leaders would have escaped the impending disaster bytaking ingloriously to their heels. Radisson, with that adroitpresence of mind which characterized his entire life, had provided forhis followers' safety by landing them on the south shore, where theFrench could flee across the marsh to the ships if pursued. Then hisonly thought was how to keep the rivals apart. Instantly he had anenormous bonfire kindled. Then he posted his followers in ambush. Theship mistook the fire for an Indian signal, reefed its sails, andanchored. Usually natives paddled out to the traders' ships to barter. These Indians kept in hiding. The ship waited for them to come; andRadisson waited for the ship's hands to land. In the morning a gigboat was lowered to row ashore. In it were Captain Gillam, Radisson'spersonal enemy, John Bridgar, [10] the new governor of the Hudson's BayCompany for Nelson River, and six sailors. All were heavily armed, yetRadisson stood alone to receive them, with his three companions postedon the outskirts of the woods as if in command of ambushed forces. Fortune is said to favor the dauntless, and just as the boat camewithin gunshot of the shore, it ran aground. A sailor jumped out todrag the craft up the bank. They were all at Radisson's mercy--withoutcover. He at once levelled his gun with a shout of "Halt!" At thesame moment his own men made as if to sally from the woods. TheEnglish imagined themselves ambushed, and called out that they were theofficers of the Hudson's Bay Company. Radisson declared who he was andthat he had taken possession of the country for France. His musket wasstill levelled. His men were ready to dash forward. The English puttheir heads together and decided that discretion was the better part ofvalor. Governor Bridgar meekly requested permission to land and salutethe commander of the French. Then followed a pompous melodrama ofbravado, each side affecting sham strength. Radisson told the Englishall that he had told the New Englanders, going on board the Company'sship to dine, while English hostages remained with his Frenchfollowers. For reasons which he did not reveal, he strongly advisedGovernor Bridgar not to go farther up Nelson River. Above all, hewarned Captain Gillam not to permit the English sailors to wanderinland. Having exchanged compliments, Radisson took gracious leave ofhis hosts, and with his three men slipped down the Nelson in theircanoe. Past a bend in the river, he ordered the canoe ashore. TheFrench then skirted back through the woods and lay watching the Englishtill satisfied that the Hudson's Bay Company ship would go no nearerthe island where Ben Gillam lay hidden. 

Groseillers and his son looked after the trade that winter. Radissonhad his hands full keeping the two English crews apart. Ten days afterhis return, he again left Hayes River to see what his rivals weredoing. The Hudson's Bay Company ship had gone aground in the ooze amile from the fort where Governor Bridgar had taken up quarters. Thatdivision of forces weakened the English fort. Introducing his man ascaptain of a French ship, Radisson entered the governor's house. Thevisitors drained a health to their host and fired off muskets to learnwhether sentinels were on guard. No attention was paid to the unwontednoise. "I judged, " writes Radisson, "that they were careless, andmight easily be surprised. " He then went across to the river flats, where the tide had left the vessel, and, calmly mounting the ladder, took a survey of Gillam's ship. When the irate old captain rushed upto know the meaning of the intrusion Radisson suavely profferedprovisions, of which they were plainly in need. 

The New Englanders had been more industrious. A stoutly palisaded forthad been completed on young Gillam's island, and cannon commanded allapproach. Radisson fired a musket to notify the sentry, and took careto beach his canoe below the range of the guns. Young Gillam showed aless civil front than before. His lieutenant ironically congratulatedRadisson on his "safe" return, and invited him to visit the fort if hewould enter _alone_. When Radisson would have introduced his fourfollowers, the lieutenant swore "if the four French were forty devils, they could not take the New Englanders' fort. " The safety of theFrench habitation now hung by a hair. Everything depended on keepingthe two English companies apart, and they were distant only nine miles. The scheme must have flashed on Radisson in an intuition; for he laidhis plans as he listened to the boastings of the New Englanders. Iffather and son could be brought together through Radisson's favor, Captain Gillam would keep the English from coming to the New Englandfort lest his son should be seized for poaching on the trade of theCompany; and Ben Gillam would keep his men from going near the Englishfort lest Governor Bridgar should learn of the contraband ship fromBoston. Incidentally, both sides would be prevented from knowing theweakness of the French at Fort Bourbon. At once Radisson told youngGillam of his father's presence. Ben was eager to see his father and, as he thought, secure himself from detection in illegal trade. Radisson was to return to the old captain with the promised provisions. He offered to take young Gillam, disguised as a bush-ranger. Inreturn, he demanded (1) that the New Englanders should not leave theirfort; (2) that they should not betray themselves by discharging cannon;(3) that they shoot any Hudson's Bay Company people who tried to enterthe New England fort. To young Gillam these terms seemed designed forhis own protection. What they really accomplished was the completeprotection of the French from united attack. Father and son would haveput themselves in Radisson's power. A word of betrayal to Bridgar, theHudson's Bay governor, and both the Gillams would be arrested forillegal trade. Ben Gillam's visit to his father was fraught with allthe danger that Radisson's daring could have desired. A seaman halfsuspected the identity of the bush-ranger, and Governor Bridgar wantedto know how Radisson had returned so soon when the French fort was faraway. "I told him, smiling, " writes Radisson, "that I could fly whenthere was need to serve my friends. "

Young Gillam had begun to suspect the weakness of the French. When thetwo were safely out of the Hudson's Bay Company fort, he offered to gohome part of the way with Radisson. This was to learn where the Frenchfort lay. Radisson declined the kindly service and deliberately setout from the New Englanders' island in the wrong direction, coming downthe Nelson past young Gillam's fort at night. The delay of the tricknearly cost Radisson his life. Fall rains had set in, and the riverwas running a mill-race. Great floes of ice from the North weretossing on the bay at the mouth of the Nelson River in a maelstrom oftide and wind. In the dark Radisson did not see how swiftly his canoehad been carried down-stream. Before he knew it his boat shot out ofthe river among the tossing ice-floes of the bay. Surrounded by ice ina wild sea, he could not get back to land. The spray drove over thecanoe till the Frenchman's clothes were stiff with ice. For four hoursthey lay jammed in the ice-drift till a sudden upheaval crushed thecanoe to kindling wood and left the men stranded on the ice. Runningfrom floe to floe, they gained the shore and beat their way for threedays through a raging hurricane of sleet and snow toward the Frenchhabitation. They were on the side of the Hayes opposite the Frenchfort. Four _voyageurs_ crossed for them, and the little company atlast gained the shelter of a roof. 

Radisson now knew that young Gillam intended to spy upon the French; sohe sent scouts to watch the New Englanders' fort. The scouts reportedthat the young captain had sent messengers to obtain additional menfrom his father; but the New England soldiers, remembering Radisson'sorders to shoot any one approaching, had levelled muskets to fire atthe reënforcements. The rebuffed men had gone back to Governor Bridgarwith word of a fort and ship only nine miles up Nelson River. Bridgarthought this was the French establishment, and old Captain Gillam couldnot undeceive him. The Hudson's Bay Company governor had sent the twomen back to spy on what he thought was a French fort. At once Radissonsent out men to capture Bridgar's scouts, who were found half dead withcold and hunger. The captives reported to Radisson that the Englishship had been totally wrecked in the ice jam. Bridgar's people werestarving. Many traders would have left their rivals to perish. Radisson supplied them with food for the winter. They were no longerto be feared; but there was still danger from young Gillam. He hadwished to visit the French fort. Radisson decided to give him anopportunity. Ben Gillam was escorted down to Hayes River. A monthpassed quietly. The young captain had learned that the boasted forcesof the French consisted of less than thirty men. His insolence knew nobounds. He struck a French servant, called Radisson a pirate, andgathering up his belongings prepared to go home. Radisson quietlybarred the young man's way. 

"You pitiful dog!" said the Frenchman, coolly. "You poor young fool!Why do you suppose you were brought to this fort? We brought you herebecause it suited us! We keep you here as long as it suits us! Wetake you back when it suits us!"

Ben Gillam was dumfounded to find that he had been trapped, when he hadall the while thought that he was acting the part of a clever spy. Hebroke out in a storm of abuse. Radisson remanded the foolish young manto a French guard. At the mess-room table Radisson addressed hisprisoner:--

"Gillam, to-day I set out to capture your fort. "

At the table sat less than thirty men. Young Gillam gave one scornfulglance at the French faces and laughed. 

"If you had a hundred men instead of twenty, " he jeered. 

"How many have you, Ben?"

"Nine; and they'll kill you before you reach the palisades. "

Radisson was not talking of killing. 

"Gillam, " he returned imperturbably, "pick out nine of my men, and Ihave your fort within forty-eight hours. "

Gillam chose the company, and Radisson took one of the Hudson Baycaptives as a witness. The thing was done as easily as a piece offarcical comedy. French hostages had been left among the NewEnglanders as guarantee of Gillam's safety in Radisson's fort. Thesehostages had been instructed to drop, as if by chance, blocks of woodacross the doors of the guard-room and powder house and barracks. Eventhese precautions proved unnecessary. Two of Radisson's advance guard, who were met by the lieutenant of the New England fort, reported that"Gillam had remained behind. " The lieutenant led the two Frenchmeninto the fort. These two kept the gates open for Radisson, who marchedin with his band, unopposed. The keys were delivered and Radisson wasin possession. At midnight the watch-dogs raised an alarm, and theFrench sallied out to find that a New Englander had run to the Hudson'sBay Company for aid, and Governor Bridgar's men were attacking theships. All of the assailants fled but four, whom Radisson caughtransacking the ship's cabin. Radisson now had more captives than hecould guard, so he loaded the Hudson's Bay Company men with provisionsand sent them back to their own starving fort. 

Radisson left the New England fort in charge of his Frenchmen andreturned to the French quarters. Strange news was carried to himthere. Bridgar had forgotten all benefits, waited until Radisson'sback was turned, and, with one last desperate cast of the die toretrieve all by capturing the New England fort and ship for the furcompany, had marched against young Gillam's island. The French threwopen the gates for the Hudson's Bay governor to enter. Then theyturned the key and told Governor Bridgar that he was a prisoner. Their_coup_ was a complete triumph for Radisson. Both of his rivals wereprisoners, and the French flag flew undisputed over Port Nelson. 

Spring brought the Indians down to the bay with the winter's hunt. Thesight of threescore Englishmen captured by twenty Frenchmen roused thewar spirit of the young braves. They offered Radisson two hundredbeaver skins to be allowed to massacre the English. Radisson thankedthe savages for their good will, but declined their offer. Floods haddamaged the water-rotted timbers of the two old hulls in which theexplorers voyaged north. It was agreed to return to Quebec in BenGillam's boat. A vessel was constructed on one of the hulls to sendthe English prisoners to the Hudson's Bay Company forts at the southend of the bay. [11] Young Jean Groseillers was left, with seven men, to hold the French post till boats came in the following year. On the27th of July the ships weighed anchor for the homeward voyage. YoungGillam was given a free passage by way of Quebec. Bridgar was to havegone with his men to the Hudson's Bay Company forts at the south of thebay, but at the last moment a friendly Englishman warned Radisson thatthe governor's design was to wait till the large ship had left, headthe bark back for Hayes River, capture the fort, and put the Frenchmento the sword. To prevent this Bridgar, too, was carried to Quebec. Twenty miles out the ship was caught in ice-floes that held her for amonth, and Bridgar again conspired to cut the throats of the Frenchmen. Henceforth young Gillam and Bridgar were out on parole during the dayand kept under lock at night. 

The same jealousy as of old awaited Radisson at Quebec. The Company ofthe North was furious that La Chesnaye had sent ships to Hudson Bay, which the shareholders considered to be their territory by license. [12]Farmers of the Revenue beset the ship to seize the cargo, because theexplorers had gone North without a permit. La Chesnaye saved some ofthe furs by transshipping them for France before the vessel reachedQuebec. Then followed an interminable lawsuit, that exhausted theprofits of the voyage. La Barre had succeeded Frontenac as governor. The best friends of La Barre would scarcely deny that his sole ambitionas governor was to amass a fortune from the fur trade of Canada. Inspired by the jealous Company of the North, he refused to grantRadisson prize money for the capture of the contraband ship, restoredthe vessel to Gillam, and gave him clearance to sail for Boston. [13]For this La Barre was sharply reprimanded from France; but thereprimand did not mend the broken fortunes of the two explorers, whohad given their lives for the extension of the French domain. [14] M. Colbert summoned Radisson and Groseillers to return to France and givean account of all they had done; but when they arrived in Paris, onJanuary 15, 1684, they learned that the great statesman had died. LordPreston, the English envoy, had lodged such complaints against them forthe defeat of the Englishmen in Hudson Bay, that France hesitated toextend public recognition of their services. 

[1] Within ten years so many different regulations were promulgated onthe fur trade that it is almost impossible to keep track of them. In1673 orders came from Paris forbidding French settlers of New Francefrom wandering in the woods for longer than twenty-four hours. In 1672M. Frontenac forbade the selling of merchandise to _coureurs du bois_, or the purchase of furs from them. In 1675 a decree of the Council ofState awarded to M. Jean Oudiette one-fourth of all beaver, with theexclusive right of buying and selling in Canada. In 1676 Frontenacwithdrew from the _Cie Indes Occidentales_ all the rights it had overCanada and other places. An ordinance of October 1, 1682, forbade alltrade except under license. An ordinance in 1684 ordered all furtraders trading in Hudson Bay to pay one-fourth to Farmers of theRevenue. 

[2] It is hard to tell who this Godefroy was. Of all the famousGodefroys of Three Rivers (according to Abbé Tanguay) there was onlyone, Jean Batiste, born 1658, who might have gone with Radisson; but Ihardly think so. The Godefroys descended from the French nobility andthemselves bore titles from the king, but in spite of this, were thebest canoemen of New France, as ready--according to Mr. Sulte--to_faire la cuisine_ as to command a fort. Radisson's Godefroy evidentlywent in the capacity of a servant, for his name is not mentioned in theofficial list of promoters. On the other hand, parish records do notgive the date of Jean Batiste Godefroy's death; so that he may havegone as a servant and died in the North. 

[3] State Papers, 1683, state that Dame Sorel, La Chesnaye, Chaujon, Gitton, Foret, and others advanced money for the goods. 

[4] In 1898, when up the coast of Labrador, I was told by thesuperintendent of a northern whaling station--a man who has receivedroyal decorations for his scientific research of ocean phenomena--thathe has frequently seen icebergs off Labrador that were nine miles long. 

[5] Jean was born in 1654 and was, therefore, twenty-eight. 

[6] I have written both addresses as the Indians would chant them. Tobe sure, they will not scan according to the elephantine grace of thepedant's iambics; but then, neither will the Indian songs scan, thoughI know of nothing more subtly rhythmical. Rhythm is so much a part ofthe Indian that it is in his walk, in the intonation of his words, inthe gesture of his hands. I think most Westerners will bear me out insaying that it is the exquisitely musical intonation of words thatbetrays Indian blood to the third and fourth generation. 

[7] See Robson's map. 

[8] State Papers: "The Governor of New England is ordered to seize allvessels trading in Hudson Bay contrary to charter--"

[9] _Radisson's Journal_, p. 277. 

[10] Robson gives the commission to this governor. 

[11] Later in Hudson Bay history, when another commander captured theforts, the prisoners were sold into slavery. Radisson's treatment ofhis rivals hardly substantiates all the accusations of rascalitytrumped up against him. Just how many prisoners he took in this_coup_, no two records agree. 

[12] Archives, September 24, 1683: Ordinance of M. De Meulles regardingthe claims of persons interested in the expedition to Hudson Bay, organized by M. De la Chesnaye, Gitton, Bruneau, Mme. Sorel. . . . Inorder to avoid difficulties with the Company of the North, they hadplaced a vessel at Isle Percée to receive the furs brought back . . . And convey them to Holland and Spain. . . . Joachims de Chalons, agentof the Company of the North, sent a _bateau_ to Percée to defeat theproject. De la Chesnaye, summoned to appear before the intendant, maintained that the company had no right to this trade, . . . That theenterprise involved so many risks that he could not consent to dividethe profits, if he had any. The partners having been heard, M. DeMeulles orders that the boats from Hudson Bay be anchored at Quebec. 

[13] Archives, October 25, 1683: M. De la Barre grants Benjamin Gillamof Boston clearance for the ship _Le Garçon_, now in port at Quebec, although he had no license from his Britannic Majesty permitting him toenter Hudson Bay. 

[14] Such foundationless accusations have been written against Radissonby historians who ought to have known better, about these furs, that Iquote the final orders of the government on the subject: November 5, 1683, M. De la Barre forbids Chalons, agent of La Ferme du Canada, confiscating the furs brought from Hudson Bay; November 8 M. De laChesnaye is to be paid for the furs seized. 

CHAPTER VII

1684-1710

THE LAST VOYAGE OF RADISSON TO HUDSON BAY

France refuses to restore the Confiscated Furs and Radisson tries toredeem his Fortune--Reëngaged by England, he captures back Fort Nelson, but comes to Want in his Old Age--his Character

Radisson was now near his fiftieth year. He had spent his entire lifeexploring the wilds. He had saved New France from bankruptcy withcargoes of furs that in four years amounted to half a million of modernmoney. In ten years he had brought half a million dollars worth offurs to the English company. [1] Yet he was a poor man, threatened withthe sponging-house by clamorous creditors and in the power ofavaricious statesmen, who used him as a tool for their own schemes. LaChesnaye had saved his furs; but the half of the cargo that was theshare of Radisson and Groseillers had been seized at Quebec. [2] Onarriving in France, Groseillers presented a memorial of their wrong tothe court. [3] Probably because England and France were allied bytreaty at that time, the petition for redress was ignored. Groseillerswas now an old man. He left the struggle to Radisson and retired tospend his days in quietness. [4] Radisson did not cease to press hisclaim for the return of confiscated furs. He had a wife and fourchildren to support; but, in spite of all his services to England andFrance, he did not own a shilling's worth of property in the wholeworld. From January to May he waited for the tardy justice of theFrench court. When his suit became too urgent, he was told that he hadoffended the Most Christian King by attacking the fur posts under theprotection of a friendly monarch, King Charles. The hollowness of thatexcuse became apparent when the French government sanctioned thefitting out of two vessels for Radisson to go to Hudson Bay in thespring. Lord Preston, the English ambassador, was also playing adouble game. He never ceased to reproach the French for thedestruction of the fur posts on Hudson Bay. At the same time hebesieged Radisson with offers to return to the service of the Hudson'sBay Company. 

Radisson was deadly tired of the farce. From first to last France hadtreated him with the blackest injustice. If he had wished to be rich, he could long ago have accumulated wealth by casting in his lot withthe dishonest rulers of Quebec. In England a strong clique, headed byBridgar, Gillam, and Bering opposed him; but King Charles and the Dukeof York, Prince Rupert, when he was alive, Sir William Young, Sir JamesHayes, and Sir John Kirke were in his favor. His heart yearned for hiswife and children. Just then letters came from England urging him toreturn to the Hudson's Bay Company. Lord Preston plied the explorerwith fair promises. Under threat of punishment for molesting theEnglish of Hudson Bay, the French government tried to force him into acontract to sail on a second voyage to the North on the same terms asin 1682-1683--not to share the profits. England and France were bothplaying double. Radisson smiled a grim smile and took his resolution. Daily he conferred with the French Marine on details of the voyage. Hepermitted the date of sailing to be set for April 24. Sailors wereenlisted, stores put on board, everything was in readiness. At thelast moment, Radisson asked leave of absence to say good-by to hisfamily. The request was granted. Without losing a moment, he sailedfor England, where he arrived on the 10th of May and was at once takenin hand by Sir William Young and Sir James Hayes. He was honored ashis explorations entitled him to be. King Charles and the Duke of Yorkreceived him. Both royal brothers gave him gifts in token ofappreciation. He took the oath of fealty and cast in his lot with theEnglish for good. It was characteristic of the enthusiast that he was, when Radisson did not sign a strictly business contract with theHudson's Bay Company. "I accepted their commission with the greatestpleasure in the world, " he writes; ". . . Without any precautions on mypart for my own interests . . . Since they had confidence in me, Iwished to be generous towards them . . . In the hope they would renderme all the justice due from gentlemen of honor and probity. "

But to the troubles of the future Radisson always paid small heed. Glad to be off once more to the adventurous freedom of the wilds, heset sail from England on May 17, 1684, in the _Happy Return_, accompanied by two other vessels. No incident marked the voyage tillthe ships had passed through the straits and were driven apart by theice-drift of the bay. About sixty miles out from Port Nelson, the_Happy Return_ was held back by ice. Fearing trouble between youngJean Groseillers' men and the English of the other ships, Radissonembarked in a shallop with seven men in order to arrive at Hayes Riverbefore the other boats came. Rowing with might and main forforty-eight hours, they came to the site of the French fort. 

The fort had been removed. Jean Groseillers had his own troublesduring Radisson's absence. A few days after Radisson's departure inJuly, 1683, cannon announced the arrival of the annual English ships onNelson River. Jean at once sent out scouts, who found a tribe ofIndians on the way home from trading with the ships that had fired thecannon. The scouts brought the Indians back to the French fort. YoungGroseillers admitted the savages only one at a time; but the cunningbraves pretended to run back for things they had forgotten in theFrench house. Suspecting nothing, Jean had permitted his own men toleave the fort. On different pretexts, a dozen warriors had surroundedthe young trader. Suddenly the mask was thrown off. Springing up, treacherous as a tiger cat, the chief of the band struck at Groseillerswith a dagger. Jean parried the blow, grabbed the redskin by hiscollar of bears' claws strung on thongs, threw the assassin to theground almost strangling him, and with one foot on the villain's throatand the sword point at his chest, demanded of the Indians what theymeant. The savages would have fled, but French soldiers who had heardthe noise dashed to Groseillers' aid. The Indians threw down theirweapons and confessed all: the Englishmen of the ship had promised theband a barrel of powder to massacre the French. Jean took his footfrom the Indian's throat and kicked him out of the fort. The Englishoutnumbered the French; so Jean removed his fort farther from the bay, among the Indians, where the English could not follow. To keep thewarriors about him, he offered to house and feed them for the winter. This protected him from the attacks of the English. In the springIndians came to the French with pelts. Jean was short of firearms; sohe bribed the Indians to trade their peltries to the English for guns, and to retrade the guns to him for other goods. It was a stroke worthyof Radisson himself, and saved the little French fort. The Englishmust have suspected the young trader's straits, for they again paidwarriors to attack the French; but Jean had forestalled assault byforming an alliance with the Assiniboines, who came down Hayes Riverfrom Lake Winnipeg four hundred strong, and encamped a body-guardaround the fort. Affairs were at this stage when Radisson arrived withnews that he had transferred his services to the English. 

Young Groseillers was amazed. [5] Letters to his mother show that hesurrendered his charge with a very ill grace. "Do not forget, "Radisson urged him, "the injuries that France has inflicted on yourfather. " Young Groseillers' mother, Marguerite Hayet, was in want atThree Rivers. [6] It was memory of her that now turned the scales withthe young man. He would turn over the furs to Radisson for the EnglishCompany, if Radisson would take care of the far-away mother at ThreeRivers. The bargain was made, and the two embraced. The surrender ofthe French furs to the English Company has been represented asRadisson's crowning treachery. Under that odium the great discoverer'sname has rested for nearly three centuries; yet the accusation of theftis without a grain of truth. Radisson and Groseillers were to obtainhalf the proceeds of the voyage in 1682-1683. Neither the explorersnor Jean Groseillers, who had privately invested 500 pounds in theventure, ever received one sou. The furs at Port Nelson--or FortBourbon--belonged to the Frenchmen, to do what they pleased with them. The act of the enthusiast is often tainted with folly. That Radissonturned over twenty thousand beaver pelts to the English, without theslightest assurance that he would be given adequate return, was surelyfolly; but it was not theft. 

The transfer of all possessions to the English was promptly made. Radisson then arranged a peace treaty between the Indians and theEnglish. That peace treaty has endured between the Indians and theHudson's Bay Company to this day. A new fort was built, the fursstored in the hold of the vessels, and the crews mustered for thereturn voyage. Radisson had been given a solemn promise by theHudson's Bay Company that Jean Groseillers and his comrades should bewell treated and reëngaged for the English at 100 pounds a year. Nowhe learned that the English intended to ship all the French out ofHudson Bay and to keep them out. The enthusiast had played his gamewith more zeal than discretion. The English had what they wanted--fursand fort. In return, Radisson had what had misled him like awill-o'-the-wisp all his life--vague promises. In vain Radissonprotested that he had given his promise to the French before theysurrendered the fort. The English distrusted foreigners. TheFrenchmen had been mustered on the ships to receive last instructions. They were told that they were to be taken to England. No chance wasgiven them to escape. Some of the French had gone inland with theIndians. Of Jean's colony, these alone remained. When Radissonrealized the conspiracy, he advised his fellow-countrymen to make noresistance; for he feared that some of the English bitter against himmight seize on the pretext of a scuffle to murder the French. Hisadvice proved wise. He had strong friends at the English court, andatonement was made for the breach of faith to the French. 

The ships set sail on the 4th of September and arrived in England onthe 23d of October. Without waiting for the coach, Radisson hired ahorse and spurred to London in order to give his version first of thequarrel on the bay. The Hudson's Bay Company was delighted with thesuccess of Radisson. He was taken before the directors, given apresent of a hundred guineas, and thanked for his services. He wasonce more presented to the King and the Duke of York. The companyredeemed its promise to Radisson by employing the Frenchmen of thesurrendered fort and offering to engage young Groseillers at 100 poundsa year. [7]

[Illustration: Hudson Bay Dog Trains laden with Furs arriving at LowerFort Garry, Red River. (Courtesy of C. C. Chipman, Commissioner H. B. Company. )]

For five years the English kept faith with Radisson, and he made annualvoyages to the bay; but war broke out with France. New France enteredon a brilliant campaign against the English of Hudson Bay. Thecompany's profits fell. Radisson, the Frenchman, was distrusted. France had set a price on his head, and one Martinière went to PortNelson to seize him, but was unable to cope with the English. At notime did Radisson's salary with the company exceed 100 pounds; and now, when war stopped dividends on the small amount of stock which had beengiven to him, he fell into poverty and debt. In 1692 Sir William Youngpetitioned the company in his favor; but a man with a price on his headfor treason could plainly not return to France. [8] The French were inpossession of the bay. Radisson could do no harm to the English. Therefore the company ignored him till he sued them and receivedpayment in full for arrears of salary and dividends on stock which hewas not permitted to sell; but 50 pounds a year would not support a manwho paid half that amount for rent, and had a wife, four children, andservants to support. In 1700 Radisson applied for the position ofwarehouse keeper for the company at London. Even this was denied. 

The dauntless pathfinder was growing old; and the old cannot fight andlose and begin again as Radisson had done all his life. State Papersof Paris contain records of a Radisson with Tonty at Detroit![9] Wasthis his nephew, François Radisson's son, who took the name of theexplorer, or Radisson's own son, or the game old warrior himself, comeout to die on the frontier as he had lived?

History is silent. Until the year 1710 Radisson drew his allowance of50 pounds a year from the English Company, then the payments stopped. Did the dauntless life stop too? Oblivion hides all record of hisdeath, as it obscured the brilliant achievements of his life. 

There is no need to point out Radisson's faults. They are written onhis life without extenuation or excuse, so that all may read. There isless need to eulogize his virtues. They declare themselves in everyact of his life. This, only, should be remembered. Like allenthusiasts, Radisson could not have been a hero, if he had not been abit of a fool. If he had not had his faults, if he had not been asimpulsive, as daring, as reckless, as inconstant, as improvident of themorrow, as a savage or a child, he would not have accomplished theexploration of half a continent. Men who weigh consequences are not ofthe stuff to win empires. Had Radisson haggled as to the means, hewould have missed or muddled the end. He went ahead; and when the waydid not open, he went round, or crawled over, or carved his way through. 

There was an old saying among retired hunters of Three Rivers that "onelearned more in the woods than was ever found in l' peteecat-ee-cheesm. " Radisson's training was of the woods, rather than thecuré's catechism; yet who that has been trained to the strictest codemay boast of as dauntless faults and noble virtues? He was notfaithful to any country, but he was faithful to his wife and children;and he was "faithful to his highest hope, "--that of becoming adiscoverer, --which is more than common mortals are to their meanestaspirations. When statesmen played him a double game, he paid themback in their own coin with compound interest. Perhaps that is whythey hated him so heartily and blackened his memory. But amid all themad license of savage life, Radisson remained untainted. Otherexplorers and statesmen, too, have left a trail of blood to perpetuatetheir memory; Radisson never once spilled human blood needlessly, andwas beloved by the savages. 

Memorial tablets commemorate other discoverers. Radisson needs none. The Great Northwest is his monument for all time. 

[1] Radisson's petition to the Hudson's Bay Company gives these amounts. 

[2] See State Papers quoted in Chapter VI. I need scarcely add thatRadisson did not steal a march on his patrons by secretly shipping fursto Europe. This is only another of the innumerable slanders againstRadisson which State Papers disprove. 

[3] It seems impossible that historians with the slightest regard fortruth should have branded this part of _Radisson's Relation_ as afabrication, too. Yet such is the case, and of writers whose books aresupposed to be reputable. Since parts of Radisson's life appeared inthe magazines, among many letters I received one from a well-knownhistorian which to put it mildly was furious at the acceptance of_Radisson's Journal_ as authentic. In reply, I asked that historianhow many documents contemporaneous with Radisson's life he hadconsulted before he branded so great an explorer as Radisson as a liar. Needless to say, that question was not answered. In corroboration ofthis part of Radisson's life, I have lying before me: (1) Chouart'sletters--see Appendix. (2) A letter of Frontenac recording Radisson'sfirst trip by boat for De la Chesnaye and the complications it would belikely to cause. (3) A complete official account sent from Quebec toFrance of Radisson's doings in the bay, which tallies in every respectwith _Radisson's Journal_. (4) Report of M. De Meulles to the Ministeron the whole affair with the English and New Englanders. (5) Anofficial report on the release of Gillam's boat at Quebec. (6) Thememorial presented by Groseillers to the French minister. (7) Anofficial statement of the first discovery of the bay overland. (8) Acomplete statement (official) of the complications created byRadisson's wife being English. (9) A statement through a thirdparty--presumably an official--by Radisson himself of thesecomplications dated 1683. (10) A letter from the king to the governorat Quebec retailing the English complaints of Radisson at Nelson River. 

In the face of this, what is to be said of the historian who callsRadisson's adventures "a fabrication"? Such misrepresentation betraysabout equal amounts of impudence and ignorance. 

[4] From Charlevoix to modern writers mention is made of the death ofthese two explorers. Different names are given as the places wherethey died. This is all pure supposition. Therefore I do not quote. No records exist to prove where Radisson and Groseillers died. 

[5] See Appendix. 

[6] State Papers record payment of money to her because she was in want. 

[7] Dr. George Bryce, who is really the only scholar who has tried tounravel the mystery of Radisson's last days, supplies new facts abouthis dealings with the Company to 1710. 

[8] Marquis de Denonville ordered the arrest of Radisson wherever hemight be found. 

[9] Appendix; see State Papers. 

PART II

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA: BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, THE MISSOURI UPLANDS, AND THE VALLEY OF THE SASKATCHEWAN

CHAPTER VIII

1730-1750

THE SEARCH FOR THE WESTERN SEA[1]

M. De la Vérendrye continues the Exploration of the Great Northwest byestablishing a Chain of Fur Posts across the Continent--Privations ofthe Explorers and the Massacre of Twenty Followers--His Sons visit theMandans and discover the Rockies--The Valley of the Saskatchewan isnext explored, but Jealousy thwarts the Explorer, and he dies in Poverty

I

1731-1736

A curious paradox is that the men who have done the most for NorthAmerica did not intend to do so. They set out on the far quest of acrack-brained idealist's dream. They pulled up at a foreshortenedpurpose; but the unaccomplished aim did more for humanity than theidealist's dream. 

