Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson | Page 4

his relation, as he was finishing his narrative of the fourth journey. At the close of his fourth narrative, on his return from the Lake Superior country, where he had been over three years, instead of over two, as he mentions, he says: "You must know that seventeen ffrenchmen made a plott with four Algonquins to make a league with three score Hurrons for to goe and wait for the Iroquoits in the passage." This passage was the Long Sault, on the Ottawa river, where the above seventeen Frenchmen were commanded by a young officer of twenty-five, Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux. The massacre of the party took place on May 21, 1660, and is duly recorded by several authorities; namely, Dollier de Casson [Footnote: _Histoire de Montreal, Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1660, p. 14.], M. Marie [Footnote: _De l'Incarnation_, p. 261.], and Father Lalemont [Footnote: _Journal_, June 8, 1660.]. As Radisson has placed the incident in his manuscript, he would make it appear as having occurred in May, 1664. He writes: "It was a terrible spectacle to us, for wee came there eight dayes after that defeat, which saved us without doubt." He started on this third journey about the middle of June, 1658, and it would therefore seem he was only absent on it two years, instead of over three, as he says. Charlevoix gives the above incident in detail. [Footnote: Shea's edition, Vol. III. p. 33, n.]
During the third voyage Radisson and his brother-in-law went to the Mississippi River in 1658/9. He says, "Wee mett with severall sorts of people. Wee conversed with them, being long time in alliance with them. By the persuasion of som of them wee went into the great river that divides itself in two where the hurrons with some Ottanake and the wild men that had warrs with them had retired.... The river is called the forked, because it has two branches: the one towards the West, the other towards the South, which we believe runs towards Mexico, by the tokens they gave." They also made diligent inquiry concerning Hudson's Bay, and of the best means to reach that fur-producing country, evidently with a view to future exploration and trade. They must have returned to the Three Rivers about June 1, 1660. Radisson says: "Wee stayed att home att rest the yeare. My brother and I considered whether we should discover what we have seen or no, and because we had not a full and whole discovery which was that we have not ben in the bay of the north (Hudson's Bay), not knowing anything but by report of the wild Christinos, we would make no mention of it for feare that those wild men should tell us a fibbe. We would have made a discovery of it ourselves and have an assurance, before we should discover anything of it."
In the fourth narrative he says: "The Spring following we weare in hopes to meet with some company, having ben so fortunat the yeare before. Now during the winter, whether it was that my brother revealed to his wife what we had seene in our voyage and what we further intended, or how it came to passe, it was knowne so much that the ffather Jesuits weare desirous to find out a way how they might gett downe the castors from the bay of the North, by the Sacques, and so make themselves masters of that trade. They resolved to make a tryall as soone as the ice would permitt them. So to discover our intentions they weare very earnest with me to ingage myselfe in that voyage, to the end that my brother would give over his, which I uterly denied them, knowing that they could never bring it about." They made an application to the Governor of Quebec for permission to start upon this their fourth voyage; but he refused, unless they agreed to certain hard conditions which they found it impossible to accept. In August they departed without the Governor's leave, secretly at midnight, on their journey, having made an agreement to join a company of the nation of the Sault who were about returning to their country, and who agreed to wait for them two days in the Lake of St. Peter, some six leagues from Three Rivers. Their journey was made to the country about Lake Superior, where they passed much of their time among the nations of the Sault, Fire, Christinos (Knisteneux), Beef, and other 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