Pierre-Esprit Radisson: The Collected Writings, Volume 1: The Voyages 9780773587618

Table of contents :
COVER
COPYRIGHT
CONTENTS
PREFACE
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
GENERAL INFORMATION
INTRODUCTION
TEXTUAL INTRODUCTION
Voyage I - TO THE MOHAWK, 1652–53
Voyage II - TO THE ONONDAGA, 1657–58
Voyage III - TO LAKE MICHIGAN, 1654–56
Voyage IV - TO LAKE SUPERIOR AND JAMES BAY,1659–601
APPENDIX : RADISSON IN ANABORIGINAL WORLD
GLOSSARY OF UNUSUAL ENGLISH WORDS
TEXTUAL EMENDATIONS
WORKS CONSULTED
INDEX

Citation preview

Pierre-Esprit Radisson the collected writings volume 1 The Voyages

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Nouvelle France, 1641 24529_WARKENTIN.indb 2

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Pierre-Esprit Radisson the collected writings volume 1

The Voyages edited by germaine warkentin

McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca and The Champlain Society Toronto

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© ISBN

978-0-7735-8761-8 (EPDF )

Bibliothèque nationale du Québec

This book has been published with the help of grants from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Pierre-Esprit Radisson: the collected writings / edited by Germaine Warkentin. Co-published by the Champlain Society. Includes bibliographical references and index.

(New France). II. Champlain Society III. Title.

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CONTENTS

Preface vii Illustrations and Maps xiii g e n e r a l i n f o r m at i o n

xv i n t ro d u c t i o n

3 t e x t ua l i n t r o d u c t i o n

105

voya g e s

(1668)

I To the Mohawk, 1652–53 113 II To the Onondaga, 1657–58 165 III To Lake Michigan, 1654–56 207 IV To Lake Superior and James Bay, 1659–60 243

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contents

Appendix: Radisson in an Aboriginal World Heidi Bohaker 309 Glossary 327 Textual Emendations 329 Works Consulted 331 Index 345

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P r E fAC E

This new edition of the writings of the seventeenth-century explorer PierreEsprit Radisson (1636/40?–1710) presents a different picture from the one we are familiar with, whether we imagine him as a bearded coureur de bois of rough woodland habits, as a slippery fellow who betrayed his allegiance to France, or as a man psychologically marked forever by his boyhood encounter with Mohawk torture. It presents instead a man of modest but decent breeding, sociable and talkative, gifted at picking up languages, certainly devious but trustworthy as long as he is treated fairly, and from his earliest years convinced of his destiny to discover new lands. It also presents him across a long life. In volume 1, we begin with the youth who, tortured and then adopted by the Mohawk, joined them in a war party that took him as far as the French or English had then penetrated south and west of Lake Erie. Volume 2 ends with the old man who died in a prosperous area of London, but in apparent poverty, still claiming the right to fur-trade profits he believed the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had cheated him of years earlier. Throughout we see Radisson, famed for his explorations of interior North America, as a figure created by and functioning within the society and politics of the Europe of his time. As a historical actor, Radisson has often been dismissed as a doubtfully reliable source of information about some other subject: the Aboriginal peoples, the territory he and his partner Médard Chouart, Sieur Des Groseilliers, explored, or the relations of England and France in the late seventeenth century. In this edition, I turn the page to focus on Radisson himself, first by approaching his wide-ranging travels with an analytical eye, then by bringing to the fore his situation as a man of the seventeenth century, enmeshed in both the unyielding patronage networks and the emerging business practices that characterized the times, and strongly motivated by the “honour” culture of the period. It is within these coordinates that both his travels and his energetic promotion of his own interests had to take place. We see him as well embedded in an information network: owner of a fine manuscript atlas, arriving at a meeting with his arms full of maps, and more interested in an interior route to the furs of Hudson Bay than is suggested by his and Des Groseilliers’s advocacy to the seagoing English of a route via the Atlantic. We see him conferring with, and perhaps exploited by, a French abbé anxious to probe his geographical knowledge, we meet with his three wives, all Protestants, and we reflect on the fates of his children.

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preface

I have particularly stressed the extent to which Radisson’s writings, considered as writings, constitute a historical source for understanding his experience: the genres he used, the fact that he always wrote to order, the history and social function of the manuscripts in which what he wrote circulated (or sometimes failed to), and of course his style, initially ironically amused and rich in proverbs and sayings, later in life terse and focused intensely on persuading his audience of his own probity. If Radisson’s writings are to be treated as historical sources, we need the tools to assess that probity. Radisson was a gifted storyteller, and his writings make wonderful reading, but that does not mean we always have to believe him. The two volumes comprising this edition present texts of all Radisson’s known writings, edited on critical principles. I have personally examined all the known Radisson manuscripts, whether autograph or scribal, discovered some new ones, and rejected others as inauthentic. I have also checked in person or in photographic copies almost every extant document that refers to him, and where they are cited I give the document numbers they currently bear. I have aimed to put us in a position to read what Radisson has to say as fully and accurately as the documents make possible, but also with an eye to the expository options that were open to a man of his time. Is there a reason why Radisson called his first four narratives “Voyages” and his two accounts of events at Port Nelson “Relations”? What tone is it appropriate to take in a newsletter to a valued patron? What stance is required by a petition or affidavit, and what kind of text results when the explorer is interviewed and then some parts of what he says or writes are used, but not others? How does our understanding of a man’s work – and life – shift when new material in his hand is discovered, old material rejected, or the circulation of a little-known manuscript studied? Few of these questions have been asked in previous work on Radisson, and they need to be asked if scholarship is to become more exact and interpretation to become richer. At the moment, what is needed is a reliable text, with a commentary that keeps these questions in focus. I offer them here in the hope that they will be useful to future scholars. Though my name appears as the editor of Radisson’s writings, I did not work alone. My most important debt is to two independent scholars. First is my predecessor as a scholar of Radisson, the American Grace Lee Nute (1896– 1990), whose researches, funded by one of the first Guggenheim fellowships awarded to a woman, took place in the archives of Paris, London, and Quebec in the mid-1930s; she laid the groundwork for all serious study of Radisson. More recently, Dr Jean Radisson of Brussels, Belgium, the genealogist of the many-branched Radisson family, shared with me his research on Radisson’s

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London family, and his discovery of both the Windsor manuscript of the two Port Nelson Relations and Radisson’s London burial record. Though I have added to the record in my turn, this edition would not have been possible without the archival work of these two scholars. I would also like to record the kindness of Réal Ouellet and Pierre Berthiaume who gave early support to the idea of a new edition of Radisson. I am deeply indebted to several others whose work has also been fundamental to the edition: Heidi Bohaker, whose ethnographic knowledge of the Native peoples of eastern North America is the foundation of her essay on Radisson’s experience of the Aboriginal world, specially written to provide background for this edition; Janet Ritch, who translated the two Port Nelson Relations into English and often rescued me from linguistic embarrassment; John Warkentin, who took the lead in preparing the maps and has answered geographical questions without number over the past two decades; Takamichi Ariga, the prince of it men, who kept the whole enterprise functioning; and, last but far from least, Roger Hall, general editor of the Champlain Society, whose support of this edition has been unfailing. The external readers for the Champlain Society gave me welcome support and wise guidance on particulars, for which I am very grateful. Any edition is by definition a multidisciplinary project, and uncounted friends and colleagues have assisted me with bibliographical help, geographical and geological information, canoe routes, Native language and lore, and information about both the royal courts of England and France and the mercantile world of the late seventeenth century. At the beginning of the project, John C. Parsons and Carolyn Podruchny transcribed important manuscripts for me. Later, Jennifer Brown and Scott Stephen helped with Native references in the Port Nelson Relations; Joseph L. Black visited the Massachusetts State Archive on my behalf to investigate an unknown Des Groseilliers document, Edward H. Dahl found a map when it was badly needed, Roger Kuin translated material in Dutch, the physicist George Luste and the literary critic Gordon Teskey shared their experiences of canoeing in the north, Ian Maclean threw fresh light on Radisson’s early social formation, and Conrad Heidenreich advised on everything to do with the seventeenth-century mapping of North America. He also made available for the frontispiece of volume 1 his negative of the 1641 map of “Nouvelle France.” Three researchers answered late requests: Margaret Baker in the National Archives of the United Kingdom at Kew, François Melançon in the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, and Sally Nystrom in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. Thanks to Karen Maurice for preparing the index. Finally, I owe a major debt to Curtis Fahey, whose expert copy editing resulted in many improvements to a very difficult manuscript.

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I am very grateful to Byron Moldofsky and Mariange Beaudry of the gis and Cartography Office at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography for preparing the final versions of the maps that trace Radisson’s travels. The experts at Toronto Image Works provided technical solutions for several illustrations. I’ve travelled to many places Radisson visited, but the most interesting – and frustrating – trip was when Heartland Travel of Winnipeg graciously managed to fly me over Port Nelson and York Factory on a beautiful August day. “Over,” because we were unable to land since rough waters in the river around the little island airstrip would have prevented us from crossing to the Factory. The experience says a good deal about Radisson’s years on those unforgiving shores. I am also grateful to the following librarians, archivists, curators, and specialists for their assistance: at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Judith Hudson Beattie, Anne Morton, and Ala Rekrut; Pauline Arsenault of the Archives départmentales de la Charente Maritime in La Rochelle; Edward Atkinson of the Heritage Section, Government of Nunavut; Melanie Barber of Lambeth Palace Library; Brian G.C. Brooks of the Society of Scrivener Notaries; Alan Corbiere of the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation; Charles T. Gehring of the New Netherland Institute in Albany, New York; Robert Fraser of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Jonathan Lainey and Roanne Mocktar of Library and Archives Canada; Dr Richard Luckett of the Pepsyian Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge; Norma Potter of the Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford; Henri Pilon, formerly of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, who made useful comments on the translations from French; Arthur Smith of the Library of the Royal Ontario Museum; John Steckley of Humber College, Toronto; Justine Winstanley-Brown of the Parliamentary Archives, London; Bridget Wright of the Library of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle; James Vicota of the University of Minnesota at Duluth, which holds Grace Lee Nute’s personal papers; and the always supportive staff of the University of Toronto Library, especially the Fisher Rare Book Library, Interlibrary Loan, and Microforms. Other libraries and archives that welcomed me or responded to my questions were, in Paris, the Bibliothèque nationale and the Archives nationales; in Oxford, the Bodleian Library; and in London, the British Library, the Archives of the City of Westminster, and the London Metropolitan Archives. I visited or contacted the Emmanuel d’Alzon Library of Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusettts; Washington’s Georgetown University Archives; the  Archives of Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania; the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California; the Minnesota Historical Society in St Paul; Chicago’s Newberry Library; the New-England Historic

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Genealogical Society in Boston; and Yale University’s Beinecke Library in New Haven, Connecticut. Many individuals have also given me valued assistance, and it is a pleasure to name them here: Gavin Alexander, Vera Alexander of the Canadian High Commission in London, Sandra Alston, John Baird, John Beattie, Ian Brookes, Luca Codignola, Douglas Creelman, Natalie Zemon Davis, Gary De Krey, Denys Delâge, Catherine Desbarats, John Dickinson, William Eamon, the late W.J. Eccles, Stephan Edwards, William Edwards, Konrad Eisenbichler, the Reverend James Farge, Martin Fournier, François-Marc Gagnon, Jean Goodrich, Allan Greer, Dr Cecil Hahn, Vanessa Harding, Gregoire Holtz, W. McAllister Johnston, Ken Lister, John McClelland, Wallace McLeod, Brian Merrilees, the late John S. Moir, Andreas Motsch, Alan H. Nelson, François Paré, Virginia Petch, Laurence Pope, Isabelle Rambaud, Arthur J. Ray, Margaret Schotte, Deidre Simmons, Claiborne Skinner, Jacob Soll, John Steckley, Nicole St-Onge, Tim Stretton, Robert Taylor, the late Michael Treadwell, Filippo de Vivo, Cory Willmott, Captain Jeremy Young, Paul H. Zedler, Rivkah Zim, and countless correspondents on the e-mail lists H-Canada, H-Albion, and Ficino who over many years kindly responded to my queries. None of the many colleagues who have helped is in any way responsible for my conclusions. Some of the material in the Introduction and annotations was published earlier in various journals. However, it has been much revised and updated since that time, and is almost entirely superseded by this edition. I wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for its early support of work on the edition, and the Senate Research Committee of Victoria University in the University of Toronto for a travel grant that enabled me to visit the Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime in La Rochelle, France. Finally, I am grateful to the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, for permission to use Ms. Rawl, A.329, of Radisson’s Voyages in volume 1, and to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her gracious permission to use the Windsor manuscript of the two Port Nelson Relations in volume 2.

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I L L u S T r AT I O N S A N d M A P S

figures

Frontispiece: Nouvelle France (“Novvelle” in the old orthography used by the mapmaker), 1641. The earliest surviving map that attempts to give the location of Native groups before the dispersals of mid-century began. Possibly by the surveyor Jean Bourdon. British Crown Copyright and/or database rights. Reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office and the UK Hydrographic Office (www.ukho.gov.uk). ii 1 Excerpt from Radisson’s letter to Claude Bernou, 1 January 1678. The explorer’s script is the “lettre bâtarde ou italienne,” the sophisticated italic hand that suggests he was educated for some lower-level professional or court office. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Clairambault 1016, f.376r. 25 2 A page from the manuscript of the Voyages copied from Radisson’s now lost original in 1686, chiefly by the scrivener Nicholas Hayward, who was a member of the London Committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Oxford University, Bodleian Libraries, Bodleian Ms. Rawl. A.329, p.8. 65 3 Clare Court, Drury Lane. Radisson and his family lodged here from about 1703 until his death in 1710. A rapid sketch made around 1850 by the illustrator and painter Thomas Coleman Dibdin (1810–93), this is the only known drawing of the narrow court, with Clare House at the end, as it survived between the seventeenth century and the early twentieth when it was destroyed by modern street realignments. City of London, London Metropolitan Archives. 89 4 Map of New Netherland, from the 1656 edition of the lawyer Adriaen van der Donck’s Beschryvinge [Description] van Nieuvv-Nederland. Much of Radisson’s Voyage I takes place in the vicinity. The map shows the rapidly growing Dutch settlements and also marks areas occupied by the Natives, about whom van der Donck was very knowledgeable. New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections. 120

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illustrations and maps

5 Father Joseph François Lafitau, Customs of the American Indians (1724), vol. 2, plate 13. In Voyage I Radisson describes the practices depicted here: being spread-eagled and staked out, and running the gauntlet. University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. 136 6 In 1797 Judge James Geddes drew a sketch of the remains of the French fort at Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha on Lake Onondaga. The sketch itself is lost, but (possibly redrawn) it was published in Joshua Clark, Onondaga, or, Reminiscences of Earlier and Later Times, vol. 2 (1849). Courtesy of Toronto Public Library. 194 7 The Jesuit priest and amateur naturalist Louis Nicolas served at the recently established Chequamegon mission, Saint-Esprit, in 1667. His portfolio of drawings in the Codex Canadensis depicts both Native life and eastern North American flora and fauna. Among them is this magnificent portrait of a Sioux chief like those Radisson and Des Groseilliers encountered during their diplomatic negotiations of 1659–60. Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okla. 272 maps

1 Radisson’s North America, 1651–87 2 Voyage I, to the Mohawk, 1652–53

16–17 114

3 Voyage II, to the Onondaga, 1657–58 4 Voyage III, to Lake Michigan, 1654–56

166 208

5 Voyage IV, to Lake Superior and James Bay, 1659–60

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G E N E r A L I N f O r M AT I O N

Asterisks in Radisson’s texts refer the reader to the Glossary for unusual words and meanings that occur more than once. Matter quoted or referred to in this volume but located in volume 2 is marked with ‡ and the corresponding page numbers are supplied in an Addendum at the end of volume 2. a b b r e v i at i o n s

ANFr ANOM ANQ BNFr BL CWA DCB HBC HBCA HNAI JR

Paris: Archives nationales de France Aix-en-Provence: Archives nationales de l’outre-mer Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France London: British Library London: City of Westminster Archives Dictionary of Canadian Biography Hudson’s Bay Company Winnipeg: Archives of Manitoba: Hudson’s Bay Company Archives Handbook of North American Indians The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610–1791. Ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites. 73 vols. Cleveland, 1896–1901. Repr., 73 vols. in 36. New York: Pageant Book Company 1959. LAC/BAC Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada LMA London Metropolitan Archives ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography OED Oxford English Dictionary PRDH Programme de recherche en démographie historique, Université de Montréal RHAF Revue d’Histoire de l’Amérique Française TNA London: The National Archives of the United Kingdom n o m e n c l at u r e : t h e t e r m

“ s ava g e ”

Modern students of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Canada face a dilemma. How are we to name Native groups and nations in a way that will identify them

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general information

quickly to the general reader (who may not know that the Iroquois are properly called “Haudenosaunee,” the Huron “Wendat,” and the Ojibwe “Anishinaabe”) and at the same time respect the naming traditions of the people themselves? In general, I have adhered to the post-contact names – Iroquois, Huron, Ojibwe, Odawa – while noting the Native ones wherever possible. Native words also pose a problem; in the Voyages Radisson is often writing down, a decade after the fact, what he thinks he heard, not what linguists now know the word in question to be. Consequently, the annotations to these terms are very much ad hoc. Radisson’s English in the Voyages poses a different problem; it is very francophone – for example, his frequent “you must know” (meaning “as you know” or “as I am about to tell you”) is clearly “vous savez.” But interestingly he also employs a number of English words that have since become obsolete. Here the Oxford English Dictionary, with its treasure of fossilized terms, has been essential. “Savage,” almost invariably applied to Aboriginal peoples by writers well into the twentieth century, is no longer accepted usage, and writers on exploration literature in both French and English have struggled to find an alternative. Its  French original, “sauvage,” derived from the Latin “selva,” meant simply “people of the woodlands,” but by the seventeenth century the word already signified “uncultivated, living without laws or religion.”1 The English “savage” early acquired the meaning of “rude, uncultivated” (OED). Writers in French have solved the problem by coining the useful word “Amérindien,” and in modern Canadian English “First Nations” prevails in political and social discussion. In discussions or translations of earlier writings, the terms now commonly employed are Native (if the Aboriginal group is not specified), Aboriginal, or sometimes “Amerindian,” taken over from the French. For simplicity’s sake, this edition uses the term “Native.” In English, Radisson almost always employs the term “wild men,” usually with a lack of prejudice closer to the original French “sauvage.” Sometimes, however, he uses the word “barbar” (“people who don’t speak our language,” “uncultivated or cruel”), already becoming obsolete in English; he does not use “barbar” in French. In translating Radisson’s French into English, his own example has been followed and the word “sauvage” is translated as “wild men.” measurements

The only measure of distance Radisson mentions is the “league” or “lieue.” He estimates the number of leagues very roughly in particular cases, and he 1 See Nicot, Le Thresor de la langue francoyse, 1606, and Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 1694.

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does not distinguish between the land league and the nautical league. Conrad Heidenreich points to the difficulties in interpreting the units of measure even in the case of the more expert Champlain over the period of his explorations (Samuel de Champlain Before 1604, 451–5). Perhaps the safest estimate of the length of Radisson’s “league” is approximately 4.7 kilometres (2.9 miles). money

Radisson uses the terms livre and livre tournois (or what he calls the “pound tournois”). In theory each livre was divided into twenty sols and each sol was worth twelve deniers. (The livre tournois or “livre of Tours” was a money of account, not a coin.) In France an écu or crown was worth about three livres tournois. A pistole was worth ten livres, as was the gold louis d’or. However, the monetary system in New France was based on a devalued livre. In 1654 the louis d’or was worth ten livres but by 1666 it was worth ten livres fifteen sols (McCullough, Money and Exchange in Canada before 1900, 43, and see Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth Century Montreal, 67–70). It is never clear which system Radisson has in mind. The rate of exchange between Paris and London made one livre tournois worth just under an English pound sterling (see McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 87–91, 278–84, and Table 2.23). However, monetary values tended to be unstable owing to general depreciation; see Glassman and Redish, “Currency Depreciation in Early Modern England and France.”

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Pierre-Esprit Radisson the collected writings, volume 1 The Voyages

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I N T rO d u C T I O N 1

the making of an explorer

Pierre-Esprit Radisson seems never to have had his picture painted. We have no image of him other than that provided in his writings and those of the people who encountered him in New France, in Paris on the fringes of the court, on remote Hudson Bay, and in late Stuart London.2 If we were to imagine a portrait of the man, it would have to show two faces: an elderly gentleman in a late-seventeenth-century full-bottomed wig looking into a Louis XIV mirror, from which an Iroquois warrior looks back. But even that image emerges from fragments: a teenaged boy captured, tortured, and then adopted by the Mohawk, a young man relishing the freedom of the wilderness, the Frenchborn servant of an ambitious new English trading company, a hapless petitioner at the court of Louis XIV, a central figure in the tug of war between France and England over Hudson Bay, a pretender to aristocratic status defending his actions before James II, a retired “captain at sea”3 attempting to

1 All quotations from Radisson’s writings cite this edition, with page numbers provided for volume 1 and ‡ marking direct quotations and other references from texts in volume 2. Corresponding page numbers for the latter are supplied in a brief Addendum to volume 2. 2 All the images of Radisson in circulation (except Bellier, see below) are modern reconstructions. I know of no written description of his appearance, except for a work of fantasy by Beckles Willson who described Radisson as a rough, hard-drinking backwoodsman in Paris (he was probably right about his scars, at least); see Willson, The Great Company, 112–14. The available images (there are several on the Internet) pay little attention to either the wilderness garb or the urban dress of the period, or even to Radisson’s own statement that he was relatively beardless (271).The depiction most frequently reproduced is a  bad nineteenth-century copy of an as yet unlocated 1785 engraving by one “Belier,” presumably the court painter Jean-François-Marie Bellier (1745–1836); see LAC, http:// collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem& lang=eng&rec_nbr=3668515&rec_nbr_list=3668515 (accessed 15 January 2011). Given the historical gap in interest in Radisson between Charlevoix in 1744 and Gideon Scull’s publication of the Bodleian manuscript in 1885, the sketch’s existence poses an interesting question: Why was a court artist like Bellier portraying Radisson in 1785? 3 See James Radisson, n.221.

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4

Pierre-Esprit Radisson

provide for his children, and at the end, despite the pension he had fought for, the “decay’d Gentleman” described in his burial record.4 From a letter of Father Paul Ragueneau5 we know something of the tough and audacious nature of Radisson’s brother-in-law and partner in exploration, Des Groseilliers.6 Radisson, the younger by two decades, seems to have been very different. The pronounced oral streak in his writings, as well as the ingenuous account of his first Voyage, reveals a sociable, talkative personality, though with a strong sense of entitlement.7 The ethnocentric English dismissed him as an “Italian,” and the French as “ce fripon de Radisson,” a rascal.8 Radisson himself was aware that he might have a reputation as an unreliable person; his 1685 letter dedicating his Relations to James II admits, “I feel obliged before all else to justify myself against the charge of fickleness of which I have been accused because in this voyage I acted against the interests of England, and in that of the year 1684 I acted against those of France. For if I were not to justify my procedure in this matter, it would appear as some caprice and much inconstancy”‡. His differences with various Hudson’s Bay Company underlings in the 1680s suggest that he was not admired by the English seamen who had to work with him. They had a rooted detestation of the French, with whom the English were so often at war and whose Catholicism was an ever-present threat.9 But the upper-class Englishmen he

4 CWA, St Clement Danes burial register, vol. 6, 21 June 1710. 5 Paul Ragueneau (1608–80). Priest, Jesuit missionary, superior of the Huron mission (1645–50), superior of the Jesuits in Canada (1650–53), procurator of the Canadian mission in Paris. Author of several of the Jesuit Relations of the 1640s. Capable and intelligent, he was perceptive about the Natives and assiduous in trying to find a settled home for the Huron during the dispersal. He would have been well acquainted with Radisson from their participation in the mission to the Onondaga, and he knew Des Groseilliers well enough to produce a shrewd word-portrait of him. 6 Ragueneau to Colbert, 7 November 1664, and see n.101. 7 Radisson’s sociability could lead him into difficulties; see his probable encounter with Laurens van Heemskerk, below. 8 TNA, CO 134/1, f.16, 26 January 1676: “one Radisson an Italian.” Avignon, where there are records of the family name, was at the time part of the Papal States. ANOM, C11A, vol. 7, f.9, Denonville to Seignelay, 31 March 1685: “ce fripon de Radisson.” 9 See especially Bosher, “The Franco-Catholic Danger, 1660–1715.” For attitudes towards foreigners in general, see Selwood, Diversity and Difference in Early Modern London, 53–8.