Columbus set out to find Asia. He discovered America. Jacques Cartiersought a mythical passage to the Orient. He found a northern empire. La Salle thought to reach China. He succeeded only in exploring thevalley of the Mississippi, but the new continent so explored has donemore for humanity than Asia from time immemorial. Of all crack-braineddreams that led to far-reaching results, none was wilder than thesearch for the Western Sea. Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle hadfollowed the trail that Radisson had blazed and explored the valley ofthe Mississippi; but like a will-o'-the-wisp beckoning ever westwardwas that undiscovered myth, the Western Sea, thought to lie like anarrow strait between America and Japan. 

The search began in earnest one sweltering afternoon on June 8, 1731, at the little stockaded fort on the banks of the St. Lawrence, whereMontreal stands to-day. Fifty grizzled adventurers--wood runners, voyageurs, Indian interpreters--bareheaded, except for the coloredhandkerchief binding back the lank hair, dressed in fringed buckskin, and chattering with the exuberant nonchalance of boys out of school, had finished gumming the splits of their ninety-foot birch canoes, andnow stood in line awaiting the coming of their captain, Sieur PierreGaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye. The French soldier with histhree sons, aged respectively eighteen, seventeen, and sixteen, nowessayed to discover the fabled Western Sea, whose narrow waters weresupposed to be between the valley of the "Great Forked River" and theEmpire of China. 

[Illustration: Indians and Hunters spurring to the Fight. ]

Certainly, if it were worth while for Peter the Great of Russia to sendVitus Bering coasting the bleak headlands of ice-blocked, misty shoresto find the Western Sea, it would--as one of the French governorsreported--"be nobler than open war" for the little colony of New Franceto discover this "sea of the setting sun. " The quest was invested withall the rainbow tints of "_la gloire_"; but the rainbow hopes werefounded on the practical basis of profits. Leading merchants ofMontreal had advanced goods for trade with the Indians on the way tothe Western Sea. Their expectations of profits were probably the sameas the man's who buys a mining share for ten cents and looks fordividends of several thousand per cent. And the fur trade at that timewas capable of yielding such profits. Traders had gone West with lessthan $2000 worth of goods in modern money, and returned three yearslater with a sheer profit of a quarter of a million. Hope of suchreturns added zest to De la Vérendrye's venture for the discovery ofthe Western Sea. 

Goods done up in packets of a hundred pounds lay at the feet of the_voyageurs_ awaiting De la Vérendrye's command. A dozen soldiers inthe plumed hats, slashed buskins, the brightly colored doublets of theperiod, joined the motley company. Priests came out to bless thedeparting _voyageurs_. Chapel bells rang out their God-speed. To thebooming of cannon, and at a word from De la Vérendrye, the gatesopened. Falling in line with measured tread, the soldiers marched outfrom Mount Royal. Behind, in the ambling gait of the moccasinedwoodsman, came the _voyageurs_ and _coureurs_ and interpreters, pack-straps across their foreheads, packets on the bent backs, the longbirch canoes hoisted to the shoulders of four men, two abreast at eachend, heads hidden in the inverted keel. 

The path led between the white fret of Lachine Rapids and the denseforests that shrouded the base of Mount Royal. Checkerboard squares offarm patches had been cleared in the woods. La Salle's oldthatch-roofed seigniory lay not far back from the water. St. Anne'swas the launching place for fleets of canoes that were to ascend theOttawa. Here, a last look was taken of splits and seams in the birchkeels. With invocations of St. Anne in one breath, and invocations ofa personage not mentioned in the curé's "petee cat-ee-cheesm" in thenext breath, and imprecations that their "souls might be smashed on theend of a picket fence, "--the _voyageur's_ common oath even to thisday, --the boatmen stored goods fore, aft, and athwart till each longcanoe sank to the gunwale as it was gently pushed out on the water. Alast sign of the cross, and the lithe figures leap light as a mountaincat to their place in the canoes. There are four benches of paddlers, two abreast, with bowman and steersman, to each canoe. One can guessthat the explorer and his sons and his nephew, Sieur de la Jemmeraie, who was to be second in command, all unhatted as they heard the longlast farewell of the bells. Every eye is fastened on the chiefbowman's steel-shod pole, held high--there is silence but for thebells--the bowman's pole is lowered--as with one stroke out sweep thepaddles in a poetry of motion. The chimes die away over the water, thechapel spire gleams--it, too, is gone. Some one strikes up a plaintiveditty, --the _voyageur's_ song of the lost lady and the faded roses, orthe dying farewell of Cadieux, the hunter, to his comrades, --and theadventurers are launched for the Western Sea. 

[Illustration: Fight at the Foot-hills of the Rockies between Crows andSnakes. ]

II

1731-1736

Every mile westward was consecrated by heroism. There was the placewhere Cadieux, the white hunter, went ashore single-handed to hold theIroquois at bay, while his comrades escaped by running the rapids; butCadieux was assailed by a subtler foe than the Iroquois, _la folie desbois_, --the folly of the woods, --that sends the hunter wandering inendless circles till he dies from hunger; and when his companionsreturned, Cadieux lay in eternal sleep with a death chant scribbled onbark across his breast. There were the Rapids of the Long Sault whereDollard and seventeen Frenchmen fought seven hundred Iroquois tillevery white man fell. Not one of all De la Vérendrye's fifty followersbut knew that perils as great awaited him. 

Streaked foam told the voyageurs where they were approaching rapids. Alert as a hawk, the bowman stroked for the shore; and his stroke wasanswered by all paddles. If the water were high enough to carry thecanoes above rocks, and the rapids were not too violent, several of theboatmen leaped out to knees in water, and "tracked" the canoes upstream; but this was unusual with loaded craft. The bowman steadiedthe beached keel. Each man landed with pack on his back, lighted hispipe, and trotted away over portages so dank and slippery that only amoccasined foot could gain hold. On long portages, camp-fires werekindled and the kettles slung on the crotched sticks for the eveningmeal. At night, the voyageurs slept under the overturned canoes, orlay on the sand with bare faces to the sky. Morning mist had not risentill all the boats were once more breasting the flood of the Ottawa. For a month the canoe prows met the current when a portage lifted thefleet out of the Ottawa into a shallow stream flowing toward LakeNipissing, and from Lake Nipissing to Lake Huron. The change was awelcome relief. The canoes now rode with the current; and when a windsprang up astern, blanket sails were hoisted that let the boatmen lieback, paddles athwart. Going with the stream, the _voyageurs_ would"run"--"_sauter les rapides_"--the safest of the cataracts. Bowman, not steersman, was the pilot of such "runs. " A faint, far swish as ofnight wind, little forward leaps and swirls of the current, the blur oftrees on either bank, were signs to the bowman. He rose in hisplace. A thrust of the steel-shod pole at a rock in mid-stream--therock raced past; a throb of the keel to the live waters below--thebowman crouches back, lightening the prow just as a rider "lifts" hishorse to the leap; a sudden splash--the thing has happened--the canoehas run the rapids or shot the falls. 

[Illustration: "Each man landed with pack on his back, and trottedaway over portages. "]

Pause was made at Lake Huron for favorable weather; and a rear windwould carry the canoes at a bouncing pace clear across toMichilimackinac, at the mouth of Lake Michigan. This was the chief furpost of the lakes at that time. All the boats bound east or west, Sioux and Cree and Iroquois and Fox, traders' and priests' andoutlaws'--stopped at Michilimackinac. Vice and brandy and religionwere the characteristics of the fort. 

[Illustration: A Cree Indian of the Minnesota Borderlands. ]

This was familiar ground to De la Vérendrye. It was at the lonely furpost of Nepigon, north of Michilimackinac, in the midst of a wildernessforest, that he had eaten his heart out with baffled ambition from 1728to 1730, when he descended to Montreal to lay before M. De Beauharnois, the governor, plans for the discovery of the Western Sea. Born atThree Rivers in 1686, where the passion for discovery and Radisson'sfame were in the very air and traders from the wilderness of the UpperCountry wintered, young Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye, atthe ambitious age of fourteen, determined that he would become adiscoverer. [2] At eighteen he was fighting in New England, at nineteenin Newfoundland, at twenty-three in Europe at the battle of Malplaquet, where he was carried off the field with nine wounds. Eager for moredistinguished service, he returned to Canada in his twenty-seventhyear, only to find himself relegated to an obscure trading post in farNorthern wilds. Then the boyhood ambitions reawakened. All France andCanada, too, were ringing with projects for the discovery of theWestern Sea. Russia was acting. France knew it. The great priestCharlevoix had been sent to Canada to investigate plans for theventure, and had recommended an advance westward through the country ofthe Sioux; but the Sioux[3] swarmed round the little fort at Lake Pepinon the Mississippi like angry wasps. That way, exploration was plainlybarred. Nothing came of the attempt except a brisk fur trade and abrisker warfare on the part of the Sioux. At the lonely post ofNepigon, vague Indian tales came to De la Vérendrye of "a great riverflowing west" and "a vast, flat country devoid of timber" with "largeherds of cattle. " Ochagach, an old Indian, drew maps on birch barkshowing rivers that emptied into the Western Sea. De la Vérendrye'ssmouldering ambitions kindled. He hurried to Michilimackinac. Therethe traders and Indians told the same story. Glory seemed suddenlywithin De la Vérendrye's grasp. Carried away with the passion fordiscovery that ruled his age, he took passage in the canoes bound forQuebec. The Marquis Charles de Beauharnois had become governor. Hisbrother Claude had taken part in the exploration of the Mississippi. The governor favored the project of the Western Sea. Perhaps Russia'sactivity gave edge to the governor's zest; but he promised De laVérendrye the court's patronage and prestige. This was not money. France would not advance the enthusiast one sou, but granted him amonopoly of the fur trade in the countries which he might discover. The winter of 1731-1732 was spent by De la Vérendrye as the guest ofthe governor at Château St. Louis, arranging with merchants to furnishgoods for trade; and on May 19 the agreement was signed. By a luckycoincidence, the same winter that M. De la Vérendrye had come down toQuebec, there had arrived from the Mississippi fort, his nephew, Christopher Dufrost, Sieur de la Jemmeraie, who had commanded the Siouxpost and been prisoner among the Indians. So M. De la Vérendrye choseJemmeraie for lieutenant. 

And now the explorer was back at Michilimackinac, on the way to theaccomplishment of the daring ambition of his life. The trip fromMontreal had fatigued the _voyageurs_. Brandy flowed at the lake postfreely as at a modern mining camp. The explorer kept militarydiscipline over his men. They received no pay which could besquandered away on liquor. Discontent grew rife. Taking FatherMessaiger, the Jesuit, as chaplain, M. De la Vérendrye ordered hisgrumbling _voyageurs_ to their canoes, and, passing through the Straitsof the Sault, headed his fleet once more for the Western Sea. Otherexplorers had preceded him on this part of the route. The Jesuits hadcoasted the north shore of Lake Superior. So had Radisson. In 1688 DeNoyon of Three Rivers had gone as far west as the Lake of the Woodstowards what is now Minnesota and Manitoba; and in 1717 De Lanoue hadbuilt a fur post at Kaministiquia, near what is now Fort William onLake Superior. The shore was always perilous to the boatman of frailcraft. The harbors were fathoms deep, and the waves thrashed by across wind often proved as dangerous as the high sea. It took M. De laVérendrye's canoemen a month to coast from the Straits of Mackinaw toKaministiquia, which they reached on the 26th of August, seventy-eightdays after they had left Montreal. The same distance is now traversedin two days. 

Prospects were not encouraging. The crews were sulky. Kaministiquiawas the outermost post in the West. Within a month, the early Northernwinter would set in. One hunter can scramble for his winter's foodwhere fifty will certainly starve; and the Indians could not beexpected back from the chase with supplies of furs and food tillspring. The canoemen had received no pay. Free as woodland denizens, they chafed under military command. Boats were always setting out atthis season for the homeland hamlets of the St. Lawrence; and perhapsother hunters told De la Vérendrye's men that this Western Sea was awill-o'-the-wisp that would lead for leagues and leagues over strangelands, through hostile tribes, to a lonely death in the wilderness. When the explorer ordered his men once more in line to launch for theWestern Sea, there was outright mutiny. Soldiers and boatmen refusedto go on. The Jesuit Messaiger threatened and expostulated with themen. Jemmeraie, who had been among the Sioux, interceded with the_voyageurs_. A compromise was effected. Half the boatmen would goahead with Jemmeraie if M. De la Vérendrye would remain with the otherhalf at Lake Superior as a rear guard for retreat and the supply ofprovisions. So the explorer suffered his first check in the advance tothe Western Sea. 

III

1732-1736

Equipping four canoes, Lieutenant de la Jemmeraie and young JeanBa'tiste de la Vérendrye set out with thirty men from Kaministiquia, _portaged_ through dense forests over moss and dank rock past the highcataract of the falls, and launched westward to prepare a fort for thereception of their leader in spring. Before winter had closednavigation, Fort St. Pierre--named in honor of the explorer--had beenerected on the left bank or Minnesota side of Rainy Lake, and the twoyoung men not only succeeded in holding their mutinous followers, butdrove a thriving trade in furs with the Crees. Perhaps the furs wereobtained at too great cost, for ammunition and firearms were the pricepaid, but the same mistake has been made at a later day for a lesserobject than the discovery of the Western Sea. The spring of 1732 sawthe young men back at Lake Superior, going post-haste toMichilimackinac to exchange furs for the goods from Montreal. 

On the 8th of June, exactly a year from the day that he had leftMontreal, M. De la Vérendrye pushed forward with all his people forFort St. Pierre. Five weeks later he was welcomed inside thestockades. Uniformed soldiers were a wonder to the awe-struck Crees, who hung round the gateway with hands over their hushed lips. Gifts ofammunition won the loyalty of the chiefs. Not to be lacking ingenerosity, the Indians collected fifty of their gaudiest canoes andoffered to escort the explorer west to the Lake of the Woods. De laVérendrye could not miss such an offer. Though his _voyageurs_ werefatigued, he set out at once. He had reached Fort St. Pierre on July14. In August his entire fleet glided over the Lake of the Woods. Thethreescore canoes manned by the Cree boatmen threaded the shadowydefiles and labyrinthine channels of the Lake of the Woods--or Lake ofthe Isles--coasting island after island along the south or Minnesotashore westward to the opening of the river at the northwest angle. This was the border of the Sioux territory. Before the boatmen openedthe channel of an unknown river. Around them were sheltered harbors, good hunting, and good fishing. The Crees favored this region forwinter camping ground because they could hide their families from theSioux on the sheltered islands of the wooded lake. Night frosts hadpainted the forests red. The flacker of wild-fowl overhead, the skimof ice forming on the lake, the poignant sting of the north wind--allfore-warned winter's approach. Jean de la Vérendrye had not come upwith the supplies from Michilimackinac. The explorer did not temptmutiny by going farther. He ordered a halt and began building a fortthat was to be the centre of operations between Montreal and theunfound Western Sea. The fort was named St. Charles in honor ofBeauharnois. It was defended by four rows of thick palisades fifteenfeet high. In the middle of the enclosure stood the living quarters, log cabins with thatched roofs. 

[Illustration: A Group of Cree Indians. ]

By October the Indians had scattered to their hunting-grounds likeleaves to the wind. The ice thickened. By November the islands wereice-locked and snow had drifted waist-high through the forests. The_voyageurs_ could still fish through ice holes for food; but where wasyoung Jean who was to bring up provisions from Michilimackinac? Thecommander did not voice his fears; and his men were too deep in thewilds for desertion. One afternoon, a shout sounded from the silentwoods, and out from the white-edged evergreens stepped a figure onsnowshoes--Jean de la Vérendrye, leading his boatmen, with theprovisions packed on their backs, from a point fifty miles away wherethe ice had caught the canoes. If the supplies had not come, theexplorer could neither have advanced nor retreated in spring. It was arisk that De la Vérendrye did not intend to have repeated. Suspectingthat his merchant partners were dissatisfied, he sent Jemmeraie down toMontreal in 1733 to report and urge the necessity for prompt forwardingof all supplies. With Jemmeraie went the Jesuit Messaiger; but theircombined explanations failed to satisfy the merchants of Montreal. Dela Vérendrye had now been away three years. True, he had constructedtwo fur posts and sent East two cargoes of furs. His partners werelooking for enormous wealth. Disappointed and caring nothing for theWestern Sea; perhaps, too, secretly accusing De la Vérendrye of makingprofits privately, as many a gentleman of fortune did, --the merchantsdecided to advance provisions only in proportion to earnings. Whatwould become of the fifty men in the Northern wilderness the partnersneither asked nor cared. 

Young Jean had meanwhile pushed on and built Fort Maurepas on LakeWinnipeg; but his father dared not leave Fort St. Charles withoutsupplies. De la Vérendrye's position was now desperate. He washopelessly in debt to his men for wages. That did not help discipline. His partners were not only withholding supplies, but charging up a highrate of interest on the first equipment. To turn back meant ruin. Togo forward he was powerless. Leaving Jemmeraie in command, andpermitting his eager son to go ahead with a few picked men to FortMaurepas on Lake Winnipeg, De la Vérendrye took a small canoe anddescended with all swiftness to Quebec. The winter of 1634-1635 wasspent with the governor; and the partners were convinced that they musteither go on with the venture or lose all. They consented to continuesupplying goods, but also charging all outlay against the explorer. 

Father Aulneau went back with De la Vérendrye as chaplain. The tripwas made at terrible speed, in the hottest season, through stiflingforest fires. Behind, at slower pace, came the provisions. De laVérendrye reached the Lake of the Woods in September. Fearing thedelay of the goods for trade, and dreading the danger of famine with somany men in one place, De la Vérendrye despatched Jemmeraie to winterwith part of the forces at Lake Winnipeg, where Jean and Pierre, thesecond son, had built Fort Maurepas. The worst fears were realized. Ice had blocked the Northern rivers by the time the supplies had cometo Lake Superior. Fishing failed. The hunt was poor. During thewinter of 1736 food became scantier at the little forts of St. Pierre, St. Charles, and Maurepas. Rations were reduced from three times toonce and twice a day. By spring De la Vérendrye was put to all theextremities of famine-stricken traders, his men subsisting onparchment, moccasin leather, roots, and their hunting dogs. 

He was compelled to wait at St. Charles for the delayed supplies. While he waited came blow upon blow: Jean and Pierre arrived from FortMaurepas with news that Jemmeraie had died three weeks before on hisway down to aid De la Vérendrye. Wrapped in a hunter's robe, his bodywas buried in the sand-bank of a little Northern stream, La Fourche desRoseaux. Over the lonely grave the two brothers had erected a cross. Father and sons took stock of supplies. They had not enough powder tolast another month, and already the Indians were coming in with fursand food to be traded for ammunition. If the Crees had known theweakness of the white men, short work might have been made of Fort St. Charles. It never entered the minds of De la Vérendrye and his sons togive up. They decided to rush three canoes of twenty _voyageurs_ toMichilimackinac for food and powder. Father Aulneau, the young priest, accompanied the boatmen to attend a religious retreat atMichilimackinac. It had been a hard year for the youthful missionary. The ship that brought him from France had been plague-stricken. Thetrip to Fort St. Charles had been arduous and swift, through stiflingheat; and the year passed in the North was one of famine. 

Accompanied by the priest and led by Jean de la Vérendrye, now in histwenty-third year, the _voyageurs_ embarked hurriedly on the 8th ofJune, 1736, five years to a day from the time that they leftMontreal--and a fateful day it was--in the search for the Western Sea. The Crees had always been friendly; and when the boatmen landed on asheltered island twenty miles from Fort St. Charles to camp for thenight, no sentry was stationed. The lake lay calm as glass in the hotJune night, the camp-fire casting long lines across the water thatcould be seen for miles. An early start was to be made in the morningand a furious pace to be kept all the way to Lake Superior, and the_voyageurs_ were presently sound asleep on the sand. The keenest earscould scarcely have distinguished the soft lapping of muffled paddles;and no one heard the moccasined tread of ambushed Indiansreconnoitring. Seventeen Sioux stepped from their canoes, stole fromcover to cover, and looked out on the unsuspecting sleepers. Then theIndians as noiselessly slipped back to their canoes to carry word ofthe discovery to a band of marauders. 

[Illustration: "The soldiers marched out from Mount Royal. "]

Something had occurred at Fort St. Charles without M. De la Vérendrye'sknowledge. Hilarious with their new possessions of firearms, andperhaps, also, mad with the brandy of which Father Aulneau hadcomplained, a few mischievous Crees had fired from the fort onwandering Sioux of the prairie. 

"Who--fire--on--us?" demanded the outraged Sioux. 

"The French, " laughed the Crees. 

The Sioux at once went back to a band of one hundred and thirtywarriors. "Tigers of the plains" the Sioux were called, and now thetigers' blood was up. They set out to slay the first white man seen. By chance, he was one Bourassa, coasting by himself. Taking himcaptive, they had tied him to burn him, when a slave squaw rushed out, crying: "What would you do? This Frenchman is a friend of the Sioux!He saved my life! If you desire to be avenged, go farther on! Youwill find a camp of Frenchmen, among whom is the son of the whitechief!"

The _voyageur_ was at once unbound, and scouts scattered to find thewhite men. Night had passed before the scouts had carried news of Jeande la Vérendrye's men to the marauding warriors. The ghostly gray ofdawn saw the _voyageurs_ paddling swiftly through the morning mist fromisland to island of the Lake of the Woods. Cleaving the mist behind, following solely by the double foam wreaths rippling from the canoeprows, came the silent boats of the Sioux. When sunrise lifted thefog, the pursuers paused like stealthy cats. At sunrise Jean de laVérendrye landed his crews for breakfast. Camp-fires told the Indianswhere to follow. 

A few days later bands of Sautaux came to the camping ground of theFrench. The heads of the white men lay on a beaver skin. All had beenscalped. The missionary, Aulneau, was on his knees, as if in morningprayers. An arrow projected from his head. His left hand was on theearth, fallen forward, his right hand uplifted, invoking Divine aid. Young Vérendrye lay face down, his back hacked to pieces, a spear sunkin his waist, the headless body mockingly decorated with porcupinequills. So died one of the bravest of the young nobility in New France. 

The Sautaux erected a cairn of stones over the bodies of the dead. Allthat was known of the massacre was vague Indian gossip. The Siouxreported that they had not intended to murder the priest, but acrazy-brained fanatic had shot the fatal arrow and broken fromrestraint, weapon in hand. Rain-storms had washed out all marks of thefray. 

In September the bodies of the victims were carried to Fort St. Charles, and interred in the chapel. Eight hundred Crees besought M. De la Vérendrye to let them avenge the murder; but the veteran ofMalplaquet exhorted them not to war. Meanwhile, Fort St. Charlesawaited the coming of supplies from Lake Superior. 

IV

1736-1740

A week passed, and on the 17th of June the canoe loads of ammunitionand supplies for which the murdered _voyageurs_ had been sent arrivedat Fort St. Charles. In June the Indian hunters came in with thewinter's hunt; and on the 20th thirty Sautaux hurried to Fort St. Charles, to report that they had found the mangled bodies of themassacred Frenchmen on an island seven leagues from the fort. Again LaVérendrye had to choose whether to abandon his cherished dreams, orfollow them at the risk of ruin and death. As before, when his men hadmutinied, he determined to advance. 

Jean, the eldest son, was dead. Pierre and François were with theirfather. Louis, the youngest, now seventeen years of age, had come upwith the supplies. Pierre at once went to Lake Winnipeg, to prepareFort Maurepas for the reception of all the forces. Winter set in. Snow lay twelve feet deep in the forests now known as the MinnesotaBorderlands. On February 8, 1737, in the face of a biting north wind, with the thermometer at forty degrees below zero, M. De la Vérendryeleft Fort St. Charles, François carrying the French flag, with tensoldiers, wearing snow-shoes, in line behind, and two or three hundredCrees swathed in furs bringing up a ragged rear. The bright uniformsof the soldiers were patches of red among the snowy everglades. Bivouac was made on beds of pine boughs, --feet to the camp-fire, thenight frost snapping like a whiplash, the stars flashing with a steelyclearness known only in northern climes. The march was at a swiftpace, for three weeks by canoe is short enough time to traverse theMinnesota and Manitoba Borderlands northwest to Lake Winnipeg; and inseventeen days M. De la Vérendrye was at Fort Maurepas. 

Fort Maurepas (in the region of the modern Alexander) lay on a tongueof sand extending into the lake a few miles beyond the entrance of RedRiver. Tamarack and poplar fringe the shore; and in windy weather thelake is lashed into a roughness that resembles the flux of ocean tides. I remember once going on a steamer towards the site of Maurepas. Theship drew lightest of draft. While we were anchored the breeze fell, and the ship was stranded as if by ebb tide for twenty-four hours. Theaction of the wind explained the Indian tales of an ocean tide, whichhad misled La Vérendrye into expecting to find the Western Sea at thispoint. He found a magnificent body of fresh water, but not the ocean. The fort was the usual pioneer fur post--a barracks of unbarked logs, chinked up with frozen clay and moss, roofed with branches and snow, occupying the centre of a courtyard, palisaded by slabs of pine logs. M. De la Vérendrye was now in the true realm of the explorer--interritory where no other white man had trod. With a shout his motleyforces emerged from the snowy tamaracks, and with a shout from Pierrede la Vérendrye and his tawny followers the explorer was welcomedthrough the gateway of little Fort Maurepas. 

[Illustration: Traders' Boats running the Rapids of the AthabascaRiver. ]

Pierre de la Vérendrye had heard of a region to the south muchfrequented by the Assiniboine Indians, who had conducted Radisson tothe Sea of the North fifty years before--the Forks where theAssiniboine River joins the Red, and the city of Winnipeg standsto-day. It was reported that game was plentiful here. Two hundredtepees of Assiniboines were awaiting the explorer. His forces wereworn with their marching, but in a few weeks the glaze of ice above thefathomless drifts of snow would be too rotten for travel, and not untilJune would the riverways be clear for canoes. But such a scant supplyof goods had his partners sent up that poor De la Vérendrye had nothingto trade with the waiting Assiniboines. Sending his sons forward toreconnoitre the Forks of the Assiniboine, --the modern Winnipeg, --he setout for Montreal as soon as navigation opened, taking with him fourteengreat canoes of precious furs. 

The fourteen canoe loads proved his salvation. As long as there werefurs and prospects of furs, his partners would back the enterprise offinding the Western Sea. The winter of 1738 was spent as the guest ofthe governor at Château St. Louis. The partners were satisfied, andplucked up hope of their venture. They would advance provisions inproportion to earnings. By September he was back at Fort Maurepas onLake Winnipeg, pushing for the undiscovered bourne of the Western Sea. Leaving orders for trade with the chief clerk at Maurepas, De laVérendrye picked out his most intrepid men; and in September of 1738, for the first time in history, white men glided up the ochre-colored, muddy current of the Red for the Forks of the Assiniboine. Ten Creewigwams and two war chiefs awaited De la Vérendrye on the low flats ofwhat are now known as South Winnipeg. Not the fabled Western Sea, butan illimitable ocean of rolling prairie--the long russet grass risingand falling to the wind like waves to the run of invisiblefeet--stretched out before the eager eyes of the explorer. Northwardlay the autumn-tinged brushwood of Red River. South, shimmering in thepurple mists of Indian summer, was Red River Valley. Westward the sunhung like a red shield, close to the horizon, over vast reaches ofprairie billowing to the sky-line in the tide of a boundless ocean. Such was the discovery of the Canadian Northwest. 

Doubtless the weary gaze of the tired _voyageurs_ turned longinglywestward. Where was the Western Sea? Did it lie just beyond thehorizon where skyline and prairie met, or did the trail of their questrun on--on--on--endlessly? The Assiniboine flows into the Red, the Redinto Lake Winnipeg, the Lake into Hudson Bay. Plainly, AssiniboineValley was not the way to the Western Sea. But what lay just beyondthis Assiniboine Valley? An old Cree chief warned the boatmen that theAssiniboine River was very low and would wreck the canoes; but he alsotold vague yarns of "great waters beyond the mountains of the settingsun, " where white men dwelt, and the waves came in a tide, and thewaters were salt. The Western Sea where the Spaniards dwelt had longbeen known. It was a Western Sea to the north, that would connectLouisiana and Canada, that De la Vérendrye sought. The Indian fables, without doubt, referred to a sea beyond the Assiniboine River, andthither would De la Vérendrye go at any cost. Some sort of barracks orshelter was knocked up on the south side of the Assiniboine oppositethe flats. It was subsequently known as Fort Rouge, after the color ofthe adjacent river, and was the foundation of Winnipeg. Leaving men totrade at Fort Rouge, De la Vérendrye set out on September 26, 1738, forthe height of land that must lie beyond the sources of the Assiniboine. De la Vérendrye was now like a man hounded by his own Frankenstein. Athousand leagues--every one marked by disaster and failure and sinkinghopes--lay behind him. A thousand leagues of wilderness lay beforehim. He had only a handful of men. The Assiniboine Indians were ofdubious friendliness. The white men were scarce of food. In a fewweeks they would be exposed to the terrible rigors of Northern winter. Yet they set their faces toward the west, types of the pioneers whohave carved empire out of wilderness. 

[Illustration: The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains. ]

The Assiniboine was winding and low, with many sand bars. On thewooded banks deer and buffalo grazed in such countless multitudes thatthe boatmen took them for great herds of cattle. Flocks of wild geesedarkened the sky overhead. As the boats wound up the shallows of theriver, ducks rose in myriad flocks. Prairie wolves skulked away fromthe river bank, and the sand-hill cranes were so unused to humanpresence that they scarcely rose as the voyageurs poled past. Whilethe boatmen poled, the soldiers marched in military order acrosscountry, so avoiding the bends of the river. Daily, Crees andAssiniboines of the plains joined the white men. A week after leavingthe Forks or Fort Rouge, De la Vérendrye came to the Portage of thePrairie, leading north to Lake Manitoba and from the lake to HudsonBay. Clearly, northward was not the way to the Western Sea; but theAssiniboines told of a people to the southwest--the Mandans--who knew apeople who lived on the Western Sea. As soon as his baggage came up, De la Vérendrye ordered the construction of a fort--called De laReine--on the banks of the Assiniboine. This was to be the forwardingpost for the Western Sea. To the Mandans living on the Missouri, whoknew a people living on salt water, De la Vérendrye now directed hiscourse. 

[Illustration: Hungry Hall, 1870; near the site of the Vérendrye Fortin Rainy River Region. ]

On the morning of October 18 drums beat to arms. Additional men hadcome up from the other forts. Fifty-two soldiers and _voyageurs_ nowstood in line. Arms were inspected. To each man were given powder, balls, axe, and kettle. Pierre and François de la Vérendrye hoistedthe French flag. For the first time a bugle call sounded over theprairie. At the word, out stepped the little band of white men, marking time for the Western Sea. The course lay west-southwest, upthe Souris River, through wooded ravines now stripped of foliage, pastalkali sloughs ice-edged by frost, over rolling cliffs russet and bare, where gopher and badger and owl and roving buffalo were the only signsof life. On the 21st of October two hundred Assiniboine warriorsjoined the marching white men. In the sheltered ravines buffalo grazedby the hundreds of thousands, and the march was delayed by frequentbuffalo hunts to gather pemmican--pounded marrow and fat of thebuffalo--which was much esteemed by the Mandans. Within a month somany Assiniboines had joined the French that the company numbered morethan six hundred warriors, who were ample protection against the Sioux;and the Sioux were the deadly terror of all tribes of the plains. ButM. De la Vérendrye was expected to present ammunition to hisAssiniboine friends. 

