Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson | Page 9

of security for her husband's fidelity to the interests
of the French monarch. After his return from this voyage in 1683 he
felt himself again unfairly treated by the French Court, and in 1684, as
he relates in his narrative, he "passed over to England for good, and of
engaging myself so strongly to the service of his Majesty, and to the
interests of the Nation, that any other consideration was never able to
detach me from it."
We again hear of Radisson in Hudson's Bay in 1685; and this is his last
appearance in public records or documents as far as is known. A
Canadian, Captain Berger, states that in the beginning of June, 1685,
"he and his crew ascended four leagues above the English in Hudson's
Bay, where they made a Small Settlement. On the 15th of July they set
out to return to Quebec. On the 17th they met with a vessel of ten or
twelve guns, commanded by Captain Oslar, on board of which was the
man named Bridgar, the Governor, who was going to relieve the
Governor at the head of the Bay. He is the same that Radisson brought
to Quebec three years ago in the ship Monsieur de la Barre restored to
him. Berger also says he asked a parley with the captain of Mr
Bridgar's bark, who told him that Radisson had gone with Mr Chouart,
his nephew, fifteen days ago, to winter in the River Santa Theresa,
where they wintered a year." [Footnote: _New York Colonial
Documents_, Vol. IX.]
After this date the English and the French frequently came into hostile
collision in Hudson's Bay. In 1686 King James demanded satisfaction
from France for losses inflicted upon the Company. Then the Jesuits

procured neutrality for America, and knew by that time they were in
possession of Fort Albany. In 1687 the French took the "Hayes" sloop,
an infraction of the treaty. In 1688 they took three ships, valued, in all,
at L. 15,000; L. 113,000 damage in time of peace. In 1692 the
Company set out four ships to recover Fort Albany, taken in 1686. In
1694 the French took York, alias Fort Bourbon. In 1696 the English
retook it from them. On the 4th September, 1697, the French retook it
and kept it. The peace was made September 20, 1697. [Footnote:
_Minutes Relating to Hudson's Bay Company_.] In 1680 the stock rose
from L. 100 to near L. 1,000. Notwithstanding the losses sustained by
the Company, amounting to L. 118,014 between 1682 and 1688, they
were able to pay in 1684 the shareholders a dividend of fifty per cent.
Radisson brought home in 1684 a cargo of 20,000 beaver skins.
Oldmixon says, "10,000 Beavers, in all their factories, was one of the
best years of Trade they ever had, besides other peltry." Again in 1688
a dividend of fifty per cent was made, and in 1689 one of twenty-five
per cent. In 1690, without any call being made, the stock was trebled,
while at the same time a dividend of twenty-five per cent was paid on
the increased or newly created stock. At the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713,
the forts captured by the French in 1697 were restored to the Company,
who by 1720 had again trebled their capital, with a call of only ten per
cent. After a long and fierce rivalry with the Northwest Fur Company,
the two companies were amalgamated in 1821. [Footnote:
Encyclopaedia Britannica.]
Radisson commences his narrative of 1652 in a reverent spirit, by
inscribing it "a la plus grande gloire de Dieu." All his manuscripts have
been handed down in perfect preservation. They are written out in a
clear and excellent handwriting, showing the writer to have been a
person of good education, who had also travelled in Turkey and Italy,
and who had been in London, and perhaps learned his English there in
his early life. The narrative of travels between the years 1652 and 1664
was for some time the property of Samuel Pepys, the well-known
diarist, and Secretary of the Admiralty to Charles II. and James II. He
probably received it from Sir George Cartaret, the Vice-Chamberlain of
the King and Treasurer of the Navy, for whom it was no doubt
carefully copied out from his rough notes by the author, So that it might,
through him, be brought under the notice of Charles II. Some years

after the death of Pepys, in 1703, his collection of manuscripts was
dispersed and fell into the hands of various London tradesmen, who
bought parcels of it to use in their shops as waste-paper. The most
valuable portions were carefully reclaimed by the celebrated collector,
Richard Rawlinson, who in writing to his friend T. Rawlins, from.
"London house, January 25th, 1749/50," says: "I have purchased