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introduction

5

needed to impress saw him differently: Sir James Hayes,10 who was secretary to the king’s nephew, Prince Rupert (1619–82), the good-natured Earl of Marlborough,11 and the well-connected lawyer William Yonge12 (1631– 1708) all gave Radisson their support when he needed it. In one way or another, all were participants in the tightly woven system of elite patronage and reciprocal service of Europe and England in the period, a system Radisson took for granted, as we can see not only from his 1678 letter to the Abbé Claude Bernou13 but from the proud recital of his patrons in the will he dictated only a few days before his death. Two other elements shaped Radisson’s social personality. One was the importance of reputation. Growing towards manhood in mid-seventeenth-century 10 Sir James Hayes (1637–94). Barrister, MP, founding member of the Royal Society, secretary to Prince Rupert. Married well c. 1665 to Rachel, widow of Viscount Falkland. One of the largest stockholders in the HBC and active in its administration from before its foundation until 1685; deputy governor, 1676–84. Handled the company’s response to Radisson’s takeover at Port Nelson from the earliest news of the event late in 1683 to the collaboration with William Yonge that led to Radisson’s defection to the HBC in May 1684. By 1685, his influence on the London Committee had dwindled; he refused to hand over accounts they persistently requested, but he did return the two journals of Radisson (now HBCA, E.1/1 and E.1/2) which were in his hands. Sold the last of his stock in 1688. 11 John Churchill, Earl and later Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722). One of England’s greatest generals. During his early career he was in and out of favour, but by 1700 he  was one of England’s most powerful politicians. Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1685–92. Radisson claimed in his will that James II (a former governor of the company) had recommended him to Marlborough’s care before the Revolution of 1688, and Marlborough did write in support of the explorer when he sued the HBC in Chancery in the early 1690s. 12 William Yonge (1631–1709). The son of minor nobility in Devon, and a London lawyer and investor. Constantly involved in the affairs of the London Committee of the HBC for nearly forty years, holding stock in trust for the Earl of Marlborough on several occasions. Played a considerable role in Radisson’s life: acting as go-between when the company enticed Radisson back to English service in 1684, writing in detail about Radisson’s career and his needy situation in 1692, and forgiving the explorer a loan in his will. 13 Claude Bernou (c. 1636–c. 1701), French cleric, geographer, mapmaker, and propagandist. Made a serious attempt to obtain information about North America from Radisson between 1676 and 1678 and may have recommended him for the position with ViceAdmiral Jean II D’Estrées that took him to the Caribbean in 1677. See volume 2.

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France, he would have acquired a keen sense of his own honour (an essential attribute in a patronage-oriented social world), and, as his first Voyage shows, this would have been sharply accentuated by his experiences among the Mohawk, for whom honour was a central value.14 The other formative element was the more than two decades he spent working with his quarrelsome, hardbitten brother-in-law, Des Groseilliers. It was the example of Des Groseilliers, as we shall see, that transformed Radisson from a high-spirited but crafty young coureur de bois into a mature trader, always ready to turn relations with the Native peoples to his own advantage. Radisson as a Historical Problem If we turn to the historical setting in an attempt to see the explorer whole, we  find a picture as fractured as the image in the mirror: the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) of the Mohawk valley, the fleeing Huron (Wendat), the Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi), the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe), and the Cree (Kiristino) in tentative dialogue; a flirtatious Dutch housewife; the Manhattan of three and a half centuries ago; a notary’s chambers in Quebec; the ritual-bound court of Louis XIV and the gossipy office of the Gazette, edited by Eusèbe Renaudot;15 Prince Rupert’s tower in Windsor Castle; Change Alley in the city of London where a new European economic system was emerging; and the old adventurer’s deathbed in Clare Court, in 1710 still a respectable address. The explorer, however, was attended not by noble friends but by a winecooper, by his third wife, whose maiden name is unknown, and by an illiterate woman who made her mark. Radisson is situated precisely at the fault lines between these persons, places, and historical times, and efforts to assign him firmly to one place or role miss the fertile implications of a life lived at such a critical juncture. Indeed, of a life related to us at such a juncture, one of the attractive features 14 Lafitau wrote of Iroquois men in general that they believe “they are properly born only for great things, especially warfare. This exercise ... furnishes them with frequent occasions to put in its brightest light all the nobility of their sentiments and the unshakeable firmness of a truly heroic mind.” Lafitau, Customs, 2: 98. Another early traveller remarked in 1644 on the pride of the Mohawk and their good opinion of themselves; see Megapolensis, “A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians” [1644], in Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland 1609–1664, 173, 176. 15 Abbé Eusèbe Renaudot (1646–1720). Theologian, Orientalist, and editor of the official court circular La Gazette, founded by his grandfather, Théophraste. Conducted many private missions on behalf of Colbert. One of the intellectuals around Colbert and his son Seignelay, and close friend of the Abbé Claude Bernou.

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of Radisson’s writings is that he tells a good story, and this is precisely the feature historians have struggled with the most. There is an inevitable clash between the imaginative world of a seventeenth-century man, preoccupied with questions of personal honour and social place, and the tough-minded empiricism of later historians, where questions of the sophistication and veracity of Radisson’s accounts have frequently taken precedence over an examination of their nature as accounts.16 That Radisson’s narratives were “primitive” by the genteel standards applied to him in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is not important; in reality they were no more primitive than many of the narratives in the collections of Richard Hakluyt and Samuel Purchas, which were avidly read by the kind of men who financed such expeditions. Furthermore, throughout his life Radisson constantly told and retold his own story, as is clear when we set the texts he produced side by side, and the transformations that story underwent constitute a document in themselves. Historians have seen Radisson primarily as a reporter, and in their view not always a reliable one, of the historical events he witnessed. Radisson was undoubtedly devious – we can see that even in the youthful strategems of Voyage I – and he did not become less so as he aged, as his dealings with the West Main Cree at Port Nelson demonstrate. But throughout his life those around him also acted for their own advantage, often as deviously as he. The Native peoples he traded with were as shrewd about the alliances they contracted with Europeans as about those they made with other Aboriginals. George Geyer17

16 The most extreme example, but in its way representative, is the popular historian Hector Grenon, who wrote: “But this narrative was surely written down by another pen, for the poor explorer, hardly literate, did not have much time to devote to his studies, even at the elementary level to which there was access at that time.” Foreword to Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Journal 1682–1683, trans. Charlebois, 6 (editor’s translation). 17 George Geyer (fl. c. 1672–97). Governor of York Fort, Hudson Bay. From 1672 worked with Charles Bayly exploring the area around the Bottom of the Bay. Assisted Governor John Abraham at Port Nelson and built the first York Fort on the Hayes River. Became governor at York Fort in 1686 and served there until 1693. Responsible for sending Henry Kelsey inland to explore. In 1687 Radisson, then superintendent of trade at York Fort, accused Geyer and Stephen Sinclair of private trading, and was himself imprisoned by Geyer and sent to London as a prisoner. No charges against either party resulted but Radisson was convinced that Geyer was the source of the London Committee’s hostility to him in the early 1690s (see his “Complaint in Chancery,” volume 2).

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and Stephen Sinclair18 fought with Radisson at Port Nelson in 1687 because, he charged, they wanted to trade on their own account, a practice endemic in the business, which the HBC was constantly struggling to eradicate and to which, as superintendent of trade at the post, Radisson objected. In 1693 William Potter, secretary to the HBC’s London Committee,19 wrote to William Yonge contemptuously rejecting Radisson’s case for payment of his pension and arrears, but the letter is so unrelievedly negative that it is hard to accept at face value.20 In both cases, Radisson mastered the situation on the basis of the evidence in his favour: the London Committee rejected the charges levied by Geyer and Sinclair, and the judge in Chancery sustained Radisson’s claims even as the HBC wriggled to escape them. Any assessment of the “truth” Radisson presents to us has to consider the competing “truths” that he is negotiating in his narratives, to recognize the nature of the competition and, where possible, document it. Radisson’s life and writings have been interpreted from very different perspectives: that of the British, who framed what was known of him entirely in terms of the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the imperial policy of England; that of the French Canadians, who until the twentieth century accepted the verdict of his French contemporaries that he was a traitor to France;21 and that of the Americans, who in the late nineteenth century discovered Radisson and Des Groseilliers and adopted them as founders of the state of Wisconsin. Generations of English Canadian schoolteachers have entertained their students with the adventures of “Radishes and Gooseberry.” Everywhere in the world the Radisson logo (it closely resembles his signature) 18 Stephen Sinclair. Joined the HBC in 1683; in 1686 appointed warehouse keeper to assist George Geyer at Port Nelson. Radisson accused Sinclair, along with Geyer, of private trading. When he was examined in London about Radisson’s complaint, his answers were evasive. See Geyer, n.17. 19 The London Committee was the executive body of the Hudson’s Bay Company, chaired (at least in theory) by the current governor and composed of the company’s most influential investors, with the secretary – for some time during this period Sir James Hayes – acting in effect as managing director. 20 See n.237 and volume 2. 21 This opinion was based in part on the documents produced by the French during the territorial battle over Hudson Bay, 1682–1713, then fostered by the influential writings of Charlevoix, much cited by later historians. It was only when Gideon Scull’s edition of the Voyages appeared in 1885 that the tide began to turn; see in particular the writings of N.E. Dionne (1893, 1910), which, despite certain historical errors, began the reframing of Radisson and Des Groseilliers as heroic and energetic explorers and traders.

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is known; surely he must be the man who founded the hotels? There is a delightful comic-book series in progress about Radisson,22 and an icebreaker of the Canadian Coast Guard is named after him, as is a vast Manitoba Hydro converter station on the Nelson River 740 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Dozens of places he may (or may not) have visited bear his name, including a  territory – La Radissonie, on the east coast of James Bay23 – a suburb of Syracuse, New York, a town in Saskatchewan, and a walking trail in rural Minnesota. Little of this celebrity, however, has much to do with Radisson’s actual achievements. The most important of these has long been known: the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670 by Charles II on the basis of information first brought to Prince Rupert and the English court by Radisson and Des Groseilliers in 1665. The HBC would remain a small and in some ways old-fashioned company by the London standards of the late seventeenth century, but as long as its charter could be sustained it held control over an immense territory. “Rupert’s Land,” as it came to be known, comprised all the land draining into Hudson Bay, within a very irregular boundary ranging from as far north as Baffin Island, east to today’s Smallwood Reservoir in Labrador, west to the Rocky Mountains, and south to the northeastern corner of South Dakota. The charter of 2 May 1670 marked an event of geopolitical significance, for at a stroke the HBC became one of the greatest landowners in the world, its territory encompassing 40 per cent of present-day Canada. In J.B. Brebner’s often-quoted verdict, the establishment of the HBC would “change the course of history for half the North American continent.”24 The explorations of Radisson and Des Groseilliers are historically significant for other reasons as well. As recorded in Radisson’s writings, they constitute vital ethnographic sources for Iroquoian, Algonquian, and Siouan culture in the seventeenth century; they furnish our first written record of the areas immediately south and west of Lake Erie, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior; and in the 1680s and 1690s they provided ammunition for the English case in their long struggle with France over territorial claims in Hudson Bay, a conflict finally resolved in Britain’s favour only by the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. Nevertheless, the full interpretation of Radisson’s narratives remains a vexing historical problem. First, his apparent need to trumpet his own merit seems 22 Jean-Sébastien Bérubé, “Fils d’Iroquois” (2009) and “Mission à Onondaga” (2010), http://www.yozone.fr/spip.php?article9252. (accessed 1 February 2011). 23 See Hamelin, “Le Régionyme Radissonie,” for the naming of the area and the efflorescence of terms (at least twenty) that resulted. 24 Brebner, The Explorers of North America 1492–1806, 229.

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at odds with an explorer’s primary obligation to describe what he is exploring. Second, there is the vertiginous succession of changed allegiances that mark his career. In the 1660s Radisson and Des Groseilliers abandoned New France for England, but in the 1670s they left England in discouragement and sought advancement in Paris. Rebuffed there, in 1682–83 they turned to the newly founded Compagnie du Nord in New France and captured the English establishment of Port Nelson on Hudson Bay (and an interloper from New England as well) on behalf of their new sponsor. But the following spring Radisson suddenly changed sides and nonchalantly retook Port Nelson on behalf of the English. Though the French put a price on his head, they would shortly attempt to attract him back to France. When in the 1690s Radisson, now retired and almost forgotten, had to sue the HBC in Chancery for his pension, the London Committee began to realize the valuable information he could provide in their persisting conflict with the French over territorial rights. Early historians of events in New France such as Father Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix dismissed him simply as a fugitive and traitor.25 Furthermore, until recently much of the important work on the man E.E. Rich called “this mercurial genius”26 was done by historians with little interest in the early modern culture from which he emerged and which shaped so many of his and his contemporaries’ actions in North America and elsewhere. For example, he has been subjected to psychoanalytical analysis by critics unfamiliar with the powerful patronage system within which every ambitious man of the early modern period had to function, a much likelier determinant of his actions than any aftermath of his capture and torture as an adolescent, which he seems to have survived with characteristic resilience. His relationship with his mentor, Des Groseilliers, casts doubt on the extent to which Radisson underwent the experience of métissage, the blending of Native and White characteristics in a single individual. And today’s deepening knowledge of Native culture in the seventeenth century ratifies many obscure features in Radisson’s account of life among the Mohawk, Odawa, Sioux, Ojibwe, and Cree. We need to consider Radisson in multiple contexts: his achievement as a narrator of his own life, the range of his explorations, his experiences among the Native peoples, and his social formation, both as a man of the early modern period for whom personal honour was an important value and as a working explorer/trader participating in the strictly mercantile projects of the era.

25 Charlevoix, History and General Description of New France, trans. Shea, 3: 230–1. 26 Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company 1670–1870, 1: 307.

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Radisson the Writer Apart from diplomatic, mercantile, and legal responses to his activity in the period 1682–97, it is Radisson’s writings that tell us almost everything we know about him. Fortunately, the record he left is a substantial one: four Voyages written when he was in his late twenties, a log, a mémoire, two letters from the period 1673–83, the two Relations of events at Port Nelson 1682–84, a series of affidavits, narratives, and court documents from the 1690s, and finally his will of 1710.27 As was customary in the period, he could have dictated some of this material, possibly the two Port Nelson Relations and certainly documents like his 1697 affidavit.28 But his style marks even those: bold, fiercely defensive of his honour, and full of the proverbs and sayings that characterize all his writings and situate him firmly in an oral discursive setting.29 Radisson’s orality has an additional dimension: he seems to have been a gifted and instinctive linguist. Besides his native French, he quickly acquired the ability to speak and write English, a language exceedingly rare among the French of his day.30 He must have done so between 1663 and 1668 in the streets and on the wharves of Boston, New York, and London, for his very francophone English exhibits some older forms almost obsolete even in the seventeenth century but likely fossilized in the spoken language he encountered. His French is workmanlike rather than elegant, and exhibits some of the same characteristics as that of Champlain’s very plain style.31 Radisson knew several dialects of Algonquian and Iroquoian, possibly a few words of Sioux, and evidently a bit 27 In Caesars of the Wilderness (1943), Grace Lee Nute included as writings of Radisson two texts she referred to as “petitions” from the 1680s. Close study shows that these are not by Radisson himself but represent the Abbé Claude Bernou’s notes of interviews with the explorer. See volume 2, where their status is fully discussed. In his Relation of 1682–83 Radisson states that he communicated his mémoires to Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye. In the French of the period, this means his notes or written reflections; whatever these were, they have unfortunately not survived. 28 For the genesis of these documents, see volume 2. 29 It is, of course, perfectly possible that a writer may use oral devices in a written text, which is what we find in the four Voyages. 30 Knowledge of English was rare among the French of the time; see Bély, La France au XVIIe siècle, 752. Eusèbe Renaudot was considered unusual because he knew English. 31 Both Champlain and Radisson have been criticized for not writing polished academic French; for a useful discussion of some of the problems connected with Champlain’s style, see “Champlain’s French” in Samuel de Champlain before 1604, eds. Heidenreich and Ritch, 83–93. Similar and related problems – uncertainly related pronouns and

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of Dutch, for he says he was able to comfort the victims at the terrible siege of Tobago in 1677. Typically, he described with equal enthusiasm his role in the savagery that felled them. It is likely he wrote the four Voyages in English (they are not, as once was thought, a translation32) in order to demonstrate a skill that he knew was potentially valuable. In due course he became a practised writer, for in 1685–87 he sent regular reports from the Bay to the London Committee, as they required. What he wrote can be inferred from the company’s replies, but the originals have not been found, so it is uncertain whether he wrote them in French or in English. His Relations and letters are in French, his affidavits (which may or may not have been dictated) and his will are naturally in English. Radisson was not an author in any sense in which that word was understood in his day or ours. He never seems to have written anything unless he was asked to do so, or it was necessitated by some immediate practical consideration: Voyages (in one of the documents connected with his later Chancery case against the company, he stated that the king had asked him to write them down33), letters and affidavits (of which the most valuable in interpreting Radisson’s position in his world is the letter he wrote from Grenada to the Abbé Claude Bernou), and the two desperately self-serving Relations accounting for his actions at Port Nelson. In writing the latter he knew that both his career and his honour were at stake, which undoubtedly resulted in a very partial version of events. All these writings are rich in information about Radisson’s life and the world he inhabited, but each one makes different generic and rhetorical demands on the writer, and their differences are critical in assessing Radisson’s contribution to the historical record. Interestingly, in an age when ordinary Londoners did not hesitate to use print to complain of wrongs done them – the pamphlet record of the period is extraordinary – Radisson, even as he challenged the London Committee about his pension early in the 1690s, never produced anything in print describing his travels or justifying his actions. In Paris in 1636 a Radisson – perhaps his father

verbs, sudden changes in subject, long sentences with many dependent clauses – arise with Radisson’s French. 32 For fuller discussion of the copying of the Bodleian manuscript of Radisson’s Voyages, see Warkentin, “Who Was the Scribe of the Radisson Manuscript?” and the Textual Introduction. 33 TNA, C/303/9, Radisson’s plea in his Chancery case against the HBC, edited in volume 2. See also below for the possible involvement of Prince Rupert in the writing of the Voyages.

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or uncle – had already been attacked in a printed pamphlet.34 But unlike, for example, his notable contemporary Pierre Boucher of Trois-Rivières, whose fine early account of the promise of New France was printed in 1664, Radisson functioned entirely within a manuscript culture, one that as he wrote was already being superseded by more modern media: the news-sheet, gazette, and printed pamphlet.35 A major obstacle to assessing Radisson as a writer has been the absence of a readable text of his writings.36 The scribal manuscript of Radisson’s first four Voyages, written in English and possibly copied for Samuel Pepys,37 lay unidentified in the Bodleian Library until the 1880s and has never been well edited. Copies of the two Port Nelson Relations of 1682–83 and 1684, written in French, were owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company; sensitive to their political significance, the company ensured that for more than two centuries they remained discreetly in the hands of its secretary. A second and better manuscript of these Relations was found at Windsor Castle only in 1996. Radisson’s autograph letter to Abbé Claude Bernou was discovered only in 1935, and the 1673 log and related mémoire, both autograph, only in 2007. The editions of Gideon Scull (1885) and particularly Arthur T. Adams (1961) are imperfectly edited and far from complete. The texts of the petitions and affidavits were included by Grace Lee Nute in the appendices to her dual biography of Radisson and Des Groseilliers (1943), but they, too, have limitations of transcription and translation, and two narratives that she attributed to Radisson prove not to be his. This edition attempts to remove these obstacles by providing reliable texts of all these writings, systematically edited on principles described in the Textual Introductions to each volume. With them in hand we can begin to read the historical Radisson across the multiple discursive and generic strategies of his writings: the traditional “voyage,” the captivity narrative, the “relation,” the letter to a patron, and the legal affidavit. What links these disparate genres together is, first, the sheer fluency of a born conversationalist that Radisson 34 In J. Bourgoin’s La Defence du Grand Chastelet Contre ceux qui proposent de l’abatre, (1636); see n.61. 35 See Warkentin, “Styles of Authorship in New France.” 36 For a full discussion of the sources of these manuscripts and the history of their editing, see the Textual Introductions to both volumes. 37 Samuel Pepys (1633–1703). Diarist, naval official, and book collector. Clerk of the acts at the Naval Board and deeply interested in travel and exploration. He owned the scribal manuscript of Radisson’s Voyages (now in the Bodleian Library) copied by Nicholas Hayward about 1686. See Textual Introduction.

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demonstrates even within the severe constraints of a legal document, and, second, what from his youth he must have been convinced was his destiny. Whether as a boy taking part in a Mohawk war party or a man pressing south and north of Lake Superior, Radisson delighted in “discovery” for its own sake. At the same time he would come to have few illusions about its cost: “It is a strange thing,” he writes, “when victuals are wanting, worke whole nights and days, lye downe on the bare ground, and not allwayes that hap, the breech in the water, the feare in the buttocks, to have the belly empty, the wearinesse in the boans, and drowsiness of the body by the bad weather that ye are to suffer, having nothing to keepe ye from such calamity” (211). Such, he early realized, was the endurance required of those who sought to discover new countries. Radisson’s Discoveries The map of Radisson’s North American world (see Map 1) shows that he spent only twenty-five of his seventy-odd years on the continent (1651–65, 1670–73, 1682–87). His journeys took him from Acadia to as far north as the Foxe peninsula, from the Mohawk River to the Allegheny, with stays in Boston and “Menada” (Manhattan), and from Quebec to the edge of the prairies in presentday Minnesota.38 One exploration south of Lake Michigan he only pretended to have experienced, but guiltlessly wrote it up anyway, for travel stories in his time were often made up of invented tales or composed of material adapted from others.39 In this case it was his brother-in-law, Des Groseilliers, who had made the journey, but unravelling why Radisson did not accompany him, and how he was later able to pretend that he had, tells us much about his narrative goals and skills. Radisson was never a “scientific” explorer in the sense – detached and unambigious – that the term was understood from the late seventeenth century onward, and his ebullient, often self-serving narratives cannot usually be relied 38 Radisson’s farthest point south was actually reached in 1678 when he suffered shipwreck on the reefs around the Isle of Aves, north of Venezuela, but on that occasion he was serving in the capacity of a marine guard (midshipman) on a French warship (see “Letter to Claude Bernou,” in volume 2, and below). 39 Travellers’ tales, both written and oral, were from medieval times accused, often justly, of falsification. Both La Salle and La Hontan were charged with inventing parts of their travels. La Salle produced maps on which the River Colbert (his name for the Mississippi) deviated 250 leagues westward, emptying into the gulf in the vicinity of New Mexico; La Hontan’s Voyages, 1702–03) mingled closely observed experiences with a possibly imaginary journey up “la rivière Longue” (the Missouri).