Four outrunners went speeding to the Missouri to notify the Mandans ofthe advancing warriors. The _coureurs_ carried presents of pemmican. To prevent surprise, the Assiniboines marched under the shelteredslopes of the hills and observed military order. In front rode thewarriors, dressed in garnished buckskin and armed with spears andarrows. Behind, on foot, came the old and the lame. To the rear wasanother guard of warriors. Lagging in ragged lines far back came aragamuffin brigade, the women, children, and dogs--squaws astridecayuses lean as barrel hoops, children in moss bags on their mothers'backs, and horses and dogs alike harnessed with the _travaille_--twosticks tied into a triangle, with the shafts fastened to a cinch onhorse or dog. The joined end of the shafts dragged on the ground, andbetween them hung the baggage, surmounted by papoose, or pet owl, orthe half-tamed pup of a prairie-wolf, or even a wild-eyed young squawwith hair flying to the wind. At night camp was made in a circleformed of the hobbled horses. Outside, the dogs scoured in pursuit ofcoyotes. The women and children took refuge in the centre, and thewarriors slept near their picketed horses. By the middle of Novemberthe motley cavalcade had crossed the height of land between theAssiniboine River and the Missouri, and was heading for the Mandanvillages. Mandan _coureurs_ came out to welcome the visitors, pompously presenting De la Vérendrye with corn in the ear and tobacco. At this stage, the explorer discovered that his bag of presents for hishosts had been stolen by the Assiniboines; but he presented the Mandanswith what ammunition he could spare, and gave them plenty of pemmicanwhich his hunters had cured. The two tribes drove a brisk trade infurs, which the northern Indians offered, and painted plumes, which theMandans displayed to the envy of Assiniboine warriors. 

On the 3d of December, De la Vérendrye's sons stepped before the raggedhost of six hundred savages with the French flag hoisted. The explorerhimself was lifted to the shoulders of the Mandan _coureurs_. A gunwas fired and the strange procession set out for the Mandan villages. In this fashion white men first took possession of the Upper Missouri. Some miles from the lodges a band of old chiefs met De la Vérendrye andgravely handed him a grand calumet of pipestone ornamented with eaglefeathers. This typified peace. De la Vérendrye ordered his fiftyFrench followers to draw up in line. The sons placed the French flagfour paces to the fore. The Assiniboine warriors took possession instately Indian silence to the right and left of the whites. At asignal three thundering volleys of musketry were fired. The Mandansfell back, prostrated with fear and wonder. The command "forward" wasgiven, and the Mandan village was entered in state at four in theafternoon of December 3, 1738. 

The village was in much the same condition as a hundred years laterwhen visited by Prince Maximilian and by the artist Catlin. Itconsisted of circular huts, with thatched roofs, on which perched thegaping women and children. Around the village of huts ran a moat orditch, which was guarded in time of war with the Sioux. Flags flewfrom the centre poles of each hut; but the flags were the scalps ofenemies slain. In the centre of the village was a larger hut. Thiswas the "medicine lodge, " or council hall, of the chiefs, used only forceremonies of religion and war and treaties of peace. Thither De laVérendrye was conducted. Here the Mandan chiefs sat on buffalo robesin a circle round the fire, smoking the calumet, which was handed tothe white man. The explorer then told the Indians of his search forthe Western Sea. Of a Western Sea they could tell him nothingdefinite. They knew a people far west who grew corn and tobacco andwho lived on the shores of water that was bitter for drinking. Thepeople were white. They dressed in armor and lived in houses of stone. Their country was full of mountains. More of the Western Sea, De laVérendrye could not learn. 

Meanwhile, six hundred Assiniboine visitors were a tax on thehospitality of the Mandans, who at once spread a rumor of a Sioux raid. This gave speed to the Assiniboines' departure. Among the Assiniboineswho ran off in precipitate fright was De la Vérendrye's interpreter. It was useless to wait longer. The French were short of provisions, and the Missouri Indians could not be expected to support fifty whitemen. Though it was the bitter cold of midwinter, De la Vérendryedeparted for Fort de la Reine. Two Frenchmen were left to learn theMissouri dialects. A French flag in a leaden box with the arms ofFrance inscribed was presented to the Mandan chief; and De la Vérendryemarched from the village on the 8th of December. Scarcely had he left, when he fell terribly ill; but for the pathfinder of the wildernessthere is neither halt nor retreat. M. De la Vérendrye's ragged armytramped wearily on, half blinded by snow glare and buffeted by prairieblizzards, huddling in snowdrifts from the wind at night and uncertainof their compass over the white wastes by day. There is nothing sodeadly silent and utterly destitute of life as the prairie inmidwinter. Moose and buffalo had sought the shelter of wooded ravines. Here a fox track ran over the snow. There a coyote skulked from cover, to lope away the next instant for brushwood or hollow, andsnow-buntings or whiskey-jacks might have followed the marchers forpickings of waste; but east, west, north, and south was nothing but thewide, white wastes of drifted snow. On Christmas Eve of 1738 lowcurling smoke above the prairie told the wanderers that they werenearing the Indian camps of the Assiniboines; and by nightfall ofFebruary 10, 1739, they were under the shelter of Fort de la Reine. "Ihave never been so wretched from illness and fatigue in all my life ason that journey, " reported De la Vérendrye. As usual, provisions werescarce at the fort. Fifty people had to be fed. Buffalo and deer meatsaved the French from starvation till spring. 

[Illustration: A Monarch of the Plains. ]

All that De la Vérendrye had accomplished on this trip was to learnthat salt water existed west-southwest. Anxious to know more of theNorthwest, he sent his sons to the banks of a great northern river. This was the Saskatchewan. In their search of the Northwest, theyconstructed two more trading posts, Fort Dauphin near Lake Manitoba, and Bourbon on the Saskatchewan. Winter quarters were built at theforks of the river, which afterwards became the site of Fort Poskoyac. This spring not a canoe load of food came up from Montreal. Papers hadbeen served for the seizure of all De la Vérendrye's forts, goods, property, and chattels to meet the claims of his creditors. Desperate, but not deterred from his quest, De la Vérendrye set out to contest thelawsuits in Montreal. 

V

1740-1750

Which way to turn now for the Western Sea that eluded their quest likea will-o'-the-wisp was the question confronting Pierre, François, andLouis de la Vérendrye during the explorer's absence in Montreal. Theyhad followed the great Saskatchewan westward to its forks. No riverwas found in this region flowing in the direction of the Western Sea. They had been in the country of the Missouri; but neither did any riverthere flow to a Western Sea. Yet the Mandans told of salt water far tothe west. Thither they would turn the baffling search. 

The two men left among the Mandans to learn the language had returnedto the Assiniboine River with more news of tribes from "the settingsun" who dwelt on salt water. Pierre de la Vérendrye went down to theMissouri with the two interpreters; but the Mandans refused to supplyguides that year, and the young Frenchman came back to winter on theAssiniboine. Here he made every preparation for another attempt tofind the Western Sea by way of the Missouri. On April 29, 1742, thetwo brothers, Pierre and François, left the Assiniboine with the twointerpreters. Their course led along the trail that for two hundredyears was to be a famous highway between the Missouri and Hudson Bay. Heading southwest, they followed the Souris River to the watershed ofthe Missouri, and in three weeks were once more the guests of the smokyMandan lodges. Round the inside walls of each circular hut ran berthbeds of buffalo skin with trophies of the chase, --hide-shields andweapons of war, fastened to the posts that separated berth from berth. A common fire, with a family meat pot hanging above, occupied thecentre of the lodge. In one of these lodges the two brothers and theirmen were quartered. The summer passed feasting with the Mandans andsmoking the calumet of peace; but all was in vain. The MissouriIndians were arrant cowards in the matter of war. The terror of theirexistence was the Sioux. The Mandans would not venture through Siouxterritory to accompany the brothers in the search for the Western Sea. At last two guides were obtained, who promised to conduct the French toa neighboring tribe that might know of the Western Sea. 

[Illustration: Fur Traders' Boats towed down the Saskatchewan in theSummer of 1900. ]

The party set out on horseback, travelling swiftly southwest and alongthe valley of the Little Missouri toward the Black Hills. Here theircourse turned sharply west toward the Powder River country, past thesouthern bounds of the Yellowstone. For three weeks they saw no signof human existence. Deer and antelope bounded over the parched alkaliuplands. Prairie dogs perched on top of their earth mounds, to watchthe lonely riders pass; and all night the far howl of grayish forms onthe offing of the starlit prairie told of prowling coyotes. On the11th of August the brothers camped on the Powder Hills. Mounting tothe crest of a cliff, they scanned far and wide for signs of theIndians whom the Mandans knew. The valleys were desolate. Kindling asignal-fire to attract any tribes that might be roaming, they built ahut and waited. A month passed. There was no answering signal. Oneof the Mandan guides took himself off in fright. On the fifth week athin line of smoke rose against the distant sky. The remaining Mandanswent to reconnoitre and found a camp of Beaux Hommes, or Crows, whoreceived the French well. Obtaining fresh guides from the Crows anddismissing the Mandans, the brothers again headed westward. The Crowsguided them to the Horse Indians, who in turn took the French to theirnext western neighbors, the Bows. The Bows were preparing to war onthe Snakes, a mountain tribe to the west. Tepees dotted the valley. Women were pounding the buffalo meat into pemmican for the raiders. The young braves spent the night with war-song and war-dance, to workthemselves into a frenzy of bravado. The Bows were to march west; sothe French joined the warriors, gradually turning northwest toward whatis now Helena. 

It was winter. The hills were powdered with snow that obliterated alltraces of the fleeing Snakes. The way became more mountainous anddangerous. Iced sloughs gave place to swift torrents and cataracts. On New Year's day, 1743, there rose through the gray haze to the forethe ragged sky-line of the Bighorn Mountains. Women and children werenow left in a sheltered valley, the warriors advancing unimpeded. François de la Vérendrye remained at the camp to guard the baggage. Pierre went on with the raiders. In two weeks they were at the foot ofthe main range of the northern Rockies. Against the sky the snowyheights rose--an impassable barrier between the plains and the WesternSea. What lay beyond--the Beyond that had been luring them on and on, from river to river and land to land, for more than ten years? Surelyon the other side of those lofty summits one might look down on thelong-sought Western Sea. Never suspecting that another thousand milesof wilderness and mountain fastness lay between him and his quest, young De la Vérendrye wanted to cross the Great Divide. Destinydecreed otherwise. The raid of the Bows against the Snakes ended in afiasco. No Snakes were to be found at their usual winter hunt. Hadthey decamped to massacre the Bow women and children left in the valleyto the rear? The Bows fled back to their wives in a panic; so De laVérendrye could not climb the mountains that barred the way to the sea. The retreat was made in the teeth of a howling mountain blizzard, andthe warriors reached the rendezvous more dead than alive. No SnakeIndians were seen at all. The Bows marched homeward along the valleyof the Upper Missouri through the country of the Sioux, with whom theywere allied. On the banks of the river the brothers buried a leadenplate with the royal arms of France imprinted. At the end of July, 1743, they were once more back on the Assiniboine River. For thirteenyears they had followed a hopeless quest. Instead of a Western Sea, they had found a sea of prairie, a sea of mountains, and two greatrivers, the Saskatchewan and the Missouri. 

VI

1743-1750

But the explorer, who had done so much to extend French domain in theWest, was a ruined man. To the accusations of his creditors were addedthe jealous calumnies of fur traders eager to exploit the new country. The eldest son, with tireless energy, had gone up the Saskatchewan toFort Poskoyac when he was recalled to take a position in the army atMontreal. In 1746 De la Vérendrye himself was summoned to Quebec andhis command given to M. De Noyelles. The game being played by jealousrivals was plain. De la Vérendrye was to be kept out of the West whiletools of the Quebec traders spied out the fur trade of the Assiniboineand the Missouri. Immediately on receiving freedom from military duty, young Chevalier de la Vérendrye set out for Manitoba. On the way hemet his father's successor, M. De Noyelles, coming home crestfallen. The supplanter had failed to control the Indians. In one year half theforts of the chain leading to the Western Sea had been destroyed. These Chevalier de la Vérendrye restored as he passed westward. 

Governor Beauharnois had always refused to believe the charges ofprivate peculation against M. De la Vérendrye. Governor de laGalissonnière was equally favorable to the explorer; and De laVérendrye was decorated with the Order of the Cross of St. Louis, andgiven permission to continue his explorations. The winter of 1749 waspassed preparing supplies for the posts of the West; but a life ofhardship and disappointment had undermined the constitution of thedauntless pathfinder. On the 6th of December, while busy with plansfor his hazardous and thankless quest, he died suddenly at Montreal. 

Rival fur traders scrambled for the spoils of the Manitoba and Missouriterritory like dogs for a bone. De la Jonquière had become governor. Allied with him was the infamous Bigot, the intendant, and those twosaw in the Western fur trade an opportunity to enrich themselves. Therights of De la Vérendrye's sons to succeed their father were entirelydisregarded. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was appointed commander of theWestern Sea. The very goods forwarded by De la Vérendrye wereconfiscated. 

[Illustration: "Tepees dotted the valley. "]

But Saint-Pierre had enough trouble from his appointment. Hislieutenant, M. De Niverville, almost lost his life among hostiles onthe way down the Saskatchewan after building Fort Lajonquière at thefoothills of the Rockies, where Calgary now stands. Saint-Pierre hadheadquarters in Manitoba on the Assiniboine, and one afternoon inmidwinter, when his men were out hunting, he saw his fort suddenly fillwith armed Assiniboines bent on massacre. They jostled him aside, broke into the armory, and helped themselves to weapons. Saint-Pierrehad only one recourse. Seizing a firebrand, he tore the cover off akeg of powder and threatened to blow the Indians to perdition. Themarauders dashed from the fort, and Saint-Pierre shot the bolts of gateand sally-port. When the white hunters returned, they quickly gatheredtheir possessions together and abandoned Fort de la Reine. Four dayslater the fort lay in ashes. So ended the dream of enthusiasts to finda way overland to the Western Sea. 

[1] The authorities for La Vérendrye's life are, of course, his ownreports as found in the State Papers of the Canadian Archives, PierreMargry's compilation of these reports, and the Rev. Father Jones'collection of the _Aulneau Letters_. 

[2] The _Pays d'en Haut_ or "Up-Country" was the vague name given bythe fur traders to the region between the Missouri and the North Pole. 

[3] Throughout this volume the word "Sioux" is used as applying to theentire confederacy, and not to the Minnesota Sioux only. 

PART III

1769-1782

SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE LEADS SAMUEL HEARNE TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE AND ATHABASCA REGION

CHAPTER IX

1769-1782

SAMUEL HEARNE

The Adventures of Hearne in his Search for the Coppermine River and theNorthwest Passage--Hilarious Life of Wassail led by GovernorNorton--The Massacre of the Eskimo by Hearne's Indians North of theArctic Circle--Discovery of the Athabasca Country--Hearne becomesResident Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, but is captured by theFrench--Frightful Death of Norton and Suicide of Matonabbee

For a hundred years after receiving its charter to exploit the furs ofthe North, the Hudson's Bay Company slumbered on the edge of a frozensea. 

Its fur posts were scattered round the desolate shores of the Northernbay like beads on a string; but the languid Company never attempted topenetrate the unknown lands beyond the coast. It was unnecessary. TheIndians came to the Company. The company did not need to go to theIndians. Just as surely as spring cleared the rivers of ice and setthe unlocked torrents rushing to the sea, there floated down-streamIndian dugout and birch canoe, loaded with wealth of peltries for thefur posts of the English Company. So the English sat snugly secureinside their stockades, lords of the wilderness, and drove a thrivingtrade with folded hands. For a penny knife, they bought a beaver skin;and the skin sold in Europe for two or three shillings. The trade ofthe old Company was not brisk; but it paid. 

[Illustration: An Eskimo Belle. Note the apron of ermine and sable]. 

It was the prod of keen French traders that stirred the slumberinggiant. In his search for the Western Sea, De la Vérendrye had pushedwest by way of the Great Lakes to the Missouri and the Rocky Mountainsand the Saskatchewan. Henceforth, not so many furs came down-stream tothe English Company on the bay. De la Vérendrye had been followed byhosts of free-lances--_coureurs_ and _voyageurs_--who spread throughthe wilderness from the Missouri to the Athabasca, intercepting thefleets of furs that formerly went to Hudson Bay. The English Companyrubbed its eyes; and rivals at home began to ask what had been done inreturn for the charter. France had never ceased seeking the mythicalWestern Sea that was supposed to lie just beyond the Mississippi; andwhen French buccaneers destroyed the English Company's forts on thebay, the English ambassador at Paris exacted such an enormous bill ofdamages that the Hudson Bay traders were enabled to build a strongerfortress up at Prince of Wales on the mouth of Churchill River than theFrench themselves possessed at Quebec on the St. Lawrence. What--askedthe rivals of the Company in London--had been done in return for suchnational protection? France had discovered and explored a whole newworld north of the Missouri. What had the English done? Where did theWestern Sea of which Spain had possession in the South lie towards theNorth? What lay between the Hudson Bay and that Western Sea? Wasthere a Northwest passage by water through this region to Asia? Ifnot, was there an undiscovered world in the North, like Louisiana inthe South? There was talk of revoking the charter. Then the Companyawakened from its long sleep with a mighty stir. 

The annual boats that came out to Hudson Bay in the summer of 1769anchored on the offing, six miles from the gray walls of Fort Prince ofWales, and roared out a salute of cannon becoming the importance ofships that bore almost revolutionary commissions. The fort cannon onthe walls of Churchill River thundered their answer. A pinnace camescudding over the waves from the ships. A gig boat launched out fromthe fort to welcome the messengers. Where the two met halfway, packetsof letters were handed to Moses Norton, governor at Fort Prince ofWales, commanding him to despatch his most intrepid explorers for thediscovery of unknown rivers, strange lands, rumored copper mines, andthe mythical Northwest Passage that was supposed to lead directly toChina. 

The fort lay on a spit of sand running out into the bay at the mouth ofChurchill River. It was three hundred yards long by three hundredyards wide, with four bastions, in three of which were stores and wellsof water. The fourth bastion contained the powder-magazine. The wallswere thirty feet wide at the bottom and twenty feet wide at the top, ofhammer-dressed stone, mounted with forty great cannon. A commodiousstone house, furnished with all the luxuries of the chase, stood in thecentre of the courtyard. This was the residence of the governor. Offices, warehouses, barracks, and hunters' lodges were banked roundthe inner walls of the fort. The garrison consisted of thirty-ninecommon soldiers and a few officers. In addition, there hung about thefort the usual habitués of a Northern fur post, --young clerks fromEngland, who had come out for a year's experience in the wilds;underpaid artisans, striving to mend their fortunes by illicit trade;hunters and _coureurs_ and _voyageurs_, living like Indians but with astrain of white blood that forever distinguished them from theircomrades; stately Indian sachems, stalking about the fort with whiffsof contempt from their long calumets for all this white-man luxury; anda ragamuffin brigade, --squaws, youngsters, and beggars, --who subsistedby picking up food from the waste heap of the fort. 

The commission to despatch explorers to the inland country proved thesensation of a century at the fort. Round the long mess-room tablegathered officers and traders, intent on the birch-bark maps drawn byold Indian chiefs of an unknown interior, where a "Far-Off-Metal River"flowed down to the Northwest Passage. Huge log fires blazed on thestone hearths at each end of the mess room. Smoky lanterns and pinefagots, dipped in tallow and stuck in iron clamps, shed a fitful lightfrom rafters that girded ceiling and walls. On the floor of flagstoneslay enormous skins of the chase--polar bear, Arctic wolf, and grizzly. Heads of musk-ox, caribou, and deer decorated the great timber girders. Draped across the walls were Company flags--an English ensign with theletters "H. B. C. " painted in white on a red background, or in red on awhite background. 

At the head of the table sat one of the most remarkable scoundrelsknown in the annals of the Company, Moses Norton, governor of FortPrince of Wales, a full-blooded Indian, who had been sent to Englandfor nine years to be educated and had returned to the fort to resumeall the vices and none of the virtues of white man and red. Clean-skinned, copper-colored, lithe and wiry as a tiger cat, with thelong, lank, oily black hair of his race, Norton bore himself with allthe airs of a European princelet and dressed himself in the beadedbuckskins of a savage. Before him the Indians cringed as before one oftheir demon gods, and on the same principle. Bad gods could do theIndians harm. Good gods wouldn't. Therefore, the Indians propitiatedthe bad gods; and of all Indian demons Norton was the worst. The blackarts of mediaeval poisoning were known to him, and he never scrupled touse them against an enemy. The Indians thought him possessed of thepower of the evil eye; but his power was that of arsenic or laudanumdropped in the food of an unsuspecting enemy. Two of his wives, withall of whom he was inordinately jealous, had died of poison. Againstwhite men who might offend him he used more open means, --the triangle, the whipping post, the branding iron. Needless to say that a man whowielded such power swelled the Company's profits and stood high infavor with the directors. At his right hand lay an enormous bunch ofkeys. These he carried with him by day and kept under his pillow bynight. They were the keys to the apartments of his many wives, forlike all Indians Norton believed in a plurality of wives, and the lifeof no Indian was safe who refused to contribute a daughter to theharem. The two master passions of the governor were jealousy andtyranny; and while he lived like a Turkish despot himself, he ruled hisfort with a rod of iron and left the brand of his wrath on the personof soldier or officer who offered indignity to the Indian race. It wasa common thing for Norton to poison an Indian who refused to permit adaughter to join the collection of wives; then to flog the back off asoldier who casually spoke to one of the wives in the courtyard; and inthe evening spend the entire supper hour preaching sermons on virtue tohis men. By a curious freak, Marie, his daughter, now a child of nine, inherited from her father the gentle qualities of the English life inwhich he had passed his youth. She shunned the native women and wasoften to be seen hanging on her father's arm, as officers and governorsmoked their pipes over the mess-room table. 

Near Norton sat another famous Indian, Matonabbee, the son of a slavewoman at the fort, who had grown up to become a great ambassador to thenative tribes for the English traders. Measuring more than six feet, straight as a lance, supple as a wrestler, thin, wiry, alert, restlesswith the instinct of the wild creatures, Matonabbee was now in theprime of his manhood, chief of the Chipewyans at the fort, and masterof life and death to all in his tribe. It was Matonabbee whom theEnglish traders sent up the Saskatchewan to invite the tribes of theAthabasca down to the bay. The Athabascans listened to the message ofpeace with a treacherous smile. At midnight assassins stole to histent, overpowered his slave, and dragged the captive out. Leaping tohis feet, Matonabbee shouted defiance, hurled his assailants aside likeso many straws, pursued the raiders to their tents, single-handedreleased his slave, and marched out unscathed. That was the wayMatonabbee had won the Athabascans for the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Officers of the garrison, bluff sea-captains, spinning yarns of icebergand floe, soldiers and traders, made up the rest of the company. Amongthe white men was one eager face, --that of Samuel Hearne, who was toexplore the interior and now scanned the birch-bark drawings to learnthe way to the "Far-off-Metal River. "

[Illustration: Samuel Hearne. ]

By November 6 all was in readiness for the departure of the explorer. Two Indian guides, who knew the way to the North, were assigned toHearne; two European servants went with him to look after theprovisions; and two Indian hunters joined the company. In the graymist of Northern dawn, with the stars still pricking through the frostyair, seven salutes of cannon awakened the echoes of the frozen sea. The gates of the fort flung open, creaking with the frost rust, andHearne came out, followed by his little company, the dog bells of thelong toboggan sleighs setting up a merry jingling as the huskies brokefrom a trot to a gallop over the snow-fields for the North. Headingwest-northwest, the band travelled swiftly with all the enthusiasm ofuntested courage. North winds cut their faces like whip-lashes. Thefirst night out there was not enough snow to make a wind-break of thedrifts; so the sleighs were piled on edge to windward, dogs and menlying heterogeneously in their shelter. When morning came, one of theIndian guides had deserted. The way became barer. Frozen swampsacross which the storm wind swept with hurricane force were succeededby high, rocky barrens devoid of game, unsheltered, with barely enoughstunted shrubbery for the whittling of chips that cooked the morningand night meals. In a month the travellers had not accomplished tenmiles a day. Where deer were found the Indians halted to gorgethemselves with feasts. Where game was scarce they lay in camp, depending on the white hunters. Within three weeks rations haddwindled to one partridge a day for the entire company. The Indiansseemed to think that Hearne's white servants had secret store of foodon the sleighs. The savages refused to hunt. Then Hearne suspectedsome ulterior design. It was to drive him back to the fort by famine. Henceforth, he noticed on the march that the Indians always precededthe whites and secured any game before his men could fire a shot. Onenight toward the end of November the savages plundered the sleighs. Hearne awakened in amazement to see the company marching off, ladenwith guns, ammunition, and hatchets. He called. Their answer waslaughter that set the woods ringing. Hearne was now two hundred milesfrom the fort, without either ammunition or food. There was nothing todo but turn back. The weather was fair. By snaring partridges, thewhite men obtained enough game to sustain them till they reached thefort on the 11th of December. 

[Illustration: Eskimo using Double-bladed Paddle. ]

The question now was whether to wait till spring or set out in theteeth of midwinter. If Hearne left the fort in spring, he could notpossibly reach the Arctic Circle till the following winter; and withthe North buried under drifts of snow, he could not learn where lay theNorthwest Passage. If he left the fort in winter in order to reach theArctic in summer, he must expose his guides to the risks of cold andstarvation. The Indians told of high, rocky barrens, across which nocanoes could be carried. They advised snow-shoe travel. Obtainingthree Chipewyans and two Crees as guides, and taking no white servants, Hearne once more set out, on February 23, 1770, for the "Far-Away-MetalRiver. " This time there was no cannonading. The guns were buriedunder snow-drifts twenty feet deep, and the snow-shoes of thetravellers glided over the fort walls to the echoing cheers of soldiersand governor standing on the ramparts. The company travelled light, depending on chance game for food. All wood that could be used forfire lay hidden deep under snow. At wide intervals over the whitewastes mushroom cones of snow told where a stunted tree projected theantlered branches of topmost bough through the depths of drift; but forthe most part camp was made by digging through the shallowest snow withsnow-shoes to the bottom of moss, which served the double purpose offuel for the night kettle and bed for travellers. In the hollow awigwam was erected, with the door to the south, away from the northwind. Snared rabbits and partridges supplied the food. The way lay asbefore--west-northwest--along a chain of frozen lakes and riversconnecting Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean. By April the marcherswere on the margin of a desolate wilderness--the Indian region of"Little Sticks, "--known to white men as the Barren Lands, where dwarftrees project above the billowing wastes of snow like dismantled mastson the far offing of a lonely sea. Game became scarcer. Neither theround footprint of the hare nor the frost tracery of the northerngrouse marked the snowy reaches of unbroken white. Caribou hadretreated to the sheltered woods of the interior; and a cleverer hunterthan man had scoured the wide wastes of game. Only the wolf packroamed the Barren Lands. It was unsafe to go on without food. Hearnekept in camp till the coming of the goose month--April--when birds ofpassage wended their way north. For three days rations consisted ofsnow water and pipes of tobacco. The Indians endured the privationswith stoical indifference, daily marching out on a bootless quest forgame. On the third night Hearne was alone in his tent. Twilightdeepened to night, night to morning. Still no hunters returned. Hadhe been deserted? Not a sound broke the waste silence but the bayingof the wolf pack. Weak from hunger, Hearne fell asleep. Beforedaylight he was awakened by a shout; and his Indians shambled over thedrifts laden with haunches of half a dozen deer. That relieved wanttill the coming of the geese. In May Hearne struck across the BarrenLands. By June the rotting snow clogged the snow-shoes. Dog trainsdrew heavy, and food was again scarce. For a week the travellers foundnothing to eat but cranberries. Half the company was ill from hungerwhen a mangy old musk-ox, shedding his fur and lean as barrel hoops, came scrambling over the rocks, sure of foot as a mountain goat. Asingle shot brought him down. In spite of the musky odor of which thecoarse flesh reeked, every morsel of the ox was instantly devoured. Sometimes during their long fasts they would encounter a solitaryIndian wandering over the rocky barren. If he had arms, gun, or arrow, and carried skins of the chase, he was welcomed to camp, no matter howscant the fare. Otherwise he was shunned as an outcast, never to betouched or addressed by a human being; for only one thing could havefed an Indian on the Barren Lands who could show no trophies of thechase, and that was the flesh of some human creature weaker thanhimself. The outcast was a cannibal, condemned by an unwritten law towander alone through the wastes. 

Snow had barely cleared from the Barren Lands when Hearne witnessed thegreat traverse of the caribou herds, marching in countless multitudeswith a clicking of horns and hoofs from west to east for the summer. Indians from all parts of the North had placed themselves at riversacross the line of march to spear the caribou as they swam; and Hearnewas joined by a company of six hundred savages. Summer had dried themoss. That gave abundance of fuel. Caribou were plentiful. Thatsupplied the hunters with pemmican. Hearne decided to pass thefollowing winter with the Indians; but he was one white man amonghundreds of savages. Nightly his ammunition was plundered. One of hissurvey instruments was broken in a wind storm. Others were stolen. Itwas useless to go on without instruments to take observations of theArctic Circle; so for a second time Hearne was compelled to turn backto Fort Prince of Wales. Terrible storms impeded the return march. His dog was frozen in the traces. Tent poles were used for fire-wood;and the northern lights served as the only compass. On midday ofNovember 25, 1770, after eight months' absence, in which he had notfound the "Far-Off-Metal River, " Hearne reached shelter inside the fortwalls. 

Beating through the gales of sleet and snow on the homeward march, Hearne had careened into a majestic figure half shrouded by the storm. The explorer halted before a fur-muffled form, six feet in itsmoccasins, erect as a mast pole, haughty as a king; and the gauntletedhand of the Indian chief went up to his forehead in sign of peace. Itwas Matonabbee, the ambassador of the Hudson's Bay Company to theAthabascans, now returning to Fort Prince of Wales, followed by a longline of slave women driving their dog sleighs. The two travellershailed each other through the storm like ships at sea. That night theycamped together on the lee side of the dog sleighs, piled high as awind-break; and Matonabbee, the famous courser of the Northern wastes, gave Hearne wise advice. Women should be taken on a long journey, theIndian chief said; for travel must be swift through the deadly cold ofthe barrens. Men must travel light of hand, trusting to chance gamefor food. Women were needed to snare rabbits, catch partridges, bringin game shot by the braves, and attend to the camping. And then in aburst of enthusiasm, perhaps warmed by Hearne's fine tobacco, Matonabbee, who had found the way to the Athabasca, offered to conductthe white man to the "Far-Off-Metal River" of the Arctic Circle. Thechief was the greatest pathfinder of the Northern tribes. His offerwas the chance of a lifetime. Hearne could hardly restrain hiseagerness till he reached the fort. Leaving Matonabbee to follow withthe slave women, the explorer hurried to Fort Prince of Wales, laid theplan before Governor Norton, and in less than two weeks from the day ofhis return was ready to depart for the unknown river that was to leadto the Northwest Passage. 

