Pathfinders of the West | Page 2

produced,--men whose wide-ranging explorations exceeded the
achievements of Cartier and Champlain and La Salle put together.
It naturally rouses resentment to find that names revered for more than
two centuries as the first explorers of the Great Northwest must give
place to a name almost unknown. It seems impossible that at this late
date history should have to be rewritten. Such is the fact _if we would
have our history true_. Not Marquette, Jolliet, and La Salle discovered
the West, but two poor adventurers, who sacrificed all earthly
possessions to the enthusiasm for discovery, and incurred such bitter
hostility from the governments of France and England that their names
have been hounded to infamy. These were Sieur Pierre Esprit Radisson
and Sieur Médard Chouart Groseillers, fur traders of Three Rivers,
Quebec. [1]
The explanation of the long oblivion obscuring the fame of these two
men is very simple. Radisson and Groseillers defied, first New France,
then Old France, and lastly England. While on friendly terms with the
church, they did not make their explorations subservient to the
propagation of the faith. In consequence, they were ignored by both
Church and State. The Jesuit Relations repeatedly refer to two young
Frenchmen who went beyond Lake Michigan to a "Forked River" (the
Mississippi), among the Sioux and other Indian tribes that used coal for
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
numerous references to Radisson and Groseillers. But, then, the _Jesuit
Relations_ were not accessible to scholars, let alone the general public,
until the middle of the last century, when a limited edition was

reprinted of the Cramoisy copies published at the time the priests sent
their letters home to France. The contemporaneous writings of Marie de
l'Incarnation, the Abbé Belmont, and Dollier de Casson were not
known outside the circle of French savants until still later; and it is only
within recent years that the Archives of Paris have been searched for
historical data. Meantime, the historians of France and England,
animated by the hostility of their respective governments, either slurred
over the discoveries of Radisson and Groseillers entirely, or blackened
their memories without the slightest regard to truth. It would, in fact,
take a large volume to contradict and disprove half the lies written of
these two men. Instead of consulting contemporaneous
documents,--which would have entailed both cost and labor,--modern
writers have, unfortunately, been satisfied to serve up a rehash of the
detractions written by the old historians. In 1885 came a discovery that
punished such slovenly methods by practically wiping out the work of
the pseudo-historians. There was found in the British Museum, the
Bodleian Library, and Hudson's Bay House, London, unmistakably
authentic record of Radisson's voyages, written by himself. The Prince
Society of Boston printed two hundred and fifty copies of the collected
Journals. The Canadian Archives published the journals of the two last
voyages. Francis Parkman was too conscientious to ignore the
importance of the find; but his history of the West was already written.
He made what reparation he could to Radisson's memory by appending
a footnote to subsequent editions of two of his books, stating that
Radisson and Groseillers' travels took them to the "Forked River"
before 1660. Some ten other lines are all that Mr. Parkman relates of
Radisson; and the data for these brief references have evidently been
drawn from Radisson's enemies, for the explorer is called "a renegade."
It is necessary to state this, because some writers, whose zeal for
criticism was much greater than their qualifications, wanted to know
why any one should attempt to write Radisson's life when Parkman had
already done so.
Radisson's life reads more like a second Robinson Crusoe than sober
history. For that reason I have put the corroborative evidence in
footnotes, rather than cumber the movement of the main theme. I am
sorry to have loaded the opening parts with so many notes; but

Radisson's voyages change the relative positions of the other explorers
so radically that proofs must be given. The footnotes are for the student
and may be omitted by the general reader. The study of Radisson arose
from, using his later exploits on Hudson Bay as the subject of the novel,
Heralds of Empire. On the publication of that book, several letters
came from the Western states asking how far I thought Radisson had
gone beyond Lake Superior before he went to Hudson Bay. Having in
mind--I am sorry to say--mainly the early records of Radisson's
enemies, I at first answered that I thought it very difficult to identify the
discoverer's itinerary beyond the Great Lakes. So many letters
continued to come on the subject that I began to investigate
contemporaneous documents.