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on for that kind of information. His narrative of the dispersal of the Huron in Voyage II is valuable, but not for its historical accuracy. Its real significance is as an account of an important social myth, an accretion of the stories which the Huron told about themselves and which he had probably heard many times in their camps. Though Radisson once owned a beautiful manuscript atlas of Europe, it appears either that his book learning was limited or else that he was too sociable and energetic to read very widely. As he writes in Voyage II, “a man is glad to drive away the time by honest ingenuous discours, and I would rejoyce very much to be allwayes in company uppon my journey” (182). Radisson makes almost no references to books we can identify: only the Jesuit Relation of 1648–49, and the unnamed “old authors” who had written about the north which he alludes to in his “Narrative, 1697.”40 Lord Preston41 described Radisson as arriving in Paris in 1684 with a great number of sea charts “doubtless drawne for his purpose,”42 so perhaps he was more interested in maps than he was in books. His Voyages show that he planned their writing, but in style they remain profoundly oral, darting from story to story, larded with proverbs and sayings, returning the reader to their themes and then leaving them again. Nevertheless, Radisson’s writings yield an extraordinary fund of information on the Aboriginal peoples of eastern North America in the seventeenth century, as Heidi Bohaker shows in her essay on “Radisson in an Aboriginal World” for this volume. Much of what we know about Aboriginal North America in the period 1650–85, one of terrible anxiety and change for Iroquois and Algonquian alike, originates with Jesuit priests, Dutch preachers, and English and Dutch traders, each of whom held different religious and mercantile agendas. Radisson would become a trader, and he had some connections with the Jesuits, but he is among the first Europeans to regard Aboriginal historiography as a worthy source of information (Voyage II), and his account of 40 See volume 2. Old authors like Thomas James and Luke Foxe, and especially old maps, were frequently referred to by the English in the 1698–99 debate over claims to Hudson Bay, so perhaps even here Radisson was reflecting what he had heard, and not what he had done; see TNA, CO 134/3 [539n.8], 23r–50v. 41 Richard Graham, Viscount Preston (1648–95), ultra-royalist politician. Ambassador to France, 1682–85. An active Jacobite conspirator after the departure of James II, for which he was imprisoned and sentenced to death, he was pardoned after confessing all. His correspondence is a rich source of information about French diplomatic relations in the period, as well as the activities of Radisson and Des Groseilliers in France during the spring of 1684. 42 BL, Add. 63760, f.21v, Preston to Sir Leoline Jenkins, 15 January 1684.

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the soul’s journey according to the Ojibwe (Voyage IV) is exceptional in its detail and narrative skill. Radisson genuinely liked, and was liked by, the peoples whose wars, ceremonials, and family life he participated in and described with such interest. This bond, and the experience it implied, was what made him so valuable to those who could use his talents. Shrewdly, he does not hesitate to point this out in dedicating the Windsor manuscript of the Port Nelson Relations to James II, who before his accession had been governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company and wanted it to prosper. Then there is the relationship of his “discoveries,” as he called them, both to Aboriginal realities and to actual policy in the period, whether French or English. As with other explorers (Marquette is a good example43), Radisson’s and Des Groseilliers’s “discoveries” took place in areas perfectly familiar to the Aboriginal peoples who lived in them and crossed by their many well-travelled trails: south and west of Lake Erie (Voyage II), on the journeys south of Lake Michigan (Voyage III), to Lac Courte Oreilles in Wisconsin, and north to James Bay (Voyage IV).44 There is no doubt that what Radisson discovered would have been of use to the French as they reached out, through trading rather than settlement networks, to probe the possible riches of North America. It was certainly of interest to the English, as their alertness in founding the HBC on the basis of information brought by the two explorers makes evident. Yet what Radisson actually wrote does not bear obviously on the aims of either nation. In the captivity narrative, Voyage I, the boy Radisson penetrated farther west and south of Lake Erie than the French or English had yet done, but though what he found out may have been of informal use among the young men who, as he subsequently did, frequented the wilderness, his narrative itself went unread until the late nineteenth century. The journey to Onondaga (Voyage II) was in an area where the Jesuits were becoming very well informed about the country45 and it is events, rather than description, on which Radisson focuses in that narrative. In the third and fourth Voyages, the partners’ experiences are today rightly seen as part of the main thrust of French exploration history in 43 For Father Jacques Marquette’s two narratives of his journeys of 1673 and 1674–75, the first to the Mississippi and the second through the Illinois country, see JR 59: 86– 211. It is generally assumed that his information about the great river came from Natives encountered on and around Lake Superior; he never mentions Des Groseilliers or Radisson. 44 On the ancient trading routes of North America, see Dickason, Canada’s First Nations, 58–60 (with map), and Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, 418 and passim. 45 On the active role of the Jesuits in exploration of the area south of lakes Ontario and Erie, see Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 97–8, 101–2.

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North America; as Gilles Havard writes, “Radisson and des Groseilliers played a decisive role in the reorganization of the commercial networks in a period still troubled by the incessant raids of the Iroquois on the Ottawa River.”46 Yet it is not clear how two narratives of travel west and south of the Great Lakes could have demonstrated to the English, for whom they were apparently written, the possibilities of access to the furs of the northern interior, the reason the HBC was founded. There is one anomaly among this series of discoveries: the mysterious trip to James Bay which is briefly described near the end of Voyage IV. It has been assumed that such a journey would have been impossible in the time available and Radisson must therefore have made the whole story up. This may not be the case, as we shall see. But the apparent journey, others like it that were made from New France during the same decade,47 and Radisson’s later discussions with the Abbé Bernou as to how to reach the Bay from the interior, even the evidence of sporadic English interest in an interior route, do not predict what actually ensued. When in 1668 the English investors took the two explorers up on their promise to guide them to a rich source of furs, it was a sea route they used to send the Eaglet and the Nonsuch to the Bay. Granted, the English had neither the experience nor the means to exploit an interior route, the French would not have allowed them to do so in any case, and they were, after all, a seafaring nation obsessed with the possibility of a Northwest Passage. By the time the two Frenchmen reached Boston in 1663, if not earlier, they would have learned of the English interest in such a waterway. Perhaps Radisson and Des Groseilliers adapted what they knew of interior North America to English expectations. But Radisson, at least, remained convinced of the value of an interior route. Though, as his Mémoire on the northern seacoast shows (see volume 2), he would come to have considerable knowledge of the seas in that area, his later discussions with the Abbé Bernou suggest that he took a continuing interest in the possibility of a route from Lake Superior northward to Hudson Bay.

46 Havard, Empire et métissages, 206 (editor’s translation). 47 See Rousseau, “Les Voyages du Père Albanel au lac Mistassini et à la baie James.” The Jesuit Relation of 1659–60, probably written by Father Jérome Lalement, tells of a journey made by a Nipissing named Awatanik north from Lake Superior to James Bay and then south to the Saguenay (JR 45: 217–39), and follows it with a resumé of information about “two Frenchmen” who had been west and south of Lake Superior and also went to “the sea of the North,” almost certainly Radisson and Des Groseilliers.

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“A Courtier in Buckskin” We know almost nothing about Radisson’s life before he arrived in New France in 1651. But a partial picture can be constructed, again from fragments. The Canadian novelist Philip Child, enchanted by his writings, once called the explorer a “courtier in buckskin” and we frequently meet with signs that confirm this shrewd guess.48 Radisson demonstrates good manners, he is fastidious about his food, and, as we will see, his handwriting is the kind that a boy brought up in hopes of minor service at court or in the professions might acquire. He was evidently not educated by the Jesuits, since there is not a shadow of late humanist or theological learning anywhere in his writings. In fact, there is nothing to show that he paid more than lip service to religion, and though he undoubtedly began life as a Catholic, he evidently ended it in the Church of England.49 He certainly understood the patronage system, and expertly used the self-serving tropes of court rhetoric when in 1678 he wrote a newsletter from Grenada to his sometime patron, Bernou. In 1685 he was wily enough to term himself “ecuyer” – that is, of noble rank – in the elegant scribal manuscript of the Port Nelson Relations he presented to James II, who knew perfectly well what the term signified, including the probability that Radisson’s claim, like so many others of the time, was fraudulent.50 Whether in France or England or among the Native peoples, with their emphasis on kinship ties, Radisson was sharply aware that the “protection” of powerful personages was required to make one’s way in the world.51 He may have been a roturier, a 48 Child, “Pierre Esprit Radisson and the Race of Coureurs de Bois,” 314. 49 Radisson says almost nothing about religion except in Voyage III, where he writes of “that great God that takes great care of the most wild creatures, and will that every man confesses his faults, and gives them grace to come to obedience for the preservation of their lives” (212). This is the Catholic doctrine of grace, not the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, the theological issue so sharply debated by Catholics and Protestants in the early modern period. All the same, each of his three wives was Protestant. 50 Radisson calls himself “ecuyer” on the title page of the Windsor manuscript of the Port Nelson Relations (see volume 2). On the precise meanings of the terms chevalier and ecuyer and their fraudulent use, see Goubert, The Ancien Régime, 154, and (75). 51 The Duc de Saint-Simon in his Mémoires uses the word “protection” (patronage, influence) constantly. For a good working definition, see Dent, “The Role of Clientèles,” 43. As for England, Richard Holmes writes: “Influence, that glutinous, omnipresent lubricant that the age called ‘interest,’ was never far away, and we cannot hope to understand the period without analyzing it.” See his Marlborough, 22, and the subsequent amusingly cynical discussion. In Voyage II Radisson himself observes that when gifts designed to acquire friends are exchanged, “What is that, that interrest will not doe?” (199).

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commoner, but he seems to have belonged to the low-status but mobile class of those who generation by generation, and with the help of higher-status “friends,” were slowly making their way from the edges of the court closer to the centre.52 However, unlike his contemporary La Salle,53 whose patron the Prince de Conti54 was of royal blood, Radisson never managed to gather about him enough of such friends to make real advancement possible. The reality is that he regarded himself, as did his seventeenth-century associates, as a servant available for hire, a condition from which many men had risen to higher estate and to which no disgrace was attached, unless among those who had already clambered further upwards.55 In Voyage IV Radisson speaks contemptuously of being treated as a servant by Governor Pierre de Voyer d’Argenson56 but he values “service” as a social grace, and there are instances in his writings where he courteously offers or accepts some service. Most important, in both his affidavit of 1697 and his petition to Parliament of 1698 Radisson speaks of himself and Des Groseilliers as “servants” of the HBC.57 But the death

52 See particularly Huppert, Les Bourgeois Gentilshommes, chapters 4 and 8. 53 René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle (1643–87). Explorer of the Great Lakes and discoverer of the mouths of the Mississippi. His explorations, though of great significance, have been the subject of continual controversy. His projects were strongly supported by Claude Bernou and Eusèbe Renaudot. 54 Louis-Armand de Bourbon (1661–85), Prince de Conti and a member of the ruling house of Bourbon. 55 The French word for such a close associate, a follower, was fidèle, meaning “a faithful one.” In a letter of 8 May 1685 Bernou records his outrage when Eusèbe Renaudot teased the Abbé Bernou by calling Radisson his féal, that is, trusty servant (BNFr, NAF 7497, f.219r). 56 Pierre de Voyer d’Argenson (1625–d. c. 1709). Seigneur of Chastre and Vicomte de Mouzay; governor of New France, 1658–61. A scion of the ancient nobility, he hoped New France would be a sinecure. However, he dealt ably, given meagre resources, with frequent Iroquois attacks throughout his tenure. Anti-Jesuit; also quarrelled bitterly with Bishop François de Laval. Advocated complete government control of the fur trade, which illuminates his conflict with Radisson and Des Groseilliers. Left New France with relief at the end of his three-year term. 57 TNA, 134/3, no. 8, 42v–43r, 5 June 1699, HBC to the lords commissioners: “And if Mr. Radisson and Desgroziliers were entertained as Servants to the Adventurers in those first Endeavours and Beginnings what is to be inferred from that. Had they been Spaniards, Portuguese or Venetions it was free for any Nation to Entertain and Employ them in their service.”

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of Louis XIV’s great minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert58 in 1683, James II’s flight from England in 1688, and the ups and downs of the Earl of Marlborough’s political career all deprived Radisson of effective “protection,” and without it he could never make that ascent. Knowing that he considered himself by honourable profession a servant of those who would pay for his abilities, whether the French king or the London Committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, does much to explain the shifting loyalties that have so puzzled later readers, who see the calling of “servant” as inherently degrading and who deem allegiance to the modern nation-state, only just evolving in Radisson’s day, an overriding value. Origins The beginning of Radisson’s first Voyage presents us with a tale written by a born storyteller: “Being persuaded in the morning by two of my comrades to go and recreat our selves in fowling I disposed my selfe to keepe them company; wherfore I cloathed my selfe the lightest waye I could possible that I might be the nimbler, and not stay behinde, as much for the prey that I hoped for, as for to escape the danger into which wee have ventered our selves, of an enemy the cruelest that ever was uppon the face of the earth” (115). But it is the adventure itself that Radisson sets out to relate; he tells us nothing about where he was born or why he was in New France, just as at the end of Voyage IV he merely says briskly that “wee arrived in England in a very bad time for the plague and the warrs” (304) and tells us nothing about the plague, the Great Fire, King Charles’s court, or the men – Prince Rupert, Sir James Hayes – who were to play important roles in his life and, as I will show, may have induced him to write the Voyages. He is uninterested in relating anything he can assume we already know, and indeed in Voyage IV he is impatient because some West Main Cree relate stories about Europeans on the Bay: “They tell us particularities of the Europians we know our selves and what Europ is, therfore in vaine they tell us as for that” (287). 58 Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83). Economic reformer and Louis XIV’s chief minister from 1661 until his death. The most powerful man in France. Son of a provincial draper; entered public life as an aide to Cardinal Jules Mazarin and succeeded to his role. Famed for his capacity for hard work. Controller-general of finances from 1665 and secretary of state for the navy from 1669. Stressed the importance of commerce to the country but heavily regulated its conduct. Strongly anti-Jesuit. His policy towards New France stressed consolidation of the colony along the St Lawrence, in opposition to Frontenac, who encouraged the spread of French influence westward though the fur trade. Succeeded after 1683 by his son, the Marquis de Seignelay.

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He certainly tells us nothing about his own origins. The Radissons may initially have come from Italy;59 in the seventeenth century they lived near Avignon, which, though situated in the south of France, was at that time part of the Papal States. There the explorer’s grandfather and father were born (the latter near Carpentras), and to this day there are Radissons living in the region.60 However, Radisson’s father seems to have migrated to Paris in the early seventeenth century. It is tempting to identify him with the Radisson (Christian name not recorded) who was among the entrepreneurs who proposed unsuccessfully to rebuild the Châtelet and the stalls in the abbatoir nearby in 1636; in Voyage IV Radisson makes a knowledgeable reference to the “buttery” (boucherie) of Paris (281 and see note).61 The records of Paris births and deaths for this period were destroyed in the burning of the Hôtel de Ville by the Communards in 1871 and the little we know about Parisian emigrants’ dates of birth comes from marriage records in New France. Radisson’s father married a widow named Madeleine Hayet sometime before 1631. Madeleine already had a daughter, Marguerite Hayet (born in the parish of Saint-Paul in Paris), who evidently had emigrated to New France before 1646 for she married about that time; in 1653 she would marry as her second husband Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers.62 59 Jean Radisson, personal communication, 17 February 1999. 60 Nute (Caesars of the Wilderness, 42 and 43n.9) cites the records of the city of Carpentras, near Avignon, for the birth of Radisson’s father, also named Pierre-Esprit, and the information that he was living in Avignon in 1607. She was convinced that the explorer had been born there as well, and in writing previously on Radisson I followed her lead, but I have now concluded that Radisson’s story begins in Paris, not Avignon. The Parisian evidence, sparse though it is, would suggest that this branch of the family had moved north before or about the time Pierre-Esprit was born. That the family came from Italy is suggested by the occurrence there of the names “Radisone” and “Radiçone” (Jean Radisson, personal communication, 17 February 1999). Both Nute and Dr Radisson were in contact with Radissons from Avignon and Lyon, and today a street in Lyon’s fifth arrondissement is named “rue Roger Radisson,” in honour of a Radisson killed resisting the German occupation in 1944. 61 See the angry attack on “Certaines personnes, sous le nom d’un nommé Radisson” in J.  Bourgoin, La Defence du Grand Chastelet Contre ceux qui proposent de l’abatre, f.147. I am grateful to Dr Jean Radisson for drawing this pamphlet to my attention. 62 The idea has persisted that Radisson had an uncle in Trois-Rivières who also bore the name of Pierre-Esprit Radisson. This results from a speculation in 1893 by N.E. Dionne, who later stated that it was Radisson’s father who had settled in New France; see Dionne, “Chouart et Radisson,” 119, and Chouart et Radisson, Odysée de deux

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Madeleine Hayet and the elder Radisson had three children: Françoise, born around 1636, Elisabeth (also known as Isabelle), born around 1638 (both in the parish of Saint-Sulpice, Paris), and Pierre-Esprit, for whom there is no evidence of birth date or place since he did not marry in New France.63 The explorer’s year of birth has been variously reported as 1636, 1640, and 1642.64 In stating his age in 1697 and 1698, Radisson implied that he was born in 1636. If that is so, he and Françoise would have been twins. Alternatively, if he had been born in 1640, he would have been captured by the Mohawk when he was only about twelve – still a boy, for Frenchmen of the time ordinarily left school and entered the adult world at about fourteen. Certainly, as late as 1657 he seems to have needed the protection of older women; among the Iroquois, he tended to look to them when his safety was threatened (123 and 188), and in 1659 he was still relatively beardless, both arguments for a later birth year. Nevertheless, he had to be mature enough (fifteen or sixteen?) to have participated in an Iroquois war party about 1652–53. The evidence, such as it is, favours 1636; perhaps Radisson was simply someone who looked younger than he actually was. As for the date of his arrival in New France, our only evidence is his own statement at the beginning of the first Voyage that he arrived in Canada on 21 May 1651, and since in dating events he sometimes got the precise year wrong, even that may be uncertain. We have no information as to why the Radisson children left France behind;65 perhaps it was fear of social turmoil sharpened by the Fronde (1648–51), or Canadiens-français, 22. However, this person does not appear in PRDH (see n.63). Dionne is also the source of the mistake that Des Groseilliers had been a donné with the Jesuits (Chouart et Radisson, 117, and see 39–40). 63 The comprehensive database of the inhabitants of New France, PRDH (Programme de recherche en démographie historique) reports marriage and other records from which a little about the Radisson family can be inferred (see notes below). 64 In Radisson’s affidavit of 1697 he says he is sixty-one years of age “or thereabouts.” In his 1698 petition to Parliament he says he is sixty-two. According to these statements, he was born in 1636. However, the 1681 census of New France states that he was then forty-one years old, which would make his birth date 1640 (PRDH). In the recently discovered marriage allegation associated with his second marriage, to Charlotte Godet, his prospective father-in-law, Gédeon Godet, states that the groom was about fortythree, which would mean he was born in 1642 (LMA, Former Guildhall Library Mss., Marriage Allegations, Bishop of London, 2 March 1684/5). 65 Radisson had been preceded to New France by his half-sister Marguerite (married there in 1646) and his sister Françoise (godmother there in 1649) and, Trudel states, also his sister Elisabeth/Isabelle (see Trudel, Catalogue des immigrants 1632–1662, 166, 168.

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Fig. 1: Radisson to Claude Bernou, 1 January 1678.

perhaps their father died or returned to Avignon and they were left to find their own paths in life. However, in what was otherwise a very stable society, the Radissons seem to have been comfortable moving from place to place: if from Italy to Avignon, then why not from Avignon to Paris, and then from Paris to New France? Radisson’s sisters were tough and resilient, and two of them went on to live long lives in New France.66 As for the boy, the single clue we have to Radisson’s childhood is provided by his handwriting (see Fig. 1). In the early seventeenth century the kind of script a man wrote was a very sound indicator of his education and social status. All three of the existing documents in Radisson’s own hand show that he had been taught a firm contemporary italic cursive, a hand he writes so casually that, as with other writers of the period, the result is not that easy to read. This is the “lettre bâtarde ou italienne,” a script Gabriel Audisio and Isabelle Rambaud describe as “of the court, persons of quality, and men of letters.”67 There is no evidence of either humanistic learning or specifically mercantile training (he was always unlucky with money) anywhere in Radisson’s writings, but he would have received

Trudel believed that Elisabeth was also a half-sister, but PRDH records her as the daughter of Madeleine Hayet and the elder Radisson). However, Elisabeth/Isabelle did not marry until 1657, so it is quite possible she arrived with the young Pierre-Esprit in 1651. 66 Marguerite died in 1711, Francoise in 1677, and Elisabeth in 1722 (PRDH). 67 “de la cour, des personnes de condition et des gens de lettres”: Audisio et Rambaud, Lire le français d’hier, 59. Mme Rambaud has seen an image of the 1673 log and reports that it reveals “a nice hand, rapid and well-formed” (“une ‘belle’ écriture, rapide et bien formée,” Isabelle Rambaud, personal communication, 21 May 2009).

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Pierre-Esprit Radisson

some basic education in the primaire which all children attended.68 Yet why does a man endowed with no literary culture write a fairly sophisticated hand? Possibly Radisson learned the italic script while preparing for or attending one of the informal collèges or academies, described by Lucien Bély, that educated youths in skills useful for life around the edges of the court such as horsemanship, drawing, and military science.69 He certainly exhibits the courteous manners and the liking for display he would have acquired in such an environment. Perhaps if he was indeed the son or nephew of the entrepreneur who wanted to rebuild the Châtelet, he had some tutoring. Or if his father was a low-level functionary at court – a valet de chambre or huissier (a man-servant or usher) – he may have providently equipped his son to enter service with some minor nobleman, of which there was no lack in seventeenth-century France. Radisson would later exploit such familiarity as he had with court life to extract louis d’or from the king, and what he may have learned about how to behave among the great and powerful of France evidently provided him with resources for the  obligatory display of status in the winter of 1659–60 when he and Des Groseilliers engaged in tense diplomacy with the Sioux. The scribal manuscript of the Voyages in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is inscribed on its flyleaf with the words “A la plus grande gloire de dieu.” This is the motto of the Society of Jesus, with whose members Radisson had frequent dealings throughout his period as an explorer and trader. There is nothing, however, that would explain its presence in the manuscript of the Voyages, unless of course we look to Radisson’s own love of glory, which everything he wrote amply demonstrates. Perhaps he had absorbed it as yet one more of his “sayings.” t h e e a r ly v oy a g e s

The four “voyages” that Radisson wrote in London in the autumn of 1668 relate his experiences in North America after his boyhood emigration. One chronicles his capture, torture, and adoption by the Iroquois in 1652, and a second relates his journey to the Onondaga mission and what he witnessed during the escape of Jesuit priests and French soldiers from the mission in 68 Huppert discusses the primaire in Public Schools in Renaissance France, x. He says nothing of the script taught in them but emphasizes how much what a given school taught was dependent on the teacher. 69 See Bély, “L’éducation du gentilhomme,” in La France au XVIIe siècle, 463–4. For the  bourgeois who wished to become a gentleman, see Huppert, Les Bourgeois Gentilshommes, 59–83, though, if Radisson attended one of the schools Huppert describes, he did not absorb much literary culture.