The weather was dazzlingly clear, with that burnished brightness ofpolished steel known only where unbroken sunlight meets unbroken snowglare. On the 7th of December, 1770, Hearne left the fort, led byMatonabbee and followed by the slave Indians with the dog sleighs. Oneof Matonabbee's wives lay ill; but that did not hinder the ironpathfinder. The woman was wrapped in robes and drawn on a dog sleigh. There was neither pause nor hesitation. If the woman recovered, good. If she died, they would bury her under a cairn of stones as theytravelled. Matonabbee struck directly west-northwest for some _caches_of provisions which he had left hidden on the trail. The place wasfound; but the _caches_ had been rifled clean of food. That did notstop Matonabbee. Nor did he show the slightest symptoms of anger. Hesimply hastened their pace the more for their hunger, recognizing theunwritten law of the wilderness--that starving hunters who had rifledthe _cache_ had a right to food wherever they found it. Day after day, stoical as men of bronze, the marchers reeled off the long white milesover the snowy wastes, pausing only for night sleep with evening andmorning meals. Here nibbled twigs were found; there the stampingground of a deer shelter; elsewhere the small, cleft foot-mark like theace of hearts. But the signs were all old. No deer were seen. Eventhe black marble eye that betrays the white hare on the snow, and thefluffy bird track of the feather-footed northern grouse, grew rarer;and the slave women came in every morning empty-handed from untouchedsnares. In spite of hunger and cold, Matonabbee remained good-natured, imperturbable, hard as a man of bronze, coursing with the winged speedof snow-shoes from morning till night without pause, going to a bed ofrock moss on a meal of snow water and rising eager as an arrow to leavethe bow-string for the next day's march. For three days beforeChristmas the entire company had no food but snow. Christmas wascelebrated by starvation. Hearne could not indulge in the despair ofthe civilized man's self-pity when his faithful guides went on withoutcomplaint. 

[Illustration: Eskimo Family, taken by Light of Midnight Sun. --C. W. Mathers. ]

By January the company had entered the Barren Lands. The Barren Landswere bare but for an occasional oasis of trees like an island of refugein a shelterless sea. In the clumps of dwarf shrubs, the Indians foundsigns that meant relief from famine--tufts of hair rubbed off on treetrunks, fallen antlers, and countless heart-shaped tracks barelypuncturing the snow but for the sharp outer edge. The caribou were ontheir yearly traverse east to west for the shelter of the inland woods. The Indians at once pitched camp. Scouts went scouring to find whichway the caribou herds were coming. Pounds of snares were constructedof shrubs and saplings stuck up in palisades with scarecrows on thepickets round a V-shaped enclosure. The best hunters took theirstation at the angle of the V, armed with loaded muskets and long, lank, and iron-pointed arrows. Women and children lined the palisadesto scare back high jumpers or strays of the caribou herd. Then scoutsand dogs beat up the rear of the fleeing herd, driving the cariboustraight for the pound. By a curious provision of nature, the malecaribou sheds its antlers just as he leaves the Barren Lands for thewooded interior, where the horns would impede flight through brush, andhe only leaves the woods for the bare open when the horns are grownenough to fight the annual battle to protect the herd from the wolfpack ravenous with spring hunger. For one caribou caught in the poundby Hearne's Indians, a hundred of the herd escaped; for the cariboucrossed the Barrens in tens of thousands, and Matonabbee's bravesobtained enough venison for the trip to the "Far-Off-Metal River. "

The farther north they travelled the scanter became the growth of pineand poplar and willow. Snow still lay heavy in April; but Matonabbeeordered a halt while there was still large enough wood to constructdugouts to carry provisions down the river. The boats were built largeand heavy in front, light behind. This was to resist the ice jam ofNorthern currents. The caribou hunt had brought other Indians to theBarren Lands. Matonabbee was joined by two hundred warriors. Thoughthe tribes puffed the calumet of peace together, they drew their warhatchets when they saw the smoke of an alien tribe's fire rise againstthe northern sky. A suspicion that he hardly dared to acknowledgeflashed through Hearne's mind. Eleven thousand beaver pelts wereyearly brought down to the fort from the unknown river. How did theChipewyans obtain these pelts from the Eskimo? What was the realreason of the Indian eagerness to conduct the white man to the"Far-Off-Metal River"? The white man was not taken into the confidenceof the Indian council; but he could not fail to draw his ownconclusions. 

Scouts were sent cautiously forward to trail the path of the aliens whohad lighted the far moss fire. Women and children were ordered to headabout for a rendezvous southwest on Lake Athabasca. Carrying only thelightest supplies, the braves set out swiftly for the North on June 1. Mist and rain hung so heavily over the desolate moors that thetravellers could not see twenty feet ahead. In places the rocks wereglazed with ice and scored with runnels of water. Half the warriorshere lost heart and turned back. The others led by Hearne andMatonabbee crossed the iced precipices on hands and knees, with gunstocks strapped to backs or held in teeth. On the 21st of June the sundid not set. Hearne had crossed the Arctic Circle. The sun hung onthe southern horizon all night long. Henceforth the travellers marchedwithout tents. During rain or snow storm, they took refuge under rocksor in caves. Provisions turned mouldy with wet. The moss was toosoaked for fire. Snow fell so heavily in drifting storms that Hearneoften awakened in the morning to find himself almost immured in thecave where they had sought shelter. Ice lay solid on the lakes inJuly. Once, clambering up steep, bare heights, the travellers met aherd of a hundred musk-oxen scrambling over the rocks with the agilityof squirrels, the spreading, agile hoof giving grip that lifted thehulking forms over all obstacles. Down the bleak, bare heights therepoured cataract and mountain torrent, plainly leading to some nearriver bed; but the thick gray fog lay on the land like a blanket. Atlast a thunder-storm cleared the air; and Hearne saw bleak moorssloping north, bare of all growth but the trunks of burnt trees, withbarren heights of rock and vast, desolate swamps, where the wild-fowlflocked in myriads. 

[Illustration: Fort Garry, Winnipeg, a Century Ago. ]

All count of day and night was now lost, for the sun did not set. Sometime between midnight and morning of July 12, 1771, with the sun asbright as noon, the lakes converged to a single river-bed a hundredyards wide, narrowing to a waterfall that roared over the rocks inthree cataracts. This, then, was the "Far-Off-Metal River. " Plainly, it was a disappointing discovery, this Coppermine River. It did notlead to China. It did not point the way to a Northwest Passage. Inhis disappointment, Hearne learned what every other discoverer in NorthAmerica had learned--that the Great Northwest was something more than abridge between Europe and Asia, that it was a world in itself with itsown destiny. [1]

But Hearne had no time to brood over disappointment. The conduct ofhis rascally companions could no longer be misunderstood. Hunters camein with game; but when the hungry slaves would have lighted a moss fireto cook the meat, the forbidding hand of a chief went up. No fireswere to be lighted. The Indians advanced with whispers, dodging fromstone to stone like raiders in ambush. Spies went forward on tiptoe. Then far down-stream below the cataracts Hearne descried the domedtent-tops of an Eskimo band sound asleep; for it was midnight, thoughthe sun was at high noon. When Hearne looked back to his companions, he found himself deserted. The Indians were already wading the riverfor the west bank, where the Eskimo had camped. Hearne overtook hisguides stripping themselves of everything that might impede flight orgive hand-hold to an enemy, and daubing their skin with war-paint. Hearne begged Matonabbee to restrain the murderous warriors. The greatchief smiled with silent contempt. He was too true a disciple of adoctrine which Indians' practised hundreds of years before white menhad avowed it--the survival of the fit, the extermination of the weak, for any qualms of pity towards a victim whose death would contributeprofit. Wearing only moccasins and bucklers of hardened hide, armedwith muskets, lances, and tomahawks, the Indians jostled Hearne out oftheir way, stole forward from stone to stone to within a gun length ofthe Eskimo, then with a wild war shout flung themselves on theunsuspecting sleepers. 

The Eskimo were taken unprepared. They staggered from their tents, still dazed in sleep, to be mowed down by a crashing of firearms whichthey had never before heard. The poor creatures fled in franticterror, to be met only by lance point and gun butt. A young girl fellcoiling at Hearne's feet like a wounded snake. A well-aimed lance hadpinioned the living form to earth. She caught Hearne round the knees, imploring him with dumb entreaty; but the white man was pushed backwith jeers. Sobbing with horror, Hearne begged the Indians to puttheir victim out of pain. The rocks rang with the mockery of thetorturers. She was speared to death before Hearne's eyes. On thatscene of indescribable horror the white man could no longer bear tolook. He turned toward the river, and there was a spectacle like anightmare. Some of the Eskimo were escaping by leaping to their hideboats and with lightning strokes of the double-bladed paddles dashingdown the current to the far bank of the river; but sitting motionlessas stone was an old, old woman--probably a witch of the tribe--red-eyedas if she were blind, deaf to all the noise about her, unconscious ofall her danger, fishing for salmon below the falls. There was a shoutfrom the raiders; the old woman did not even look up to face her fate;and she too fell a victim to that thirst for blood which is asinsatiable in the redskin as in the wolf pack. Odd commentary in ourmodern philosophies--this white-man explorer, unnerved, unmanned, weeping with pity, this champion of the weak, jostled aside bybloodthirsty, triumphant savages, represented the race that was tojostle the Indian from the face of the New World. Something more thana triumphant, aggressive Strength was needed to the permanency of arace; and that something more was represented by poor, weak, vacillating Hearne, weeping like a woman. 

Horror of the massacre robbed Hearne of all an explorer's exultation. A day afterward, on July 17, he stood on the shores of the ArcticOcean, --the first white man to reach it overland in America. Iceextended from the mouth of the river as far as eye could see. Not asign of land broke the endless reaches of cold steel, where the snowlay, and icy green, where pools of the ocean cast their reflection onthe sky of the far horizon. At one in the morning, with the sunhanging above the river to the south, Hearne formally took possessionof the Arctic regions for the Hudson's Bay Company. The same Companyrules those regions to-day. Not an eye had been closed for three daysand nights. Throwing themselves down on the wet shore, the entire bandnow slept for six hours. The hunters awakened to find a musk-ox nosingover the mossed rocks. A shot sent it tumbling over the cliffs. Whether it was that the moss was too wet for fuel to cook the meat, orthe massacre had brutalized the men into beasts of prey, the Indiansfell on the carcass and devoured it raw. [2]

[Illustration: Plan of Fort Prince of Wales, from Robson's Drawing, 1733-47. ]

The retreat from the Arctic was made with all swiftness, keeping closeto the Coppermine River. For thirty miles from the sea not a tree wasto be seen. The river was sinuous and narrow, hemmed in by walls ofsolid rock, down which streamed cascades and mountain torrents. Onboth sides of the high bank extended endless reaches of swamps andbarrens. Twenty miles from the sea Hearne found the copper mines fromwhich the Indians made their weapons. His guides were to join theirfamilies in the Athabasca country of the southwest, and thitherMatonabbee now led the way at such a terrible pace that moccasins wereworn to shreds and toe-nails torn from the feet of the marchers; andwoe to the man who fell behind, for the wolf pack prowled on the rear. 

When the smoke of moss fires told of the wives' camp, the Indianshalted to take the sweat bath of purification for the cleansing of allblood guilt from the massacre. Heated stones were thrown into a smallpool. In this each Indian bathed himself, invoking his deity forfreedom from all punishment for the deaths of the slain. [3] By Augustthe Indians had joined their wives. By October they were on LakeAthabasca, which had already frozen. Here one of the wives, in thelast stages of consumption, could go no farther. For a band short offood to halt on the march meant death to all. The Northern wildernesshas its grim unwritten law, inexorable and merciless as death. Forthose who fall by the way there is no pity. A whole tribe may not beexposed to death for the sake of one person. Civilized nations followthe same principle in their quarantine. Giving the squaw food and atent, the Indians left her to meet her last enemy, whether death cameby starvation or cold or the wolf pack. Again and again the abandonedsquaw came up with the marchers, weeping and begging their pity, onlyto fall from weakness. But the wilderness has no pity; and so theyleft her. 

Christmas of 1771 was passed on Athabasca Lake, the northern lightsrustling overhead with the crackling of a flag. There was food inplenty; for the Athabasca was rich in buffalo meadows and beaver damsand moose yards. On the lake shore Hearne found a little cabin, inwhich dwelt a solitary woman of the Dog Rib tribe who for eight monthshad not seen a soul. Her band had been massacred. She alone escapedand had lived here in hiding for almost a year. In spring the Indiansof the lake carried their furs to the forts of Hudson Bay. With theAthabascans went Hearne, reaching Fort Prince of Wales on June 30, 1772, after eighteen months' absence. 

He had discovered Coppermine River, the Arctic Ocean, and the Athabascacountry, --a region in all as large as half European Russia. 

For his achievements Hearne received prompt promotion. Within a yearof his return to the fort, Governor Norton, the Indian bully, felldeadly ill. In the agony of death throes, he called for his wives. The great keys to the apartments of the women were taken from hispillow, and the wives were brought in. Norton lay convulsed with pain. One of the younger women began to sob. An officer of the garrison tookher hand to comfort her grief. Norton's rolling eyes caught sight ofthe innocent conference between the officer and the young wife. With aroar the dying bully hurled himself up in bed:--

"I'll burn you alive! I'll burn you alive, " he shrieked. With oathson his lips he fell back dead. 

[Illustration: Fort Prince of Wales (Churchill), from Hearne's Account, 1799 Edition. ]

Samuel Hearne became governor of the fort. For ten years nothingdisturbed the calm of his rule. Marie, Norton's daughter, still livedin the shelter of the fort; the wives found consolation in otherhusbands; and Matonabbee continued the ambassador of the company tostrange tribes. One afternoon of August, 1782, the sleepy calm of thefort was upset by the sentry dashing in breathlessly with news thatthree great vessels of war with full-blown sails and carrying many gunswere ploughing straight for Prince of Wales. At sundown the shipsswung at anchor six miles from the fort. From their masts fluttered aforeign flag--the French ensign. Gig boat and pinnace began soundingthe harbor. Hearne had less than forty men to defend the fort. In themorning four hundred French troopers lined up on Churchill River, andthe admiral, La Perouse, sent a messenger with demand of surrender. Hearne did not feel justified in exposing his men to the attack ofthree warships carrying from seventy to a hundred guns apiece, and toassault by land of four hundred troopers. He surrendered without ablow. 

[Illustration: Beaver Coin of Hudson's Bay Company, melted from Old TeaChests, one Coin representing one Beaver. ]

The furs were quickly transferred to the French ships, and the soldierswere turned loose to loot the fort. The Indians fled, among them MosesNorton's gentle daughter, now in her twenty-second year. She could notrevert to the loathsome habits of savage life; she dared not go to thefort filled with lawless foreign soldiers; and she perished ofstarvation outside the walls. Matonabbee had been absent when theFrench came. He returned to find the fort where he had spent his lifein ruins. The English whom he thought invincible were defeated andprisoners of war. Hearne, whom the dauntless old chief had led throughuntold perils, was a captive. Matonabbee's proud spirit was broken. The grief was greater than he could bear. All that living stood forhad been lost. Drawing off from observation, Matonabbee blew hisbrains out. 

[1] I have purposely avoided bringing up the dispute as to a mistake ofsome few degrees made by Hearne in his calculations--the point reallybeing finical. 

[2] I am sorry to say that in pioneer border warfares I have heard ofwhite men acting in a precisely similar beastly manner after somebrutal conflict. To be frank, I know of one case in the early days ofMinnesota fur trade, where the irate fur trader killed and devoured hisweak companion, not from famine, but sheer frenzy of brutalizedpassion. Such naked light does wilderness life shed over ourdrawing-room philosophies of the triumphantly strong being the highesttype of manhood. 

[3] Again the wilderness plunges us back to the primordial: if man bebut the supreme beast of prey, whence this consciousness of blood guiltin these unschooled children of the wilds?

PART IV

1780-1793

FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES--HOW MACKENZIE CROSSED THE NORTHERN ROCKIES AND LEWIS AND CLARK WERE FIRST TO CROSS FROM MISSOURI TO COLUMBIA

CHAPTER X

1780-1793

FIRST ACROSS THE ROCKIES

How Mackenzie found the Great River named after him and then pushedacross the Mountains to the Pacific, forever settling the question of aNorthwest Passage

There is an old saying that if a man has the right mettle in him, youmay stick him a thousand leagues in the wilderness on a barren rock andhe will plant pennies and grow dollar bills. In other words, no matterwhere or how, success will succeed. No class illustrates this betterthan a type that has almost passed away--the old fur traders who werelords of the wilderness. Cut off from all comfort, from allencouragement, from all restraint, what set of men ever had fewerincentives to go up, more temptations to go down? Yet from the furtraders sprang the pioneer heroes of America. When young Donald Smithcame out--a raw lad--to America, he was packed off to eighteen years'exile on the desert coast of Labrador. Donald Smith came out of thewilderness to become the Lord Strathcona of to-day. Sir AlexanderMackenzie's life presents even more dramatic contrasts. A clerk in acounting-house at Montreal one year, the next finds him at Detroitsetting out for the backwoods of Michigan to barter with Indians forfurs. Then he is off with a fleet of canoes forty strong for the UpperCountry of forest and wilderness beyond the Great Lakes, where hefights such a desperate battle with rivals that one of his companionsis murdered, a second lamed, a third wounded. In all this AlexanderMackenzie was successful while still in the prime of his manhood, --notmore than thirty years of age; and the reward of his success was to beexiled to the sub-arctics of the Athabasca, six weeks' travel fromanother fur post, --not a likely field to play the hero. Yet Mackenzieemerged from the polar wilderness bearing a name that ranks withColumbus and Carrier and La Salle. 

[Illustration: Alexander Mackenzie, from a Painting of the Explorer. ]

Far north of the Missouri beyond the borderlands flows theSaskatchewan. As far north again, beyond the Saskatchewan, flowsanother great river, the Athabasca, into Athabasca Lake, on whose blueshores to the north lies a little white-washed fort of some twenty loghouses, large barn-like stores, a Catholic chapel, an Episcopalmission, and a biggish residence of pretence for the chief trader. This is Fort Chipewyan. At certain seasons Indian tepees dot thesurrounding plains; and bronze-faced savages, clad in the ill-fittinggarments of white people, shamble about the stores, or sit haunchedround the shady sides of the log houses, smoking long-stemmed pipes. These are the Chipewyans come in from their hunting-grounds; but forthe most part the fort seems chiefly populated by regiments of huskydogs, shaggy-coated, with the sharp nose of the fox, which spend thelong winters in harness coasting the white wilderness, and pass thesummers basking lazily all day long except when the bell rings for fishtime, when half a hundred huskies scramble wildly for the first meatthrown. 

A century ago Chipewyan was much the same as to-day, except that it layon the south side of the lake. Mails came only once in two yearsinstead of monthly, and rival traders were engaged in the merry game ofslitting each other's throats. All together, it wasn't exactly theplace for ambition to dream; but ambition was there in the person ofAlexander Mackenzie, the young fur trader, dreaming what he hardlydared hope. Business men fight shy of dreamers; so Mackenzie told hisdreams to no one but his cousin Roderick, whom he pledged to secrecy. For fifty years the British government had offered a reward of 20, 000pounds to any one who should discover a Northwest Passage between theAtlantic and the Pacific. The hope of such a passageway had led manynavigators on bootless voyages; and here was Mackenzie with the samebee in his bonnet. To the north of Chipewyan he saw a mighty river, more than a mile wide in places, walled in by great ramparts, andflowing to unknown seas. To the west he saw another river rollingthrough the far mountains. Where did this river come from, and wheredid both rivers go? Mackenzie was not the man to leave vital questionsunanswered. He determined to find out; but difficulties lay in theway. He couldn't leave the Athabascan posts. That was overcome bygetting his cousin Roderick to take charge. The Northwest Fur Company, which had succeeded the French fur traders of Quebec and Montreal whenCanada passed from the hands of the French to the English, wouldn'tassume any cost or risk for exploring unknown seas. This was moreniggardly than the Hudson's Bay Company, which had paid all cost ofoutlay for its explorers; but Mackenzie assumed risk and cost himself. Then the Indians hesitated to act as guides; so Mackenzie hired guideswhen he could, seized them by compulsion when he couldn't hire them, and went ahead without guides when they escaped. 

[Illustration: Eskimo trading his Pipe, carved from Walrus Tusk, forthe Value of Three Beaver Skins. ]

May--the frog moon--and June--the bird's egg moon--were the festiveseasons at Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca. Indian hunters cametramping in from the Barren Lands with toboggan loads of pelts drawn byhalf-wild husky dogs. Woody Crees and Slaves and Chipewyans paddledacross the lake in canoes laden to the gunwales with furs. A world ofwhite skin tepees sprang up like mushrooms round the fur post. By Junethe traders had collected the furs, sorted and shipped them inflotillas of keel boat, barge, and canoe, east to Lake Superior andMontreal. On the evening of June 2, 1789, Alexander Mackenzie, chieftrader, had finished the year's trade and sent the furs to the Easternwarehouses of the Northwest Company, on Lake Superior, at Fort William, not far from where Radisson had first explored, and La Vérendryefollowed. Indians lingered round the fort of the Northern lake engagedin mad _boissons_, or drinking matches, that used up a winter'searnings in the spree of a single week. Along the shore lay upturnedcanoes, keels red against the blue of the lake, and everywhere in thedark burned the red fires of the boatmen melting resin to gum the seamsof the canoes; for the canoes were to be launched on a long voyage thenext day. Mackenzie was going to float down with the current of theAthabasca or Grand River, and find out where that great river emptiedin the North. 

The crew must have spent the night in a last wild spree; for it wasnine in the morning before all hands were ready to embark. InMackenzie's large birch canoe went four Canadian _voyageurs_, theirIndian wives, and a German. In other canoes were the Indian huntersand interpreters, led by "English Chief, " who had often been to HudsonBay. Few provisions were taken. The men were to hunt, the women tocook and keep the _voyageurs_ supplied with moccasins, which wore outat the rate of one pair a day for each man. Traders bound for SlaveLake followed behind. Only fifty miles were made the first day. Henceforth Mackenzie embarked his men at three and four in the morning. 

[Illustration: Quill and Bead Work on Buckskin, Mackenzie RiverIndians. ]

The mouth of Peace River was passed a mile broad as it pours down fromthe west, and the boatmen _portaged_ six rapids the third day, one ofthe canoes, steered by a squaw more intent on her sewing than thepaddles, going over the falls with a smash that shivered the bark tokindling-wood. The woman escaped, as the current caught the canoe, byleaping into the water and swimming ashore with the aid of a line. Icefour feet thick clung to the walls of the rampart shores, and thisincreased the danger of landing for a _portage_, the Indians whiningout their complaints in exactly the tone of the wailing north wind thathad cradled their lives--"Eduiy, eduiy!--It is hard, white man, it ishard!" And harder the way became. For nine nights fog lay so heavilyon the river that not a star was seen. This was followed by drivingrain and wind. Mackenzie hoisted a three-foot sail and cut over thewater before the wind with the hiss of a boiling kettle. Though thesail did the work of the paddles, it gave the _voyageurs_ no respite. Cramped and rain-soaked, they had to bail out water to keep the canoeafloat. In this fashion the boats entered Slave Lake, a large body ofwater with one horn pointing west, the other east. Out of both hornsled unknown rivers. Which way should Mackenzie go? Low-lyingmarshlands--beaver meadows where the wattled houses of the beaver hadstopped up the current of streams till moss overgrew the swamps and theland became quaking muskeg--lay along the shores of the lake. Therewere islands in deep water, where caribou had taken refuge, travellingover ice in winter for the calves to be safe in summer from wolf packand bear. Mackenzie hired a guide from the Slave Indians to pilot thecanoes over the lake; but the man proved useless. Days were wastedpoking through mist and rushes trying to find an outlet to the GrandRiver of the North. Finally, English Chief lost his temper andthreatened to kill the Slave Indian unless he succeeded in taking thecanoes out of the lake. The waters presently narrowed to half a mile;the current began to race with a hiss; sails were hoisted onfishing-poles; and Mackenzie found himself out of the rushes on theGrand River to the west of Slave Lake. 

[Illustration: Fort William, Headquarters Northwest Company, LakeSuperior. ]

Here pause was made at a camp of Dog Ribs, who took the bottom from thecourage of Mackenzie's comrades by gruesome predictions that old agewould come upon the _voyageurs_ before they reached salt water. Therewere impassable falls ahead. The river flowed through a land of faminepeopled by a monstrous race of hostiles who massacred all Indians fromthe South. The effect of these cheerful prophecies was that the SlaveLake guide refused to go on. English Chief bodily put the recalcitrantinto a canoe and forced him ahead at the end of a paddle. Snow-cappedmountains loomed to the west. The river from Bear Lake was passed, greenish of hue like the sea, and the Slave Lake guide now feigned suchillness that watch was kept day and night to prevent his escape. Theriver now began to wind, with lofty ramparts on each side; and once, ata sharp bend in the current, Mackenzie looked back to see Slave LakeIndians following to aid the guide in escaping. After that one of thewhite men slept with the fellow each night to prevent desertion; butduring the confusion of a terrific thunder-storm, when tents andcooking utensils were hurled about their heads, the Slave succeeded ingiving his watchers the slip. Mackenzie promptly stopped at anencampment of strange Indians, and failing to obtain another guide bypersuasion, seized and hoisted a protesting savage into the big canoe, and signalled the unwilling captive to point the way. The Indians ofthe river were indifferent, if not friendly; but once Mackenziediscovered a band hiding their women and children as soon as theboatmen came in view. The unwilling guide was forced ashore, asinterpreter, and gifts pacified all fear. But the incident left itsimpression on Mackenzie's comrades. They had now been away fromChipewyan for forty days. If it took much longer to go back, ice wouldimprison them in the polar wilderness. Snow lay drifted in thevalleys, and scarcely any game was seen but fox and grouse. The riverwas widening almost to the dimensions of a lake, and when this waswhipped by a north wind the canoes were in peril enough. The fourCanadians besought Mackenzie to return. To return Mackenzie had notthe slightest intention; but he would not tempt mutiny. He promisedthat if he did not find the sea within seven days, he would go back. 

That night the sun hung so high above the southern horizon that the menrose by mistake to embark at twelve o'clock. They did not realize thatthey were in the region of midnight sun; but Mackenzie knew andrejoiced, for he must be near the sea. The next day he was notsurprised to find a deserted Eskimo village. At that sight theenthusiasm of the others took fire. They were keen to reach the sea, and imagined that they smelt salt water. In spite of the lakelikeexpanse of the river, the current was swift, and the canoes went aheadat the rate of sixty and seventy miles a day--if it could be called daywhen there was no night. Between the 13th and 14th of July the_voyageurs_ suddenly awakened to find themselves and their baggagefloating in rising water. What had happened to the lake? Their heartstook a leap; for it was no lake. It was the tide. They had found thesea. 

How hilariously jubilant were Mackenzie's men, one may guess from thefact that they chased whales all the next day in their canoes. Thewhales dived below, fortunately; for one blow of a finback or sulphurbottom would have played skittles with the canoes. Coming back fromthe whale hunt, triumphant as if they had caught a dozen finbacks, themen erected a post, engraving on it the date, July 14, 1789, and thenames of all present. 

It had taken six weeks to reach the Arctic. It took eight to return toChipewyan, for the course was against stream, in many places trackingthe canoes by a tow-line. The beaver meadows along the shore impededthe march. Many a time the quaking moss gave way, and the men sank tomid-waist in water. While skirting close ashore, Mackenzie discoveredthe banks of the river to be on fire. The fire was a natural tar bed, which the Indians said had been burning for centuries and which burnsto-day as when Mackenzie found it. On September 12, with a high sailup and a driving wind, the canoes cut across Lake Athabasca and reachedthe beach of Chipewyan at three in the afternoon, after one hundred andtwo days' absence. Mackenzie had not found the Northwest Passage. Hehad proved there was no Northwest Passage, and discovered theMississippi of the north--Mackenzie River. 

[Illustration: Running a Rapid on Mackenzie River. ]

Mackenzie spent the long winter at Fort Chipewyan; but just as soon asthe rivers cleared of ice, he took passage in the east-bound canoes andhurried down to the Grand Portage or Fort William on Lake Superior, theheadquarters of the Northwest Company, where he reported his discoveryof Mackenzie River. His report was received with utter indifference. The company had other matters to think about. It was girding itselffor the life-and-death struggle with its rival, the Hudson's BayCompany. "My expedition was hardly spoken of, but that is what Iexpected, " he writes to his cousin. But chagrin did not deter purpose. He asked the directors' permission to explore that other broadstream--Peace River--rolling down from the mountains. His request wasgranted. Winter saw him on furlough in England, studying astronomy andsurveying for the next expedition. Here he heard much of the WesternSea--the Pacific--that fired his eagerness. The voyages of Cook andHanna and Meares were on everybody's lips. Spain and England andRussia were each pushing for first possession of the northwest coast. Mackenzie hurried back to his Company's fort on the banks of PeaceRiver, where he spent a restless winter waiting for navigation to open. Doubts of his own ambitions began to trouble him. What if Peace Riverdid not lead to the west coast at all? What if he were behind someother discoverer sent out by the Spaniards or the Russians? "I havebeen so vexed of late that I cannot sit down to anything steadily, " heconfesses in a letter to his cousin. Such a tissue-paper wallseparates the aims of the real hero from those of the fool, that almostevery ambitious man must pass through these periods of self-doubtbefore reaching the goal of his hopes. But despondency did not benumbMackenzie into apathy, as it has weaker men. 

By April he had shipped the year's furs from the forks of Peace Riverto Chipewyan. By May his season's work was done. He was ready to goup Peace River. A birch canoe thirty feet long, lined with lightest ofcedar, was built. In this were stored pemmican and powder. AlexanderMackay, a clerk of the company, was chosen as first assistant. SixCanadian _voyageurs_--two of whom had accompanied Mackenzie to theArctic--and two Indian hunters made up the party of ten who steppedinto the canoes at seven in the evening of May 9, 1793. 

Peace River tore down from the mountains flooded with spring thaw. Thecrew soon realized that paddles must be bent against the current of averitable mill-race; but it was safer going against, than with, such acurrent, for unknown dangers could be seen from below instead of above, where suction would whirl a canoe on the rocks. Keen air foretold thenearing mountains. In less than a week snow-capped peaks had crowdedthe canoe in a narrow cañon below a tumbling cascade where the riverwas one wild sheet of tossing foam as far as eye could see. Thedifficulty was to land; for precipices rose on each side in a wall, down which rolled enormous boulders and land-slides of loose earth. To_portage_ goods up these walls was impossible. Fastening aneighty-foot tow-line to the bow, Mackenzie leaped to the declivity, axein hand, cut foothold along the face of the steep cliff to a placewhere he could jump to level rock, and then, turning, signalled throughthe roar of the rapids for his men to come on. The _voyageurs_ wereparalyzed with fear. They stripped themselves ready to swim if theymissed the jump, then one by one vaulted from foothold to footholdwhere Mackenzie had cut till they came to the final jump across water. Here Mackenzie caught each on his shoulders as the _voyageurs_ leaped. The tow-line was then passed round trees growing on the edge of theprecipice, and the canoe tracked up the raging cascade. The wavesalmost lashed the frail craft to pieces. Once a wave caught hersideways; the tow-line snapped like a pistol shot, for just one instantthe canoe hung poised, and then the back-wash of an enormous boulderdrove her bow foremost ashore, where the _voyageurs_ regained thetow-line. 

[Illustration: Slave Lake Indians. ]

The men had not bargained on this kind of work. They bluntly declaredthat it was absurd trying to go up cañons with such cascades. Mackenzie paid no heed to the murmurings. He got his crew to the topof the hill, spread out the best of a regale--including tea sweetenedwith sugar--and while the men were stimulating courage by a feast, hewent ahead to reconnoitre the gorge. Windfalls of enormous sprucetrees, with a thickness twice the height of a man, lay on a steepdeclivity of sliding rock. Up this climbed Mackenzie, clothes torn totatters by devil's club (a thorn bush with spines like needles), bootshacked to pieces by the sharp rocks, and feet gashed with cuts. Theprospect was not bright. As far as he could see the river was onesuccession of cataracts fifty feet wide walled in by stupendousprecipices, down which rolled great boulders, shattering to pebbles asthey fell. The men were right. No canoe could go up that stream. Mackenzie came back, set his men to repairing the canoe and making axehandles, to avoid the idleness that breeds mutiny, and sent Mackayahead to see how far the rapids extended. Mackay reported that the_portage_ would be nine miles over the mountain. 

