Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson | Page 4

middle of June, 1658, we began to

take leave of our company and venter our lives for the common good."
Concerning the third voyage, Radisson states above, "wee proceeded
three years." The memory of the writer had evidently been thrown into
some confusion when recording one of the historical incidents in 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