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1658. A third patches together experiences of his own in the pays d’en haut with what his brother-in-law Des Groseilliers and an unnamed companion learned on an exploratory trip south of Lake Michigan in 1654–56, and the fourth, rivalling the “captivity” voyage as Radisson’s finest piece of writing, tells of the partners’ journey to the Lake Superior area in 1659–60, their winter of famine, their diplomatic negotiations with the Sioux and Cree, and the making of a rapid trip north to James Bay. Reading them in sequence we are introduced to a wide panorama of North American peoples and their lives, one unprecedented as a general picture even in the Jesuit Relations. And we witness Radisson undergoing two formative experiences. In the first he moves from the reckless but good-humoured lad of Voyage I to the emerging wily trader of Voyage IV. In the second he learns, over four separate narratives of increasing complexity, how to write that story, using the long-sanctioned exploration genre of the “voyage” and exercising – in what was surely an act of sheer bravado – his recently learned English. This Introduction to volume 1 focuses largely on Radisson’s experiences among the Aboriginal peoples of North America, and their consequences for his life. Radisson, however, spent at least two thirds of his life fending for himself in France, the Caribbean, and London, and in volume 2 we will turn to a closer analysis of his time in the world of Louis XIV and Colbert, of James II and William and Mary, and of Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe. Voyage I: Boy into Man By 1668, when he set out to write about his adventures of 1652–53, Radisson was in his late twenties or early thirties, far more worldly than the lad captured by the Iroquois but with much to learn about narration. Consequently, in Voyage I a man just stretching his wings as a writer remembers the adventures of a boy just stretching his wings as a man. Radisson’s account of his captivity among the Mohawk – the most familiar of his works, and among historians the most frequently cited – lacks many of the literary stratagems of the later Voyages where he is both more at home as a narrator and more strategic about what he reveals. The vitality of this tale is in its naivety, the casual attitude to naming dates and places, the boyish enthusiasm. Radisson openly tells us how frightened he was, reports on his happy adoption and his disloyal escape, narrates his recapture and in painful detail the torture he was then subjected to, describes his reintegration into Iroquois culture, gives a fine account of a westward raiding party, and then explains why he decided to escape to the Dutch at Fort Orange. (See Map 2.) This is a captivity narrative of the sort familiar in  seventeenth-century writing, but with a difference. It exhibits neither the

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redemptive themes of many such narratives (Radisson simply decided to go home, out of conveniently recalled loyalty) nor the contrasting total absorption into the Native world undergone by some white captives. During his approximately eighteen months among the Mohawk, Radisson exhibited unusual physical endurance and psychological resilience. Once the torture was past he enjoyed himself, for he liked the companionship, the outdoor life, the rivalrous play that boys engage in, and – he admits it himself – the opportunity for personal display. Among this “enemy the cruelest that ever was uppon the face of the earth” (115), he appears to have made himself so agreeable that he rapidly made friends with his captors and was remembered by friends from his Mohawk village when he encountered them on another journey several years later. In 1682–84 this ability to engage with the Native peoples would stand him in good stead during the fraught months of French-English conflict at Port Nelson. Radisson was captured at a time of immense change and terrible social stress across the entire Native population of the eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes.70 For over a century, Europeans had been invading well-established Native trade networks, disrupting warfare practices by trading – or strategically withholding – guns and ammunition, and, through their missionaries, trying to undermine deeply rooted systems of belief. And the French, Dutch, and English had also brought disease, the progress and effects of which neither they nor the Natives understood. The response of the Iroquois of the Confederacy to this chaos and uncertainty was the “mourning war.” At Trois-Rivières in the spring of 1652, the Iroquois “weare soe strong and so to be feared,” writes Radisson, “that scarce any body durst stirre out either cottage or house without being taken or kild, saving that he had nimble limbs to escape their fury” (115).71 In a mourning war the Iroquois sought to bring to their villages enough healthy and biddable captives (usually women and children) to restore their population base. As the manner in which he was treated by his initial captors shows, Radisson was taken by a party of Mohawk during just such a foray. His companions were killed, and after conferring with each other, his captors “layd mee thither, houlding me by the hayre, to the imbarking place ... They made 70 For the unstable and defensive situation of the Mohawk at time Radisson was captured, see especially Bradley, Before Albany, 156–7. All the nations of the Confederacy were undergoing rapid change; see also Bradley, Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois, 119– 20, and Bohaker, “Radisson in an Aboriginal World” (311–13). 71 The historiography of Iroquois life in this period is very rich, so only references for specific citations are provided here. A first-rate introduction to Iroquois life in the period is Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse. See also Parmenter, “After the Mourning Wars,” which concludes with a valuable review of current research (77–82).

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[me] sitt downe by [them?]. After this, they searched me and tooke what I had, then stripped me naked, and tyed a rope about my middle, wherin I remained fearing to persist in the same posture the rest of the night. After this, they removed me, laughing and howling like as many wolves” (118). Those captured in a mourning war – whether European or member of some other Native nation – were put through an elaborate ritual, after which it was decided whether the captive would be adopted or killed.72 Stripping and securing by a rope signifed the first stage of the ritual torture of a captive, leading either to death or to adoption, and adoption was to be Radisson’s lot. Shortly his clothes were returned, his hair greased and arranged, and his face painted red. He was fed (ever fastidious, he was revolted by the food) and eventually achieved a measure of freedom. Meeting a new group, the Mohawk displayed their captive standing up in a boat, and Radisson showed the first signs of that ability to mollify others that he worked to exploit throughout his life: “In this new company, there was one that had a minde to doe me mischief, but [was] prevented by him that tooke me. I taking notice of the fellow, I showed him more friendshipe. I gott some meate roasted for him, and throwing a little salt and flower over it, which he finding very good tast, gave it to the rest as a rarity. Non did afterwards molested mee” (123). When they brought him a mirror (trade merchandise, of course), he observed with characteristic sardonic humour, “I viewing myselfe all in a pickle, smired with redde and black, coverd with such a cappe, and locks tyd up with a piece of leather, and stunked horridly. I could not but fall in love with my selfe, if not that I had better instructions to shun the sin of pride” (124). Naturally enough, the boy was apprehensive, yet, in phrasing that we encounter again throughout the Voyages, he tells us: “I was desirous to have seene their country” (124). And indeed he did. Arriving in New France from the most heavily populated nation in Europe and from a city bigger than London,73 Radisson would have found himself in a tiny colony in the wilderness, thinly populated and with no manufacturing and little agriculture (see frontispiece). In 1653 the population of all of New France was about 2,000,74 with only three real settlements: 72 On the history and social function of the “mourning war” and its aftermath of adoption or death, see especially Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse, 31–8, 67–74. 73 Paris’s population in 1664 was 720,000. See Goubert, The Ancien Régime, 34, 45. In 1692 Sir William Petty estimated the size of the London urban area in 1682 as about 670,000 souls. See Petty, Another Essay in Political Arithmetic, 14. 74 For population statistics for New France, see “Estimated Population of Canada 1605 to present,” Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/98-187-x/4151287-eng.htm#5 (accessed 17 January 2011).

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Quebec on its promontory, upriver the much smaller Trois-Rivières, and deep in the continent tiny Montreal, where the rapids at Lachine, obstructing travel on the great “river of Canada,” complicated the route farther west.75 But, captured by the Mohawk and taken to one of their trio of towns on the Mohawk River, probably Tionnontoguen, Radisson found himself in the well-travelled corridor of the Mohawk valley, “greatly beaten with the great concours of that people that comes and goe to trade with the Flemings,” that is, the Dutch (161, and see Fig. 4). Eventually he would visit the recently laid-out town of Beverwijck (today’s Albany) near Fort Orange, and Menada (Manhattan) with its 1,000 inhabitants, which he admiringly noted was “a towne faire enough for a new country” (163). Everywhere there were material signs of the busy interaction between Natives and Europeans: mirrors, guns, “Fleming” shirts to be traded for. Radisson was moving from a wilderness outpost into a region in evolution, with Beverwijck on the rise, Fort Orange in decline, and Dutch and English settlements along the eastern seaboard growing rapidly.76 On reaching the Mohawk village, Radisson, again as part of the ritual, was made to run the gauntlet.77 Decisions about adoption were taken in council, but in this matrilineal society the matrons had the final word. If chosen for adoption, the captive would be induced through torture to experience the death of his or her entire social and personal past, followed by restoration to life – requickening – as a member of the group that had captured him. Often the aim was to replace specific individuals who had died and thus forge tight familial bonds between the captive and his or her new society. Radisson was chosen by a woman who intended him to take the place of her dead son, and his adoption into her family was his first experience of the importance of 75 On the critical effect of the rapids at Montreal on trade and the development of the interior, see Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth Century Montreal, 65–7. 76 The year 1653 was one of change in the Mohawk valley. Besides serious social disruption among the Iroquois, there were conflicts over governance among the Dutch and strong pressure on their settlements by the English of Long Island. For contemporary descriptions of the area, see Father Isaac Jogues in JR 28: 105–15, 137–41; Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland 1609–1664; and van der Donck, Description of New Netherland (1655). Brodhead’s History of the State of New York is still very useful for its general picture of events. There are important recent studies by Venema, Jacobs, Merwick, and Cantwell and Wall. 77 On this occasion Radisson’s captor urged him to run quickly but the gauntlet, as he later found to his sorrow, was meant to be run slowly so the victim would suffer more pain.

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kinship relations among the Native peoples, of which he was later to demonstrate a shrewd grasp. Playing with his companions, making gifts to the woman who had saved him, Radisson writes that he “lived five weeks without thinking from whence I came. I learned more of their maners in six weeks then if I had been in France six months” (129). He is renamed Orinha after her son (an interesting congruence with his own name, Pierre, which, like Orinha, means stone). And, when the old woman asks him if he is French or of their nation, he tells her he is “Panugaga,” a Mohawk, which at that point he may even have meant. A feast is held in his honour, and from the ritual standpoint his transition is complete. But not quite, for on an early hunting trip Radisson meets with an Algonquian Native (most likely a Montagnais) who knows something of the French at Quebec and proposes to the boy that they murder his companions and escape to Trois-Rivières. Radisson is deeply uncertain; the Iroquois are “mortall ennemys to my country,” yet he is “loathsome to do them mischief that never did me any” (131). Nevertheless, the youth somewhat inefficiently kills his first man, and the two flee. The need to choose between loyalties that recurs throughout Radisson’s life has begun. All too quickly he is recaptured, whereupon he relates: “I thought to die without mercy” (133). The story of the death of Radisson’s companions and his attempted escape has begun to circulate, this time the agony of the gauntlet is mercilessly drawn out, the captives are beaten and burned, and he writes: “Heere no help, no remedy, we must passe this dangerous passage in our extremity with out helpe” (137, and see Fig. 5). Radisson’s account of Iroquois torture is a classic primary source, but though he suffered public exposure, the pouring rain, and the cruel attentions of the children, his experience was nothing like what, in an important and detailed digression (139–40), he says he later saw “at Coutu” (that is, in the Mohawk country). As an escapee he should have been killed and burnt, but his adoptive father and brother orated and sang on his behalf, and his mother, with all the authority of a Mohawk matron, sang, danced, and distributed strings of wampum. Clearly, she deeply desired a replacement for her lost son, but Radisson seems to have brought something to the bargain as well. As Joseph-François Lafitau observes, “they do not have the least chance [of living] if their age, air, physiognomy or character are not pleasing and make people fear that they will not get great service out of them.”78 Radisson was young, charming, and had certainly proved his stamina and resourcefulness. The council of older men relented, and Radisson writes: “Then my father takes me by the arme, and leads me to his cabban. As we went along 78 Lafitau, Customs, 2: 155.

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nothing was heard but hooping and hollowing on all parts biding me to take great courage. My mother was not long after me with the rest of her friends. Now I see my selfe free from death” (143–4). Radisson’s account of his capture, torture, and rescue is so absorbing that less attention has been paid to the significance of the rest of the first Voyage, when as a Mohawk warrior he joined a raiding party travelling far into the interior. As Grace Lee Nute notes, he was among the first White men to leave any account of the region beyond the Appalachians, and his narrative is “for all practical purposes, an Indian’s account of going on the war path.”79 Indian or not, when Radisson receives permission from his Mohawk family to join the party he thinks “that one word was my leave, which made me hope that one day I might escape, having so great an opportunity. Or att leas I should have the happe* to see their countrye which I heard so much recommended by the Iroquoites who brought so wounderous stories” (145). Again his loyalties are divided, but this time the tug of war is between escaping to return to his own people and the opportunity that travelling with a war party would give him to see new places. The journey he is finally permitted to make marks the first of Radisson’s true explorations, though for his Mohawk companions it must have been through familiar territory; as M. William Wykoff points out, the area was criss-crossed with their paths.80 The route they took is hard to trace, but, with close attention to the flora and fauna as well as Radisson’s scattered references to the terrain, it is possible to follow it almost to the edge of the mid-continental prairie peninsula that extends into present-day Ohio (see Map 2). The journey began with visits to other Iroquois nations, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Seneca, and possibly the Cayuga. Moving through the wintry landscape, the party travelled south to near present-day Elmira, New York, and then crossed the Allegheny plateau to the great Allegheny River itself. Reaching Lake Erie, they travelled on it for six days as the weather warmed up, probably reaching western Ohio. From this point the route becomes more obscure, but they were 79 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 46. 80 Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 16. Nute (Caesars of the Wilderness, 46) and Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, map before page 41) had regarded the journey as essentially unmappable. Some of the difficulties are suggested by José Brandão: “The problems with tracking people in Iroquoia are legion: no two travelers (other than some Jesuits once in a while) ever seem to use the same names for villages, villages move, we rarely have two accounts that date to the same time period, we rarely know from which village the trip started, etc.” José Brandão, personal communication, 22 June 2010).

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clearly moving through the glaciated terrain south of Lake Erie. In a hilarious episode, Radisson and another boy encountered the strange beast that Wykoff convincingly identifies as a “Hellbender” or giant salamander.81 The party massacred a group of Natives and acquired many heads. They captured some prisoners to take home but were eventually forced to kill them, though after another skirmish they acquired more. After reaching as far west as they could, and escaping much danger, they returned to Lake Erie and then, probably through the Appalachians, to the Mohawk River and their home village. What effect did this extraordinary journey have on the youthful Radisson? Nothing would have been better calculated to settle his adventurous spirit among his adoptive people, as had happened with many other European captives who were absorbed invisibly into the Native world. And he did admit, “This voyage being ended, albeit I came to this village and twice with feare and terror, the third time not withstanding with joy and contentment” (157). Yet the reader senses that he was considering his options; when he was identified as a Frenchman at Fort Orange, he writes, “But my time yett was not out so that I wanted not their service, for the onely rumor of my being a French man was enough” (159). And he is clear about his reasons for refusing when the governor, Johannis Dyjckman, offers to buy him from the Mohawk: I accepted not, for severall reasons. The one was for not to be behoulding to them, and the other being loathsome to leave such kind of good people, for then I began to love my new parents that weare so good and so favorable to me. The third reason was to watch a better opportunity for to retyre to the French rather then make the long circuit which after I was forced to doe, for to retyre to my country more than two thousand leagues and being that it was my destiny to discover many wild nations, I would not to strive against destinie. I remitted me selfe to fortune and adventure of time as a thing ordained by God, for his greatest glorie (as I hope) it will prove. (159) This passage is a key to shaping our understanding of Radisson, for its themes reappear over his whole life: the need to choose between options, shrewd planning in his own interests, affectionate but not unrealistic loyalty to those who have treated him well, and (as he later emphasized several times) a powerful sense that his destiny was “to discover many wild nations.” The latter, at least,

81 Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 24–33, absolutely the last word on this fascinating creature.

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is how he saw himself in London in the autumn of 1668, as he completed the writing of his first Voyage. Radisson planned his escape from the Mohawk with care and carried it out with relative success, but the very thing he was trying to avoid – “the long circuit” that would take him back to France – is what he eventually had to face. Thus, a boy or late adolescent, with only what funds he could obtain from a merchant he met at Fort Orange, set out alone on a five-month journey from Manhattan to Quebec via Amsterdam and La Rochelle, where he says almost parenthetically that he settled his account with the merchant before returning to New France. Did he still have friends or relations in Paris to help him on his way? Did he in fact settle his account in La Rochelle or was he just trying to show the English he was trustworthy? How much must the travels of the war party westward have hardened him to danger and made him resourceful? Thirty years later, at Port Nelson, he demonstrated the same qualities, passing alone in a canoe day after day around dangerous Marsh Point between the wicked Nelson River (“Kawirinagaw, ou la méschante” he called it) and the calmer Hayes, as he juggled two different groups of enemies, one from England and another from Boston. Radisson’s first Voyage suggests how he would become that man. Voyage II: The Escape from Onondaga In his first Voyage Radisson wrote a narrative of thrilling events and fortunate escape, centred almost entirely on his own responses, a story perfectly suited to the adventurous genre of the “voyage.” His second Voyage presents complications: it is out of place in the chronology of his life in New France as represented in the Voyages (see below); it begins with a long digression on the history of the Huron; it relates a well-known narrative for which there exists much other documentation, some of it already in print in the Relations of the Jesuits; and it tells how an unnamed figure who in later accounts bears an uncanny resemblance to Radisson himself helped engineer the escape of Jesuits, soldiers, and hired workers (engagés) from the new and much-desired mission at Onondaga. Not all these puzzles can be solved. Radisson’s return from the dead, as it seemed to his relatives in New France, took place in May 1654; he relates that he arrived in Quebec via Acadia and Tadoussac82 as peace, for a time at least, seemed to have been made between the Iroquois and their enemies. The Huron had been destroyed or dispersed, 82 The Journal des Jésuites for 20 September 1651 (JR 36: 137) describes the stages of a journey from La Rochelle to New France: two passengers leave La Rochelle on 16 July,

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and the fur trade was in ruins. Conrad Heidenreich describes the political situation: the decreasing options of the French, the separate motives of the western Iroquois and the Mohawk of the east, and the way in which the Onondaga used the possible establishment of a French mission to sustain the peace so their war with the Erie south and west of Lake Erie could be continued. The result, however, was to change the options for young men like Radisson. “The peace not only opened the Iroquois country west of the Mohawk to exploration but also lifted the Iroquois blockade of the Ottawa River route to the west.”83 Radisson’s second Voyage took place as that increasing gap developed between the Mohawk, (the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s “guardians of the eastern door”), their fellow members to the west, especially the Seneca, “guardians of the western door,” and the Onondaga, keepers of the central council fire and diplomatic heart of the Confederacy. Sources differ as to why internal warfare developed among the Iroquois; one explanation is that the Mohawk were intent on controlling trade in the Iroquois sphere of influence and that, once they succeeded in destroying the Huron and the Erie, their hostility grew to include the Onondaga, who were willing to forge an accord with the French.84 In 1653 a party of Onondaga had arrived at Montreal to make peace and invite the Jesuits to establish the mission, Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha (Onondaga, New York). First steps were taken in 1654 and early 1656, and in June 1657 a group of Jesuits, soldiers, and French engagés, of whom Radisson was one, began the journey south towards Lake Onondaga. During the three-year period between Radisson’s return to New France in May 1654 and his departure for Onondaga in June 1657, his life is almost entirely undocumented. In November 1655 he witnessed a deed at Quebec85 but of his activities in general he says nothing in the Voyages except “I stayed not long in a place” (167). Radisson’s “wandering years” are understandable in terms of the social formation of a young man in Europe at the time, such as the apprentice craftsmen and soldiers who went from place to place amassing experience and honing their skills. They also reflect the growing desire of young men in New France – the future coureurs de bois – to head out for the pays d’en haut. In the Jesuit Relation for 1652–53 Father François Le Mercier wrote, “All our young Frenchmen are planning to go on a trading expedition, to find the Nations that are scattered here and there” (JR 40: 215). The most arrive at Gaspé on 8 September, reach Tadoussac on board a Dutch ship on 16 September and Quebec on 20 September. 83 Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 104. 84 “Onondaga,” HNAI 15: 492. 85 ANQ, Greffe Audouart no. 435, 7 November 1655.

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likely hypothesis, based on the easy familiarity with the wilderness Radisson manifests in Voyage II, is that he spent the intervening period like other young men in New France, making himself useful to the now expanding fur trade in and around the settlements, as he was doing when he joined the group going to Onondaga. He certainly found out enough about the Great Lakes area to pretend in Voyage III that he had accompanied Des Groseilliers on his journey of 1654–56 south of Lake Michigan, and it has been argued that in 1656 he may have participated in another, in this case failed, expedition part-way into the interior (see below). Possibly there were other such journeys, but evidence is lacking. Whatever the case, writing in London in 1668, Radisson arranged the Voyages so that the vaguely dated trip in which Des Groseilliers is first introduced as his partner (Voyage III) follows the 1657–58 trip to Onondaga. In Voyage II Radisson is less the central participant, as he was in Voyage I, and much more the observer. Furthermore, a revealing fault line in his perspective as interpreter is evident in the way he tells his story. On the one hand is the respect he shows for indigenous ways of memorializing history: “From all times as their histories mentions,” he writes, “their memory is their chronicle for it from father to son, and assuredly very excellent for as much as I know, and many others has remarked” (167). Yet he passes without comment over the sick wild man’s revealing statement that “I loved all wayes the French for their goodnesse, but they should have given us [guns to] kill the Algontins. We should not warre against the French, but traited with them for our castors” (184).86 We have to turn to the Jesuit accounts, such as Father Ragueneau’s plain and vigorous one (JR 44: 175–83) for the interplay of Native/European politics and for the missionaries’ conviction that they are achieving much. Thus, though Radisson gives us a closely observed account of the journey itself, and a brilliantly told narrative of the escape by priests and soldiers in the dead of night, the reasons why the Mohawk were planning an attack at Onondaga do not interest him; the Jesuit intelligence network in the “castle” (fort) at Onondaga is alluded to, but only because it yields information as to when an attack is to take place, and not why. Radisson’s lack of interest in the complex play of higher politics between the French, Dutch, and Iroquois reveals a limitation that hampered him in later years as he struggled in webs of intrigue in

86 Champlain strongly opposed the trading of guns to Natives, but at his death in 1636 the new governor, Charles Huault de Montmagny, permitted their sale to Christian converts. The Dutch traded guns actively, as did the English. See Given, A Most Pernicious Thing, especially 58–64.

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both France and England.87 Here, when he wants to explain the wider situation in which the mission to Onondaga was planned, he prefaces it with a sweeping account of the dispersal of the Huron, told entirely from the perspective of the Aboriginal historiography he had learned in discussions in the lodges or around the evening campfire. Radisson was aware that this story posed problems; he wrote, “I heard all this from French men that knewed the Huron speech better then I my selfe, and after I heard it from the wild men, and it’s strang (beeing if it be so as the French and wild men doe aleadg) that those people should have made a circuit of that litle world” (173). There are only a few elements of documented fact in the account of the dispersal as Radisson relates it, for example, the travels northward of what must be the Matouweskarini.88 The dispersal is not envisioned from the perspective, say, of a Harman van der Bogaert or a Johannes Megapolensis,89 both flatly realistic Dutch chroniclers of life in the Mohawk valley. Rather, we are given an important social myth, told earnestly and in as much detail as the narrator can muster. The oral tradition of the Huron migration in Voyage II would have presented Radisson with multiple stories in one, perhaps closer to the biblical account of the creation of the world in seven days than to historical narration. If it contains elements of a migration story, it also provides an explanation for the long-standing collaboration between the Algonquian-speaking Montagnais and the Huron Confederacy. The story of the Jesuit foundation and abandonment of Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha on Lake Onondaga is told in a number of the Jesuit Relations and letters of this period (see Fig. 6).90 Radisson’s, however, is the only account of the 1657–58 journey of fathers Paul Ragueneau, François Du Peron, and their companions that proceeds from beginning to end, in sequence and in detail (see Map 3). Like Voyage I, it also records the experience of a man still young, uncertain of his safety among warring Mohawk and Onondaga, and grateful when a protecting older woman is at hand. The contrast with the bold discoverer of the later Voyages is evident. Radisson’s openness about his fears, 87 It is noteworthy as well in the material on North America with which he provided the Abbé Bernou, where the contrast between Radisson’s factuality and Bernou’s geopolitical thinking is very evident (see volume 2). 88 See the annotation to Voyage II, 169 and following. 89 Harmen Meyndertz van den Bogaert (1634–35) and Johannes Megapolensis (1644); their accounts are included in Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland 1609– 1664. 90 See especially JR 44: 69–77 and JR 44: 149–221; see also Marie de l’Incarnation’s letter of 4 October 1658 to her son (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre clxxix, 602–7).