Leading the way, axe in hand, Mackenzie began felling trees so that thetrunks formed an outer railing to prevent a fall down the precipice. Up this trail they warped the canoe by pulling the tow-line roundstumps, five men going in advance to cut the way, five hauling andpushing the canoe. In one day progress was three miles. By five inthe afternoon the men were so exhausted that they went to bed--if bareground with sky overhead could be called bed. One thing aloneencouraged them: as they rose higher up the mountain side, they sawthat the green edges of the glaciers and the eternal snows projectedover the precipices. They were nearing the summit--they must surelysoon cross the Divide. The air grew colder. For three days thechoppers worked in their blanket coats. When they finally got thecanoe down to the river-bed, it was to see another range of impassablemountains barring the way westward. All that kept Mackenzie's men fromturning back was that awful _portage_ of nine miles. Nothing aheadcould be worse than what lay behind; so they embarked, following thesouth branch where the river forked. The stream was swift as acascade. Half the crew walked to lighten the canoe and prevent grazingon the rocky bottoms. 

Once, at dusk, when walkers and paddlers happened to have camped onopposite shores, the marchers came dashing across stream, wadingneck-high, with news that they had heard the firearms of Indianraiders. Fires were put out, muskets loaded, and each man took hisstation at the foot of a tree, where all passed a sleepless night. Nohostiles appeared. The noise was probably falling avalanches. Andonce when Mackenzie and Mackay had gone ahead with the Indianinterpreters, they came back to find that the canoe had disappeared. In vain they kindled fires, fired guns, set branches adrift on theswift current as a signal--no response came from the _voyageurs_. Theboatmen evidently did not wish to be found. What Mackenzie'ssuspicions were one may guess. It would be easier for the crew tofloat back down Peace River than pull against this terrific currentwith more _portages_ over mountains. The Indians became so alarmedthat they wanted to build a raft forthwith and float back to Chipewyan. The abandoned party had not tasted a bite of food for twenty-fourhours. They had not even seen a grouse, and in their powder horns wereonly a few rounds of ammunition. Separating, Mackenzie and his Indianwent up-stream, Mackay and his went down-stream, each agreeing tosignal the other by gunshots if either found the canoe. Barefooted anddrenched in a terrific thunderstorm, Mackenzie wandered on tilldarkness shrouded the forest. He had just lain down on a soaking couchof spruce boughs when the ricochetting echo of a gun set the boulderscrashing down the precipices. Hurrying down-stream, he found Mackay atthe canoe. The crew pretended that a leakage about the keel had causeddelay; but the canoe did not substantiate the excuse. Mackenzie saidnothing; but he never again allowed the crew out of his sight on theeast side of the mountains. 

So far there had been no sign of Indians among the mountains; and nowthe canoe was gliding along calm waters when savages suddenly sprangout of a thicket, brandishing spears. The crew became panic-stricken;but Mackenzie stepped fearlessly ashore, offered the hostiles presents, shook hands, and made his camp with them. The savages told him that hewas nearing a _portage_ across the Divide. One of them went withMackenzie the next day as guide. The river narrowed to a smalltarn--the source of Peace River; and a short _portage_ over rockyground brought the canoe to a second tarn emptying into a river that, to Mackenzie's disappointment, did not flow west, but south. He hadcrossed the Divide, the first white man to cross the continent in theNorth; but how could he know whether to follow this stream? It mightlead east to the Saskatchewan. As a matter of fact, he was on thesources of the Fraser, that winds for countless leagues south throughthe mountains before turning westward for the Pacific. 

Full of doubt and misgivings, uncertain whether he had crossed theDivide at all, Mackenzie ordered the canoe down this river. Snowypeaks were on every side. Glaciers lay along the mountain tarns, icygreen from the silt of the glacier grinding over rock; and the riverwas hemmed in by shadowy cañons with roaring cascades that compelledfrequent _portage_. Mackenzie wanted to walk ahead, in order tolighten the canoe and look out for danger; but fear had got in themarrow of his men. They thought that he was trying to avoid risks towhich he was exposing them; and they compelled him to embark, vowing, if they were to perish, he was to perish with them. 

To quiet their fears, Mackenzie embarked with them. Barely had theypushed out when the canoe was caught by a sucking undercurrent whichthe paddlers could not stem--a terrific rip told them that the canoehad struck--the rapids whirled her sideways and away she wentdown-stream--the men jumped out, but the current carried them to suchdeep water that they were clinging to the gunwales as best they couldwhen, with another rip, the stern was torn clean out of the canoe. Theblow sent her swirling--another rock battered the bow out--the keelflattened like a raft held together only by the bars. Branches hungoverhead. The bowman made a frantic grab at these to stop the rush ofthe canoe--he was hoisted clear from his seat and dropped ashore. Mackenzie jumped out up to his waist in ice-water. The steersman hadyelled for each to save himself; but Mackenzie shouted out acountermand for every man to hold on to the gunwales. In this fashionthey were all dragged several hundred yards till a whirl sent the wreckinto a shallow eddy. The men got their feet on bottom, and thewreckage was hauled ashore. During the entire crisis the Indians saton top of the canoe, howling with terror. 

All the bullets had been lost. A few were recovered. Powder wasspread out to dry; and the men flatly refused to go one foot farther. Mackenzie listened to the revolt without a word. He got their clothesdry and their benumbed limbs warmed over a roaring fire. He fed themtill their spirits had risen. Then he quietly remarked that theexperience would teach them how to run rapids in the future. Men ofthe North--to turn back? Such a thing had never been known in thehistory of the Northwest Fur Company. It would disgrace them forever. Think of the honor of conquering disaster. Then he vowed that he wouldgo ahead, whether the men accompanied him or not. Then he set them topatching the canoe with oil-cloth and bits of bark; but large sheets ofbirch bark are rare in the Rockies; and the patched canoe weighed soheavily that the men could scarcely carry it. It took them fourteenhours to make the three-mile _portage_ of these rapids. The Indianfrom the mountain tribe had lost heart. Mackenzie and Mackay watchedhim by turns at night; but the fellow got away under cover of darkness, the crew conniving at the escape in order to compel Mackenzie to turnback. Finally the river wound into a large stream on the west side ofthe main range of the Rockies. Mackenzie had crossed the Divide. 

For a week after crossing the Divide, the canoe followed the course ofthe river southward. This was not what Mackenzie expected. He soughta stream flowing directly westward, and was keenly alert for sign ofIndian encampment where he might learn the shortest way to the WesternSea. Once the smoke of a camp-fire rose through the bordering forest;but no sooner had Mackenzie's interpreters approached than the savagesfired volley after volley of arrows and swiftly decamped, leaving notrace of a trail. There was nothing to do but continue down thedevious course of the uncertain river. The current was swift and theoutlook cut off by the towering mountains; but in a bend of the riverthey came on an Indian canoe drawn ashore. A savage was just emergingfrom a side stream when Mackenzie's men came in view. With a wildwhoop, the fellow made off for the woods; and in a trice the narrowriver was lined with naked warriors, brandishing spears and displayingthe most outrageous hostility. When Mackenzie attempted to land, arrows hissed past the canoe, which they might have punctured and sunk. Determined to learn the way westward from these Indians, Mackenzietried strategy. He ordered his men to float some distance from thesavages. Then he landed alone on the shore opposite the hostiles, having sent one of his interpreters by a detour through the woods tolie in ambush with fusee ready for instant action. Throwing asideweapons, Mackenzie displayed tempting trinkets. The warriorsconferred, hesitated, jumped in the canoes, and came, backing sternforemost, toward Mackenzie. He threw out presents. They came ashoreand were presently sitting by his side. 

From them he learned the river he was following ran for "many moons"through the "shining mountains" before it reached the "midday sun. " Itwas barred by fearful rapids; but by retracing the way back up theriver, the white men could leave the canoe at a carrying place and gooverland to the salt water in eleven days. From other tribes down thesame river, Mackenzie gathered similar facts. He knew that the streamwas misleading him; but a retrograde movement up such a current woulddiscourage his men. He had only one month's provisions left. Hisammunition had dwindled to one hundred and fifty bullets and thirtypounds of shot. Instead of folding his hands in despondency, Mackenzieresolved to set the future at defiance and go on. From the Indians heobtained promise of a man to guide him back. Then he frankly laid allthe difficulties before his followers, declaring that he was going onalone and they need not continue unless they voluntarily decided to doso. His dogged courage was contagious. The speech was received withhuzzas, and the canoe was headed upstream. 

The Indian guide was to join Mackenzie higher upstream; but thereappearance of the white men when they had said they would not be backfor "many moons" roused the suspicions of the savages. The shores werelined with warriors who would receive no explanation that Mackenzietried to give in sign language. The canoe began to leak so badly thatthe boatmen had to spend half the time bailing out water; and the_voyageurs_ dared not venture ashore for resin. Along the river cliffwas a little three-cornered hut of thatched clay. Here Mackenzie tookrefuge, awaiting the return of the savage who had promised to act asguide. The three walls protected the rear, but the front of the hutwas exposed to the warriors across the river; and the whites dared notkindle a fire that might serve as a target. Two nights were passed inthis hazardous shelter, Mackay and Mackenzie alternately lying in theircloaks on the wet rocks, keeping watch. At midnight of the third day'ssiege, a rustling came from the woods to the rear and the boatmen's dogset up a furious barking. The men were so frightened that they threetimes loaded the canoe to desert their leader, but something in thefearless confidence of the explorer deterred them. As daylight siftedthrough the forest, Mackenzie descried a vague object creeping throughthe underbrush. A less fearless man would have fired and lost all. Mackenzie dashed out to find the cause of alarm an old blind man, almost in convulsions from fear. He had been driven from this riverhut. Mackenzie quieted his terror with food. By signs the old manexplained that the Indians had suspected treachery when the whitesreturned so soon; and by signs Mackenzie requested him to guide thecanoe back up the river to the carrying place; but the old creaturewent off in such a palsy of fear that he had to be lifted bodily intothe canoe. The situation was saved. The hostiles could not firewithout wounding one of their own people; and the old man could explainthe real reason for Mackenzie's return. Rations had been reduced totwo meals a day. The men were still sulking from the perils of thesiege when the canoe struck a stump that knocked a hole in the keel, "which, " reports Mackenzie, laconically, "gave them all an opportunityto let loose their discontent without reserve. " Camp after camp theypassed, which the old man's explanations pacified, till they at lengthcame to the carrying place. Here, to the surprise and delight of all, the guide awaited them. 

[Illustration: Good Hope, Mackenzie River. Hudson's Bay Company Fort. ]

On July 4, provisions were _cached_, the canoe abandoned, and a startmade overland westward, each carrying ninety pounds of provisionsbesides musket and pistols. And this burden was borne on the rationsof two scant meals a day. The way was ridgy, steep, and obstructed bywindfalls. At cloud-line, the rocks were slippery as glass frommoisture, and Mackenzie led the way, beating the drip from the branchesas they marched. The record was twelve miles the first day. When itrained, the shelter was a piece of oil-cloth held up in an extemporizedtent, the men crouching to sleep as best they could. The way was wellbeaten and camp was frequently made for the night with strange Indians, from whom fresh guides were hired; but when he did not camp with thenatives, Mackenzie watched his guide by sleeping with him. Though thefellow was malodorous from fish oil and infested with vermin, Mackenziewould spread his cloak in such a way that escape was impossible withoutawakening himself. No sentry was kept at night. All hands were toodeadly tired from the day's climb. Once, in the impenetrable gloom ofthe midnight forest, Mackenzie was awakened by a plaintive chant in akind of unearthly music. A tribe was engaged in religious devotions tosome woodland deity. Totem poles of cedar, carved with the heads ofanimals emblematic of family clans, told Mackenzie that he was nearingthe coast tribes. Barefooted, with ankles swollen and clothes torn toshreds, they had crossed the last range of mountains within two weeksof leaving the inland river. They now embarked with some natives forthe sea. 

One can guess how Mackenzie's heart thrilled as they swept down theswift river--six miles an hour--past fishing weirs and Indian camps, till at last, far out between the mountains, he descried the narrow armof the blue, limitless sea. The canoe leaked like a sieve; but whatdid that matter? At eight o'clock on the morning of Saturday, July 20, the river carried them to a wide lagoon, lapped by a tide, with theseaweed waving for miles along the shore. Morning fog still lay on thefar-billowing ocean. Sea otters tumbled over the slimy rocks withdiscordant cries. Gulls darted overhead; and past the canoe dived thegreat floundering grampus. There was no mistaking. This was thesea--the Western Sea, that for three hundred years had baffled allsearch overland, and led the world's greatest explorers on a chase of awill-o'-the-wisp. What Cartier and La Salle and La Vérendrye failed todo, Mackenzie had accomplished. 

But Mackenzie's position was not to be envied. Ten starving men on abarbarous coast had exactly twenty pounds of pemmican, fifteen of rice, six of flour. Of ammunition there was scarcely any. Between home andtheir leaky canoe lay half a continent of wilderness and mountains. The next day was spent coasting the cove for a place to takeobservations. Canoes of savages met the white men, and one impudentfellow kept whining out that he had once been shot at by men ofMackenzie's color. Mackenzie took refuge for the night on an isolatedrock which was barely large enough for his party to gain a foothold. The savages hung about pestering the boatmen for gifts. Two white menkept guard, while the rest slept. On Monday, when Mackenzie wassetting up his instruments, his young Indian guide came, foaming at themouth from terror, with news that the coast tribes were to attack thewhite men by hurling spears at the unsheltered rock. The boatmen losttheir heads and were for instant flight, anywhere, everywhere, in aleaky canoe that would have foundered a mile out at sea. Mackenzie didnot stir, but ordered fusees primed and the canoe gummed. Mixing up apot of vermilion, he painted in large letters on the face of the rockwhere they had passed the night:--

"Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. "

The canoe was then headed eastward for the homeward trip. Only oncewas the explorer in great danger on his return. It was just as thecanoe was leaving tide-water for the river. The young Indian guide ledhim full tilt into the village of hostiles that had besieged the rock. Mackenzie was alone, his men following with the baggage. Barely had hereached the woods when two savages sprang out, with daggers in handready to strike. Quick as a flash, Mackenzie quietly raised his gun. They dropped back; but he was surrounded by a horde led by the impudentchief of the attack on the rock the first night on the sea. Onewarrior grasped Mackenzie from behind. In the scuffle hat and cloakcame off; but Mackenzie shook himself free, got his sword out, andsucceeded in holding the shouting rabble at bay till his men came. Then such was his rage at the indignity that he ordered his followersin line with loaded fusees, marched to the village, demanded the returnof the hat and cloak, and obtained a peace-offering of fish as well. The Indians knew the power of firearms, and fell at his feet incontrition. Mackenzie named this camp Rascal Village. 

At another time his men lost heart so completely over the difficultiesahead that they threw everything they were carrying into the river. Mackenzie patiently sat on a stone till they had recovered from theirpanic. Then he reasoned and coaxed and dragooned them into the spiritof courage that at last brought them safely over mountain and throughcañon to Peace River. On August 24, a sharp bend in the river showedthem the little home fort which they had left four months before. Thejoy of the _voyageurs_ fairly exploded. They beat their paddles on thecanoe, fired off all the ammunition that remained, waved flags, and setthe cliffs ringing with shouts. 

Mackenzie spent the following winter at Chipewyan, despondent andlonely. "What a situation, starving and alone!" he writes to hiscousin. The hard life was beginning to wear down the dauntless spirit. "I spend the greater part of my time in vague speculations. . . . Infact my mind was never at ease, nor could I bend it to my wishes. Though I am not superstitious, my dreams cause me great annoyance. Iscarcely close my eyes without finding myself in company with the dead. "

The following winter Mackenzie left the West never to return. Thestory of his travels was published early in the nineteenth century, andhe was knighted by the English king. The remainder of his life wasspent quietly on an estate in Scotland, where he died in 1820. 

[Illustration: The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the MidnightSun. --C. W. Mathers. ]

CHAPTER XI

1803-1806

LEWIS AND CLARK

The First White Men to ascend the Missouri to its Sources and descend theColumbia to the Pacific--Exciting Adventures on the Cañons of theMissouri, the Discovery of the Great Falls and the Yellowstone--Lewis'Escape from Hostiles

The spring of 1904 witnessed the centennial celebration of an area aslarge as half the kingdoms of Europe, that has the unique distinction ofhaving transferred its allegiance to three different flags withintwenty-four hours. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century Spain had ceded all the regionvaguely known as Louisiana back to France, and France had sold theterritory, to the United States; but post-horse and stage of those olddays travelled slowly. News of Spain's cession and France's sale reachedLouisiana almost simultaneously. On March 9, 1804, the Spanish grandeesof St. Louis took down their flag and, to the delight of Louisiana, forform's sake erected French colors. On March 10, the French flag waslowered for the emblem that has floated over the Great West eversince--the stars and stripes. How vast was the new territory acquired, the eastern states had not the slightest conception. As early as 1792Captain Gray, of the ship _Columbia_, from Boston, had blundered into theharbor of a vast river flowing into the Pacific. What lay between thisriver and that other great river on the eastern side of themountains--the Missouri? Jefferson had arranged with John Ledyard ofConnecticut, who had been with Captain Cook on the Pacific, to explorethe northwest coast of America by crossing Russia overland; but Russiahad similar designs for herself, and stopped Ledyard on the way. In 1803President Jefferson asked Congress for an appropriation to explore theNorthwest by way of the Missouri. Now that the wealth of the West isbeyond the estimate of any figure, it seems almost inconceivable thatthere were people little-minded enough to haggle over the price paid forLouisiana--$15, 000, 000--and to object to the appropriation required forits exploration--$2500; but fortunately the world goes ahead in spite ofhagglers. 

May of 1804 saw Captain Meriwether Lewis, formerly secretary to PresidentJefferson, and Captain William Clark of Virginia launch out from WoodRiver opposite St. Louis, where they had kept their men encamped allwinter on the east side of the Mississippi, waiting until the formaltransfer of Louisiana for the long journey of exploration to the sourcesof the Missouri and the Columbia. Their escort consisted of twentysoldiers, eleven _voyageurs_, and nine frontiersmen. The main craft wasa keel boat fifty-five feet long, of light draft, with square-rigged sailand twenty-two oars, and tow-line fastened to the mast pole to track theboat upstream through rapids. An American flag floated from the prow, and behind the flag the universal types of progress everywhere--goods fortrade and a swivel-gun. Horses were led alongshore for hunting, and twopirogues--sharp at prow, broad at stern, like a flat-iron or aturtle--glided to the fore of the keel boat. 

[Illustration: Captain Meriwether Lewis. ]

The Missouri was at flood tide, turbid with crumbling clay banks andgreat trees torn out by the roots, from which keel boat and piroguessheered safely off. For the first time in history the Missouri resoundedto the Fourth of July guns; and round camp-fire the men danced to thestrains of a _voyageur's_ fiddle. Usually, among forty men is onetraitor, and Liberte must desert on pretence of running back for a knife;but perhaps the fellow took fright from the wild yarns told by thelonely-eyed, shaggy-browed, ragged trappers who came floating down thePlatte, down the Osage, down the Missouri, with canoe loads of furs forSt. Louis. These men foregathered with the _voyageurs_ and told only tootrue stories of the dangers ahead. Fires kindled on the banks of theriver called neighboring Indians to council. Council Bluffs commemoratesone conference, of which there were many with Iowas and Omahas andRicarees and Sioux. Pause was made on the south side of the Missouri tovisit the high mound where Blackbird, chief of the Omahas, was buriedastride his war horse that his spirit might forever watch the French_voyageurs_ passing up and down the river. 

[Illustration: Captain William Clark. ]

By October the explorers were sixteen hundred miles north of St. Louis, at the Mandan villages near where Bismarck stands to-day. The Mandanswelcomed the white men; but the neighboring tribes of Ricarees wereinsolent. "Had I these white warriors on the upper plains, " boasted achief to Charles Mackenzie, one of the Northwest Fur Company men fromCanada, "my young men on horseback would finish them as they would somany wolves; for there are only two sensible men among them, the workerof iron [blacksmith] and the mender of guns. " Four Canadian traders hadalready been massacred by this chief. Captain Lewis knew that hiscompany must winter on the east side of the mountains, and there were adozen traders--Hudson Bay and Nor'westers--on the ground practising allthe unscrupulous tricks of rivals, Nor'westers driving off Hudson Bayhorses, Hudson Bay men driving off Nor'-westers', to defeat trade; soCaptain Lewis at once had a fort constructed. It was triangular inshape, the two converging walls consisting of barracks with a loopholedbastion at the apex, the base being a high wall of strong pickets wheresentry kept constant guard. Hitherto Captain Lewis had been able tosecure the services of French trappers as interpreters with the Indians;but the next year he was going where there were no trappers; and now heluckily engaged an old Nor'wester, Chaboneau, whose Indian wife, Sacajawea, was a captive from the Snake tribe of the Rockies. [1] OnChristmas morning, the stars and stripes were hoisted above Fort Mandan;and all that night the men danced hilariously. On New Years of 1805, thewhite men visited the Mandan lodges, and one _voyageur_ danced "on hishead" to the uproarious applause of the savages. All winter the menjoined in the buffalo hunts, laying up store of pemmican. In February, work was begun on the small boats for the ascent of the Missouri. By theend of March, the river had cleared of ice, and a dozen men were sentback to St. Louis. 

At five, in the afternoon of April 7, six canoes and two pirogues werepushed out on the Missouri. Sails were hoisted; a cheer from theCanadian traders and Indians standing on the shore--and the boats glidedup the Missouri with flags flying from foremost prow. Hitherto Lewis andClark had passed over travelled ground. Now they had set sail for theUnknown. Within a week they had passed the Little Missouri, the heightof land that divides the waters of the Missouri from those of theSaskatchewan, and the great Yellowstone River, first found by wanderingFrench trappers and now for the first time explored. The current of theMissouri grew swifter, the banks steeper, and the use of the tow-linemore frequent. The voyage was no more the holiday trip that it had beenall the way from St. Louis. Hunters were kept on the banks to forage forgame, and once four of them came so suddenly on an open-mouthed, ferocious old bear that he had turned hunter and they hunted before gunscould be loaded; and the men saved themselves only by jumping twenty feetover the bank into the river. 

For miles the boats had to be tracked up-stream by the tow-line. Theshore was so steep that it offered no foothold. Men and stones slitheredheterogeneously down the sliding gravel into the water. Moccasins woreout faster than they could be sewed; and the men's feet were cut byprickly-pear and rock as if by knives. On Sunday, May 26, when CaptainLewis was marching to lighten the canoes, he had just climbed to thesummit of a high, broken cliff when there burst on his glad eyes a firstglimpse of the far, white "Shining Mountains" of which the Indians told, the Rockies, snowy and dazzling in the morning sun. One can guess howthe weather-bronzed, ragged man paused to gaze on the glimmering summits. Only one other explorer had ever been so far west in this region--youngDe la Vérendrye, fifty years before; but the Frenchman had been compelledto turn back without crossing the mountains, and the two Americans wereto assail and conquer what had proved an impassable barrier. TheMissouri had become too deep for poles, too swift for paddles; and thebanks were so precipitous that the men were often poised at dizzy heightsabove the river, dragging the tow-line round the edge of rock and crumblycliff. Captain Lewis was leading the way one day, crawling along theface of a rock wall, when he slipped. Only a quick thrust of hisspontoon into the cliff saved him from falling almost a hundred feet. Hehad just struck it with terrific force into the rock, where it gave himfirm handhold, when he heard a voice cry, "Good God, Captain, what shallI do?"

[Illustration: Tracking Up-stream. ]

Windsor, a frontiersman, had slipped to the very verge of the rock, wherehe lay face down with right arm and leg completely over the precipice, his left hand vainly grabbing empty air for grip of anything that wouldhold him back. Captain Lewis was horrified, but kept his presence ofmind; for the man's life hung by a thread. A move, a turn, the slighteststart of alarm to disturb Windsor's balance--and he was lost. Steadyinghis voice, Captain Lewis shouted back, "You're in little danger. Stickyour knife in the cliff to hoist yourself up. "

With the leverage of the knife, Windsor succeeded in lifting himself backto the narrow ledge. Then taking off his moccasins, he crawled along thecliff to broader foothold. Lewis sent word for the crews to wade themargin of the river instead of attempting this pass--which they did, though shore water was breast high and ice cold. 

[Illustration: Typical Mountain Trapper. ]

The Missouri had now become so narrow that it was hard to tell which wasthe main river and which a tributary; so Captain Lewis and four men wentin advance to find the true course. Leaving camp at sunrise, CaptainLewis was crossing a high, bare plain, when he heard the most musical ofall wilderness sounds--the far rushing that is the voice of many waters. Far above the prairie there shimmered in the morning sun a gigantic plumeof spray. Surely this was the Great Falls of which the Indians told. Lewis and his men broke into a run across the open for seven miles, therush of waters increasing to a deafening roar, the plume of spray toclouds of foam. Cliffs two hundred feet high shut off the view. Downthese scrambled Lewis, not daring to look away from his feet till safelyat bottom, when he faced about to see the river compressed by sheercliffs over which hurled a white cataract in one smooth sheet eighty feethigh. The spray tossed up in a thousand bizarre shapes of wind-drivenclouds. Captain Lewis drew the long sigh of the thing accomplished. Hehad found the Great Falls of the Missouri. 

[Illustration: The Discovery of the Great Falls. ]

Seating himself on the rock, he awaited his hunters. That night theycamped under a tree near the falls. Morning showed that the river wasone succession of falls and rapids for eighteen miles. Here was indeed astoppage to the progress of the boats. Sending back word to CaptainClark of the discovery of the falls, Lewis had ascended the course of thecascades to a high hill when he suddenly encountered a herd of a thousandbuffalo. It was near supper-time. Quick as thought, Lewis fired. Whatwas his amazement to see a huge bear leap from the furze to pounce on thewounded quarry; and what was Bruin's amazement to see the unusualspectacle of a thing as small as a man marching out to contest possessionof that quarry? Man and bear reared up to look at each other. Bear hadbeen master in these regions from time immemorial. Man or beast--whichwas to be master now? Lewis had aimed his weapon to fire again, when herecollected that it was not loaded; and the bear was coming on too fastfor time to recharge. Captain Lewis was a brave man and a dignified man;but the plain was bare of tree or brush, and the only safety wasinglorious flight. But if he had to retreat, the captain determined thathe _would_ retreat only at a walk. The rip of tearing claws sounded frombehind, and Lewis looked over his shoulder to see the bear at a hulkinggallop, open-mouthed, --and off they went, explorer and exploited, in asprinting match of eighty yards, when the grunting roar of pursuer toldpursued that the bear was gaining. Turning short, Lewis plunged into theriver to mid-waist and faced about with his spontoon at the bear's nose. A sudden turn is an old trick with all Indian hunters; the bearfloundered back on his haunches, reconsidered the sport of hunting thisnew animal, man, and whirled right about for the dead buffalo. 

[Illustration: Fighting a Grizzly. ]

It took the crews from the 15th to the 25th of June to _portage_ past theGreat Falls. Cottonwood trees yielded carriage wheels two feet indiameter, and the masts of the pirogues made axletrees. On thesewagonettes the canoes were dragged across the _portage_. It was hard, hot work. Grizzlies prowled round the camp at night, wakening theexhausted workers. The men actually fell asleep on their feet as theytoiled, and spent half the night double-soling their torn moccasins, forthe cactus already had most of the men limping from festered feet. Yetnot one word of complaint was uttered; and once, when the men were campedon a green along the _portage_, a _voyageur_ got out his fiddle, and thesore feet danced, which was more wholesome than moping or poulticing. The boldness of the grizzlies was now explained. Antelope and buffalowere carried over the falls. The bears prowled below for the carrion. 

After failure to construct good hide boats, two other craft, twenty-fiveand thirty-three feet long, were knocked together, and the crews launchedabove the rapids for the far Shining Mountains that lured like amariner's beacon. Night and day, when the sun was hot, came theboom-boom as of artillery from the mountains. The _voyageurs_ thoughtthis the explosion of stones, but soon learned to recognize the sound ofavalanche and land-slide. The river became narrower, deeper, swifter, asthe explorers approached the mountains. For five miles rocks rose oneach side twelve hundred feet high, sheer as a wall. Into this shadowycañon, silent as death, crept the boats of the white men, vainlystraining their eyes for glimpse of egress from the watery defile. Aword, a laugh, the snatch of a _voyageur's_ ditty, came back with elfinecho, as if spirits hung above the dizzy heights spying on the intruders. Springs and tenuous, wind-blown falls like water threads trickled downeach side of the lofty rocks. The water was so deep that poles did nottouch bottom, and there was not the width of a foot-hold between waterand wall for camping ground. Flags were unfurled from the prows of theboats to warn marauding Indians on the height above that the _voyageurs_were white men, not enemies. Darkness fell on the cañon with the greathushed silence of the mountains; and still the boats must go on and on inthe darkness, for there was no anchorage. Finally, above a small islandin the middle of the river, was found a tiny camping ground withpine-drift enough for fire-wood. Here they landed in the pitchy dark. They had entered the Gates of the Rockies on the 19th of July. In themorning bighorn and mountain goat were seen scrambling along the ledgesabove the water. On the 25th the Three Forks of the Missouri werereached. Here the Indian woman, Sacajawea, recognized the ground andpractically became the guide of the party, advising the two explorers tofollow the south fork or the Jefferson, as that was the stream which hertribe followed when crossing the mountains to the plains. 

[Illustration: Packer carrying Goods across Portage. ]

It now became absolutely necessary to find mountain Indians who wouldsupply horses and guide the white men across the Divide. In the hope offinding the Indian trail, Captain Lewis landed with two men and precededthe boats. He had not gone five miles when to his sheer delight he saw aSnake Indian on horseback. Ordering his men to keep back, he advancedwithin a mile of the horseman and three times spread his blanket on theground as a signal of friendship. The horseman sat motionless as bronze. Captain Lewis went forward, with trinkets held out to tempt a parley, andwas within a few hundred yards when the savage wheeled and dashed off. Lewis' men had disobeyed orders and frightened the fellow by advancing. Deeply chagrined, Lewis hoisted an American flag as sign of friendshipand continued his march. Tracks of horses were followed across a bog, along what was plainly an Indian road, till the sources of the Missouribecame so narrow that one of the men put a foot on each side and thankedGod that he had lived to bestride the Missouri. Stooping, all drank fromthe crystal spring whose waters they had traced for three thousand milesfrom St. Louis. Following a steep declivity, they were presentlycrossing the course of a stream that flowed west and must lead to somebranch of the Columbia. 

[Illustration: Spying on an Enemy's Fort. ]

Suddenly, on the cliff in front, Captain Lewis discovered two squaws, anIndian, and some dogs. Unfurling his flag, he advanced. The Indianspaused, then dashed for the woods. Lewis tried to tie some presentsround the dogs' necks as a peace-offering, but the curs made off aftertheir master. The white men had not proceeded a mile before they came tothree squaws, who never moved but bowed their heads to the ground for theexpected blow that would make them captives. Throwing down weapons, Lewis pulled up his sleeve to show that he was white. Presents allayedall fear, and the squaws had led him two miles toward their camp whensixty warriors came galloping at full speed with arrows levelled. Thesquaws rushed forward, vociferating and showing their presents. Threechiefs at once dismounted, and fell on Captain Lewis with such greasyembraces of welcome that he was glad to end the ceremony. Pipes weresmoked, presents distributed, and the white men conducted to a greatleathern lodge, where Lewis announced his mission and prepared theIndians for the coming of the main force in the boats. 

