Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson | Page 5

tribes.
Being at Lake Superior, Radisson says they came "to a remarkable
place. It's a banke of Rocks that the wild men made a Sacrifice to,... it's
like a great portall by reason of the beating of the waves. The lower
part of that opening is as bigg as a tower, and grows bigger in the going
up. There is, I believe, six acres of land above it; a shipp of 500 tuns
could passe by, soe bigg is the arch. I gave it the name of the portail of
St. Peter, because my name is so called, and that I was the first

Christian that ever saw it." Concerning Hudson's Bay, whilst they were
among the Christinos at Lake Assiniboin, Radisson mentions in his
narrative that "being resolved to know what we heard before, we waited
untill the Ice should vanish."
The Governor was greatly displeased at the disobedience of Radisson
and his brother-in-law in going on their last voyage without his
permission. On their return, the narrative states, "he made my brother
prisoner for not having obeyed his orders; he fines us L. 4,000 to make
a fort at the three rivers, telling us for all manner of satisfaction that he
would give us leave to put our coat of armes upon it; and moreover L.
6,000 for the country, saying that wee should not take it so strangely
and so bad, being wee were inhabitants and did intend to finish our
days in the same country with our relations and friends.... Seeing
ourselves so wronged, my brother did resolve to go and demand justice
in France." Failing to get restitution, they resolved to go over to the
English. They went early in 1665 to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and from
thence to New England, where they engaged an English or New
England ship for a trading adventure into Hudson's Straits in 61 deg.
north.
This expedition was attempted because Radisson and Des Groseilliers,
on their last journey to Lake Superior, "met with some savages on the
lake of Assiniboin, and from them they learned that they might go by
land to the bottom of Hudson's Bay, where the English had not been yet,
at James Bay; upon which they desired them to conduct them thither,
and the savages accordingly did it. They returned to the upper lake the
same way they came, and thence to Quebec, where they offered the
principal merchants to carry ships to Hudson's Bay; but their project
was rejected. Des Groseilliers then went to France in hopes of a more
favorable hearing at Court; but after presenting several memorials and
spending a great deal of time and money, he was answered as he had
been at Quebec, and the project looked upon as chimerical." [Footnote:
Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 548.] This voyage to Hudson's Straits proved
unremunerative. "Wee had knowledge and conversation with the
people of those parts, but wee did see and know that there was nothing
to be done unlesse wee went further, and the season of the year was far
spent by the indiscretion of our Master." Radisson continues: "Wee
were promissed two shipps for a second voyage." One of these ships

was sent to "the Isle of Sand, there to fish for Basse to make oyle of it,"
and was soon after lost.
In New England, in the early part of the year 1665, Radisson and Des
Groseilliers met with two of the four English Commissioners who were
sent over by Charles II in 1664 to settle several important questions in
the provinces of New York and New England. They were engaged in
the prosecution of their work in the different governments from 1664 to
1665/6. The two Frenchmen, it appears, were called upon in Boston to
defend themselves in a lawsuit instituted against them in the courts
there, for the annulling of the contract in the trading adventure above
mentioned, whereby one of the two ships contracted for was lost. The
writer states, that "the expectation of that ship made us loose our
second voyage, which did very much discourage the merchants with
whom wee had to do; they went to law with us to make us recant the
bargaine that wee had made with them. After wee had disputed a long
time, it was found that the right was on our side and wee innocent of
what they did accuse us. So they endeavoured to come to an agreement,
but wee were betrayed by our own party.
"In the mean time the Commissioners of the King of Great Britain
arrived in that place, & one of them would have us goe with him to
New York, and the other advised us to come to England and offer
ourselves to the King, which wee did." The Commissioners were
Colonel Richard