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interesting enough in itself, is an aspect of the narrative specificity of Voyage II as a whole: the busy scene of departure, the unfolding geography of the St Lawrence below the rapids at Montreal, the beauty and fertility of the country towards Onondaga, indications of Iroquois hieroglyphic communication, and especially the lives taken at Cornwall Island by Mohawk revenging the loss of their brethren. Radisson depicts the massacre as it happened; we recognize his vulnerability but also see both the terror of the victims and the insouciant explanation of the Mohawk warriors once their revenge is exacted, the past achievements of the men who were killed, and the mourning of the women. The old man who tells Radisson about his journeys far to the west may discourse about giants and unicorns, both recurrent legends of the interior, but he also gives voice to the political consequences of French refusal to trade guns to the Iroquois. Radisson shares a foolhardy short cut across a corner of Lake Ontario with a companion who tells him frankly what he thinks of French religion, again without comment by Radisson. He watches in amazement as a Mohawk woman uncomplainingly gives birth; fearing to baptize the dying infant lest the Iroquois think he aims to kill it, he is later chastised by the Jesuits for failing to do so. Fever comes and then goes, Radisson engages in an investigative side trip, and he tells of a converted woman who, bereft of friends or social group, wanders in the forest alone. The cumulative effect is of a densely textured world which we see through eyes perhaps still to some degree inexperienced, increasingly alert to the landscape, custom, and ritual but not fundamentally analytical. Voyage II culminates in the story of the escape from Onondaga and the refugees’ arduous journey back to New France, and Radisson writes a typically detailed account. We learn in dramatic terms of the Huron who told the Mohawk (the lower Iroquois) that the French were dangerous, and the rising sense that an attack was pending. Radisson recounts the three deceptions the French used to delude the Onondaga: the priest’s injured arm, the skilfully hidden boats, and the eat-all feast at the pre-Lenten carnival. He also tells of a young man who at the feast played what was probably a lute to disguise what the French were planning. Grace Lee Nute longed to identify the musician as Radisson91 but if he had been he would undoubtedly have told us. However, the story in later tellings in New France seems to have been elaborated; when Charlevoix related it in 1744, the figure bore a curious resemblance to Radisson: the musician is unnamed but is described as a young man who had been adopted by a high-status Onondaga (Radisson’s adoptive father was of course a Mohawk) who persuaded the father to give an eat-all feast, at which the young 91 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 55.

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man played the guitar to lull the guests.92 Though Radisson left almost no documentary record of his early years in New France, this would suggest that an oral tradition, however inaccurate, may have developed around him. Charlevoix in any case never associates the musician with the Radisson, whom in later pages he describes as a traitor for his actions at Port Nelson. Up to this point in his Voyages we see Radisson as an adventurous youth, a fine storyteller, and possibly (or so he hoped) a future explorer. He is a shrewd and often amusing observer of events as he experiences them but no analyst of their wider implications. These are all tools we can use to understand his later writings, especially the controversial Voyage III. There is nothing, however, to suggest that the fur trade would be at the centre of his life henceforth, as it proved to be with his half-sister Marguerite’s marriage to Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers in August 1653, when Radisson was still among the Mohawk. The two men would work together as traders for the next twenty-five years. Voyage III: Portrait of a Trader In writing her dual biography of Radisson and Des Groseilliers, Grace Lee Nute was more fortunate in documenting Des Groseilliers’s life than Radisson’s. We know his baptismal date (31 July 1618), and Quebec archives record the litigation in which he and his second wife, Radisson’s half-sister, were frequently engaged.93 Médard Chouart was born on a farm known as Les Groseilliers near Charly in Picardy; there is no known portrait of him. As Médard Chouart Des Groseilliers, he was the first in his family to adopt the nom de terre that signalled a man moving slightly up the social ladder (like Radisson, he was customarily addressed as sieur), but in the mass of evidence about him there is no suggestion of connections at court. Groseillers was in every respect – sociologically and by instinct – a bourgeois, a trader rather than someone aspiring to join the gentry.94 It used to be thought that he had been a donné or lay helper with the Jesuits, but in the available lists he appears simply as a hired

92 Charlevoix, History and General Description of New France, trans. Shea, 3: 16–17. 93 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, chapters 1 and 2; see also her biography of Des Groseilliers (“Chouart,” DCB, 1: 223–8). Many of the smaller archives from which she extracted so much information have been gathered into the ANQ. 94 The social formation and economic lives of such men, often wealthy and of high municipal rank but scorning the old nobility, are brilliantly described by Huppert, Les Bourgeois Gentilshommes.

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worker.95 Nor was he a Huguenot, as has been suggested.96 In a court case at La Rochelle in 1661 he is described (or perhaps describes himself strategically) as “général de la flotte des Outaouais.”97 We also know more about Des Groseilliers’s personal demeanour than we do Radisson’s. Father Ragueneau, writing in 1664 to Colbert, described “a man named Des Groseilliers, a fugitive from Quebec, who abandoned his wife and children there and is now with the English in New England ... is capable of anything, audacious, tireless and headstrong in his enterprises, who has travelled the country and been everywhere among the Hurons and the Ottawa, and who has shown some animosity towards the French.”98 Marie de l’Incarnation,99 who knew him well, in a letter of 1665 refers to Groseillers’s “spirit of contradiction and bad humour.”100 In Radisson’s third and fourth Voyages 95 In Coté, Donnés in Huronia, 78, Des Groseilliers is listed not as a donné but as a hired worker (an engagé); that is, he was serving in the same capacity as Radisson probably did on the journey to Onondaga. 96 Fournier (Pierre-Esprit Radisson, 133n.8) states that John Bosher terms Des Groseilliers a “confirmed Huguenot,” but in fact Bosher states that “Radisson and Des Groseilliers do not appear to have been Huguenots”; see “The Imperial Environment of French Trade with Canada, 1660–1685,” 71–2. There is no evidence that Des Groseilliers remained other than Catholic. 97 “General of the Ottawa fleet.” Archives Municipales de La Rochelle, 505, Moreau register; noted by Debien, “Liste des engagés pour le Canada,” 390; the dating is corrected by Fournier, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, 99n.4. 98 Ragueneau to Colbert, 7 November 1664, Melanges Colbert, 125, f.181. Transcribed in LAC/BAC, MG7-IA6, 231–2: “Un nommé des Groseliers, fugitif de Quebec, qui y a laissé sa femme et ses enfants & qui est maintenant avec les Anglois de la Nouvelle Angleterre, avoit le dessein de les pousser a cette enterprise [an alliance with the Iroquois to conquer New France]. C’est un homme capable de tout, audacieux, defatigue, opiniastre, en ses entreprises, qui courroist le païs, et qui a esté partout, aux Hurons, aux Outaiuak, & qui a temoigné de l’animosité contre les francois.” 99 Marie Guyart (1599–1672), known as Mère Marie de l’Incarnation. Widowed at nineteen, she took vows as an Ursuline nun in 1633, leaving behind a small son, who, as Dom Claude Martin in later life, became superior of the Benedictines of Saint-Maur. In 1639 she came to New France to establish the Ursulines as teachers in Quebec, and never left. A capable organizer and businesswoman, she wrote regularly to her son in France, providing a rich store of information about affairs in New France. She never mentions Radisson but appears to have known Des Groseilliers quite well. 100 Marie de l’Incarnation’s letter of 28 July 1665 describes Des Groseilliers as having “un esprit de contradiction et de mauvaise humeur” (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre ccxv,

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Des Groseilliers is definitely depicted as the senior partner, but at the end of Voyage IV we notice a subtle change when Radisson says obscurely, “He could not do any thing without me” (302). Perhaps the illness that afflicted the older man near Lake Michigan (Voyage III) had depleted his energy or altered his temperament, perhaps Radisson was simply better at getting on with people, and knew it. Des Groseilliers, unlike Radisson, appears to have had few loyalties; there were rumours in New France in 1664 that he might have provided information to aid the English in capturing New Holland.101 As for events at Port Nelson in 1682–84, in his letter of late 1683 or early 1684 Des Groseilliers presented himself as the leader of the expedition, and he was referred to as leader by the HBC mariner John Outlaw102 and in the slightly later account of Noël Jérémie.103 However, it was Radisson who shortly became the focus of French rage and English interest.104 In his own account of those events, Radisson portrayed himself – not without justice – as a master of wilderness life, an expert negotiator with the Cree, and a faithful servant of whichever crown he was serving. But as he told the story in the first Port Nelson Relation (1682–83), Des Groseilliers remains a figure in the background, building their habitation and complaining to Radisson when he disapproves of the way events are developing. By the time the second Relation was written (1684),

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742). For his early acquaintanceship with her, see lettre cclviii (27 August 1670, 874). The letter of 1670 reflects gossip circulating in New France that Des Groseilliers had persuaded the English he had found the Northwest Passage and had been rewarded with the Order of the Garter, which was certainly not the case! On 28 July 1665 (lettre ccxv, 742), Marie de l’Incarnation wrote that the “Habitant d’ici” with the contradictory spirit had gone to the English about two years past, and given them much information about the land of the Iroquois and how profitable it would be to become masters of it. It is believed, she relates, that this is what brought the English to attack New Holland. Ragueneau intimates in his letter to Colbert (see n.6) that Des Groseilliers had no interest in eradicating the Iroquois but rather was pushing them, and the English, to conquer New France. John Outlaw (c. 1696–7). Mariner and shipwright. Mate on the Bachelor’s Delight (captain Benjamin Gillam). Navigated the Ste Anne from Port Nelson to Quebec in 1663. Swore three depositions against the French after his return in autumn 1683. Later worked for the HBC but, after being captured by de Troyes in 1686 and Iberville in 1687, eventually defected to the French and became a privateer. Outlaw’s deposition is TNA, CO 1/66/119, f.290r, 14 November 1683; and see Jérémie, “Relation du Détroit et de la Baie d’Hudson,” 14–17. See, for example, Sir James Hayes to Sir John Werden, secretary to the Duke of York (later James II), 27 December 1683, TNA, CO 1/66, no. 123.

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Des Groseilliers had returned to New France, and the text includes a lengthy report by his son, Jean-Baptiste Chouart,105 who would eventually turn against Radisson; if we are to believe his letters, he had good reason to. In 1683 Des Groseilliers was sixty-five (old age in the seventeenth century), and if the earlier illness had marked him, the time for retirement was indeed close. After his return to New France in 1684, we hear nothing more of him; he is supposed to have died there some time after 1695.106 The older man’s personality and concerns undoubtedly shaped Radisson quite as much as the Mohawk warriors he had been captured by as a youth. Des Groseilliers already had considerable experience of the interior, gained when he travelled with the Jesuits to Huronia in the 1640s and from his travels in 1654–56. Long settled in New France, he had acquired a network of contacts among other men familiar with the wilderness. To this Radisson would have added the experience he had gained among his Mohawk friends and during the years when he “stayed not long in a place.” When as partners they left for the west in 1659, Radisson was accompanying a man hardened by wide experience in the wilderness and shrewdly aware of its potential for trade. The two men very quickly came to understand better than most what the economic resources of the interior of North America might be, and they had the contacts to exploit them. Voyage III bears the never successfully interpreted heading “The Auxoticiat Voyage.”107 It asserts, first, that Radisson and Des Groseilliers together made a 105 Jean-Baptiste Chouart Des Groseilliers (1654–?). The first son of Des Groseilliers’s second marriage to Marguerite Hayet, Radisson’s half-sister. An experienced woodsman and acquainted with Native languages; he was literate, but did not speak English. One of the party that went to Port Nelson in 1682 and wintered over there as Radisson’s deputy in 1683–84. His narrative of that winter forms part of Radisson’s second Port Nelson Relation. He eventually turned away from Radisson; nothing is known of his later life except that though he was naturalized in England in 1687, he probably returned to New France. 106 Des Groseilliers’s return to New France in 1684 in La Salle’s ship is mentioned by Viscount Preston in a letter of 17 June 1684 to Sunderland (BL, Add. 63760, f.102) and confirmed by Chouart’s letter to his mother, 10 April 1685 (ANOM, C11A, vol. 7, 256r). According to Nute, Des Groseilliers was still alive in 1695 (Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 252). 107 Nute, citing Gale, “The Radisson Manuscript,” 341–2, argues that “Auxoticiat” signifies “Aux Ottawas” and concludes it is a translator’s error (Caesars of the Wilderness, 31–2). However, the word is repeated almost exactly later in the manuscript, and Radisson elsewhere uses variations of the word “Otouack” without difficulty. As I have

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journey covering roughly three years to the country around Lake Michigan and towards the northern reaches of the Mississippi River, and, second, that Des Groseilliers’s “booke of annotations of the last yeare” (238), which would have documented this journey, were lost in a canoe spill, an event familiar enough in the wilderness.108 Yet there is no possibility that such a journey could be fitted chronologically between the return from Onondaga in April 1658 and the departure for Lake Superior in August 1659, in both of which we know Radisson participated. What is certain is that between 1654 and 1656 Des Groseilliers, accompanied by an unnamed Frenchman,109 travelled deep into the wilderness around Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, an itinerary that can be traced without too much difficulty (see Map 4).110 The journey and the rich trove of beaver pelts the two returned with are well documented;111 Father Gabriel Druillettes’s112 interviews with Des Groseilliers and the unnamed Frenchman, for example, provided the Jesuits with much information to fuel their conviction that there must be a route through the interior to Hudson

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argued (see Textual Introduction), the manuscript is not in fact a translation, nor did Gale think so. The problem of “Auxoticiat” remains unresolved. Louis Jolliet, Father Marquette’s companion on his voyages, lost his papers, with reports of their journey of 1673–74, in a canoe spill at the Sault Saint-Louis near Montreal. See Father Dablon’s account of Marquette’s journey, JR 58: 93–109. Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 24–6, speculates usefully on the actual identity of Des Groseilliers’s companion of 1654–56. Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 106–7, and see the annotations to Voyage III in this volume. For the return of the 1654–56 expedition, see JR 42: 219–23; it reports the arrival of fifty canoes laden with furs. As late as 1696, Chesnaye recalled, “M. de Lauson y envoya deux particuliers qui retournèrent en 1656, chacun de 14 à 15 mille livres, et amenèrent avec eulx une flotte de sauvages, riches de 100 mille escus.” [M. de Lauson sent two individuals who returned in 1656, each with 14 or 15 thousand livres, and brought with them a flotilla of wild men (with furs worth) 100,000 écus.] See “Memoire de M. de la Chesnaye sur le Canada 1676” (sic: should be 1696), in Poore, Collection des Manuscrits, 1: 254. Gabriel Druillettes (1610–81). Jesuit missionary and explorer. His winters with the Montagnais and Abenaki gave him much information about the geography of New France, its northern hinterland, Acadia, and the nearby English colonies. Using information from an Algonquin informant, he made a serious study of the routes to James Bay from the interior but did not manage a successful journey there himself.

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Bay.113 This was a time when the Aboriginal peoples around the Great Lakes were under severe stress from the dislocations caused by warfare with the Iroquois, and the narrative makes frequent reference to these wandering groups of troubled people, their alliances, and their ways of living. Whatever its limitations, Voyage III deserves our attention as the first written record of European investigation among the early peoples and landscape of what would later become the heartland of the United States, the site of pioneer settlement, an immense corn-growing economy, and a great city, Chicago. Scholars have spent more time attempting to prove or disprove Radisson’s claim to have accompanied Des Groseilliers than they have trying to understand either how he reports the information he does, or what its sources might have been. Voyage III is the shortest of the four Voyages (only half the length of the longest, the fourth), and perhaps for good reason. The voyage’s puzzling title, its contradictoriness as to time frame, and its confused narrative sequence seem convincing evidence of Radisson’s weakness as a historical source. The great scholar of New France, Marcel Trudel, wrote, “The text of Radisson is ... a very difficult document to elucidate; to analyse the voyages of Chouart and Radisson is (save on certain rare points) to pass one’s time constructing hypotheses.”114 Examined closely as a narrative, it moves back and forth between detailed personal observation, for which Radisson’s earlier Voyages show he had an evident gift, and rapid, detached, almost note-like summaries which suggest he was not actually present. Another difficulty is that, unlike the first two Voyages, Voyage III does not always relate events in chronological order. But once we recognize such features we can begin to identify sections where Radisson reports events he witnessed, whenever they might have been, and those he did not. What, then, were his sources for the events he reports at second hand? Radisson’s narrative is full of ethnographic and geographic material of the greatest interest which cannot (the usual explanation) have been derived solely from conversations with Des Groseilliers; for one thing, it is probable that it was the companion who travelled towards the Mississippi, not Des Groseilliers, who was ill at the time.115 Given the small population of New France and the 113 JR 44: 237–45. Druillettes lists no less than six routes by which the “sea of the North” (James Bay, leading to Hudson Bay) can be reached from the interior. 114 “Le texte de Radisson est ... un document très difficile à interpréter: expliquer les voyages de Chouart et de Radisson, c’est (sauf sur certains rares points) passer son temps à construire des hypothèses.” Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, 3, pt. 2: 235n.76. 115 Kellogg, The French Régime in Wisconsin, 106–8; and see Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 3.

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social networks of such men, it is almost certain that Radisson had met and talked with this unnamed Frenchman. Furthermore, in relating the journey as he must have heard it from the two adventurers, it is possible that Radisson – always at his best describing how events occurred on the ground – integrated into it experiences of his own from his “wandering years,” 1654–57, perhaps even details drawn from the later journey to Lake Superior (1659– 60) in which he did participate. A decade later in London, working hard to reconstitute what he learned not only from Des Groseilliers but from his companion, Radisson wanted his audience to believe in the expertise and good faith of the two Frenchmen who had proposed to lead them there. As he says with reassuring confidence, “my brother and I ... weare accustomed to such like voyages” (211). It is entirely possible that Radisson had travelled at least the OttawaMattawa-French River route during his wandering years, 1654–57. Louise Kellogg long ago suggested that he may have been among the thirty French soldiers who in 1656 accompanied fathers Gabriel Druillettes and Leonard Garreau when they left to establish a mission among the Odawa,116 an ill-fated project that ended quickly with a battle with the Iroquois at Lake of Two Mountains, where the Ottawa River flows into the St Lawrence, and the death of Garreau. In his Historiae Canadensis (1664), François Du Creux related that most of the thirty French soldiers had not advanced beyond Trois-Rivières; the three who had done so were left behind in the stockade when the Odawa fled for the west.117 Radisson himself says, “After a long arguing, every one had the liberty to goe backwards, or forwards if any had courage to venter himself with us. Seeing the great difficulties, all [the French] with one consent went back againe; and we went on” (215). So perhaps he stayed with the fleeing Odawa at least part way. The first pages of Voyage III appear to employ details from the beginning of this 1656 journey, pass very quickly over the battle with the Iroquois and the departure of the men returning to Montreal (which are out of sequence), and then, in a classic account of the difficulties of the journey, follow the two explorers along the fur traders’ route: up the Ottawa, then west via the Mattawa to the French River and Lake Huron. To this point, Radisson is likely narrating experiences of his own, undoubtedly selected to dovetail with what follows. However, as soon as the party enters Lake Huron the account becomes much more general, and there is little Radisson could not have learned simply in conversation about the peoples, the land, and especially the wildlife, to which he devotes more attention than 116 Kellogg, The French Régime, 106–8; and see JR 42: 225–33. 117 Du Creux, Book Ten of The History of Canada or New France, 2: 741–4.