[Illustration: Indian Camp at Foothills of Rockies. ]

The Snakes scarcely knew whether to believe the white man's tale. TheIndian camp was short of provisions, and Lewis urged the warriors to comeback up the trail to meet the advancing boats. The braves hesitated. Cameahwait, the chief, harangued till a dozen warriors mounted theirhorses and set out, Lewis and his men each riding behind an Indian. Captain Clark could advance only slowly, and the Indians with Lewis grewsuspicious as they entered the rocky denies without meeting theexplorers' party. Half the Snakes turned back. Among those that went onwere three women. To demonstrate good faith, Lewis again mounted a horsebehind an Indian, though the bare-back riding over rough ground at a madpace was almost jolting his bones apart. A spy came back breathless withnews for the hungry warriors that one of the white hunters had killed adeer, and the whole company lashed to a breakneck gallop that nearlyfinished Lewis, who could only cling for dear life to the Indian's waist. The poor wretches were so ravenous that they fell on the dead deer anddevoured it raw. It was here that Lewis expected the boats. They werenot to be seen. The Indians grew more distrustful. The chief at onceput fur collars, after the fashion of Indian dress, round the white men'sshoulders. As this was plainly a trick to conceal the whites in case oftreachery on their part, Lewis at once took off his hat and placed it onthe chief's head. Then he hurried the Indians along, lest they shouldlose courage completely. To his mortification, Captain Clark did notappear. To revive the Indians' courage, the white men then passed theirguns across to the Snakes, signalling willingness to suffer death if theIndians discovered treachery. That night all the Indians hid in thewoods but five, who slept on guard round the whites. If anything hadstopped Clark's advance, Lewis was lost. Though neither knew it, Lewisand Clark were only four miles apart, Clark, Chaboneau, the guide, andSacajawea, the Indian woman, were walking on the shore early in themorning, when the squaw began to dance with signs of the most extravagantjoy. Looking ahead, Clark saw one of Lewis' men, disguised as an Indian, leading a company of Snake warriors that the squaw had recognized as herown people, from whom she had been wrested when a child. The Indiansbroke into songs of delight, and Sacajawea, dashing through the crowd, threw her arms round an Indian woman, sobbing and laughing and exhibitingall the hysterical delight of a demented creature. Sacajawea and thewoman had been playmates in childhood and had been captured in the samewar; but the Snake woman had escaped, while Sacajawea became a slave andmarried the French guide. 

Meanwhile, Captain Clark was being welcomed by Lewis and the chief, Cameahwait. Sacajawea was called to interpret. Cameahwait rose tospeak. The poor squaw flung herself on him with cries of delight. Inthe chief of the Snakes she had recognized her brother. Laced coats, medals, flags, and trinkets were presented to the Snakes; but thoughwilling enough to act as guides, the Indians discouraged the explorersabout going on in boats. The western stream was broken for leagues byterrible rapids walled in with impassable precipices. Boats wereabandoned and horses bought from the Snakes. The white men set theirfaces northwestward, the southern trail, usually followed by the Snakes, leading too much in the direction of the Spanish settlements. Game grewso scarce that by September the men were without food and a colt waskilled for meat. 

By October the company was reduced to a diet of dog; but the last Dividehad been crossed. Horses were left with an Indian chief of theFlatheads, and the explorers glided down the Clearwater, leading to theColumbia, in five canoes and one pilot boat. Great was the joy in campon November 8, 1805; for the boats had passed the last _portage_ of theColumbia. When heavy fog rose, there burst on the eager gaze of the_voyageurs_ the shining expanse of the Pacific. The shouts of thejubilant _voyageurs_ mingled with the roar of ocean breakers. LikeAlexander Mackenzie of the far North a decade before, Lewis and Clark hadreached the long-sought Western Sea. They had been first up theMissouri, first across the middle Rockies, and first down the Columbia tothe Pacific. 

Seven huts, known as Fort Clatsop, were knocked up on the south side ofthe Columbia's harbor for winter quarters; and a wretched winter thelittle fort spent, beleaguered not by hostiles, but by such inclementdamp that all the men were ill before spring and their very leather suitsrotted from their backs. Many a time, coasting the sea, were theybenighted. Spreading mats on the sand, they slept in the drenching rain. Unused to ocean waters, the inland voyageurs became deadly seasick. Once, when all were encamped on the shore, an enormous tidal wave brokeover the camp with a smashing of log-drift that almost crushed the boats. Nez Perces and Flatheads had assisted the white men after the Snakeguides had turned back. Clatsops and Chinooks were now their neighbors. Christmas and New Year of 1806 were celebrated by a discharge offirearms. No boats chanced to touch at the Columbia during the winter. The time was passed laying up store of elk meat and leather; for thecompany was not only starving, but nearly naked. The Pacific had beenreached on November 14, 1805. Fort Clatsop was evacuated on theafternoon of March 23, 1806. 

The goods left to trade for food and horses when Lewis and Clark departedfrom the coast inland had dwindled to what could have been tied in twohandkerchiefs; but necessity proved the mother of invention, and the mencut the brass buttons from their tattered clothes and vended brasstrinkets to the Indians. The medicine-chest was also sacrificed, everyIndian tribe besieging the two captains for eye-water, fly-blisters, andother patent wares. The poverty of the white man roused the insolence ofthe natives on the return over the mountains. Rocks were rolled down onthe boatmen at the worst _portages_ by aggressive Indians; and once, whenthe hungry _voyageurs_ were at a meal of dog meat, an Indian impudentlyflung a live pup straight at Captain Lewis' plate. In a trice the pupwas back in the fellow's face; Lewis had seized a weapon; and thecrestfallen aggressor had taken ignominiously to his heels. When theyhad crossed the mountains, the forces divided into three parties, two togo east by the Yellowstone, one under Lewis by the main Missouri. 

Somewhere up the height of land that divides the southern waters of theSaskatchewan from the northern waters of the Missouri, the tracks ofMinnetaree warriors were found. These were the most murderous raiders ofthe plains. Over a swell of the prairie Lewis was startled to see a bandof thirty horses, half of them saddled. The Indians were plainly on thewar-path, for no women were in camp; so Lewis took out his flag andadvanced unfalteringly. An Indian came forward. Lewis and the chiefshook hands, but Lewis now had no presents to pacify hostiles. Campingwith the Minnetarees for the night, as if he feared nothing, Lewisnevertheless took good care to keep close watch on all movements. Hesmoked the pipe of peace with them as late as he dared; and when heretired to sleep, he had ordered Fields and the other two white men to beon guard. At sunrise the Indians crowded round the fire, where Fieldshad for the moment carelessly laid his rifle. Simultaneously, thewarriors dashed at the weapons of the sleeping white men, while otherIndians made off with the explorers' horses. With a shout, Fields gavethe alarm, and pursuing the thieves, grappled with the Indian who hadstolen his rifle. In the scuffle the Indian was stabbed to the heart. Drewyer succeeded in wresting back his gun, and Lewis dashed out with hispistol, shouting for the Indians to leave the horses. The raiders weremounting to go off at full speed. The white men pursued on foot. Twelvehorses fell behind; but just as the Indians dashed for hiding behind acliff, Lewis' strength gave out. He warned them if they did not stop hewould shoot. An Indian turned to fire with one of the stolen weapons, and instantly Lewis' pistol rang true. The fellow rolled to earthmortally wounded; but Lewis felt the whiz of a bullet past his own head. Having captured more horses than they had lost, the white men at oncemounted and rode for their lives through river and slough, sixty mileswithout halt; for the Minnetarees would assuredly rally a larger band ofwarriors to their aid. A pause of an hour to refresh the horses and awilder ride by moonlight put forty more miles between Captain Lewis anddanger. At daylight the men were so sore from the mad pace fortwenty-four hours that they could scarcely stand; but safety depended onspeed and on they went again till they reached the main Missouri, whereby singularly good luck some of the other _voyageurs_ had arrived. 

[Illustration: On Guard. ]

The entire forces were reunited below the Yellowstone on August 12th. Traders on the way up the Missouri from St. Louis brought first news ofthe outer world, and the discoverers were not a little amused to learnthat they had been given up for dead. At the Mandans, Colter, one of thefrontiersmen, asked leave to go back to the wilds; and Chaboneau, withhis dauntless wife, bade the white men farewell. On September 20thsettlers on the river bank above St. Louis were surprised to see thirtyragged men, with faces bronzed like leather, passing down the river. Then some one remembered who these worn _voyageurs_ were, and cheers ofwelcome made the cliffs of the Missouri ring. On September 23d, atmidday, the boats drew quietly up to the river front of St. Louis. Lewisand Clark, the greatest pathfinders of the United States, had returnedfrom the discovery of a new world as large as half Europe, without losinga single man but Sergeant Floyd, who had died from natural causes a fewmonths after leaving St. Louis. What Radisson had begun in 1659-1660, what De la Vérendrye had attempted when he found the way barred by theRockies--was completed by Lewis and Clark in 1805. It was the last actin that drama of heroes who carved empire out of wilderness; and allalike possessed the same hero-qualities--courage and endurance that wereindomitable, the strength that is generated in life-and-death grapplewith naked primordial reality, and that reckless daring which defies lifeand death. Those were hero-days; and they produced hero-types, who flungthemselves against the impossible--and conquered it. What they conqueredwe have inherited. It is the Great Northwest. 

[Illustration: Indians of the Up-country or _Pays d'en Haut_. ]

[1] Mention of this man is to be found in Northwest Company manuscripts, lately sold in the Masson collection of documents to the CanadianArchives and McGill College Library. It was also my good fortune--whilethis book was going to print--to see the entire family collection ofClark's letters, owned by Mrs. Julia Clark Voorhis of New York. Amongthese letters is one to Chaboneau from Clark. In spite of the cordialrelations between the Nor'westers and Lewis and Clark, these fur traderscannot conceal their fear that this trip presages the end of the furtrade. 

APPENDIX

For the very excellent translations of the almost untranslatabletranscripts taken from the Marine Archives of Paris, and forwarded tome by the Canadian Archives, I am indebted to Mr. R. Roy, of the MarineDepartment, Ottawa, the eminent authority on French Canadiangenealogical matters. 

Some of the topics in the Appendices are of such a controversialnature--the whereabouts of the Mascoutins, for instance--that at myrequest Mr. Roy made the translation absolutely literal no matter howincongruous the wording. To those who say Radisson was not on theMissouri I commend Appendix E, where the tribes of the West aredescribed. 

APPENDIX A

COPY OF LETTER WRITTEN TO M. COMPORTÉ BY M. CHOUART, AT LONDON, THE 29TH APRIL, 1685

SIR, I have received the two letters with which you have honored me; I haveeven received one inclosed that I have not given, for reasons that Iwill tell you, God willing, in a few days. 

I have received your instructions contained in the one and the other, as to the way I should act, and I should not have failed to execute allthat you order me for the service of our Master, if I had been at fullliberty so to do; you must have no doubt about it, because myinclination and my duty agree perfectly well. All the advantages thatI am offered did not for a moment cause me to waver, but, in short, sir, I could not go to Paris, and I shall be happy to go and meet youby the route you travel. I shall be well pleased to find landed thepeople you state will be there; in case they may have the commissionyou speak of in your two letters, have it accompanied if you pleasewith a memorandum of what I shall have to do for the service of ourMaster. I know of a case whereby I am sufficiently taught that it isnot safe to undertake too many things, however advantageous they maybe, nor undertaking too little. I am convinced, sir, that havingorders, I will carry them out at the risk of my life, and I flattermyself that you do not doubt it. 

There is much likelihood that the men you sent last year are lost. 

I should like, sir, to be at the place you desire me to go; be assuredI will perish, or be there as soon as I possibly can; it is sayingenough. I do not answer to the rest of your letter, it is sufficientthat I am addressing a sensible man, who, knowing my heart, will notdoubt that I will keep my word with him, as I believe he will do all hecan for my interests. 

I am, with much anxiety to see you, sir, your most humble and mostobedient servant, (signed) CHOUART. 

I will leave here only on the 25th of next month. 

APPENDIX B

COPY OF LETTER WRITTEN BY M. CHOUART TO MRS. DES GROSEILLERS, HIS MOTHER

AT LONDON, 11TH APRIL, 1685. 

MY VERY DEAR MOTHER, I learn by the letter you have written me, of the 2nd November last, that my father has returned from France without obtaining anything atthat Court, which made you think of leaving Quebec; my sentiment wouldbe that you abandon this idea as I am strongly determined to go and beby you at the first opportunity I get, which shall be, God willing, assoon as I have taken means to that effect when I have returned from theNorth. 

I hope to start on this voyage in a month or six weeks at the latest; Icannot determine on what date I could be near you; my father may knowwhat difficulties there are. However, I hope to surmount them, andthere is nothing I would not do to that end. 

The money I left with my cousin is intended to buy you a house, as Ihave had always in mind to do, had not my father opposed it, but now Iwill do it so as to give you a chance to get on, and always see you inthe country where I will live. 

I have been made, here, proposals of marriage, to which I have notlistened, not being here under the rule of my king nor near my parents, and I would have left this kingdom had I been given the liberty to doso, but they hold back on me my pay and the price of my merchandise, and I cannot sail away as orders have been given to arrest me in case Ishould prepare to leave. 

What you fear in reference to my money should not give you anyuneasiness on account of the English. I will cause it to be prettywell known that I never intended to follow the English. I have beensurprised and forced by my uncle's subterfuges to risk this voyagebeing unable to escape the English vessels where my uncle made me gowithout disclosing his plan, which he has worked out in bringing mehere, but I will not disclose mine either: to abandon this nation. Iam willing that my cousin should pay you the income on my money, untilI return home. M. The earl of Denonville, your governor, will see tomy mother's affairs, as they who render service to the country will notbe forsaken as in the past, and being generous as he is, loyal andzealous for his country, he will inform the Court what there is to bedone for the benefit of our nation. 

I am, my dear mother, to my father and to you, most obedient servant, (signed) CHOUART. 

And below is written:--

MOTHER, I pray you to see on my behalf M. Du Lude, and assure him of my veryhumble services. I will have the honor of seeing him as soon as I can. Please do the same with M. Peray and all our good friends. 

APPENDIX C

COUNCIL

Held at fort Pontchartrain, in lake Erie strait, 8th June, 1704. 

By the indians Kiskacous, Ottawa, Sinagot of the Sable Nation, Hurons, Saulteurs (Sault Indians), Amikoique (Amikoués), Mississaugas, Nipissings, Miamis and Wolves, in the presence of M. DeLamothe-Cadillac, commanding at the said fort; de Tonty, captain of adetachment of Marines; the rev F. Constantin, Recollet missionary atthe said post; Messrs Desnoyers and Radisson, principal clerks of theCompany of the Colony, and of all the French, soldiers as well as_voyageurs_. 

The one named FORTY SOLS, (40 half-penny), indian chief of the Huronnation speaks as much on behalf of the said nation as of all thosepresent at the meeting. 

The French having come, he said:--

"We ask that all the French be present at this Council so that theyhear and know what we will say to you. 

"We are well on this land, it is very good, and we are much pleasedwith it; listen well, father, we pray you. 

"Mrs de Tonty went away last year; she did not return; we see you goingaway to-day, father, with your wife, your children and all theFrenchwomen as well as that of M. Radisson, who is going down with you;that reveals to us that you abandon us. 

"We are angry for good and ill-disposed if the women go away. We prayyou to pay attention to this because we could not stop you nor youryoung men: we demand that Radisson remains, or at least, that hereturns promptly. "

BY A NECKLACE (Wampum)

"We will escort your wife and the other Frenchwomen who intend to godown to Montreal. Now, mind well what we are asking you. 

"We readily see that the Governor is a liar, as he does not keep towhat he has promised us; as he has lied to us we will lie to him also, and we will listen no more to his word. 

"What brings that man here (speaking of M. Desnoyers)? We do not knowhim and do not understand him; we are ill-disposed. It is two yearssince you have been gathering in our peltries, part of which has beentaken down; we will allow nothing to leave until the French come upwith goods. "

BY ANOTHER NECKLACE

"Father, we pray you to send back that man (speaking of M. Desnoyers), because if he remains here, we do not answer for his safety; our peoplehave told us that he despises our peltries and only wanted beaver;where does he want us to get it. We absolutely want him to go; nothingwill leave the house where the trading is done and where the peltriesand bundles are, until the French arrive here with merchandise and theybe allowed to trade. When we came here, the Governor did not tell usthat the merchants would be masters over the merchandise; he lied tous; we ask that all the Frenchmen trade here; we pray you to write andtell him what we are saying, and if he does not listen to us, we willalso refuse to accept his word. 

"The land is not yours, it is ours, and we will leave it to go where welike without anybody finding fault. We regret having allowed thesurgeon to leave as we apprehend he will not come back. 

"We pray you will cause to remain Gauvereau the blacksmith and gunsmith. 

"I have nothing more to say, I have spoken for all the nations herepresent. "

M. De Lamothe had a question put to the Ottawa and the other nations, if that was their sentiment; they all answered: Yes, and that they wereof one and the same mind. He told them that, seeing they had takentime to think over what they had just said, he would consider as towhat he had to answer them, and, put them off to the morrow, afterhaving accepted their necklace. 

(Not signed. )

COUNCIL

Held at fort Pontchartrain, in lake Erie strait, the 9th June, 1704. 

By the Indians Kiskacous; Ottawas; Sinagotres, the Sable nation;Hurons; Sauteux (Sault Ste Marie Indians); Amikoique (Beaver nation);Mississaugas; Miamis and Wolves in the presence of M. DeLamothe-Cadillac, commanding at the said fort; de Tonty, captain of adetachment of Marines; the rev F. Constantin, Recollet missionary atthe said post, Messrs Desnoyers and Radisson, principal clerks of theCompany of the Colony, and of all the French, soldiers as well as_voyageurs_. 

M. De Lamothe addressed all the said nations:--

"As you requested me to pay attention to your words, please listen, thesame, to-day. 

"I was aware that Mdme. De Tonty's trip to Montreal last year had givenyou umbrage, because she did not come back; and the cause of it is herpregnancy. 

"I knew also that my wife's setting out for Montreal as also the otherFrenchwomen was causing you uneasiness, because you believed I wasgoing to abandon you. It is true she was going away, but it was notfor ever. I showed her your necklace; that her children would miss hervery much and that they begged of her to stay. When she heard of yourgrief, she accepted your necklace and she will stay for some time, because she does not like to refuse her children; the other Frenchwomenwill remain also. 

"You spoke ill of the Governor when you said he was a liar. If anyonetold you that he was forsaking you, I will be pleased if you will tellme who it is. As for me I have no knowledge of it. 

"M. Desnoyers was present when you offered your necklace, and like mehe heard your statement. He told me you were wrong to complain abouthim because he would not take your peltries and that he wanted beaveronly; you are complaining inopportunely seeing that he has not done anytrading. You should tell me who made those reports. But as you arenot glad to see him, he has decided to go back, and as I am going downto Montreal on good business, he will accompany me, and also M. Radisson, because the Governor wants him, and he must obey, and we willarrange so that we come back together. 

"You have asked me to write down your speech to the Governor. I willbe the bearer of it. I have not the authority to have the French totrade here; it is a matter that M. The Governor will settle with M. TheIntendant. 

"The Governor did not lie to you because he did not notify you thefirst year, that the merchants would be masters of the merchandise, because it was the King who sent it here then and I could dispose ofit; since then, an order came from the King in favor of the merchants. 

"This land is mine, because I am the first one who lighted a firethereon, and you all took some to light yours. 

"I am very glad that you like this land, and that you find it is good. 

"It is of no consequence that the surgeon left, because when one goesanother comes, and the same applies for the gunsmith. 

"I have no more to tell you. Here is some tobacco that you may allsmoke together, and that it may give you wisdom until I return and theGovernor sends you his word. Attend to your mother during my absence, and see that she does not want for provisions, for if you do not takecare of her, on my return I will not give you a drink of brandy. 

"M. De Tonty replaces me; I pray you to be on good terms with him. "

FORTY SOLS, chief of the Hurons, spoke for all the indians:--

"We remember well, father, of what we said yesterday because you repeatit to-day. We thank you for having listened to us and granted all weasked you. We thank the women for not going away, because theirremaining is as if you remained. From to-morrow we will stimulate ouryoung men to go after provisions for our mother. 

"It is three years ago, when in Montreal at the general meeting ourchiefs died, the governor told us to have courage, that he was sorryfor us, that he saw we were very far to come and get goods in Montreal, and he invited us to come and settle around you, and that he would sendus merchandise at the same price as in Montreal. This worked well fortwo years, but goods rose up too much in price the third year. 

"The first year you came, we were very happy, but now we are naked, noteven having a bad shirt to put on our back. We would be pleased by theestablishment of several stores here, because if we were refused inone, we could go to another. 

"We are very glad of M. Desnoyers' going back because we do not knowhim and we fear some of our young men may be ill-disposed. 

"We were under the impression the Governor had sold us to the merchantssince they are the masters of the commerce. 

"It is true that we took of your fire to light ours but we have waitedtwo years without anything coming this way so that your land is ours. I told the same thing to the Governor last year in Montreal. 

"Have courage, father, we will pray God for you during your voyage sothat you may bring back good news. "

(Not signed. )

APPENDIX D

Cie des Indes

(Indies Co'y)

Renders account to the said company of the death of Mr. Radisson, receiver at Montreal, of the nomination ad interim of Mr. Gamelin tofill the vacancy of receiver, of account to render by Mr. Deplessis, heir of Mr. Radisson to reëstablish price of summer beaver as beforeordinance of the 4th January, 1733. 

AT QUEBEC, THE 25TH OCTOBER, 1735. 

GENTLEMEN, I have received the letter you did me the honor to send me of the 9thMarch last. 

M. Radisson, your receiver at Montreal, died there the 14th of June andimmediately M. Gamelin, merchant, to whom Messrs La Gorgendière andDaine had given three years ago, had commissioned to look after yourinterests in default or in case of death of M. Radisson, applied to M. Michel, my sub-delegate to affix the seals on of all your effects, which was done according to the account rendered you by Messrs. LaGorgendière and Daine. 

It was necessary to fill the vacancy. I have appointed temporarily invirtue of the authority, you gave, gentlemen, the same M. Gamelin; Ithought I could not have your interests in better hands, as much forhis honesty than his intelligence in regulating his sales and hisreceipts. Independently of the knowledge he has of the differentqualities of beaver, I have had the honor to speak to you on thissubject in my preceding letters and to say that the only obstacle Ifind to giving him the office of receiver at Montreal was his qualityof merchant outfitter for the upper country, which might render himsuspicious to you because of the returns he gets in beaver. Although Ihave a pretty good opinion of him to believe his loyalty proof againstany particular interest, you shall see, gentlemen, by the copy of thecommission I have given him, which is sent you, that it is on conditioneither directly or indirectly to do no traffic in the upper country, and to confine himself either to marine trade or other inland commerce, to which he has agreed, but nevertheless has represented to me thatbeing engaged as a partner with M. Lamarque, another merchant, for theworking out of the post named "the Western Sea" and that of the Sioux;this partnership only terminating in 1737; that he was looking aroundto sell his share, but, if this thing was impossible requesting me tokindly allow him to continue until that term, past which he would ceaseall commerce in the upper country. I agreed to this arrangement onaccount of his good qualities, and this will not turn to any account ofconsequence; whatever, selection you may make, gentlemen, you will notfind a better one in this country. 

M. De La Gorgendière having offered me his son to act as clerk to M. Gamelin and comptroller in the Montreal office, for the auditing to bemade, without increasing on that score the expenditure of youradministration, I have consented on these conditions; M. Gamelin togive him 800 livres (shillings) on the commission of one per cent thecompany allow the receiver at Montreal, and M. Daine has assured me hewas satisfied with his work. 

I will not entertain, you, messieurs, with the discussion of theaccount to be rendered by M. Duplessis, M. Radisson's heir, to youragent, who claims he owes 5 to 6000 livres. Those discussions did nottake place in my presence. 

Most of the beaver shipped this year were put up in bundles, andshortage in cotton cloth for packing prevented shipment of the whole. 

The disturbances which have occurred for some years in the uppercountry have effectively prevented the Indians from hunting; the postof the Bay which abounds ordinarily with beaver, produced nothing;those of Detroit and Michilimakinac, only furnished very little. Happily the post of the Sioux and of the Western Sea produced near to100, 000 which swelled up the receipt; otherwise it would have been verymiddling. 

The party commanded by M. Desnoyelles against the Indians Sakis andFoxes was not as successful as expected on account of the desertion andretreat of 100 Hurons and Iroquois who left him when at the Kakanons(Kiskanons of Michilimakinac?) without his being able to hold them, sothat this officer found himself after a long tramp at those Indians'fort, not only inferior in numbers but also much in want of provisions. He was under the necessity of returning after a rather sharp skirmishwhich took place between some of his men and the enemy. We lost twoFrenchmen and one of our indians; the Foxes and Sakis lost 21 men, either killed, wounded or captured. 

If the Sakis come back to the Bay, as they pledged themselves to M. Desnoyelles we are in hopes here that peace will again flourish andconsequently the trade of the upper country. 

I have seen, gentlemen, what you were pleased to say as to reduction inprice on the summer-beaver. I had been assured by reliable personsthat this reduction might become very injurious to your commerce. Ihave learned that some of this kind of beaver were carried to theEnglish who pay two livres (shillings) for one and at a higher pricethan you pay over your counters. It was from what you wrote me in1732, that the hatters could make no use of that beaver, that at yourrequest I published an ordinance of the 4th January, 1733, reducing theprice of summer-beaver either green (gras) or dry (sec) to ten pence apound, on condition that it should be burned. There could be nothingsuspicious in that. But since you now deem that that reduction may beharmful, as I have also had in mind to invite the indians and even theFrench under this pretence to take the good as well as the bad beaverto the English; I will restore the price of the summer-beaver as it wasbefore my ordinance. I will not be at a loss for a cause: it is not inyour interest to give a lower price. You run your commerce, gentlemen, with too much good faith to give rise to suspicion that you wished fora reduction in price to 10 pence for this kind of beaver, and having itburned only to procure it yourself at that price and not burn it. Besides, the quantity received is too small a matter to deserveconsideration. 

[Sidenote: Beaver hats half worked made in the country. ]

M. The marquis de Beauharnois and I have received the orders of theKing with reference to beaver hats half worked made in Canada. HisMajesty has ordered us to break up the workmen's benches and to preventany manufacture of hats. We have made some representations on thissubject, to those made to us, namely by a man named ------, hatter, andyour receiver at Quebec. It is true that the making of beaver hatshalf worked and other for export to France could turn out ofconsequence in ruining your privilege and the hat establishments inFrance. These are the only inconveniences, to my mind, to be feared, as I do not look upon such, the making of hats for the use of residentsof the country. So that we have satisfied ourselves, until furtherorders, to forbid the going, out of the colony, of all kind of hats, asyou will see by the ordinance we have published together, M. TheGeneral and I. If we had been more strict, the three hattersestablished in this colony, who know no other business than theirtrade, the man ------ amongst others, who follow that calling fromfather to son, would have been reduced to begging. 

The quantity of hats they will manufacture when export is stopped, cannot be of any injury to the manufactures of the kingdom and be butof small matter to your commerce. Moreover, I am aware that thesehatters employ the worst kind of beaver, which they get very cheap, andyour stores at Paris are that much rid of them. 

[Sidenote: Defects in list of cloth sent. ]

The cloths you sent this year are of better quality than the preceddingshipment. Messrs La Gorgendiere, Daine and Gamelin have observed ondefects which happen in the lists; they told me they would inform you. 

[Sidenote: Remittance of 300 livres (shillings) to the Baron deLongueuil. ]

I have the honor to thank you, gentlemen, for the remittance of 300livres you were pleased to grant to M. The Baron of Longueuil, on myrecommendation. 

It is very difficult to prevent the Indians going to Chouaguen; thebrandy that the English give out freely is an invincible attraction. 

I have heard, the same as you, that some Frenchmen disguised as Indianshad been there; if I can discover some one, you may be sure that I willdeal promptly with them. You may have heard that the man LENOIR, resident of Montreal, having gone to England three years ago withoutleave, I have kept him in prison till he had settled the fine he wascondemned to pay, and which I transferred to the hospitals. I add thata part of the interest you have in the Indians not going to Chouaguen, I have another on account of the trading carried on for the benefit ofthe King at Niagara and at fort Frontenac which that English post hasruined. By all means you may rely on my attention to break up Englishtrade. I fear I may not succeed in this so long as the brandy traffic, although moderate, will find adversaries among those who governconsciences. 

[Sidenote: Foreign trade; Beaver at trade at Labrador. ]

I will do my best to prevent the beaver which is traded at Labrador andthe other posts in the lower part of the River to be smuggled to Franceby ships from Bayonne, St Malo and Marseille. This will be difficultas we cannot have at those posts any inspector. I will try, however, to give an ordinance so as to prevent that, which may intimidate someof those who carry on that commerce. 

It is true that the commandants of the upper country posts have relaxedin the sending of the declarations made or to be made by the_voyageurs_ as to the quantity and quality of the bundles of beaverthey take down to Montreal. M. The General and I have renewed thenecessary orders on this subject so that the commandants shall conformto them. 

[Sidenote: Asks for continuation of gratuity received by Mr. Michel, even to increase it. ]

M. Michel, my subdelegate at Montreal has received the bounty of 500livres you have requested your agent to pay to him; he hopes that youwill be pleased to have it continued next year. I have the honor topray you to do so, and even augment it, if possible. I can assure you, gentlemen that he lends himself on all occasions to all that mayconcern your commerce. As for myself, I am very flattered by theopinion you entertain that I have at heart your interests. I alwaysfeel a true satisfaction in renewing you these assurances. 

I am, respectfully, [Sidenote: Thanks for the coffee sent. ]

GENTLEMEN, M. De La Gorgendière has delivered to me on your behalf, abale of Moka coffee. I am very sensible, gentlemen, to this token offriendship on your part. 

I have the honor to thank you, and to assure you that I am very trulyand respectfully, etc. 

(signed) HOCQUART. 

APPENDIX E

MEMORANDUM RE CANADA

(No locality) 1697

All the discoveries in America were only made step by step and littleby little, especially those of lands held by the French in that part ofthe North. 

It being certain that during the reign of king Francis I, several ofhis subjects, amateurs of shipping and of discoveries, in imitation ofthe Portuguese and the Spaniards, made the voyage, where they found thegreat cod bank. The quality of birds frequenting this sea where theyalways find food, caused them to heave the lead, and bottom was foundand the said great bank. 

He got an opinion on the nearest lands, and other curious personsdesired to go farther, and discovered Cape Breton, Virginia andFlorida. Some even inhabited and took possession of the divers places, abandoned since, through misunderstanding of the commanders and theirpoor skill in knowing how to keep on good terms with the indians ofthose countries, who, good natured all at the beginning, could notsuffer the rigor with which it was wanted to subjugate them, so thatafter a short occupation, they left to return to Europe. And since, the Spaniards and the English successfully have taken possession of theland and all the coasts that the said English have kept until this dayto much advantage, so that Frenchmen who have returned since have beenobliged to settle at Cape Breton and Acadia. 

About the year 1540, the said Cape Breton was fortified by JacquesCarrier, captain of St Malo, who afterward entered the river St. Lawrence up to 7 or 8 leagues above Quebec, where desiring to knowmore, the season also being too far advanced he stopped off to winterat a small river which bears his name and which forms the boundary ofM. De Becancourt's land whom he knew; he made sociable a number ofIndians who came aboard his ship and brought back beaver prettyabundantly. 