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usual. Then, at the point where the two men discover they have no more merchandise to trade (232–3), Radisson provides a detailed and entirely characteristic account of an event in which he must somewhere have participated: the council of eight hundred men, with its speeches and his dramatic beating of a participant with the man’s own beaver robe. Radisson almost completely omits the return journey, just as in Voyage IV he condenses into a few pages the five years between his and Des Groseilliers’s return from Lake Superior and their arrival in London. “Att last we are out of those lakes” (235), he says briefly, and then devotes a number of pages to a typically energetic account of conflict with Iroquois raiders, ending with the loss of Des Groseilliers’s notebook. Next, he turns back to survey events in present-day Michigan and Wisconsin, and the narrative again becomes general (238–40). This is the section in which he reports hearing of the great river with two branches and of men very like the Spaniards; it concludes with a brief reference to Des Groseilliers’s mysterious illness, which was probably encephalitis or meningitis. The Voyage ends with another rousing battle with the Iroquois. When Radisson is reporting what he experiences himself, the account is vivid, personal, and dramatic. When he is recounting what he has learned from someone else, or what he assumes his audience already knows, it is contrastingly brisk and detached. Despite this variation between modes, Voyage III remains a remarkable account of the western Great Lakes region at a time of change. It also does great credit to Des Groseilliers’s tireless nature. Because of his illness it was probably the unnamed Frenchman who travelled on to learn from the local people about the great forked river (the intersection of the Mississippi and the Missouri), but in this journey Des Groseilliers had laid the groundwork for the even more audacious journey west that he and Radisson took in 1659–60. the making of a fur trader

Thinking about what he had learned from the two adventurers who actually undertook the journey would have fired up Radisson’s expressed longing to see new places. But it would also have given him a close acquaintance with the customs of trading with Aboriginal peoples as it was carried on in the field. Before 1659 there is no evidence that Radisson was a trader, though he must have known and shared information with the evolving class of men known as coureurs de bois. When he went west with Des Groseilliers in 1659, he was preparing to become one. In Voyage IV there is a noticeable change of tone. He is no longer an adventurous youth still looking out for a protective Native

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woman; he is on his way to becoming the man who could write, “We weare Cesars, being no body to contradict us” (265). The Great Journey to Lake Superior Throughout his life, Radisson was, in the best sense of that term, a naive writer. He wrote to order when he was asked to, and though he was clearly a gifted narrator, he had little if any conception of himself as an author. In youth, when he thought of himself as a historical actor, it was simply as a man destined to discover new countries. But in Voyage IV – in every way the finest of his writings – a disjunction becomes evident between the Mohawk warrior of Voyage I and the budding coureur de bois of the second and third Voyages. At the same time as Radisson produces an evocative portrayal of an interior region as yet unvisited by Europeans, we witness the transformation of a near-Native boy who thought of himself as an adventurer in unknown lands into a man whose way of reaching new countries is through the still-embryonic economic mechanisms of the fur trade. And as Radisson takes on the colouring of a trader, the Aboriginal peoples whose ways he would continue to observe so intimately became, inevitably, the Other. In Voyage IV, the longest of his writings, we see this metamorphosis taking place. In time Voyage IV covers a decade in Radisson’s life, and in space a vast trajectory: from Quebec to the edge of the prairie, north to James Bay, south to Boston and New York, and then to the court of Charles II in London. But it is unified by the various discourses of power that Radisson was beginning to exploit and that others used to exploit him. When Radisson and Des Groseilliers left New France in August 1659, they did so in defiance of strict instructions from Governor d’Argenson, a decision that was to determine their careers henceforth. Radisson speaks of their desire to develop a trade to the west “for the good of the countrey” (246) but the governor insisted on sending his men with them and taking half the profit. Knowing the value of what they proposed, however, Radisson and Groseilliers left in secret, by night. They had also refused the overtures of the Jesuits, whose goal Radisson believed was to discover and profit from an inland route by  which the high-quality furs of the Crees could be brought down to the St Lawrence: “the fathers Jesuits weare desierous to find out away how they might gett downe the castors from the bay of the north by the Sacgnes, and so make themselves masters of that trade ... they weare very earnest with me to ingage myself 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, because I heard the wild men say that although the way be easy, the wild men that are feed att their doors would have hindered them, because they make a

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livelyhood of that trade” (245). Clearly, Radisson understood the role of the Aboriginal middlemen, “feed [that is, paid] at their doors,” who would impede such a project. In the late 1670s this was the territory he would describe to the Abbé Bernou, no friend of the Jesuits but at that point deeply interested in the trade possibilities of North America. Radisson and Des Groseilliers spent the next twenty-five years negotiating such conflicting objectives, entangled in  the effects of social class in England, the desultory interest of the French court in two men without “protection,” and the shifting enmities and uneasy alliances of the Aboriginal peoples. Discoverers before Governors The vast journey on which Des Groseilliers, Radisson, and their Saulteaux companions secretly set out in August 1659 took them up the Ottawa and down the French River to Lake Huron, all places which Des Groseilliers had visited in 1654–56 and which Radisson may have reached earlier as well. This time they followed the south shore of Lake Superior, past the Pictured Rocks to the Keweenaw peninsula and then Chequamegon (see Map 5). There they built a small fort and then moved inland, heading with the Saulteaux along the welltravelled trail towards Lac Courte Oreilles. With elaborate formality they met with the Sioux and negotiated a peace with hostile Cree to the north, one that would be advantageous to the evolving fur trade. Encountering a bitter winter, they and their companions came close to starving, saved only when it became possible to hunt again. At length they reached the appointed rendezvous, where the Feast of the Dead, with its attendant games, was to be celebrated. After that great event they travelled towards the villages of the Sioux on the edge of the prairie. Their return to Chequamegon was marked by Radisson’s illness and near death, naked and starving, alone in the snow; fortunately discovered by a Native, he was returned to the main party. The partners made the risky crossing of western Lake Superior and, so Radisson alleged, headed north on a rapid summer canoe journey to James Bay. Returning south by a different river, they rejoined the French River route and the companions carrying their furs, and returned to New France, passing on their way the signs of Adam Dollard des Ormeaux’s fatal encounter with a band of Iroquois in May 1660. On arriving at Quebec in August 1660, they were punished by Governor d’Argenson for heading west without permission, and had to pay a heavy tax on their furs. Unable to persuade d’Argenson of the value of the new fur country they had reconnoitered, Des Groseilliers went to France to press a suit against the governor in Paris (without success, according to Radisson) and attempted to interest a merchant in La Rochelle, also without success. After his

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return, the two traders left New France for Acadia and then Boston, in each place encountering ineptitude or resistance. But when the English captured New Amsterdam their newly arrived commissioners became interested in the partners and sent them to London, where Charles II and Prince Rupert recognized the importance of the information they brought. In 1668 they set out for Hudson Bay in separate ships, but Radisson’s was turned back by severe weather. He wrote his four Voyages in the autumn of 1668 not knowing whether Des Groseilliers had reached Hudson Bay or if their whole project was going to turn out a failure. This breathless recital of the global extent of Voyage IV barely hints at its riches. Radisson’s narrative method remains episodic, but it is well suited to the sheer variety of experience he is relating. And his capacity to render events he has witnessed with an appreciative eye for detail means that the early battle with the Iroquois, the meeting with the Sioux, the famine, the Feast of the Dead, even his lonely struggle to save himself from a fire in the wintry forest stand as remarkable passages in exploration writing of any kind. The Feast of the Dead had already been described by other travellers, but most often Radisson is reporting on experiences and places never before recorded: the Lake Superior south shore, the beauty of which delights him, the distant Sioux in their villages on the edge of the Great Plains, and above all the rites attendant on diplomatic negotiations between traders and Natives. I once thought that Radisson was able to hold the two elements of his life – Mohawk and trader – in equipoise, but I have come to recognize that in his experiences during the Lake Superior voyage the first began to give way to the second.118 In Voyage IV we find the key to this transformation in the noticeable disjunction between the episodes of a battle shortly after their departure and the arrival at Chequamegon some months later. Of the battle, Radisson relates that he and his companions “filled their bellyes with the flesh of their ennemyes; we boiled some of it, and ketles full of the rest. We bourned our comrades, being their coustume to reduce such into ashes, being slained in bataill. It is an honnor to give them such a buriall ...We left that place of masacre with horrid cryes, [not] forgetting the death of our parents, we plagued those infortunates, we plucked out their nails one after an other” (253). Radisson speaks here not as a European but from the position of the Saulteaux he is travelling with, or more remotely the Mohawk who had once named him “Orinha.” He knows what is done with prisoners, for he had endured the plaguing of the unfortunate himself and been saved only at the last minute by his Mohawk family. But of the group’s departure he writes: 118 See Warkentin, “Discovering Radisson,” 75–104.

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we persuaded our wild men to send seaven of our boats to an isle neare [at] hand, and turne often againe to frighten our adversarys, by our shew of our forces. They had a minde to fortifie themselves in that island, but we would not suffer it, because there was time enough in case of necessity which we represented unto them, makeing them to gather to gether all the broaken trees to make them a kind of barricad [and] prohibiting them to cutt trees, that thereby the ennemy might not suspect our feare and our small number which they had knowne by the stroaks of their hattchetts. Those wild men thinking to be lost, obeyed us in every thing telling us every foot be cheerfull, and dispose of us as you will for we are men lost. (254) The distinction between “them” and “us” is especially evident in the nearfarcical scenes at Chequamegon, where Radisson and Des Groseilliers refused to carry their packs on a five-day journey inland and where they buried their trading goods and devised a story about their private devil to delude the Odawa and Saulteaux. Left seemingly without resources, the Frenchmen built a fort and hunted so successfully that they could laugh at their companions when they returned with the women who would carry their packs.119 The partnership with Des Groseilliers had produced a different man and a new, perhaps overriding, bond. Radisson was no longer either an adoptee or an observer; he was now part of an enterprise, with a leader and a purpose, and the result was to separate him from the wild men they were cajoling and advising, and would soon be deceiving for their own purposes. When Radisson wrote that they were Caesars, without contradiction in the wilderness, his habitual amused irony was subsumed in what we can only imagine was Des Groseilliers’s articulation of the authority proper to a bourgeois, to a man used to dealing with, and perhaps treating dismissively, his subordinates. This perspective dominates much – though not all – of Voyage IV. Ceremonial Diplomacy The changing relationship between Radisson and what he terms the “wild men” is exemplified in the European ceremonial practices that the partners deployed during their visit to the Saulteaux village and later at the Feast of the 119 What may be a different account of the same events was given by an Ojibwe historian in 1885, who related that two centuries earlier the kindly Ojibwe had rescued a pair of starving French traders on La Pointe island near Chequamegon; see Warren, History of the Ojibway Nation, 121–2.

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Dead. After comparing their arrival among the Saulteaux to Louis XIV’s royal entry into Paris with his Spanish bride in 1660, Radisson writes, “Att last we came within a leaugue of the cabbans where we layed, that the next day might be for our entrey. We two poore adventurers for the honnour of our countrey, or of those that shall deserve it from that day ... We knewed their councels, and made them doe whatsoever we thought best. This was a great advantage for us,  you must think. Amongst such a rawish kind of people a guift is much, and well bestowed, and liberality much esteemed, but prodigalitie [is] not in esteeme, for they abuse it being brutish” (265, 267). The Radisson of the earlier Voyages did not see the wild men this way, not because he was innocent about them, but because he would not have seen in them an opportunity for the managing of power relations beyond the merely personal. The gifts the two adventurers proffered were carefully chosen as signifiers within Native systems of social discourse, but were also intended to project dominance: knives to indicate the power of the French, a sword signifying their mastery of both peace and war, gifts for the women to ensure that their husbands would come down to trade (especially the beaver robes the French desired), and even gifts to the children to show “they should be allways under our protection ... and remember us when they should be men” (267). The ability to undertake such diplomacy would become, for Radisson, a professional skill. Dedicating the Port Nelson Relations to James II in 1685, he would write of “all the little precautions and ways of acting that I observe among the wild people; and you will also see that I established myself among them upon an authoritative and credible footing, in order to be able to profit favourably from the trade.”120 Between 1659 and 1685 Radisson would fight to ensure that these professional skills would be acknowledged, used, and protected; given his always precarious social and financial situation, they were all he had to offer. The same skills were evident in Radisson’s account of the Feast of the Dead that followed the terrible famine of that winter in which traders and Natives alike nearly died. The Feast of the Dead was of Huron origin; it was the chief integrative celebration of Huron society and had been transmitted to their neighbours, the Saulteaux and Odawa, by Huron fleeing the Huron-Iroquois wars in the midseventeenth century. Every ten or twelve years it brought together the Huron and those with whom its members wished to confirm alliances. In elaborate ceremonies lasting many days, the participants disinterred the bones of their 120 “tous les petits menagemens et les mannieres d’agir que j’observe avec les peuples sauvages, et que je me suis establi parmi eux sur un pied d’authorité et de credit, afin de pouvoir profiter avantageusement de la traite.”‡

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families buried since the last feast, and cleansed and reburied them in a common ossuary. Radisson pays little attention to the funerary aspect of the ceremonies, for which we must turn to the magnificent, reflective, and melancholy passage in Jean de Brébeuf’s Relation of 1636.121 As part of the general celebration, there were banquets, ceremonial games, and entertainments of all sorts. On this occasion the feast was conducted with Cree from the north on the fringe, potential enemies of the Saulteaux and Odawa and actual enemies of the Sioux. A political opportunity had offered itself to the Saulteaux when Radisson and Des Groseilliers arrived; by involving them in the meeting with the Sioux, the French were being invited to trade, and it was implied they were to act as ambassadors of peace to the Cree, which they were in any case anxious to do. When the Sioux arrived, it was “to make a sacrifice to the French, being gods and masters of all things as of peace as warrs,” and to present a series of gifts “to desire our assistance, for being the masters of their lives, and could dispose of them as we would, as well of the peace as of the warrs” (277–8). A present-day ethnographer would be quick to point out that the Sioux behaviour here was meant to exhibit ritual courtesy, rather than the political submission the Europeans must have thought they were receiving. In Radisson’s account we can see two systems of meaning interacting. On the Europeans’ part, there was the ornate ceremonial of early modern courts, with the courtiers’ interest in the elaborate devices of heroic romance and the allegorical readings of their rulers’ behaviour in which they so obsessively engaged. Among the wild men, we recognize the careful and perhaps even ironic diplomacy of peoples aware that they were operating within a newly threatening political framework, and dealing with a situation which they must at all costs turn to their advantage. Radisson’s earlier reference to the royal entry of Louis XIV and his bride, Maria Theresa of Austria, shows how keenly aware he was not only of the purpose of that kind of pageantry but of the need to produce it himself on such occasions. A courtly magnificence, improvised in the wilderness, characterized the performance of the partners when their turn came to participate. After a brilliant description of the young warriors in their full panoply, passing in their “white robe[s] made of castors skins painted” down a walkway lined with the members of Radisson’s own company, he writes, “The elders came with great gravetie and modestie covered with buff coats which hung downe to the 121 JR 10: 279–311. On the complex interactions between the Jesuit veneration of bones as relics and the Wendat practice of interring bones in ossuaries, see in particular Seeman, The Huron-Wendat Feast of the Dead, which closely studies Jean de Brebeuf’s account and the bicultural nature of the relics of his martyrdom.

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grounde. Every one had in his hand a pipe of councell sett with precious jowells. They had a sack on their shoulders, and that that holds it grows in the midle of their stomacks, and on their shoulders ... In this sacke all the world is inclosed.122 Their face is not painted, but their heads dressed, as the foremost” (277, and see Fig. 7). The warriors’ dress was intended to show forth their worth, the long buffalo-hide robes of the elders to attest their position. Radisson and Des Groseilliers had to behave in the same way in their turn: “we are called to the councell of new come cheifes: where we came in great pompe, as you shall heare” (277). Radisson writes, “We made fowre men to carry our guns afore us that we charged of powder alone, because of their unskillfullnesse that they might have killed their fathers. We each of us had a paire of pistoletts and sword, a daggar. We had a role of porkepick about our heads which was as a crowne, and two litle boyes that carryed the vessells that we had most need of: this was our dishes and our spoons. They made a place higher and most elevate (knowing our customs), in the midle for us to sitt where we had the men lay our armes” (279). The Saulteaux and Odawa had clearly made as close a study of the Europeans as the Europeans had made of them. The ceremonies that the two explorers then engaged in would, as Radisson says of a Native oration, “be long to writ it” (277), but they centred on political rituals designed to show that conflicts between groups had been resolved. As the feast wound up, the games traditional to its celebration took place, “playes, mirths, and bataills for sport.” In one of the most brilliant passages of the Voyages, Radisson writes, “In the publick place the women danced with melody. The yong men ... indeavored to gett a pryse ... The feast was made to eate all up ... Every one brings the most exquisit things to shew what his country affoards. The renewing of their alliances, the mariages according to their countrey coustoms are made; also the visit of the boans of their deceased friends for they keepe them and bestow them uppon one an other. We sang in our language as they in theirs, to which they gave greate attention ... This feast ended, everyone returns to his countrey well satisfied” (281–2). Notwithstanding the aims of Radisson and Des Groseilliers, the discourse in which their dialogue with the Saulteaux and Sioux took place was thus not solely that of economic necessity. Rather, it reflected the practices of “honour” societies, social units in which a symbolic display of rank, station, and community and personal repute took precedence over the possession of material wealth and the priorities of the individual self. Each of these groups, whether Aboriginal or European, was communicating with the other using a social

122 A medicine bundle.

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discourse that was intended to be read symbolically and was – not incidentally – profoundly satisfying to the participants themselves. Farthest West, Farthest North Following the Feast of the Dead, Radisson, Des Groseilliers, and their companions travelled westward “seaven small journeys” (283) to spend six weeks in the villages of the “nation of the beefe” with whom they had been negotiating. This expedition, valuable for its brief description of Siouan life before the arrival of the horse, is important as well for its extent. Radisson reports that the Sioux “have no wood, and make provision of mosse for their firing” (283), so he and Des Groseilliers must have travelled as far as the edge of the prairie in western Minnesota. As Colin Calloway points out, the Sioux were in a state of transition, about to remake their corn-planting society around the arrival of horse culture, and to move west under the pressure of the displacement of Great Lakes peoples by the Iroquois.123 Radisson noted that they were still sowing corn, but says nothing about horses. Nor did he mention the striking moment when, within a day’s journey, the forest landscape of the east is left behind for the vast grasslands of the west. His attention was fixed entirely on the area’s potential for trade: the soil, the mines of copper and tin, and the high-quality beaver skins from the north where the Sioux retired in winter, “not so good in the whole world, but not in such a store as the Christinos, but far better” (283). Remarkably, this is as far west as any European had travelled north of the Spanish sphere of influence at that time, though in the next decades the French would rapidly explore and map the area. However, the journey to the north Radisson now relates has seemed more problematic. After Radisson, suffering painfully from what may have been a hernia, had spent five days abandoned in the snow before being rescued by a passing Native, the partners managed, despite the rotten ice of April, to cross to the north shore of Lake Superior not far from its narrowing western end. Radisson then describes, with suspicious brevity, a journey they made to James Bay. Historians have been divided as to whether in fact such a seemingly difficult journey could have taken place, chiefly because, to a modern without experience of canoe travel and intimidated by the terrain, the time available (twelve weeks between mid-April and mid-July) appears far too short.124 They 123 Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, 308. 124 Nute (Caesars of the Wilderness, 65–7) regarded the whole story as an invention, and Ruggles (A Country So Interesting, 276) said that there is “no satisfactory evidence” it was undertaken, but both Henry C. Campbell (“Exploration of Lake Superior,” 21) and

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have also been suspicious of the brevity of Radisson’s account. However, we have seen him writing in near-note form in Voyage III, and all this may signify is that it was Des Groseilliers who made the journey, not Radisson, perhaps because he was still weak from his recent illness. Certainly, his estimate at the end of Voyage IV that in his travels he had covered 900 leagues could not have included a trip to James Bay. As for the timing of the journey – let us assume it was Des Groseilliers’s – the river routes were intimately familiar to the Ojibwe and Odawa, the terrain was criss-crossed by trails, the portages were well established, and the elder man would be travelling in a light canoe with experienced Ojibwe and carrying few if any trade goods. As Victor Lytwyn points out, during the trade disruption in the south caused by the Iroquois, the Natives had employed a circular route to continue some trade, using middlemen who brought French trade goods north up the Saint-Maurice and Saguenay rivers to rendezvous on James Bay, from where goods were then traded south again via the Albany River and Lake Nipigon to the upper Great Lakes.125 If Des Groseilliers travelled the Albany route north from Lake Superior, the journey would have taken approximately two weeks. He could then have spent perhaps a month on the Bay and returned “by another river,” as Radisson says (possibly the Ogoki), in about three weeks.126 The circumstantial details of what he found on James Bay – the people, the remnants of Henry Hudson’s house, the summer heat, and the islands along the east coast of the Bay – were easy enough to describe to Radisson on his return. The testimony of experienced canoeists today shows that such a journey, even within the tight time frame, was entirely Arthur C. Adams (Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lxii–lxv) took Radisson’s account seriously. See also Lytwyn, Fur Trade of the Little North. The Ojibwe and Cree were well informed about the geography of the area, and one interpretation is that Radisson was exploiting second-hand information given to Father Gabriel Druillettes by an Algonquin informant (see JR 44: 237–45), which describes six routes to James Bay from the interior. Today, experienced canoeists confirm that it would certainly have been possible to reach James Bay and return in the time available (early spring to perhaps mid-July, when they had to head back to New France); see below. 125 Lytwyn, Fur Trade of the Little North, 2–3. Lytwyn is persuaded from Radisson’s description that Des Groseilliers had made the journey to James Bay. 126 The account of the geography of the area in the Jesuit Relation of 1659–60 states: “Moreover, from this same Lake Superior, following a River toward the North, we arrive, after eight or ten days’ journey, at Hudson bay, in fifty-five degrees of latitude. From this place, in a North-westerly direction, it is about forty leagues by land to Button Bay, where lies port Melson [sic], on the fifty-seventh degree of latitude and the two hundred and seventieth of longitude” (JR 45: 223). See also 289n.214.

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possible.127 Certainly, Radisson and Des Groseilliers were ready to demonstrate that Hudson Bay could be approached from the interior as well as by sea.128 On 30 December 1665 Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, wrote to Robert Boyle in Ireland about the newly arrived Frenchmen, particularly noting that “with a boate they went out of a lake in Canada, into a River, which discharged itself Northwest into the Southsea, into which they went, and returned Nort-East into Hudson Bay.”129 This is the route Des Groseilliers, at least, must have followed in 1660 and which Radisson sketches in Voyage IV. The question remains: When a northern route was what the HBC investors thought they were financing, why did Radisson not make more of the one place in his Voyages where he had an opportunity to produce information about the north? Another interesting question is posed by the remarkable account of the soul’s journey after death (probably Ojibwe in origin) which we encounter near the end of Voyage IV. Radisson’s shift to the viewpoint of the trader has seemed complete, and yet he tells this story of the “beleefe of those poor people” (297) with almost no intervention from a European point of view except at beginning and end. Ethnographically the account has been little investigated, perhaps because, like the Huron historiography at the beginning of Voyage II, it is a compilation of stories Radisson heard at various times and places. A recognizable motif is the trembling bridge across which the spirit must walk, which 127 George Luste, personal communication, 4 June 2010; Gordon Teskey, personal communication, 5 August 2011. See also Morse, Canoe Routes of the Voyageurs (1962) and Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada. As a very inexperienced youth, the noted journalist Eric Sevareid undertook somewhat the same journey with another young companion, and made fairly good time. His account of the journey itself is well worth consulting; see Sevareid, Canoeing with the Cree. 128 That they were known to have supplied this kind of information is evident as late as John Oldmixon’s 1708 account of English activity on the Bay. Oldmixon writes: “Monsieur Radison and Monsieur Gooselier, two French-men, meeting with some Savages in the Lake of Assimponals, in Canada, they learnt of them that they might go by Land to the Bottom of the Bay, where the English had not yet been. Upon which they desir’d them to conduct them thither, and the Savages accordingly did it. The two French-men return’d to the upper lake the same way they came, and thence to Quebec ...” (Oldmixon, in Tyrrell, Documents relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay, 376). The question of a land route to James Bay was deeply interesting to the Jesuits, as well as to figures like Claude Bernou, as Radisson’s exchanges with Bernou (see volume 2) illustrate. 129 Boyle, Correspondence, 2: 612.

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reappears in other versions of the story.130 Questions like these keep arising as we move towards the conclusion of the fourth Voyage, provoked not only by the problematic trip to James Bay and the positioning of the narrative of the soul’s journey, but also by the vivid account (at second hand) of Dollard des Ormeaux’s battle with the Iroquois and by the rapid survey of events in Acadia, Boston, and London about which we would like to know much more than Radisson tells us. Nevertheless, the long list of Aboriginal nations concluding the manuscript attests to its formal purpose as an example of the documentary genre “voyage.” Finally, there is the problem of the viewpoint from which Radisson narrates his adventures. Radisson’s experience in the 1650s ought to have produced a man who had undergone métissage, someone in whom were fused the psychological and social features of both Native and White. But his willing transformation into a trader in Voyage IV suggests that, if the process began during his captivity, it was never fully completed. Why, then, when telling his story in London a decade later, did he not look back on all his earlier adventures from the viewpoint of the trader he had become by 1659? The first of his Voyages is marked both by its youthful freshness and by its lack of disguise in describing his responses and his motives, and the second Voyage is little different. Voyage III has its own problems, as we have seen. But in Voyage IV, while vividly rendering the culture of the Saulteaux, Ojibwe, and Sioux, Radisson presents himself, with the same innocence, as one who is quite willing to manipulate the peoples he trades with. The answer becomes evident when we stand back to look at the complete record of his writings. They prove to be the work of a man who invariably responds spontaneously to the moment, either the moment as he experiences it or the moment he writes it down, whether it is torture and adoption, scalping an enemy, outwitting the Saulteaux, responding to the expert questioning of someone trying to extract information from him (the Abbé Bernou, as we will see), or the urgent need to defend his actions (the Port Nelson Relations and his later depositions). This tendency to live in, and record, the moment is far from satisfying our need for coherence, whether we approach Radisson as a historical actor or as a writer. But it is paradoxically the fountainhead of his remarkable capacity to render the texture of North American life in the seventeenth century.

130 See Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwe Religion, chapter 8, “The Ghost Midéwiwin”; Landes, Ojibwe Religion and the Midéwewin, 63–5; Kinietz, Chippewa Village, 153–4; and the Ojibwe historian William Warren’s account of the “Road of Souls” in History of the Ojibway Nation, 72–4.

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Pierre-Esprit Radisson in search of better success

In August 1665 Radisson and Des Groseilliers arrived in London with information that over the next five years led to the chartering of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the first of its successful trading journeys to the Bay. But in December 1675, only ten years later, the partners would leave the service of the company and go to France, seeking a better reception for their professional knowledge and skills. The key to their departure may lie in the events of 1660– 65 chronicled in the last, hurried pages of the fourth Voyage. With characteristic brevity the manuscript copy passes over in only four pages the events of eight years, to bring readers to the point where, returned from the failed 1668 voyage of the Eaglet, Radisson could write: “wee came back safe God be thanked. And the other I hope is gone on his voyage God be with him. I hope to embarke myselfe by the help of God this fourth yeare and I beseech him to grant me better successe than I have had hitherto and beseech him to give me grace and to make me partaker of that everlasting happinesse, which is the onely thing a man ought to look after” (305). This time there is no question that Radisson was part of the events he briefly chronicles, a series of discouragements brought about by a complex amalgam of economic pressure, class tension, and Des Groseilliers’s tendency to pursue his aims outside the system – a mixture that continued to breed problems for Radisson well into the 1680s. In 1656 Des Groseilliers and his unnamed French companion had returned to New France with an astounding cargo of furs, one that established objectives for the developing fur trade for more than a decade. In 1660 the reception of Des Groseilliers and his new partner, Radisson, was even more enthusiastic. Their trove of furs arrived at a dark time in the life of New France and, in the view of Marie de l’Incarnation, was the saving of the colony.131 It is difficult to estimate accurately the value of the furs they brought with them, but Radisson insists that the final figure was around 500,000 livres tournois. The partners had, however, conducted their expedition entirely outside the ordinance, initiated by Governor Jean de Lauson in 1657, that no one from New France was to go to the interior without official permission. Not only did they have to pay the quart, the burdensome tax of one-quarter of the value of their furs, but they were heavily fined in addition, and Des Groseilliers was briefly jailed. Writing a decade later, Radisson was still bitterly sarcastic about what he saw as the expropriation of his legitimate profits, and at Governor d’Argenson’s patronizing of the two as mere provincials: “he would 131 Marie de l’Incarnation to her son, 17 September 1660 (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre clxxxv, 631).

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have some of them at what price soever, that he might the better maintain his coach and horses at Paris. He fined us four thousand pounds 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 [fined us] moreover six thousand pounds 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 dayes in the same country with our relations and freinds” (300). These themes persist in Radisson’s writings and other statements throughout his life: the unjust appropriation of what rightly belongs to him, and the devaluing of the status he has earned through his accumulated skills. In his view, the partners had brought glory and profit to New France, and they ought to have been rewarded for it. Unhappily for Radisson, the partners’ search over the next few years for a way to exploit the knowledge they had gained repeatedly met with failure, and it appears that whatever was left of their share of the proceeds from their furs was dissipated. Des Groseilliers’s negotiations with a merchant in La Rochelle ended, typically for him, in court; in Acadia the two were treated as pirates; and in Boston their plans for a voyage to the north were frustrated by the caution of captain Zachariah Gillam,132 whom they would meet again on HBC service and at Port Nelson in 1682. It was a fortunate encounter with King Charles’s commissioners in Boston in 1664 that turned the tide. It brought them, by another series of misadventures, to London just as the Great Plague of 1665 was beginning to retreat, and it led eventually to the composition of the Voyages. Radisson Writes His Voyages The story of how Radisson and Des Groseilliers persuaded the king, Prince Rupert, and a group of investors from the court to found the Hudson’s Bay Company has always been told as a narrative of success finally achieved, but between 1665 and 1670 it was never entirely certain that it would be the English who exploited the newly revealed resources of the North American 132 Zachariah Gillam (1636–82). Boston-born captain with the HBC. Besides his aborted trip north in 1663, he captained the Nonsuch on its famed voyage in 1668–69 to the Bay, where he and Des Groseilliers wintered and traded successfully. Also captained the Prince Rupert on the voyage of 1670. After a dispute with Radisson over private trading, he went back to Boston but re-entered HBC service in 1682 and sailed to Port Nelson with Governor John Bridgar, plunging him into the conflict described by Radisson in the Relation of 1682–83. He became ill; the Prince Rupert dragged her anchor and the ship, Gillam, and nine crew were lost in October 1682.

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interior. As we have seen, Oldenburg had written quickly to Robert Boyle about the new arrivals, and a handwritten newsletter dated 31 December 1677 also took note: “There have been for some years last past some overtures made by two or three Frenchmen for the delivering of the so long looked for Northwest passage ... [they] pretend they can shew a passage out of some of those Lakes and bayes about Hudsons Bay quite to the South Sea.”133 Between 1666 and 1670, there was also great interest among the French and Dutch in what Radisson and Des Groseilliers knew about Hudson Bay. In the hurried conclusion to his fourth Voyage, Radisson says nothing about this competition, in which it appears that he and Des Groseilliers played a part, as late as 1670 communicating their willingness to serve Louis XIV via the French ambassador in London even as Charles II was about to grant a charter to the HBC adventurers.134 In 1666 Elie Godefroy Touret, a Picard like Des Groseilliers, had been imprisoned in London, accused of trying to entice Des Groseilliers to go over to the Dutch. Touret petitioned Lord Arlington135 with a colourful tale of Des Groseilliers’s deceits, and spoke of a “book” of Des Groseilliers (possibly a journal) which he had given Arlington.136 In 1670 the French, relying on his tale of Arctic exploration, granted the Dutch captain Laurens van Heemskerk137 133 Oxford, All Souls College, Ms. 160, f.89r-90v. 134 Colbert in Paris to Colbert de Croissy in London, 2 May 1670 (23 April by the Julian calendar used in England). Mentions the two Frenchmen who offer to put the king in possession of Hudson Bay, and points out that a man named van Heemskerk, who had been in the service of the English king, has just made Louis XIV the same proposal. Colbert describes the extensive concessions awarded van Heemskerk and asks if the two Frenchmen have made the same discovery. If so, send them in all haste to France as the English king will certainly award them the same lands, which will prejudice van Heemskerk’s claim. Colbert, Lettres Instructions et Memoires, 3, pt. 1: 238–9. 135 Henry Bennet, lst Earl of Arlington (1618–85). Royalist politician and diplomat; secretary of state, 1662–74. 136 Arlington was very careful to destroy his papers whenever possible, so regrettably Des Groseilliers’s “book” has never been traced. The tale of Touret and his accusations is told at length in Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 105–8; see also Sir Peter Colleton to Arlington, 12 November 1666, (TNA, SP 29/178, no. 20), the examination of Touret (17 November 1666, TNA, SP 29/178, f.121), the warrant for his arrest (21 November 1666, TNA, SP 23/279), Touret’s appeals to Arlington for his release (TNA, SP 29/181, ff.56–9, all 10 December), and his final pleading letter to Arlington (23 December 1666, TNA, SP 29/182, f.126). 137 Laurens van Heemskerk (c. 1632–99). Pilot, spy, and pretended Arctic explorer. Funded by Charles II, he built an experimental ship called Nonsuch which has been confused

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broad concessions in Hudson Bay. They were consequently anxious to draw the “two Frenchmen” away from the project for which Charles II was about to issue a charter. But, as Luca Codignola has shown, the tale van Heemskerk spun for Louis XIV had in fact been stolen from Radisson. Throughout the following decade, the French hovered on the edges of the English project: Father Charles Albanel138 attempted to contact Des Groseilliers on the Bay in 1674 and, after being captured himself by the English, encountered him in London,139 and several figures Radisson knew well had French origins or alliances. For example, Sir George Carteret,140 who in 1665–66 took charge of the partners at court, was born on the island of Jersey and had served in the French navy; Charles Bayly,141 the new company’s first governor on Hudson Bay, was a Quaker from a French Catholic family; and the Kirke brothers, into whose family Radisson married in 1672, had all been born in Dieppe.142 Nevertheless, the investors put

138

139

140

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with the HBC ship of the same name. Claimed he had sailed on the Wivenhoe in 1669, but legal documents prove he could not have. He must have conversed with Radisson in the winter of 1670 after the Wivenhoe’s return because he changed allegiance to France, and, giving a detailed account of “the florida of the North,” persuaded Colbert to award him privileges on the Bay similar to those Charles was granting to the HBC. His incompetence led Colbert to withdraw support. See Codignola, “Laurens Van Heemskerk’s Pretended Expeditions to the Arctic,” 515–17, and below. Charles Albanel (1613?–1696). Jesuit missionary and explorer who attempted to contact both Radisson and Des Groseilliers on the Bay. Captured by Charles Bayly in 1674, he was sent to London, where he was said by Sir James Hayes to have induced the partners to defect to France in 1675 (see note 139, below). See Rousseau and Roy, “La Mission Politique du Père Albanel à la Baie d’Hudson,” and Radisson’s “Narrative” (volume 2). For Albanel’s role in bringing the partners back into French service, see also Hayes to Jenkins, 26 January 1684 (TNA, CO1/66/129, ff.315–16). Sir George Carteret (1610?–1680). Naval officer and administrator. Vice-chamberlain of the royal household, which is probably why he was given charge of Radisson and Des Groseilliers. An early stockholder in the HBC. Not to be confused with Colonel George Cartwright (see Voyage IV). Charles Bayly (fl. c. 1630–81). Parents possibly members of the household of Queen Henrietta Maria; he may have known Charles II from childhood. An enthusiastic Quaker, often imprisoned in Europe and England until he gained his freedom by agreeing to join the HBC. Gave Radisson a fine manuscript atlas, now in the Newberry Library in Chicago. Sir John Kirke (d. 1685). His elder brothers had captured Quebec in 1629. All five had been born in Dieppe of an English father and (possibly) French mother and were

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their faith in the two explorers, and in 1668 finally sent them off, with instructions to Captains William Stannard of the Eaglet and Zachariah Gillam of the Nonsuch to “use the said Mr. Gooseberry and Mr. Radisson with all manner of Civility and Courtesy and to take care that all your Company doe beare a perticular respect until them they being the persons upon whose Credit wee have undertaken this expedition.”143 Yet, when Radisson’s voyage to the Bay in the Eaglet was defeated by bad weather, the future of the entire enterprise must have seemed an open question. Radisson always hated being idle; typically, in 1661, while Des Groseilliers was away in Paris and La Rochelle, he had thought of going to France on his own simply to keep busy. In London awaiting what he hoped would be Des Groseilliers’s return from his voyage in the Nonsuch, he would have sought occupation, and it turned out to be the writing of the Voyages. Suing the HBC in Chancery in 1694, Radisson stated that he wrote these early narratives at the request of the king, and it may well be that that is where the idea originated. But the documentary record suggests that the task itself may have been carried forward under the aegis of Prince Rupert, undoubtedly with James Hayes, his secretary, keeping up the pressure on the inexperienced author. Even before the Principal Navigations of Richard Hakluyt (1589–1600) and the Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages of Samuel Purchas (1613), many writers had established the “voyage” as the expected genre for a traveller to tell of his journeys. There is thus no surprise that a set of “voyages” is what Radisson devised. Alone in London in the winter of 1668–69, he needed to keep the interest of Rupert, Hayes, and the early investors on the boil, and his Voyages were almost certainly written for this purpose and in this circle.144 Radisson amusedly observes in Voyage I: “he that is of a considered subjects of Louis XIV by the French though naturalized in England in 1621 (see Pouliot, “Que penser des frères Kirke?”). Sir John became a prominent London merchant; an early stockholder in the HBC and a London Committee member from 1670 to 1676. Radisson married (or perhaps eloped with) his daughter (forename uncertain, possibly Mary) in 1672. The debate over the brothers’ nationality continued, as Radisson’s failed negotiations with Colbert and Seignelay (see volume 2) make evident. The Kirkes were not Huguenots (French Calvinists), as has sometimes been stated, but royalist Anglicans; Sir John was a parishioner of St Martin in the Fields at his death. 143 TNA, SP 29/251B, f.71v (n.d.). 144 As Nute pointed out, the text of the first (eventually superseded) grant of the trade and territories of Hudson Bay, to Sir Edward Hungerford and the other investors (23 June 1669), closely reflects wording used by Radisson; see Nute, “Radisson and Des Groseilliers’ Contribution to Geography,” 416–17. The first Hungerford grant is TNA, SP 44/25, ff.107v-108r.

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good resolution must be of strong hopes of what he undertakes, and if the dangers weare considered, which may be found in things of importancy, you ingenious men would become cooks” (160). The charismatic and soldierly prince – linguist, musician, artist, mathematician, and chemist – was certainly “ingenious” as that term was used in the seventeenth century.145 Rupert joined the planning for the new company as early as December 1667,146 and Hayes, as his secretary, was continuously involved in Radisson’s tumultuous affairs from 1668 until 1685, well after Rupert’s death in 1682. Between 7 August 1668, when the Eaglet returned to England, and 6 November 1668, when Radisson again received financial support from the investors,147 he had to find a way to survive; and, as a man of the early modern period, this would naturally mean a resort to his patron. Radisson certainly resorted to Prince Rupert for help in 1678, though without luck on that occasion. Conscious of the historical importance of the events in which he had earlier participated, Rupert had tried once to prepare his own memoirs but never finished,148 and it would not be surprising if in 1668 he encouraged Radisson to write down what he had seen in North America. If he did, it may account for the number of battles so enthusiastically recounted in all four Voyages; Rupert, himself a veteran of many battles, would have enjoyed those. From later documents it is possible to trace, very faintly, what happened in the autumn of 1668. On 29 January 1683 (that is, 1684 by the Gregorian calendar), Lord Preston, English ambassador in Paris when Radisson defected to England in 1684, wrote to Sir Leoline Jenkins, the secretary of state: “I am told privately that a relation of the manner of taking possession of Port Nelson in the name of the English by these very Des Grozeliers, and Radison, may be amongst the Papers of Prince Robert [Rupert].”149 However, the chronology makes no sense; Radisson did not return to English allegiance until May 1684, an interval during which Lord Preston corresponded frequently with Jenkins and others in an ineffectual attempt to keep up with what was going on.150 145 See Ian Roy, “Prince Rupert,” ODNB. 146 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 109. 147 For the return of the Eaglet on 5 August 1668, see London Gazette, no. 286, “From Monday August 10 to Thursday August 13”; for Radisson’s reappearance in the investors’ accounts, see HBCA, A.14/1, f.77v. 148 Warburton, Memoires of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, 1: iii–iv. 149 BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63760, f.19v. 150 Preston was a clever and well-informed man, but his abrasive character and his subsequent hapless career do not inspire confidence in his judgment. However, it is only fair to say that he was out of the picture in part because he was ill in December and January 1683–84.

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Radisson did not capture Port Nelson for the English until the summer of 1684, and the second Port Nelson Relation thus could not have been circulated until his return in October 1684. Preston was probably reporting, inaccurately, a rumour that the papers of the prince, who had died in 1682, contained a narrative by Radisson of some sort that referred to Hudson Bay, which Voyage IV, however briefly, seems to do. Prince Rupert’s library had been catalogued in 1677; it contained several documents referring to Hudson Bay, all attributed carefully to their authors or origins.151 But item 222 lists a manuscript simply termed “Journall in Wwritten hand” and not attributed to anybody. Radisson’s four early narratives contain no indication of their authorship whatsoever beyond a casual reference to his first name deeply buried in Voyage IV (259–60); even the Bodleian manuscript, a scribal copy of 1685–86, is unattributed. The convergence of these details suggests that Radisson, in the three months between August and November 1668, wrote for Prince Rupert, or while under his protection, the original of his first four Voyages, the “Journall in Wwritten hand” that the scrivener Nicholas Hayward152 copied out in 1686 (see Fig. 2) and – as was then the custom with recopied originals – simply discarded.153 This is frail evidence, but though frail it is the first hint we have ever had as to the possible genesis of the Voyages.154

151 Prince Rupert’s library catalogue is BL, Ms. Sloane 555. It is dated November 1677 and lists 1,195 numbered titles; an edition by Joseph L. Black and Germaine Warkentin is planned. 152 Nicholas Hayward (birth and death dates unknown). Scrivener, notary, and translator of French business documents, practising on the Virginia Walk of the Royal Exchange. Actively concerned with colonization in Virginia. Stockholder in the HBC and member of the London Committee 1681, 1683, and 1685–89. Witnessed Radisson’s oath of loyalty to the HBC on 12 May 1684. In 1685-6 copied most of the Bodleian manuscript of Radisson’s Voyages. Probably known to Samuel Pepys; both had extensive Huguenot connections. 153 For Hayward’s copying of the Voyages, see the Textual Introduction and Warkentin, “Who Was the Scribe of the Radisson Manuscript?” Robert Hilliker states that I once suggested Radisson had commissioned the copying of the Bodleian manuscript in 1686. To my regret I did not, but wish I had, since it’s an intriguing possibility, and an act very typical of Radisson. See Hilliker, “Telling the Transnational Self.” 154 Prince Rupert’s library was sold by 1682; see the final account rendered by his executor, the Earl of Craven, in Warburton, Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers, 3: 559 (“[received] of Mr. Charles Griffith for the Prince’s Library £100”). There is no indication if the sale included manuscripts as well as printed books.

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Fig 2: A page from the scribal manuscript of Radisson’s Voyages.

At Work on the Bay Radisson wrote nothing further during the years from 1668 to about 1676, at least nothing that has survived. His prayer was answered and he did put to sea in 1669 on the Wivenhoe, captained by William Stannard, and though this apparently wandering voyage never made its goal at the Bottom of the Bay, it was

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away from England for about eight months. During this time Radisson would have had ample opportunity, either through personal experience or in conversations with Stannard, to acquire the knowledge of coastal waters apparent in the Mémoire on the northern seacoast of North America that he copied out for the Abbé Claude Bernou about 1676 (see volume 2). Departing in June 1669, the ship did not return until January 1670, and while probing the area around Greenland and the Hudson Strait, seems not to have made the Bay itself. In fact, Stannard returned with a cargo of sugar, which suggests that he must have wandered very far south indeed before returning home.155 Nute thought the Dutch captain Laurens van Heemskerk must have been on the Wivenhoe with Stannard and Radisson, for he later wrote of meeting on his  Arctic travels a man who had lived for some time among the Iroquois and spoke their language well, and he used what he learned to make an elaborate plea to Colbert for support. However, as Luca Codignola shows, van Heemskerk’s northern explorations were pure fiction. The tale he told to Louis XIV and Colbert in February 1670, and which resulted in a prompt grant from the French crown of extensive rights in Hudson Bay, was almost certainly based on what the gregarious Radisson had told him in London shortly after his return in January.156 In 1670 the HBC received its charter, and between then and 1674 one or both of the partners worked at the Bottom of the Bay, as the area around Rupert River and Moose Fort was called, to establish posts and draw the Natives down to trade. They were not, however, in positions of command, as Radisson would be in 1685–87 when he was required to send regular written reports (unfortunately no longer extant) to the London Committee. In 1674 Radisson did not travel to the Bay, and Nute thought it was because he believed the London Committee were failing to exploit the knowledge he and Des Groseilliers had to offer.157 That was certainly the reason Radisson gave in the first Port Nelson Relation for their decamping to France in 1675. But there may have been other reasons; as E.E. Rich tells it, the captains who sailed the HBC vessels were a rough lot, often drunk and more than ready to trade illegally on their own account, and their subordinates cannot have been any better.158 Historically, the class of men from which these seamen were drawn 155 In the “Letter to Claude Bernou” (volume 2) Radisson mentions the ritual of crossing the equinoctial line but interestingly does not say that, as a novice, he was “baptized.” 156 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 121–2; Codignola, “Laurens Van Heemskerk’s Pretended Expeditions to the Arctic, 1668–1672.” 157 Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 144. 158 Rich, The History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 91–2, 110.

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thought of the French contemptuously as every good Englishman’s natural enemy. As Frenchmen, Radisson and Des Groseilliers cannot have had an easy time of it, particularly Radisson, with his good manners and agreeable personality. He was, furthermore, a newly married man; in 1672 he had eloped with the daughter of Sir John Kirke,159 one of the five fabled Kirke brothers of the “shrewd and ruthless merchant family”160 that had captured and occupied Quebec for a brief period in 1629–32. Sir John was one of the HBC investors, so Radisson’s marriage carried him, perhaps too obviously, up the social scale. Finally, there is the matter of Radisson’s own frustrated sense of entitlement, evident in the bitter concluding pages of Voyage IV and reiterated in the two Port Nelson Relations. Radisson and Des Groseilliers knew everything the HBC needed to know about how to survive and trade in the northern wilderness; they spoke the languages, knew how to engage with the Natives, what articles were best for trade, and what foods might be obtained locally, or successfully be planted given the climate at fifty-seven degrees north latitude. If their knowledge was taken lightly or dismissed, they could take it elsewhere. Thus, in 1675, encouraged by the Jesuit explorer Father Albanel who had been captured at Rupert River and taken to London in 1674, they left the HBC’s service. Albanel had twice (1672 and 1674) attempted to contact one or other of the partners on the Bay, and his backing from French interests is evident from the assurance they were given of a reward for changing allegiance of 400 louis d’or, which Colbert promptly paid them, in cash. There was a cost to Radisson, however; he had to forfeit the generous pension he was receiving from his father-in-law, and his actions – as his writings show – were henceforth determined by his always uncertain financial situation.

159 Her first name is uncertain; according to Nute, “some writers on Radisson’s career [unnamed] have confused her with Mary Kirke, a notorious courtesan of the period” (Caesars of the Wilderness, 143). However, the girl’s aunt was named Marie (Nicholls, A Fleeting Empire, 79) so perhaps Radisson’s wife was as well. Sir James Hayes wrote to Sir Leoline Jenkins in 1684 that Radisson had “deluded & privately married” the girl (Hayes to Jenkins, 26 January 1684, TNA, CO 1/66/129, ff.315–16). Whatever the case, Radisson claimed that when he left for France in 1675 he had forfeited a pension from Sir John Kirke of £200 (see volume 2). This was a substantial sum; see below for Radisson’s financial affairs later in life. 160 Pope, Fish into Wine, 137. For the Kirkes as merchant traders, see Nicholls, A Fleeting Empire.

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Radisson’s behaviour as well as his seeming defections are sharply illuminated when we situate them within this transition from early modern codes of court behaviour to the social forms that would characterize the administrative culture of the emerging modern state. The economic policies of Colbert were developed within a hierarchical social framework where public codes of behaviour were still validated by the elaborate performances of court society and where centralizing imperial policies strove to dominate a polyglot and entrepreneurial international trading community.161 However, in England “reasons of state” arguments of the sort behind Colbert’s practice were promoted quite differently by merchant apologists for the importance of an entrepreneurial commerce. There, the ruler’s obligation was to “strengthen the nation’s resources instead of trying to govern by abstract principles,” writes Mary Poovey, and the person whose role it was to interpret the system of trade to the prince was the merchant (whom Poovey points out was at this time probably the only person who could see it as a system).162 That such a transition had occurred was noted publicly as early as 1705 by Radisson’s near contemporary, Daniel Defoe: “The power of Nations is not now measur’d, as it has been, by Prowess, Gallantry, and Conduct” he wrote. “’Tis the Wealth of Nations that makes them Great.”163 Radisson’s attempts to make his way in a society in transformation are chronicled from his own point of view in the opening pages of the first of the two Relations he wrote to explain his behaviour at Port Nelson during 1682– 83 and 1684. He writes that, arriving in France in 1675, the partners were promptly paid their reward, and Colbert arranged for letters of pardon and reinstatement from the king, the condition of which was that they devote their experience in the beaver trade to the advancement of French interests.164 In April 1676 they were granted a “privilege” to establish a fishery for white por161 On court hierarchy and French economic policy, see Root, The Fountain of Privilege, 213–40, especially 235, and 140–59 for the contrast between France and England. For Colbert’s policies on trade with New France, see Bosher, “The Imperial Environment.” In Sargent, The Economic Policy of Colbert, 79, the finance minister is described as regarding foreign trade as a “war of extermination” in the interests of the greatness of France. 162 Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact, xvii, and see chapter 2, second section. 163 Defoe, The Review, 19 April 1705, in McVeagh, ed., A Review of the Affairs of France, 2: 116. 164 The king’s letter of grace and remission is ANFr, O1 19, ff.296–7.