Since, he made another voyage with Saintonge men which did not preventseveral other ships to go after the said beaver; men from Dieppe, Brittany and La Rochelle, some with a passport and others by fraud andpiracy, especially the latter, the Civil war having carried awaypersons out of dutifulness, the Admiralty and the Marine being thenheld in very little consideration, which lasted a long time. 

However, I believe for having heard it said, that the lands after newdiscoveries were given since to M. Chabot or to M. Ventadour, where acertain gentleman from Saintonge named M. Du Champlain, had very freeadmittance and who may have mingled with those of his country who hadnavigated with Carrier and had given him a longing to see that of whichhe had only heard speak. 

He was a proper man for such a scheme; a great courage, wisdom, sensible, pious, fair and of great experience; a robust body whichwould render him indefatigable and capable to resist hunger, cold andheat. 

This gentleman then solicited permission to come to Canada and obtainedit. His small estate and his friends supplied him with a medium sizedvessel for the passage. This new commandant or governor pitied muchthe Indians and had the satisfaction at his arrival to see that he wasmuch feared and loved by them. He took memoranda through hisinterpreter of their wars, their mode of living and of their interests. At that time they were numerous and proud of the great advantages theyhad over the Iroquois, their enemy. With this information he recrossedto France; gave an account of his voyage, and was so charmed with theland, the climate and of the good which would result from a permanentestablishment that he persuaded his wife to accompany him. His exampleinduced missionaries of St. François and some parisian families tofollow him. He was granted a commission or governor's provisions totake his living from the country. 

He erected a palissade fort at the place now occupied by the fort StLouis of Quebec. 

To please the indians he went with them and three Frenchmen only, warring in the Iroquois country, which has no doubt given rise to ourquarrel with this nation. 

The Commerce was then in the hands of the Rochelois (?) who suppliedsome provisions to the said M. De Champlain, a man without interest anddisposed to be content with little. 

He returns to France in the interests of the country and took backMadam his wife who died in a Ursuline convent, at Saintes, I believe, and he at Quebec, after having worked hard there, with little helpbecause of the misfortunes of France. 

M. The Cardinal of Richelieu have inspired France with confidence bythe humiliation of the Rochelois (?) wanted to take care of the marineand formed at that time, about 1626 or 1627 what was then called the"Society of One Hundred, " in which joined persons of allqualifications, and also merchants from Dieppe and Rouen. Dieppe wasthen reputed for good navigators and for navigation. 

The said M. The Cardinal got granted to the said company the islands ofSt Christophe, newly discovered and all the lands of Canada. TheCompany composed of divers states did not take long to disjoin, and ofthis great Company several were formed by themselves, the onesconcerning themselves about the Isles and the others about Canada, where they were also divided up in a Company of Miscou, which is anisland of the Bay in the lower part of the River, where all the Indiansmeet, and a Company of Tadoussac or Quebec. 

The Basques, Rochelois, Bretons, and Normans, who during the disordersof the war had commenced secretly on the River, crossed their commercemuch by the continuation of their runs without passport. Sometimes onpretext of cod or whale fishing, notwithstanding the interdiction ofdecrees, the gain made them risk everything, as the two sides of theriver were all settled and many more came down from inland. 

Those Companies for being badly served on account of inexperience andthrough poor economy, as will happen at the beginning of all affairs, were put to large expenses. 

The English had already seized on Boston abandoned by the French aftertheir new discovery; beaver and elk peltry were much sought after andat a very high price in Europe; they could be had for a needle, ahawk-bell or a tin looking-glass, a marked copper coin. Our possessionwas there very well-off. The English who made war to us in France, also made it in Canada, and began to take the fleet about Isle Percée, as it was ascending to Quebec. 

As four or five vessels came every year loaded with goods for theIndians, it was at that time quantity of peas, plums, raisins, figs andothers and provisions for M. De Champlain; a garrison of 15 or 20 men;a store in the lower town where the clerks of the Company lived with 10or 12 families already used to the country. This succor failing, muchhardship was endured in a country which then produced nothing byitself, so that the English presenting themselves the next year withtheir fleet, surrender was obligatory; the governor and the Recolletscrossed over to France and the families were treated honestly enough. 

Happily in 1628 or 1629, France made it up with England and the treatygave back Canada to the French, when M. De Champlain, returned and diedsome years later. 

Those of the Company of 100, who were persons of dignity andconsideration, living in Paris, thought fit to leave the care andbenefits of commerce for Canada with the Rouen and Dieppe merchants, with whom joined a few from Paris. They were charged with the paymentof the governor's appointments, to furnish him with provisions andsubsistence and to keep up the garrisons of Quebec and Three-Riverswhere there was also a post on account of the large number of Indianscalling; to furnish the things necessary for the war; to pay themselvesoff the product and give account of the surplus to the directors of theCompany who had an office at Paris. 

It has been said that Dieppe and Rouen benefitted and that Parissuffered and was disgusted. 

To M. De Champlain succeeded M. De Montmagny, very wise and verydignified; knight of Malta; relative of M. De Poinsy, who commanded atthe Island of St Christophe where the said M. De Montmagny died afterleaving Canada after a sojourn of 14 or 15 years, loved and cherishedby the French and the natives--we say the French, although thecomplaints made against him by the principals were the cause of hissorrow and he resigned voluntarily. 

It is to be remarked that all the commerce was done at Rouen to go outthrough Dieppe on the hearsay and the fine connections that the JesuitFathers who had taken the Recollets' place, took great care to haveprinted and distributed every year. 

Canada was in vogue and several families from Normandy and the Perchetook sail to come and reside in it; there were nobles, the most of thempoor, we might say, who found out from the first, that M. De Montmagnywas too disinterested to be willing to consider the change they desiredfor their advantage. They intrigued against him five or six familieswithout the participation of the others, got leave from him to go toFrance to ask for favors and there had one of themselves as governor;obtained liberty in the beaver trade, which until then had beenstrictly forbidden to the inhabitants who had been reserved the fruitsof the country to advance the culture of the land such as pease, Indiancorn, and wheat bread. That was the first title of the inhabitants totrade with the indians. 

To arrive at that end they promised to pay annually 1000 beaver to theParis office for its seignorial right which it did not receive throughits attention and management of its affairs. 

They got permission to form a Board from their principal men, totransact with the governor all matters in the country for peace, forwar, the settlement of accounts of their society or little republic, and also sitting on cases concerning interests of private individuals. 

It was then that to keep up this sham republic or society, a tax ofone-fourth was imposed on the export of beaver. 

By these means the authority of the Company and its store were ruinedand the whole was turning to the advantage of those four or sixfamilies, the others, either poor or slighted by the authority of M. D'Ailleboust, their governor. 

On this footing it was not hard for them to find large credit at LaRochelle, because loans were made in the name of the Community, although it consisted only of these four or six families; which fromtheir being poor found themselves in large managements enlarged theirhousehold, ran into expense, that of their vessels and shipments wasexcessive and the wealth derived from the beaver was to pay all. 

Their bad management altered their credit and brought them to agree, after several years' enjoyment so as not to pay La Rochelle, to taketheir ships to Hâvre-de-Grace, where, on arrival they sold to MessrsLick and Tabac; this perfidy which they excused because of the largeinterest taken from them, alarmed La Rochelle who complained to Paris, and after much pressing a trustee was appointed to give bonds in thename of the society for large sums yet due to the city of La Rochelle. 

Their vessels all bore off to Normandy; they took on their cargoesthere in part, and part at La Rochelle, the trade having been allowedthose two places, because Rouen and Dieppe had several persons on theroll of the Company and obligation was due La Rochelle for havingloaned property. 

The governor and the families addressed reproaches to each other, andthe King being pleased to listen to them, had the kindness to appointfrom the body of the company persons of first dignity to give attentionto what was going on in this colony, who were called Commissioners;they were Messrs de Morangis, de la Marguerid, Verthamont and Chame, and since, Messrs de Lamoignon, de Boucherat and de Lauzon, the latteralso of the body of the Company offered to pass over to this country toarrange the difficulties, and he asked for its government, which wasaccorded him. 

He embarked at La Rochelle because of the obligation of the creditorsof that city to treat him gently; Rouen did not care much. He was aliterary man; he made friends with the R. F. Jesuits, and created a newcouncil in virtue of the powers he had brought, rebuke the one and theother place, even the inhabitants, in forbidding them to barter in whatwas called the limits of Tadoussac, which he bounded for a particularlease as a security for his payment and of what has always since beencalled the offices of the country or the state of the 33, 000 livres;the emoluments of the Councillors, the garrison, the Jesuits, theParish, the Ursulines, the Hote-Dieu, etc. 

The pretext given was that the Iroquois having burned and ruined theHurons or Ottawa, the tax of one-fourth did not produce enough to meetthose demands, and because Tadoussac also was not sufficient to meetall the expenditure contemplated to give war to the Iroquois, he it wasalso who began in not paying the thousand weight in beaver owing forseignorial right to the Company who was irritated and blamed hisconduct, and after the lapse of some years his friends write him theycould not longer shield him he anticipated his recall in returning toFrance, where he has since served as sub-dean of the Council, residingat the cloister of Notre-Dame with his son, canon at the said church. 

I only saw him two years in Canada where he was hardly liked, by reasonof the little care he took to keep up his rank, without servant, livingon pork and peas like an artisan or a peasant. 

However, having decided to go back, for a second time he threw open theTadoussac trade, by an order of his Council. 

M. De Lamoignon, the first president, got named to replace him, M. D'Argenson, young man of 30 to 32 years steady as could be, whoremained four or five years to the satisfaction of everybody; he keptup the Council as it is intended for the security of his emoluments andof the garrison, selected twelve of the most notable persons to whom hegave the faculty of trading at Tadoussac and all the sureties to bewished for the administration and maintenance. 

He had the misfortune to fall out with the Jesuit Fathers, and they, with messieurs de Mont Royal, of St Sulpice who had sent Mr the abbeyde Queysac, in the hope of making a bishop of him; the former wishingto have one of their nomination presented to the Queen-mother of thereigning King, whom God preserve, M. De Laval, to-day elder and firstbishop, who, very rigid, not only backed the Jesuits against thegovernor in all difficulties but specially in the matter of the liquortraffic with the indians. Although (D'Argenson) a much God-fearing-manhe had his private opinions, and this offended him; he asked M. DeLamoignon for his recall, which was done in 1661, when M. D'Avaugourcame out. 

It was in 1660 that the Office in Paris, at the request of thegovernor, of the Local council and on the advice of Messrs deLamoignon, Chame and other commissioners made an agreement with theRouen merchants to supply the inhabitants with all goods they wouldrequire with 60% profit on dry goods and 100% on liquors, freight paid. 

It was pretended that the country was not safely secured by ships ofprivate parties, and that when they arrived alone by unforeseenaccidents, they happened unexpectedly, to the ruin of the country; aswell as the beaver fallen to a low price and which was restored only atthe marriage of the king should keep up. 

The creditors then pressing payment of their claims, a decree orderedthat of the 60%, 10% should be taken for the payment of debts whichwere fixed at 10, 000 livres at the rate of the consumption of the timeand of which the Company of Normandy took charge. The country wasfavorable enough to this treaty because they were well served, but whenthe treaty arrived at first, the bishop who was jealous because he hadnot been consulted and that some little gratification had been given tofacilitate matters had it opposed by some of the inhabitants and by M. D'Avaugour, governor in the place of the said D'Argenson. 

The Society of Normandy consented to the breaking off of the treaty onreceiving a minute account and being paid some compensation, as towhich they had no satisfaction because of the changes, for M. D'Avaugour, like the others, fell out with the Bishop who went toFrance and had him revoked, presenting in his stead M. De Mezy, aNorman gentleman who did nothing better than to overdo all thedifficulties arising on the question of the Bishop and the Governor'spowers. 

The beaver dropped down, as soon, to a low price, and there was adifference by half when the King in 1664 formed the Company of the WestIndies, which alone, to the exclusion of all others, had to supply thecountry with merchandise and receive also all the beaver; in 1669, cameM. De Tracy, de Courcelles and Talon; the latter did not want anyCompany and employed all kinds of ways to ruin the one he foundestablished. He gave to understand to M. Colbert that this country wastoo big to be bounded; that there should come out of it fleets andarmies; his plans appeared too broad, still he met with nocontradiction at first, on the contrary he was lauded, which moved himto establish a large trade and put out that of the company, whichthrough bad success in its affairs at the Isles, was relaxing enough ofitself in all sorts of undertakings. 

M. Talon desiring to bring together the government and thesuperintendence was spending on a large scale to make friends andtherefore there was not a merchant when the Company quit who couldtransact any business in his presence; he gets his goods free of dues, freight and insurance; he also refused to pay the import tax on hiswines, liquors and tobacco. 

Finally his friends or enemies told him aloud that it was of profits ofhis commerce that the King would be enriched. 

They fell out, M. De Courcelles and he; their misunderstanding forcedthe first to ask for his discharge. M. De Frontenac, who succeeded himalso complained and I believe he returned to France without his congéwhence he never came back although he had promised so to all hisfriends. 

You are aware as well as and perhaps better than I of the disputes ofM. De Frontenac and M. Du Chesneau. 

And that is all I have been told for my satisfaction of what occurredprevious to 1655 when I came here to attend to the affairs of the RouenCompany. 

I have also learned at the time of my arrival that properly speaking, though there were a very large number of Indians, known under diversnames, which they bear with reference to certain action that theirchiefs had performed or with reference to lakes, rivers, lands ormountains which they inhabit, or sometimes to animals stocking theirrivers and forests, nevertheless they could all be comprised under twomother languages, to wit: the Huron and the Algonquin. 

At that period, I was told, the Huron was the most spread over men andterritory, and at present, I believe, that the Algonquin can well becompared to it. 

To note, that all the Indians of the Algonquin language are stationedand occupy land that we call land of the North on account of the Riverwhich divides the country into two parts, and where they all live byfishing and hunting. 

As well as the Indians of the Huron language who inhabit land to theSouth, where they till the land and winter wheat, horse-beans, pease, and other similar seeds to subsist; they are sedentary and theAlgonquin follow fish and game. 

However, this nation has always passed for the noblest, proudest andhardest to manage when prosperous. When the French came here the trueAlgonquin owned land from Tadoussac to Quebec, and I have alwaysthought they were issued from the Saguenay. It was a tradition thatthey had expelled the Iroquois from the said place of Quebec andneighborhood where they once lived; we were shown the sites of theirvillages and towns covered by trees of a fresh growth, and now that thelands are of value through cultivation, the farmers find thereon tools, axes and knives as they were used to make them. 

We must believe that the said Algonquin were really masters over thesaid Iroquois, because they obliged them to move away so far. 

Nobody could tell me anything certain about the origin of their war butit was of a more cruel nature between these two nations than betweenthe said Iroquois and Hurons, who have the same language or nearly so. 

It is only known that the Iroquois commenced first to burn, importunedby their enemies who came to break their heads whilst at work in theirwilderness; they imagined that such cruel treatment would give themrelaxation, and since, all the nations of this continent have usedfire, with the exception of the Abenakis and other tribes of Virginia. 

These Iroquois having had the best of the fight and reduced theAlgonquins since our discovery of this country, principally becausetheir pride giving us apprehension about their large number, they wouldnot arm themselves until a long time after the Dutch had armed theIroquois, made war and ruined all the other nations who were not nearlyso warlike as the Algonquin, and after the war, diseases came on thatkilled those remaining; some have scattered in the woods, but incomparison to what I have seen on my arrival, one might say that thereare no more men in this country outside of the fastnesses of theforests recently discovered. 

The Hurons before their defeat by the Iroquois had, through the hope oftheir conversion obliged the Jesuits to establish with them a strongmission, and as from time to time it was necessary to carry to themnecessities of life, the governors began to allow some of theirservants to run up there every three or four years, from where theybrought that good green (gras) Huron beaver that the hatters seek forso much. 

Sometimes this was kept up; sometimes no one offered for the voyagethere being then so little greediness it is true that the Iroquois wereso feared; M. De Lauson was the only one to send two individuals in1656 who each secured 14 to 15, 000 livres and came back with an indianfleet worth 100, 000 crowns. However, M. D'Argenson who succeeded himand was five years in the country sent nobody neither did MessrsAvaugour and de Mezy. 

It was consequently after the arrival of M. Talon that under pretext ofdiscovery, and of finding copper mines, he alone became director ofthose voyages, for he obliged M. De Courcelles to sign him congés whichhe got worked, but on a dispute between the workers he handled somehimself, of which I remember. 

You know the number and the regulations given under the firstadministration of M. The Earl of Frontenac. 

It is certain that it is the holders of congés who look after and bringdown the beaver, and, can it be said that it is wrong to have anabundance of goods. 

The French and the Indians have come down this year; the receipts ofthe office must total up 200 millions or thereabouts, which judgingfrom your letter, will surprise those gentlemen very much. The clerkshave rejected it as much as they liked; I am told that they admittedsomewhere about six thousands of muscovy; during our administrationthere were 28 or 30 thousands received, which is a large differencewithout taking into account other qualities, and all this does not givethe French much trouble, and at the most for the year we were notinformed. I have given my sentiments to the meeting, and in particularto M. De Frontenac and to M. De Champigny. 

We should be agreeable to our Prince's wishes who is doing so much goodto this country: his tenants who must supply him in such troubledtimes, lose, and it is proper that people in Canada contributesomething to compensate them by freely agreeing to a pretty richreceipt on their commodity but what resource in regard to the indian sointerested that everything moves with him, through necessity; they areasked and sought after to receive English goods, infinitely better thanours, at a cost half as low and to pay their beaver very high. 

This commercial communication gives them peace with their enemies andliberty to hunt, and consequently to live in abundance instead of theirliving at present with great hardship. Should we not say that itrequires a great affection not to break away in the face of such strongattractions; if we lose them once we lose them for ever, that it iscertain, and from friends they become our enemies; thus we lose notonly the beaver but the colony, and absolutely no more cattle, no moregrains, no more fishing. 

The colony with all the forces of the Kingdom cannot resist the Indianswhen they have the English or other Europeans to supply them withammunitions of war, which leads me to the query: what is the beaverworth to the English that they seek to get it by all means?

If also the rumors set agoing are true the farmers-general would notsell a considerable part to the Danes at a very high price, should theynot have had somebody in their employ who understands and knows thatarticle well, it appears to me that the thing is worth while. 

All the same, people are asking why they want to sell so dear, whatcosts them so little, for taking one and the other, that going out thisyear should not cost them more than 50s (_sous_), the entries, Tadoussac, and the tax of one fourth, does it not pay the lease withprofit. This is in everybody's mind, and everyone looks at it as hefancies. 

I was of opinion to arrange the receipts on a basis that thesegentlemen got M. Benac to offer, so as to avoid the difficulties on thequalities, and this opinion served to examine the loss this propositionwould bring to the country in the general receipt. 

I have no other interest than the Prince's service, and to please thesegentlemen I should like to know, heartily, of some expedient, becauseit is absolutely necessary to find one to satisfy the Indian; M. TheEarl of Frontenac is under a delusion: I may say it, they will give usthe goby, and after that all shall be lost, I am not sure even, if theywould not repeat the Sicilian Vespers, to show their good will, andthat they never want to make it up. I am so isolated that I do not sayanything about it, as I am afraid for myself, but I know well that itis Indian's nature to betray, and that our affairs are not at all goodin the upper country. 

To a great evil great remedy. I had said to M. De Frontenac that the25 per cent could be abolished and make it up on something else, as itis a question of saving the country, but he did not deem fit ofanything being said about it. 

I also told him and M. De Champigny that we might treat with a Dutchmanto bring on a clearance English and Dutch goods which are much thoughtof by our indians for their good quality and their price, that thisvessel would not go up the river but stay below at a stated place, where we could go for his goods, and give him beaver for his rightfullading. 

The company should have the control of these merchandise, so as to sellthem to the indians on the base of a tariff, so as to prevent thegreediness of the _voyageurs_ which contributes very much to thediscontent of the natives, because at first the French only went to theHurons and since to Michilimakinac where they sold to the Indians ofthe locality, who then went to exchange with other indians in distantwoods, lands and rivers, but now the said Frenchmen holding permits tohave a larger gain pass over all the Ottawas and Indians ofMichilimakinac to go themselves and find the most distant tribes whichdispleased the former very much. 

This has led to fine discoveries and four or five hundred young men ofCanada's best men are employed at this business. 

Through them we have become acquainted with several Indian's names weknew not, and 4 and 500 leagues farther away, there are other indiansunknown to us. 

Down the Gulf in French Acadia, we have always known the Abenakis andMicmacs. 

On the north shore of the River, from Seven islands up we have alwaysknown the Papinachois, Montagnais, Poissons Blancs, (White Fish), (these being in what is called limits of Tadoussac), Mistassinis, Algonquins. 

AT QUEBEC

There are Hurons, remains of the ancient Hurons, defeated by theIroquois, in Lake Huron. 

There is also south of the Chaudière (River), five leagues from Quebec, a large village of Christian Abenakis. 

The Hurons & Abenakis are under the Jesuit Fathers. 

These Hurons have staid at Quebec so as to pray God more convenientlyand without fear of the Iroquois. 

The Abenakis pray God with more fervor than any Indians of thesecountries. I have seen and been twice with them when warring; theymust have faith to believe as they do and their exactitude to live wellaccording to principles of our religion. Blessed be God! They arevery good men at war and those who have give and still give so muchtrouble to the Bostoners. 

AT THREE-RIVERS

Wolves and Algonquins both sides of the river. 

AT MONTROYAL OR VILLE-MARIE

There are Iroquois of the five nations who have left their home to pray(everyone is free to believe) but it is certain that threefourths haveno other motive nor interest to stay with us than to pray. 

There are, then, Senecas, Mohawks, Cayugas, Wyandotts, Oneida partly onthe mountain of Mont-Royal under the direction of Messrs of St Sulpice, and partly at the Sault (Recollet) south side, that is to say, abovethe rapids, under the R. F. Jesuits, whose mission is larger than StSulpice's. 

150 leagues from Mont Royal the Grand River leading to the Ottawas; tothe north are the Temiscamingues, Abitiby, Outanloubys, who speakAlgonquin. 

At lake Nepissing, the Nipissiniens, Algonquin language, always goingup the Grand River. 

In lake Huron, 200 leagues from Montreal, the Mississagues andAmikoués: Algonquins. 

At Michilimackinac, the Negoaschendaching or people of the Sable, Ottawas, Linage Kikacons or Cut Tail, the men from Forked LakeOnnasaccoctois, the Hurons, in all 1000 men or thereabouts half Huronand half Algonquin language. 

In the Michigan or lake Illinois, north side, the Noquets, Algonquins, Malomini (Menomeenee), or men of the Folle-Avoine: different language. 

SOUTH OF PUANTS (GREEN) BAY

The Wanebagoes otherwise Puans, because of the name of the Bay;language different from the two others. 

The Sakis, 3 leagues from the Bay, and Pottewatamis, about 200 warriors. 

Towards lake Illinois, on River St Joseph, the Miamis or men of theCrane who have three different languages, though they live together. United they would form about 600 men. 

Above the Bay, on Fox river, the Ottagamis, the Mascoutins and theKicapoos: all together 1200 men. 

At Maramegue river where is situated Nicholas Perrot's post, are somemore Miamis numbering five to six hundred; always the same language. 

The Illinois midway on the Illinois river making 5 to 6 differentvillages, making in all 2000 men. 

We traffic with all these nations who are all at war with the Iroquois. In the lower Missipy there are several other nations very numerous withwhom we have no commerce and who are trading yet with nobody. 

Above Missoury river which is of the Mississippi below the riverIllinois, to the south, there are the Mascoutins Nadoessioux, with whomwe trade, and who are numerous. 

Sixty leagues above the missisipi and St Anthony of Padua Fall, thereis lake Issaquy otherwise lake of Buade, where there are 23 villages ofSioux Nadoessioux who are called Issaquy, and beyond lake Oettatous, lower down the auctoustous, who are Sioux, and could muster together4000 warriors. Because of their remoteness they only know the Iroquoisfrom what they heard the French say. 

In lake Superior, south side are the saulteurs who are called Ouchijoe(objibway), Macomili, Ouxcinacomigo, Mixmac and living at Chagoumigon, it is the name of the country, the Malanas or men of the Cat-fish; 60men; always the Algonquin language. 

Michipicoten, name of the land; the Machacoutiby and Opendachiliny, otherwise Dung-heads; lands' men; algonquin language. The Picy is thename of a land of men, way inland, who come to trade. 

Bagoasche, also name of a place of men of same nation who come also totrade 200 and 300 men. 

Osepisagny river being discharge of lake Asemipigon; sometimes theindians of the lake come to trade; they are called Kristinos and thenation of the Great Rat. These men are Algonquins, numbering more than2000, and also go to trade with the English of the north. 

There are too the Chichigoe who come sometimes to us, sometimes northto the English. 

Towards West-Northwest, it is nations called Fir-trees; numerous; alltheir traffic is with the English. 

All those north nations are rovers, as was said, living on fish andgame or wild-oats which is abundant on the shores of their lakes andrivers. 

In lake Ontario, south side, the five Iroquois nations; our enemies;about 1200 warriors live on indian corn and by hunting. 

We can say, that, of all the Indians they are the most cruel duringwar, as during peace they are the most humane, hospitable, andsociable; they are sensible at their meetings, and their behaviourresembles much to the manners of republics of Europe. 

Lake Ontario has 200 leagues in circumference. 

Lake Erie above Niagara 250 leagues; lakes Huron and Michigan joined552 leagues: to have access to these three lakes by boat, there is onlythe portage of Niagara, of two leagues, above the said lake Ontario. 

All those who have been through those lakes say they are terrestrialparadises for abundance of venison, game, fishing, and good quality ofthe land. 

From the said lakes to go to lake Superior there is only one portage of15 (?). The said lake is 500 leagues long in a straight line, frompoint to point, without going around coves nor the bays of Michipicotenand Kaministiquia. 

To go from lake Superior to lake Asemipigon there is only 15 leagues totravel, in which happen seven portages averaging 3 good leagues; thesaid lake has a circumference of 280 leagues. 

From lake Huron to lake Nipissing there is the river called FrenchRiver, 25 leagues long; there are 3 portages; the said lake has 60 to80 leagues of circumference. 

Lake Assiniboel is larger than lake Superior, and an infinity ofothers, lesser and greater have to be discovered, for which I approveof M. The Marquis of Denonville's saying, often repeated:--that theKing of France, our monarch was not high lord enough to open up such avast country, as we are only beginning to enter on the confines of theimmensity of such a great country. 

The road to enter it is by the Grand River and lake Ontario by Niagara, which should be easy in peaceful times in establishing families atNiagara for the portage, and building boats on Lake Erie. I did notfind that a difficult thing, and I want to do it under M. The Marquisof Denonville, who did not care, so soon as he perceived that his warexpedition had not succeeded. 

I have given you in this memorandum the names of the natives known tous and with whom our wood rovers (coureurs de bois) have traded; myinformation comes from some of the most experienced. 

The surplus of the memorandum will serve to inform you that prior to M. De Tracy, de Courcelle and Talon's arrival, nothing was regulated butby the governor's will, although there was a Board; as they were hisappointments and that by appearances, only his creatures got in, he wasthe absolute master of it and which was the cause that the Colony andthe inhabitants suffered very much at the beginning. 

M. De Tracy on his arrival by virtue of his commission dismissed theBoard and the Councillors, to appoint another one with members chosenby himself and the Bishop, which existed until the 2nd and 3rd year ofM. De Frontenac's reign, who had them granted at Court, provisions by adecree for the establishment of the Council. 

It is only from that time that the King having given the country overto the gentlemen of the Co'y of West Indies, the tax of one fourth andthe Tadoussac trade were looked upon as belonging to the Company, andsince to the King, because M. Talon, who crippled as much as he could, this company dare not touch to these two items of the Domain, of whichthe enjoyment remained to them until cessation of their lease. 

So, it was in favor of this company that all the regulations weregranted in reference to the limits and working out of Tadoussac as wellas to prevent cheating on the beaver tax. 

Tadoussac is leased to six gentlemen for the sum of ---- yearly; I tookshares for one fourth, as it was an occasion to dispose of some goodsand a profit to everyone of at most 20 ---- yearly. 

About beavers there is no fraud to be feared, everybody preferring toget letters of exchange to avoid the great difficulties on going out, the entry and sale in France, and of large premiums for the risks; in aword, no one defrauds nor thinks of it. The office is not large enoughto receive all the beaver. 

The ships came in very late; I could not get M. Dumenu the secretary tothe Board to send you the regulations you ask for the beaver trade; youshall have them, next year, if it pleases God. They containprohibition to embark from France under a penalty of 3000 livres' fine, confiscation of the goods, even of the ships; however, under the treatyof Normandy, I had a Dieppe captain seized for about 200 crowns worthof beaver, and the Council here confiscated the vessel, and imposed afine of 1500 livres, on which the captain appealed to France, and heobtained at the King's Council, replevin on his ship and the fine wasreduced to 30 livres. 

As prior to M. Talon nobody sent traders in the woods as explained inthis memorandum there was not to my knowledge any regulation as to thesaid woods before the decree of 1675. On the contrary I remember thatthose two individuals under M. De Lauzon's government who brought ineach for 14. Or 15, 000 livres applied to me to be exempted from the taxof one fourth, because, they said we were obliged to them for havingbrought down a fleet which enriched the country. 

(Not signed. )

INDEX

[Transcriber's note: Many index entries contain references like the "9n. " in the "Arms" entry. The "n. " appears to refer to the footnote(s)that were on their host pages in the original book. In this e-book, all footnotes have been moved to the end of their respective chapters. ]

A

Abenaki Indians, the, 363. 

Abitiby Indians, the, 364. 

Acadia, Indian tribes located in, 363. 

Albanel, Charles, Jesuit missionary, 141; overland trip of, to HudsonBay, 143-146; at King Charles Fort, 147. 

Albany (Orange), 32; Iroquois freebooting expedition against, 36-38;Radisson's escape to, 39-41. 

Algonquin Indian, murder of Mohawk hunters by a, 20. 

Algonquin Indians, Radisson and Groseillers travel to the West with, 73-79; territory of the, 359; wars with the Iroquois, 359-360; tribesof, on Lake Huron, 364. 

Allemand, Pierre, companion of Radisson, 154. 

Allouez, Père Claude, 142. 

Amsterdam, Radisson's early visit to, 42. 

Arctic Ocean, Hearne's overland trip to, 257-265; arrival at, 265-266;Mackenzie's trip of exploration to, 281-286. 

Arms, supplied to Mohawks by Dutch, 9 n. ; desire for, cause of Sioux'friendliness to Radisson, 120, 122. 

Assiniboine Indians, origin of name, 10 n. , 85; Radisson learns of, from prairie tribes, 85; defence of the younger Groseillers by, 184; Dela Vérendrye meets the, 218-221; accompany De la Vérendrye to theMandans, 223-227; Saint-Pierre's encounter with, 237. 

Assiniboine River, 218, 219, 221-222. 

Athabasca country, Hearne explores the, 268-269. 

Athabasca Lake; Hearne's arrival at, 268-269. 

Athabasca River, 277. 

Athabascan tribes, Matonabbee and the, 249. 

Aulneau, Father, 210, 211; killed by Indians, 214. 

B

Baptism of Indian children by Radisson and Groseillers, 92. 

Barren lands, region of "Little Sticks, " 253-254, 259-260. 

Bath of purification, Indian, 14, 268. 

Bay of the North. _See_ Hudson Bay. 

Bayly, Charles, governor of Hudson's Bay Company, 140; in Canada, 140-142; encounter with the Jesuit Albanel, 141-142, 147; accusationsagainst Radisson and Groseillers, 147-148. 

Bear, Lewis's experience with a, 318. 

Beauharnois, Charles de, governor of New France, 201, 203, 235. 

_Beaux Hommes_, Crow Indians, 232. 

Beckworth, prisoner among Missouri Indians, 33. 

Belmont, Abbé, cited, 5 n. , 98 n. 

Bering, Vitus, 195. 

Bigot, intendant of New France, 236. 

Bird, prisoner of the Blackfeet, 33. 

Bird's egg moon, the (June), 279. 

Blackbird, Omaha chief, grave of, 311. 

Bochart, governor of Three Rivers. _See_ Duplessis-Kerbodot. 

Boësme, Louis, 70. 

_Boissons_, drinking matches, 280. 

Boston, Radisson and Groseillers in, 136. 

Bourassa, _voyageur_, 213. 

Bourdon, Jean, explorations by, 102, 134 n. 

Bow Indians, the, 232-233. 

Bridgar, John, governor of Hudson's Bay Company, 166, 169, 171, 173, 174, 175, 180. 

Brower, J. V. , cited, 88 n. 

Bryce, Dr. George, 6 n. , 88 n. , 187 n. 

Buffalo-hunts, Sioux, 92 n. , 124. 

Button, Sir Thomas, explorations of, 134 n. 

C

Cadieux, exploit and death of, 197-198. 

Cameahwait, Snake Indian chief, 324-326. 

Cannibalism among Indians, 24, 77. 

Cannibals of the Barren Lands, 255. 

Cape Breton, discovery and fortification of, 350. 

Caribou, Radisson's remarks on, 127. 

Caribou herds in Barren Lands, 255; Indian method of hunting, 259. 

Carr, George, letter from, to Lord Darlington, 136 n. 

Carr, Sir Robert, urges Radisson to renounce France, 136. 

Carrier, Jacques, 71, 193, 350-351. 

Cartwright, Sir George, Radisson and Groseillers sail with, 136-137;shareholder in Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

Catlin, cited, 14 n. , 226. 

Cayuga Indians, the, 34, 55, 364. 

Chaboneau, guide to Lewis and Clark, 312, 326, 332. 

Chame, M. , commissioner of Company of Normandy, 355, 357. 

Champlain, governor in Canada, 351-353. 

Charlevoix, mission of, 202. 

Chichigoe tribe of Indians, the, 365. 

Chinook Indians, Lewis and Clark friends with, 328. 

Chipewyans, bath of purification practised by, 14 n. ; Hearne's journeywith, 257-263; massacre of Eskimo by, 263-265. 

Chouart, M. , letters of, 335-337. _See_ Groseillers, Jean Baptiste. 

Chouart, Médard. See Groseillers, Médard Chouart. 

_Chronique Trifluvienne_, Sulte's, 4 n. 

Clark, William, companion of Meriwether Lewis, 308-309; exploration ofYellowstone River by, 329; hero-qualities of, 332-333. _See_ Lewis. 

Clatsop Indians, Lewis and Clark among the, 328. 

Clearwater River, Lewis and Clark on the, 327. 

Coal, use of, by Indians, 89. 

Colbert, Radisson pardoned and commissioned by, 148; withholdsadvancement from Radisson, 152; summons Radisson and Groseillers toFrance, 176-177; death of, 177. 

Colleton, Sir Peter, shareholder in Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

Colter, frontiersman with Lewis and Clark, 332. 

Columbia River, Lewis and Clark travel down the, 327. 

Company of Miscou, the, 352. 

Company of Normandy, the, 354-357. 

Company of the North, the, 151, 154, 175, 176. 

Company of One Hundred Associates, the, 133, 352, 353. 

Company of Tadoussac, the, 352. 

Company of the West Indies, the, 133, 153; account of formation of, 357. 

Comporté, M. , letter to, from M. Chouart, 335-336. 

Coppermine River ("Far-Off-Metal River"), 245, 249, 252, 262, 267. 

Copper mines, Radisson receives reports of, 112, 124; discovery of, byHearne, 267. 

Council Bluffs, origin of name, 311. 

Council pipe, smoking the, 16, 29. 

Couture, explorations of, 103, 129-130. 

Couture (the younger), 143. 

Cree Indians, first reports of, 69, 85; Radisson's second visit to, 112-113, 116; wintering in a settlement of, 117; a famine among, 118-119; De la Vérendrye assisted by, 206-208. 

Crow Indians, De la Vérendrye's sons among, 232-233. 

D

Dablon, Claude, Jesuit missionary, 103, 134 n. , 142. 

D'Ailleboust, M. , governor of Company of Normandy, 354. 

Dakota, Radisson's explorations in, 89. 

D'Argenson, Viscomte, governor of New France, 99, 129-130, 356-357, 360. 

D'Avaugour, governor, 104, 105, 107, 133, 143, 357, 360. 

Death-song, Huron, 24, 54. 

De Casson, Dollier, cited, 5 n. , 96 n. , 98 n. 

De la Galissonnière, governor, 235. 

De la Jonquière, governor, 236. 

De Lanoue, fur-trade pioneer, 204. 

De la Vérendrye, Francois, 215, 222, 229, 230, 233. 

De la Vérendrye, Jean Baptiste, 197, 205, 208-209, 210, 212; murder of, by Sioux, 214. 

De la Vérendrye, Louis, 215, 229. 

De la Vérendrye, Pierre, 215, 222, 229, 230, 235, 315. 

De la Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, leaves Montreal on searchfor Western Sea (1731), 194-197; at Nepigon, 201; previous career, 201-203; traverses Lake Superior to Kaministiquia, 204; Fort St. Pierrenamed for, 206; among the Cree Indians, 206-208; return to Quebec toraise supplies, 210; loss of eldest son in Sioux massacre, 214;explores Minnesota and Manitoba to Lake Winnipeg, 215-216; at FortMaurepas, 217; return to Montreal with furs, 218; explores valley ofthe Assiniboine, 219-221; visits the Mandan Indians, 224-225; takespossession for France of the Upper Missouri, 225; superseded by DeNoyelles (1746), 235; decorated with Order of Cross of St. Louis, 235;death at Montreal, 236. 

De Niverville, lieutenant of Saint-Pierre, 236-237. 

Denonville, Marquis of, 336, 366, 367. 

De Noyelles, supersession of De la Vérendrye by, 235. 

De Noyon, explorations of, 204. 

Dieppe, merchants of, interested in Canada trade, 352, 353. 

Dionne, Dr. N. E. , cited, 76 n. , 88 n. , 106 n. , 139 n. 

Dog Rib Indians, Mackenzie among, 283-284. 

Dollard, fight of, against the Iroquois, 96-98, 198. 

Dreuillettes, Gabriel, discoveries by, 70-71, 103, 134 n. 

Drewyer, companion of Meriwether Lewis, 331. 

Drugging of Indians, 63-64. 

Duchesnau, M. Jacques, 149 n. , 358. 

Dufrost, Christopher, Sieur de la Jemmeraie, 197, 203, 205, 209, 210, 211. 

Du Péron, Francois, 47. 

Duplessis-Kerbodot, murder of, by Iroquois, 5 n. , 19, 45. 

Dupuis, Major, at Onondaga, 46, 55-66. 

Dutch, arms supplied to Mohawk Indians by, 9 n. ; war of, with theEnglish, 137-138. 

E

England, arrival of Radisson and Groseillers in, 137; effect of warbetween Holland and, on exploring propositions, 137-138; Hudson's BayCompany organized in, 139-140; fur-trading expeditions from, 140-149. _See_ Hudson's Bay Company _and_ Radisson. 

Erie Indians, the, 34. 

Eskimo, massacre of, by Chipewyans, 263-265. 

F

"Far-Off-Metal River, " the, 245, 249, 252; Hearne reaches the, 262. 

Feasts, Indian, 60, 62-63, 67 n. 

_Festins à tout manger_, 60, 67 n. 

Fields, companion of Meriwether Lewis, 330-331. 

Flathead Indians, assistance given Lewis and Clark by, 327, 328. 

Floyd, Sergeant, of Lewis and Clark's expedition, 332. 

Forked River, term applied to Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 86, 100;Radisson's account of people on the, 86-87. 

Fort, Dollard's so-called, at the Long Sault, 97; Radisson andGroseillers', in the Northwest, 114-115. 

Fort Bourbon (Port Royal), on Hayes River, 161-175, 182-186. 

Fort Bourbon, on Saskatchewan, 229. 

Fort Chipewyan, 277. 

Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark's winter quarters, 327-328. 

Fort Dauphin, 229. 

Fort King Charles, 139, 146. 

Fort Lajonquière, 237. 

Fort Mandan, stars and stripes hoisted at, 312. 

Fort Maurepas, construction, 209; description, 216-217; De la Vérendryeat, 217. 

Fort Orange, Radisson and the Iroquois at, 36-38; Radisson's escape to, 39-41. 

Fort Poskoyac, 229, 235. 

Fort Prince of Wales, building of, 243; description, 244-245; Hearnebecomes governor of, 270; surrender and destruction of, 271-272. 

Fort de la Reine, construction of, 222; De la Vérendrye returns to, after visiting Mandans, 228; abandonment of, 237. 

Fort Rouge, 221. 

Fort St. Charles, 208-209, 210, 215. 

Fort St. Louis, of Quebec, first fortification on site of, 351. 

Fort St. Pierre, 206. 

Fort William, 280, 283, 287. 

Fraser River, Mackenzie's explorations on, 294-302. 

Frog moon, the (May), 279. 

Frontenac, governor of New France, 154, 358, 360, 361, 362, 367. 

Fur companies of New France, 130, 133, 151, 153, 175-176, 352-358. 

Fur company, Hudson's Bay. _See_ Hudson's Bay Company. 

Fur trade, the French, 101-102, 104; regulations governing the, 104, 153 n. ; effect of, on development of West, 113. 

G

Gantlet, running the, 15-16. 

Gareau, Leonard, journey and death of, 70. 

Garneau, cited, 5 n. , 87 n. 

Gillam, Ben, encounters with Radisson, 163-164, 168-175. 

Gillam, Zechariah, Radisson's first transactions with, 135-136;Groseillers' voyage to Hudson Bay with, 138-139; at Rupert River withHudson's Bay Company ship, 148; active enmity of, toward Radisson, 165-167, 168-169, 171, 176, 180. 

Godefroy, Jean, companion of Radisson, 154. 

Godefroy family, the, 154 n. 

Goose month (April), 253-254. 

Gorst, Thomas, 140 n. , 147 n. 

Grand River of the North. _See_ Mackenzie River. 

Gray, Captain, 308. 

Great Falls of the Missouri, Lewis discovers the, 317. 

Great Rat, nation of the, 131, 365. 

Green Bay, western limit of French explorations until Radisson, 69;Radisson's winter quarters at, 79-80, 99-100. 

Groseillers, nephew of explorer, title of nobility ordered granted to, 142. 

Groseillers, Jean Baptiste, accompanies Radisson to Hudson Bay (1682), 154; trip up Hayes River, 158, 161; left in charge of Fort Bourbon, 175; troubles with Indians and with English, 182-183; surrenders fortto Radisson, acting for Hudson's Bay Company, 184; letters to mother, 184, 335-337; carried to England by force, 186; offer from Hudson's BayCompany, 187. 

Groseillers, Médard Chouart, birth, birthplace, and marriage, 45;journey to Lake Nipissing, 71; engages with Radisson in voyage ofexploration to the West (1658), 71-79; winter quarters at Green Bay, 79-80; explorations in West and Northwest, 80-90; return to Quebec, 99;second trip to Northwest (1661), 103-129; imprisoned and fined onreturn to Quebec (1663), 130; goes to France to seek reparation, 133;meets with neglect and indifference, 133-134; deceived into returningto Three Rivers and going to Isle Percée, 135; goes to Port Royal, N. S. , becomes involved with Boston sea-captain, and reaches England_via_ Boston and Spain (1666), 135-137; backed by Prince Rupert, fitsout ship for Hudson Bay, and spends year in trading expedition(1668-1669), 138-139; on return to London, created a _Knight de laJarretière_, 139; second voyage from England (1670), 140; involved withRadisson in suspicions of double-dealing, 147-148; in meeting of furtraders at Quebec, 149; retires to family at Three Rivers, 151;summoned by Radisson to join expedition in private French interests toHayes River (1681-1682), 153-158; successful trade in furs, 158, 167;jealousy and lawsuits on return to Quebec, 175-176; summoned to Franceby Colbert (1684), 176-177; petition for redress of wrongs ignored byFrench court, 179; gives up struggle and retires to Three Rivers, 179. 

H

Hayes, Sir James, 180, 181. 

Hayes River, Radisson's canoe trip up the, 158-160; Fort Bourbonestablished on, 161; Radisson's second visit to, 182-186. 

Hayet, Marguerite, Radisson's sister, 6 n. , 43; death of first husband, 19, 45; marriage with Groseillers, 45; letters from son, 184, 335-337. 

Hayet, Sébastien, 6 n. , 43 n. 

Hearne, Samuel, cited, 14 n. ; departure from Fort Prince of Wales onexploring trip, 249-252; in the Barren Lands, 253-255, 259-260; crossesthe Arctic Circle, 261; discovers the Coppermine River, 262-263;massacre of Eskimo by Indians accompanying, 264-265; arrival at ArcticOcean, 265; takes possession of Arctic regions for Hudson's BayCompany, 266-267; returns up the Coppermine River and discovers coppermines, 267; travels in Athabasca region, 268-269; returns to FortPrince of Wales, 269; becomes governor of post, 270; surrenders fort tothe French, 271-272. 

Hénault, Madeline, Radisson's mother, 6 n. , 43. 

Hudson Bay, overland routes to, 71; Radisson's early discoveriesregarding, 90-91, 127-128. 

_Hudson Bay_, Robson's, cited, 139 n. , 140 n. , 147 n. , 161 n. , 166 n. 

Hudson's Bay Company, origin of, 139-140; early expeditions, 140-149;distrust of Radisson by, 150; contract between Radisson and, 181-182;final treaty of peace made between Indians and, 185; poor treatment ofRadisson by, 188; quietly prosperous career of, 241-242; encroachmentsof French traders, 242-243; demand for activity, 243-244; possessiontaken of Arctic regions for, by Hearne, 266-267. 

Huron Indians, death songs of, 24, 54; massacre of Christian, byIroquois, 50-54; band of, with Dollard, against the Iroquois, 97-98;territory of, 359; tribes of, at Michilimackinac, 364. 

Husky dogs, 277. 

I

Icebergs, Labradorian, 155. 

Iroquois Confederacy, the five tribes composing the, 34;characteristics of, 366. 

Iroquois Indians, murder of inhabitants of Three Rivers by, 5 n. , 19, 45; treatment of prisoners by, 15-16, 25-28, 54; Radisson's life with, 16-39; Frenchmen at Montreal scalped by, 48; hostages of, held atQuebec, 48, 55-56; siege of Onondaga by, 55-67; encounters betweenAlgonquins and Radisson and, 76-78, 79-80; Radisson's fight with, onthe Grand Sault, 94-96; Bollard's battle with, 97-98; Radisson's fightswith, on second Western trip, 107-108, 109-111; wars between Algonquinsand, 359. 

Isle of Massacres, 50-54. 

Issaguy tribe of Indians, 131 n. 

J

Jemmeraie, Sieur de la, De la Vérendrye's lieutenant, 197, 203, 205, 209, 210; death of, 211. 

_Jesuit Relations_, cited, 57 n. , 69 n. , 71 n. , 73 n. , 80 n. , 81 n. , 82n. , 91 n. , 92 n. , 96 n. , 141 n. ; quoted, 88. 

Jesuits, in Onondaga expedition, 44-67; lives of Iroquois saved by, 65;start with Radisson and Groseillers on first Western expedition, 73;turn back to Montreal, 77. 

Jogues, Father, 4, 56, 68, 69. 

Jolliet, 84 n. , 149, 151. 

K

Kaministiquia, fur post at, 204. 

Kickapoo Indians, location of, 364. 

King Charles Fort. _See_ Fort King Charles. 

Kirke, Mary, marriage with Radisson, 138; becomes a Catholic, 152. 

Kirke, Sir John, shareholder in Hudson's Bay Company, 140; claims of, against New France, 152; forbids daughter's going to France, 152;friendly influence used for Radisson, 180. 

_Knight de la Jarretière_, Groseillers created a, 139. 

L

La Barre, governor of New France, 176

La Chesnaye, cited, 115 n. , 131 n. ; backs Radisson in Northernexpedition, 152-153; outcome of Radisson's dealings with, 175-176. 

Lake Assiniboel, 366. 

"Lake of the Castors, " the (Lake Nipissing), 76 n. , 106 n. , 364. 

Lake Ontario, tribes about, 366. 

Lake Superior, exploration of, by Radisson, 89; explorer's second visitto, 111-112. 

Lamoignon, M. De, president of Company of Normandy, 355, 356, 357. 

La Perouse, French admiral, 271. 

Larivière, companion of Radisson and Groseillers, 105, 106-107. 

La Salle, 84 n. , 85, 149, 151, 194. 

Lauzon, M. De, governor of Company of Normandy, 355-356, 368. 

La Vallière, 103. 

La Vérendrye. _See_ De la Vérendrye. 

Ledyard, John, 308. 

_Letters of Marie de l'Incarnation_, cited, 46 n. , 58 n. , 60 n. , 63 n. , 81 n. , 90 n. , 96 n. , 98 n. , 139 n. 

Lewis, Meriwether, starts on expedition to explore Missouri andColumbia rivers, 308-309; reaches villages of Mandan Indians, 311-313;first views the Rocky Mountains, 314-315; discovers the Great Falls ofthe Missouri, 317; narrowly escapes death from a bear, 318-319; entersthe Gates of the Rockies, 321; reaches sources of the Missouri, 322-323; makes friends with Snake Indians, 323-327; crosses Divide tothe Clearwater River and travels down the Columbia, 327; arrival onPacific Ocean, 327; winters at Fort Clatsop (1805-1806), 327-328;return trip by main stream of the Missouri, 329; adventures withMinnetaree Indians, 329-331; arrival at St. Louis, 332; tribute tocharacter and qualities of, 332-333. 

Liberte, traitor in Lewis and Clark's expedition, 311. 

Little Missouri, Lewis and Clark pass the, 313. 

"Little Sticks, " region of, 253-254, 259-260. 

London, Radisson's first visit to, 137-138. 

Long Sault, Rapids of, Dollard's battle at, 96-98, 198. 

Lord Preston, English envoy in France, 177, 180, 181. 

Low, A. P. , quoted, 128 n. , 146 n. , 149 n. 

M

Mackay, Alexander, Mackenzie's lieutenant, 288, 291, 292, 293, 296, 299. 

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, early career of, 276; stationed at FortChipewyan, 276-277; exploration of Mackenzie River by, 280-285; crossesthe Arctic Circle, 285; reaches Arctic Ocean, 285-286; returns up theMackenzie to Fort Chipewyan, 286; exploration of Peace River by, 288-294; discovers source of Peace River, 294; crosses the Divide andreaches head waters of Fraser River, 294; travels down the Fraser, 294-298; adventures with Indians, 298-300; reaches the Pacific Ocean, 302-303; return to Fort Chipewyan _via_ Peace River, 304-305; laterlife, 306. 

Mackenzie, Charles, 311. 

Mackenzie, Roderick, 278, 279. 

Mackenzie River, exploration of, 280-287, 296-302. 

Mandan Indians, bath of purification practised by, 14 n. ; Radissondiscovers the, 86, 88; De la Vérendrye's visit to, 222, 225-227; theyounger De la Vérendryes' second visit to, 230-231; Lewis and Clark atvillages of, 311-313, 332. 

Manitoba, Radisson's explorations in, 113-128. 

Marquette, Père, 84 n. 

Martin, Abraham, Plains of Abraham named for, 45 n. 

Martin, Helen, Groseillers' first wife, 45 n. 

Martinière, plan of, to capture Radisson for French, 188. 

Mascoutins, "people of the fire, " 80, 131 n. , 364, 365; location ofthe, 86; Radisson among the, 100. 

Matonabbee, chief of Chipewyans, 248-249; aid afforded Hearne by, 256-263; massacre of Eskimo directed by, 264-265; suicide of, 272. 

Ménard, Father, 105, 112. 

Messaiger, Father, 204, 205, 209. 

Miami Indians, location of the, 364. 

Michigan, Indian tribes in, 364. 

Michilimackinac, Island of, Radisson; passes, 112; early headquartersof fur trade, 201; Indian tribes at, 364. 

Micmac Indians, the, 363. 

Minnesota, dispute as to discovery of eastern, 71 n. ; Radisson'sexplorations in, 89; Radisson may have wintered in, on second trip, 113. 

Minnetaree Indians, Lewis and the, 329-331. 

Mississippi, Radisson discovers the Upper, 80-81. 

Mississippi Valley, Radisson first to explore the, 85-89. 

Missouri, tribes of the, 86; De la Vérendrye takes possession of theUpper, 225; Lewis and Clark explore the, 313-323. 

Mistassini, Lake, Father Albanel at, 146. 

Mistassini Indians, the, 363. 

Mohawk Indians, murder of French of Three Rivers by, 5 n. , 19, 45;adoption of Radisson by a family of, 17; murder of three, by Radissonand an Algonquin, 20; jealous as to French settlement among Onondagas, 47-48; siege of Onondaga by, 55-59; outwitted by Radisson at Onondaga, 59-67; location of the, 364. 

Montagnais Indians, the, 363. 

Montana, punishment of Indians by scouts in, 25 n. 

Montmagny, M. De, governor in Canada, 353-354. 

Montreal, expedition for Onondaga leaves, 47; Iroquois scalp Frenchmenat, 48; return of Onondaga party, 66; De la Vérendrye's departure from, 194-197; Indian tribes located in vicinity of, 363-364. 

Munck, explorations of, 134 n. 

N

"Nation of the Grand Rat, " 131, 365. 

Nelson River, Radisson on the, 140, 161, 164-167, 170-174, 179 n. 

Nemisco River, called the Rupert, 139. 

Nepigon, De la Vérendrye at, 201, 202. 

New York in 1653, 41-42. 

_New York Colonial Documents_, 9 n. 

Nez Perces Indians, help given to Lewis and Clark by, 328. 

Nicolet, Jean, 68, 69. 

Nicolls, Colonel Richard, quoted, 136 n. 

Nipissing, Lake, 76 n. , 106 n. , 364. 

Nipissinien Indians, the, 364. 

Northwest, the Great, discovery of, by Radisson, 80-85. 

Northwest Fur Company, the, 279, 280, 287. 

Northwest Passage, reward of L20, 000 offered for discovery of, 278. 

Norton, Marie, 247, 270, 271-272. 

Norton, Moses, governor of Fort Prince of Wales, 244; character of, 246-247; death of, 269-270. 

O

Ochagach, Indian hunter, 202. 

Octbaton tribe of Indians, 131 n. 

Ojibway Indians, 115, 365. 

Oldmixon, John, cited, 92 n. , 114 n. , 130 n. , 147 n. 

Omaha Indians, Radisson's possible visit to, 86, 88. 

Omtou tribe of Indians, 131 n. 

Oneida Indians, the, 34, 364. 

Onondaga, settlement at, 46; Iroquois conspiracy against, 46-48;garrison besieged at, 55-63; escape of French from, 64-67. 

Onondaga tribe, the, 34; Jesuit mission among (1656), 46-47;treacherous conduct of, toward Christian Hurons, 50-54. 

Orange. _See_ Albany. 

Orimha, Radisson's Mohawk name, 16. 

Oudiette, Jean, 154 n. 

"Ouinipeg, " Lake, 69, 71. 

Outanlouby Indians, the, 364. 

P

Pacific Ocean, Mackenzie's expedition reaches the, 302-303; Lewis andClark's expedition reaches, 327. 

Papinachois Indians, the, 363. 

Parkman, Francis, cited, 5 n. , 19 n. , 46 n. , 87 n. , 96 n. 

_Pays d'en Haut_, "Up-Country, " defined, 201 n. 

Peace River, the, 281; exploration of, 287; Mackenzie reaches thesource of the, 294. 

Pemmican, defined, 223. 

"People of the Fire, " the, Mascoutin Indians, 80 n. , 86 n. , 100, 131 n. 

Pictured Rocks of Lake Superior, the, 112. 

Piescaret, Algonquin chief, 4. 

Pipe of peace, smoking the, 121-123. 

Plains of Abraham, named for Abraham Martin, 45 n. 

Poinsy, M. De, commander at St. Christopher, 353. 

Poissons Blancs (White Fish) Indians, the, 363. 

Poncet, Père, 41. 

Port Nelson, 140, 161-175, 182-186. 

Port Royal, Nova Scotia, Radisson and Groseillers at, 135. 

Prince Maximilian, 226. 

Prince Rupert, patron of French explorers, 138-139, 180; first governorof Hudson's Bay Company, 140. 

Prisoners, treatment of, by Iroquois, 15-16, 25-28, 54. 

Prudhomme, Mr. Justice, 88 n. 

Purification, bath of, Indian rite, 14, 268. 

Q

Quebec, Iroquois hostages for safety of Onondaga held at, 48, 55-56;celebration at, on return of Radisson and Groseillers, 99; meeting offur traders at (1676), 149; Indian tribes located about, 363. 

R

Radisson, Pierre Esprit (the elder), 6 n. , 43 n. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, uncle of the explorer, 43 n. 

Radisson, Pierre Esprit, date and place of birth, 6; genealogy of, 6n. , 43 n. ; captured by Iroquois Indians, 9; adopted into Mohawk tribe, 17; escape to Fort Orange (1653), 39-41; proof of Catholicism of, 41n. ; visits Europe and returns to Three Rivers (1654), 42-44; joinsexpedition to Onondaga (1657), 47; besieged by Iroquois throughoutwinter, 55-64; saves the garrison and returns to Montreal, 65-67; goeson trapping and exploring trip to the West (1658), 73-74; reaches LakeNipissing and Lake Huron, 78; in winter quarters at Green Bay, 79-80;crosses present state of Wisconsin and discovers Upper Mississippi, 80-85; explorations to the west and south, 86-89; in Minnesota andManitoba, 89-91; encounter with Iroquois at Long Sault of the Ottawa, 94-96; at scene of Dollard's fight of a week before, 96-98; arrival atQuebec (1660), 99; sets forth on voyage of discovery toward Hudson Bay(1661), 105; traverses Lake Superior, 111-112; builds fort and winterswest of present Duluth, 113-116; visits the Sioux, 123-124; reachesLake Winnipeg, 127; returns to Quebec (1663), 129; bad treatment byFrench officials, 130; goes to France to gain his rights, 133-134;ill-treatment, deception by Rochelle merchant, dealings with CaptainGillam of Boston, and visit to Boston (1665), 134-136; goes to England, 137-138; marriage with Mary Kirke, 138; formation of Hudson's BayCompany (1670), 139-140; trading voyage to Port Nelson (1671), 140-141;recalled to England and poorly treated (1674-1675), 148; receivescommission in French navy (1675-1676), 148; complications betweenwife's father and French government, 152; backed by La Chesnaye, engages in new expedition to Hudson Bay, 152-153; returns to Quebec(1681) and sails to Hayes River (1682), 153-158; troubles with Englishand Boston ships, 161-175; jealousy and lawsuits on return to Quebec, 175-177; unsuccessfully presses claims in France, 179-180; commissionedby Hudson's Bay Company, 181-182; sails to Hayes River and takespossession of Fort Bourbon and French furs (1684), 182-185; return toEngland, 186-187; annual voyages to Hudson Bay for five years, 188;distrusted on breaking out of war with France, and neglect in old age, 188-189: consideration of character and career, 189-190. 

_Radisson's Relation_, cited, 9 n. , 46 n. , 63 n. , 80 n. , 81 n. , 98 n. , 99 n. , 122, 127, 163 n. , 179; language used in, 82; time of writing, 138. 

Ragueneau, Father Paul, 46 n. , 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 59 n. , 63 n. 

Rascal Village, Indian camp, 305. 

Red River, first white men on, 219. 

Rhythm as an Indian characteristic, 160 n. 

Ricaree Indians, insolence of, to Lewis and Clark, 311-312. 

Robson, cited, 139, 140, 147, 161, 166. 

Rochelle, Radisson's visit to, in 1654, 43. 

Rocky Mountains, Radisson's nearest approach to the, 89; Pierre de laVérendrye reaches the, 233; Lewis's first view of the, 314-315; Lewisand Clark enter Gates of the, 321. 

Rouen, merchants of, interested in Canada trade, 352, 353, 357. 

Roy, J. Edmond, cited, 102 n. 

Roy, R. , translations of documents, 335. 

Rupert River, the Nemisco renamed the, 139. 

S

Sacajawea, squaw guide to Lewis and Clark, 312, 321, 326, 332. 

St. Louis, departure of Lewis and Clark's expedition from, 308-309;return to, 332. 

Saint-Lusson, Sieur de, 142. 

Saint-Pierre, Legardeur de, 236-237. 

Saskatchewan River, exploration of, 229. 

Sautaux Indians, the, 89-90, 92 n. , 131 n. , 365. 

Scalp dance, the, 12, 14. 

Seneca Indians, the, 34, 55, 364. 

Sioux Indians, the, 69; Radisson and the, 85, 88, 120-124; desire of, for firearms, 120, 122; location of the, 365. 

Skull-crackers, Indian, defined, 25, 121. 

Slave Lake, Mackenzie on, 282. 

Slave Lake Indians, the, 280, 282, 290. 

Smith, Donald (Lord Strathcona), 275-276. 

Snake Indians, Lewis and Clark make friends with, 323-326. 

Society of One Hundred. _See_ Company of One Hundred Associates. 

Songs, Indian, 159, 160. 

Sturgeons, Radisson's river of, 112. 

Sulte, Benjamin, cited, 4, 5 n. , 6 n. , 7 n. , 19 n. , 43 n. , 68 n. , 76n. , 86 n. , 99 n. , 102 n. , 139 n. , 154 n. 

T

Tadoussac (Quebec), Company of, 352. 

Talon, intendant of New France, 7 n. , 142-143, 357-358, 360, 367, 368. 

Tanguay, Abbé, 5 n. , 19 n. , 88 n. 

Tar bed, Mackenzie's discovery of a, in the Arctic, 286. 

Temiscamingue Indians, the, 364. 

Thousand Islands, massacre of Huron captives by Iroquois at, 53-54. 

Three Forks of the Missouri, Lewis and Clark arrive at, 321. 

Three Rivers, population of, 7 n. ; in 1654, 44-45; De la Vérendrye bornat, 201; Indians of, 363. 

Touret, Eli Godefroy, French spy, 137. 

Torture, Indian methods of, 15-16, 25-28, 54. 

_Travaille_, defined, 224. 

_Tripe de roches_, defined, 78. 

V

Vérendrye. _See_ De la Vérendrye. 

Ville-Marie (Montreal), Indian tribes about, 363-364. 

Voorhis, Mrs. Julia Clark, Clark letters owned by, 312 n. 

W

Wampum, significance to Indians, 17. 

War-cry, Indian, sounds representing the, 11 n. 

Waste, viewed by Indians as crime, 60. 

West Indies Company. _See_ Company of the West Indies. 

Windsor, member of Lewis and Clark's expedition, 315-316. 

Winnipeg, Lake, first reports of, 69, 71; Radisson arrives at, 127;rumours of a tide on, 216; De la Vérendrye on, 216-218. 

Wisconsin, Radisson's travels in, 80-8l, 89. 

Wolf Indians located at Three Rivers, 363. 

Wyandotte Indians, the, 364. 

Y

Yellowstone River, exploration of, by Lewis and Clark, 313, 329. 

York (Port Nelson), 140, 161-175, 182-186. 

Young, Sir William, champions Radisson's cause, 180, 181, 188.