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poises and harp seals on the St Lawrence, but they were made to wait a suspiciously long time for other employment as Colbert and his son and aide the Marquis de Seignelay165 used Radisson as a pawn in their attempts to frustrate the Kirkes. Because Sir John and his prosperous brothers had been born in Dieppe, they and their children, among them Radisson’s new wife, were regarded as French subjects, though they had been naturalized in England in 1621.166 Since Laurens van Heemskerk, exploiting what he had learned in conversation from Radisson, had successfully sold Colbert on his own plans in 1670, Radisson’s only use to the great minister would have been the chance to get Sir John Kirke’s daughter over to France. The battle for Mistress Radisson stretched out over several years, during which Radisson found himself desperately searching for the contacts at the French court that would afford him the “protection” needed by anyone who expected to succeed in their ambitions, let alone sustain themselves. Radisson several times speaks of his “friends” at court, but given his hapless experience in France he cannot have had any very useful ones. “Friends” is a term weighted with meaning in the seventeenth century; it signifies the senior members of an extended family and their political allies, who can affect a man’s career by offering (or withholding) their influence. One man Radisson must have met shortly after his arrival in 1675 is the Abbé Claude Bernou (born c. 1638, died after 1695). A minor court figure and journalist of whom little would be known had he not interested himself in North America, Bernou was part of a group seeking the favour of the king, Colbert, and the Marquis de Seignelay.167 Laurence Pope observes that the group was “sometimes referred to by Bernou as the Société des Bons Enfans after the street of that name, sometimes as the Société de la Rue de la Victoire, where Seignelay had his offices.” It included Bernou’s good friend and employer the Abbé Renaudot, editor of the court-sponsored news journal La Gazette, as well as men of action like Pierre de Cussy, governor of Santo Domingo, Louis-Hector de Callière,168 soon to 165 Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (1651–90). Son of Colbert, and after his death minister of the marine, the French navy. 166 Nicholls, A Fleeting Empire, 79. 167 Information on the Abbé Bernou is widely scattered; the only extended treatment is of his years as emissary in Rome, when he wrote to Renaudot regularly; see Pope, “Coronelli et les hommes du roi soleil.” 168 Louis-Hector de Callière (1648–1703). Soldier, governor of Montreal, governor general of New France from 1698 to 1703. Negotiated with thirty Native nations the Great Peace of Montreal (1701), by which the Iroquois agreed to remain neutral in any war between France and England. See Radisson’s affidavit of 1697, volume 2.

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become governor of Montreal, and the cartographer, diplomat, and sometime royal librarian Melchisédech Thévenot.169 The group of friends was strongly anti-Jesuit and favoured aggressive colonial expansion. A number of Bernou’s letters to Renaudot mention Radisson, who, in search of someone who could speak for him in circles higher than he could penetrate on his own, clearly attached himself to the geographically oriented abbé, who in turn was evidently glad to learn whatever he could from the explorer.170 However, by 1680 Bernou’s interest, fuelled by the explorations of La Salle which he and Renaudot were following, shifted southward towards the concept of a great French empire anchored by the Mississippi. He changed his mind about Radisson too and was quick to shed the association once the explorer abandoned his allegiance to Louis XIV and returned to the HBC early in May 1684. Nevertheless, it is Radisson’s relationship with Bernou that led to three pieces of writing, all extant in the explorer’s own hand, that, as we shall see, cast fresh light on his capabilities and interests. Their relationship is also evident in the documents in Bernou’s own hand that gather information given him by Radisson during the period 1676–78 in order to draw a picture of the economic and settlement possibilities of a French empire in North America. In Caesars of the Wilderness, Grace Lee Nute printed these writings, much retouched, as texts by Radisson, but there are two reasons why this is improbable. First, close analysis of the manuscripts (see volume 2) shows that they appear to record Bernou’s own notes and drafts of what Radisson related or sketched for him. Their impetus towards synthesis and the establishment of policy is evident, and, as we have already seen, these were areas in which Radisson was weak; his strength was the reporting of detail, and he clearly gave Bernou much information, including particulars about the interior route to Hudson Bay. Radisson also copied at least one text for Bernou: the log of the Employ’s trip from Point Comfort at the Bottom of the Bay to Port Nelson in the summer of 1673, included in volume 2. The chronology of Radisson’s presence on the Bay that year means that he could not have been present on this journey, but Des Groseilliers was, and since the 169 Laurence Pope, personal communication, 14 May 2009. 170 Possibly through Bernou, Radisson encountered the geographer Michel-Antoine Baudrand, who, in a reference still in manuscript, says Radisson has told him that “Lake of the Buffaloes” (Lake Winnipeg?) was larger than Lake Superior; quoted by Delanglez, Life and Voyages of Louis Jolliet, 20n.5, citing BNFr, Fr.15451, f.23. There is no evidence Radisson ever visited Lake Winnipeg (which is smaller than Lake Superior), but he had probably heard about it from the Cree. Baudrand cautiously adds that “there is reason to doubt this lake.”

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log is in French it was probably copied from notes made by the older man. More interesting is the long untitled Mémoire on the geography and hydrology of the northern seacoast of North America that Radisson wrote out in his own hand. It is doubtful that this is a copy of a text by someone else. It directly addresses the kind of question about which Bernou collected material, and, typically for Radisson, it is closely detailed and covers an area of which he had particular knowledge. By now, Radisson had crossed the Atlantic at least seven times, had sailed the St Lawrence and the Atlantic coast, and had worked for three years on the great northern Bay itself. Then there is the time he spent on the Wivenhoe when it made a wandering eight-months’ journey in a frustrated attempt to reach the Bottom of the Bay. That voyage has always been regarded as a failure, but it would certainly have contributed to the knowledge of coastal waters Radisson shared with Bernou around 1676. At War in the Caribbean The most interesting piece of writing Radisson produced between 1675 and 1682, however, came not from New France or Paris but from the Caribbean. In the summer of 1677, desperate for work and advancement, Radisson managed to exploit his connection with Bernou, who was a client of the great D’Estrées family, to acquire a patronage post himself. Acting in the capacity of marine guard (that is, an officer in training, a midshipman), he joined Admiral Jean II D’Estrées’s171 second voyage to the Caribbean. The haughty but inexperienced D’Estrées had been commissioned by Louis XIV to lead a large fleet to challenge the Dutch presence there. In March 1677 D’Estrées had been badly defeated – and wounded himself – in an attack on the fortress of Sterreschans on Tobago. This time he aimed to vanquish the able Dutch admiral Jacob Binkes, who still held the island, though with weak and depleted forces. Late in December, Radisson wrote to Bernou (his letter is included in volume 2) describing in enthusiastic detail the carnage when D’Estrées took the fortress as the result of a brilliant shot by his chief gunner that blew up the powder magazine and killed almost everyone in the citadel, including Binkes, who was at dinner with his officers. Radisson’s letter does not seem to be known to his171 Jean II D’Estrées, Comte D’Estrées (1624–1707). Marshal of France. His family were patrons of Claude Bernou. As a nobleman, he was promoted rapidly in the navy though he had no nautical experience. After the assault on Tobago in which Radisson participated, D’Estrées ignored the warnings of his officers and wrecked his fleet on the rocks at the Isle of Aves. (For Radisson’s losses, see volume 2.) Despite all, Louis XIV retained confidence in him and his career was little affected.

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torians of the Dutch-French conflict in the Caribbean, and it should be. Few can have been better equipped, given his experience of bloody Native warfare, to describe the horrific scene after the explosion: “Our third blow struck; the bullet fell, directed by a divine power, in the midst of their fort, penetrated three stories and the brick roof of their powder magazine. It was a terrible dessert. They had never been served such fruit before. Twenty-two thousand livres of powder made awful havoc with those wretches ... Two thousand grenades and all the cannons taking fire the air seemed like the abyss of hell for a quarter of a league. [We could see] nothing but arms, legs, and pieces of bodies flying about. The flames roasted many of these wretches”‡. At an initial parley, Binkes had treated the French with ironic courtesy, but Radisson does not hesitate to turn a cruel phrase at the expense of the dining officers: “It was a terrible dessert. They had never been served such fruit before.” The central message of the letter – one Bernou wanted to hear, judging from the geopolitical views evident in some of his letters – was that the whole adventure was a signal contribution to the glory of France. In four tightly written manuscript pages, Radisson’s letter also suggests to the modern reader what had to be done to compete for place in French society. Not that he addresses the competition directly, beyond explaining how he was awarded his post. Rather, he expertly adopts a widely used genre, and one essential in public life in a period when the newspaper had barely been invented: the letter from a fidèle or follower reporting current news to a patron. In planning the letter he may well have taken advice from others about the unctuous terms he uses, but that he might have done so tells us something about the constraints within which one had to function to make a place and keep it. Radisson writes, “The honor that you did me by commanding me to write you the details of our voyage makes me so bold as to address you these lines, wishing with all my heart that I were able to give you a more polished account so that my narrative would have a better style”‡. The claim that one’s style is unworthy is a standard posture adopted in letters from a person of lower estate to someone of higher rank or accomplishments. So too is Radisson’s reference to the kind offices Bernou has afforded him as if he were a father, for, as far as we can tell, the two men were almost of an age. Likewise, in conclusion he bows his way towards the door with the obligatory gesture towards circulating the information in the patron’s circle: “We set sail for Grenada, from which place your very humble servant is writing you and begging you, if you have found in this letter anything worthy, to make a fair copy to be read to your noble friends, to whom I am as to you the very obedient, humble servant”‡. This is the expected phrasing of someone who has to present himself in the best possible light to someone who has favoured him, as Bernou presumably did in

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exploiting his D’Estrées contacts to get Radisson his position. Strikingly, they are reminiscent of the strategies Radisson had earlier learned in negotiating with the Aboriginal peoples he met, and would soon exploit when he himself passed from the kinship status of “son” to that of “father” in the third of his adoption ceremonies at Port Nelson. Radisson was to suffer his own disaster within a few months. Early in May 1678, contrary to advice frantically signalled to him by expert seamen in his fleet, the headstrong D’Estrées led his ships onto the rocks at the isle of Aves near the Venezuelan coast. Radisson lost everything, as he states in a subsequent petition probably made to Seignelay. This included not only his equipment but, given the financial loss he claims (4,000 livres), presumably the booty from which every soldier expected to profit after a foreign battle.172 He was lucky to escape with his life. Shipwrecked or not, it is around this time that Radisson left behind his situation as a victim of history and became a historical actor himself. Previously on the margin of the record – a signature in Quebec, some references in the letters and account books of the HBC – from 1680 onward he emerged as a figure in whom both the French and the English took the keenest interest. As a result, there is now far more documentation surrounding Radisson and his life than a mere Introduction can exploit. The later chapters of Grace Lee Nute’s dual biography of Radisson and Des Groseilliers, though occasionally out of date as to particulars, provide essential background for what remains to be said about Radisson’s writings.

“ a v e ry r o m a n t i q u e n ov e l l e e n t e rta i n i n g e n o u g h ” In April 1685 Radisson presented to the newly crowned James II an elegant manuscript prefaced with a dedicatory letter. “Sire,” he wrote (the original is in French), “these are the new assurances of fidelity that I dare present to your Majesty, in order to render myself worthy to merit the continuation of your royal protection, out of your goodness, while awaiting the opportunity to be 172 Fournier, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, 212, believes Radisson had a financial interest in D’Estrées’ Caribbean adventure, but there is no confirming evidence, and it is unlikely he had any resources for investment, though he may, as was customary for such officers, have been carrying trade goods. Four thousand livres is a large sum for one man’s equipage, so a more likely interpretation is that Radisson expected the share he would normally be given from the spoils of battle, perhaps even from the sale of a prize ship, but because of the wreck he lost all hope of this kind of reward.

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able to bear new witness to the attachment that one ought to have for the service of your Majesty who gracefully asks permission to call himself with all the submission and respect of which he is capable. Sire, Your Majesty’s very humble, obedient and faithful subject and servant P: E: Radisson”‡. The two texts that follow represent Radisson’s defence of his actions in establishing a post on behalf of New France’s Compagnie du Nord at Port Nelson on Hudson Bay in 1682, fending off challengers from the HBC and a New England interloper (in both cases men known to him), and, astonishingly, in 1684 switching allegiance and recapturing the post for the English. He had left France behind for London, telling Sir James Hayes with his usual wry sarcasm that “he thinks himself to have been ill-treated by the French for whom he undertooke the conduct of the late voyage for Port Nelson, and hath gott nothing by it but materials for a very Romantique Novelle entertaining enough.”173 Radisson’s two accounts of events at Port Nelson are as far from being romantic novels as anything he wrote. They represent a pre-emptive defence against the attacks on his character – and his future in the HBC – that he knew would be made by partisans of John Bridgar,174 the governor the company had sent to Port Nelson 1682 and whom Radisson had captured and, so Bridgar insisted, treated badly. His weapon was the “Relation,” a genre that, like the “Voyage,” was defined in practice rather than in treatises on rhetoric. Where the Voyage was wide-ranging, often devoted to the description of wonders and in certain cases designed to entertain its readers, the Relation – adopted widely across Europe between 1500 and the beginning of the Enlightenment – originated in the official and formal reports of Venetian ambassadors before the Senate. “The relation takes its force, and its authority, from the author’s palpable presence as narrator, and from his or her engagement, and direct experience if possible, or often from careful communication with other witnesses who themselves deserve a reader’s trust.”175 A Voyage was permitted to tell of wonders, but the discursive strategies of a Relation relied on the simple, factual, and forthright. Radisson’s two Port Nelson Relations, like many others, are anything but simple and forthright, and it is uncertain how factually accurate they are. In their expert appeal to the king, they recall Radisson’s letter to 173 BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63773, f.157r-v, Hayes to Preston, 22 May 1684. 174 John Bridgar (fl. 1678–87). Appointed governor at Port Nelson in May 1682 (see HBCA, A.6/1 f.14, and HBC Letters Outward 1680-87, 34). After the events of 1682–83 he long remained hostile to Radisson, and the London Committee was not averse to listening to him. See the Relation of 1682–83, in volume 2. 175 Cohen and Warkentin, “Things Not Easily Believed: Introducing the Early Modern Relation,” 9-10.

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Claude Bernou. In this case, however, Radisson dares to call himself “ecuyer” on the title page of the presentation manuscript, a claim to noble title that would have amused James, who, like any serious European monarch, was closely attentive to the finer discriminations of rank. The king’s response to Radisson’s manuscript tribute is unrecorded, though he would not forget to provide for the now-aging explorer before he fled his kingdom in 1688, or so Radisson’s will tells us. The events Radisson describes have been told in many different versions, depending on whether the teller was French or English, and how much time had passed. Des Groseilliers briefly gave his version of what happened in a letter (in “Related Documents,” volume 2), and besides his two Relations, Radisson went over the ground in his later narratives and affidavits of 1697–98. A number of affidavits by the English seamen portray the events in a hostile light, and Benjamin Gillam’s176 version is told in the petition he addressed to the governor of New France, Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre,177 on his return to Quebec.178 A map is essential in tracking what went on during the winter of 1682–83; it also reminds us how intimate the scale of operations was compared with Radisson’s other narratives. The shifting riverbanks of the Hayes and the Nelson rivers have now left very little for the archaeologist,179 though J.B. Tyrrell stated that in 1912 he had been able to detect the rotting posts of the stockade of Gillam’s “island fort.”180 The two Relations, doubtless along with much other conciliatory activity on Radisson’s part, seem to have had their effect; when he went to Port Nelson again in 1685, it was with the  title of superintendent of trade and the anxious support of the London 176 Benjamin Gillam (1663–1706). New England sea captain; son of Zachariah Gillam. Captain of the Bachelor’s Delight, the interloping expedition that played a role in the events at Port Nelson in 1682–83 described in Radisson’s first Relation. Though Radisson originally denied it, Gillam arrived at Port Nelson several days before the expedition from New France. His journal was in the hands of Sir James Hayes until the London Committee ordered it delivered up on 27 April 1687 (HBCA, A.1/9) but cannot now be traced. 177 Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de la Barre (1622–88). Governor General of New France, 1682–85. Administrator and naval officer. Never well liked, he had mixed success in all the positions he occupied. Established the Compagnie du Nord. Strongly opposed to the projects of La Salle. Defying well-informed advice, in July 1684 he led a disastrous attack on the Iroquois; subsequently left Quebec under a cloud. 178 For the seamen’s petitions, see n.199. For Gillam’s petition to la Barre, see n.188. 179 Virginia Petch, personal communication, 2 February 2009. 180 Tyrrell ed., Documents relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay, 12.

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Committee members, chief among them William Yonge and Sir James Hayes, the men who had organized his defection from France. Nevertheless, the hostile depositions of the men involved would return to haunt him later, as did the notes of John Bridgar and Zachariah Gillam, which have now disappeared.181 Radisson tells the story of the years 1682–84 clearly, if very much in his own interest. His appeals for support during his time in France had been fruitless. Neither his Caribbean adventure nor further appeals to Sir John Kirke (who wanted Radisson to argue a claim of his own at the French court) led anywhere. Radisson approached Colbert again, this time through his son the Marquis de Seignelay, who passed him on to his chief agent for trade, the peculating Francesco Bellinzani (d. 1684), who then passed him on to the Canadian merchant and trader Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye.182 It was only at the end of this wearisome train of events, and by meeting up with Chesnaye again in Canada, that Radisson succeeded in laying the groundwork for the expedition of 1682 to Hudson Bay.183 This, at least, is how Radisson recounts, at the beginning of the 1682–83 Relation, what befell him. The picture he draws is of powerful courtiers who required service in return for protection, who had projects of their own to advance or protect, of the jealousies of the “creatures” around Frontenac,184 of Prince Rupert consoling him for “cette disgrace” but doing nothing to help, and above all his repudiation of any “suspicions and slander concerning my honour and reputation”‡. The modern historian, in contrast, points to Colbert’s well-informed and aggressive economic policy, the frail peace then being maintained between France and England, the interests of the Jesuits, competition from La Salle, who was intriguing for support at the same court, the contrivances of  Frontenac’s ally (and Chesnaye’s enemy) the violent French agent 181 A marginal addition in the HBC’s complaint about damages (TNA, CO 134/1, f.173r) states: “Vide Bridgar’s narrative and his processes at Quebeck &c and the companyes Booke of Zachary Gillams Voyages.” 182 Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye (1638–1702), New France’s leading seventeenth-century businessman and principal shareholder in the Compagnie du Nord, which sponsored Radisson’s and Des Groseilliers’s trading mission to Hudson Bay in 1682–83. 183 The only detailed account of this project is Borins, La Compagnie du nord, 1682–1700. 184 Louis de Buade de Frontenac (1622–98). Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682 and from 1689 to 1698. From a family of the old nobility and lived (unaffordably) in that style. His first term was ridden with conflict with the Sovereign Council, the intendant, and the clergy. During his second and more peacful term, he succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Iroquois. In opposition to Colbert’s policy, he sought to employ the fur trade to extend the influence of New France in the interior.

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Josias Boisseau, and particularly Chesnaye’s complex and highly profitable financial operations. Chesnaye appears to have been expert in navigating this network of connections, and as a result the Canadian merchant would deftly put in place not some dangerously conspicuous rival to the HBC but a strictly local money-making operation, the Compagnie du Nord (1682–1700). Ennobled by Louis XIV in 1693, Chesnaye, the bourgeois of modest origins, would become a gentilhomme, as his modern biographer dryly notes.185 He attained his rank not by what Defoe termed “Prowess, Gallantry, and Conduct” but by brilliant and profitable investments. Radisson, though sometimes well rewarded by his various patrons, appears not to have invested the louis d’or they gave him, as will emerge. But, if he was unable to manage affairs at the French court, in the field he did not lack either inventiveness or authority. The dominating themes of the two Relations are his fidelity, his honour, and his complete command of any situation that might arise. He makes no attempt to address any of the larger issues worrying the London Committee. For some years the HBC had its sights on a post at Port Nelson, well north of Rupert River, Moose Fort, and Albany, which were all at or near the Bottom of the Bay. Port Nelson was more easily accessed by the sea route than the establishments at the Bottom of the Bay, it could draw furs from Aboriginal traders south, west, and, it was hoped, north, and its two great rivers, the Hayes and the Nelson, led inland to the source of those furs. It might be possible to establish a post there; a seaman, Paul Mercer, described the area in 1670: “The Tide rises & falls here, about 11 or 12 foot there is very fine Marsh land, & great plenty of wood about a mile beyond the Marshes, yet not very large ... There is no want of food being great store of wild fowle Rabbets & Deeres. There was then upon the ground Straw berryes, Goosberrys, large red currans huckleberrys & Cramberryes.”186 Yet a problem pressing more and more heavily on the London Committee was the validity of its charter to trade inland; there were suggestions that any rights the charter gave them were confined to the coast of the Bay. These doubts were aggravated by the evident attempts by parties from New France from 1671 onward to lay claim to the same rich interior trading area. But in Paris and London the conflict over Port Nelson was not so much a battle of great nations for territorial dominance (though it certainly was that) as a struggle between men on either side – Louis XIV and Charles II, the Marquis de Seignelay and Viscount Preston – who knew each others’ purposes and were 185 Zoltvany, “Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye,” DCB, 2: 32. 186 LMA, CLC/495/MS01757, appended to extracts from Thomas Gorst’s Journal, f.137v, and see Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 291–2.

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ultimately prepared to negotiate. On 10 April 1684 Louis XIV wrote to La Barre concerning Radisson and Des Groseilliers’s activities. He did not wish to displease the king of England, but it was very important to keep the English from building posts on the Nelson; the best solution for the moment was to insist that neither country make new establishments on the Bay, a condition the English king was likely to agree to because he was in no position to prevent Louis’s French subjects from doing the same thing.187 But if there was more smoke than fire in Europe, this was not the case for the parties (three European and at least one Aboriginal) who encountered each other on the shores of the dangerous Nelson River and the more easily travelled Hayes. Radisson, as usual, was at the service of whoever was paying him, and he paid no notice to any larger geopolitical considerations, though Des Groseilliers was certainly alert to them. In an undated letter probably written early in 1684 the latter said firmly of the English, “Their claim is preposterous ... The king of England sent Winthrop, the first governor of New England, to ... [Boston] and he took possession. At present there is a big city there, and two hundred ships. France has a good right to claim it and it is worth infinitely more than this place that the English are now demanding”‡. In the eyes of the London Committee, however, Port Nelson was a prize, and in the late summer three parties converged on it: Radisson, Des Groseilliers, and the men of the Compagnie du Nord from New France; the HBC’s ship Prince Rupert, bringing the experienced John Bridgar as governor for the new post; and an interloper from New England who clearly arrived first, the Bachelor’s Delight, captained by Benjamin Gillam, son of the captain of the English ship, Zachariah Gillam. Radisson knew every one of them, and probably some of the sailors as well. In the Relation of 1682–83 Radisson’s sole purpose was to demonstrate his absolute command of the situation that confronted him. In the Relation of 1684 it was to show that he had persuaded the Frenchmen left behind in 1683 to enter the service of England. Both Port Nelson Relations consequently differ markedly from the Voyages of sixteen years earlier. Writing in his native tongue, Radisson produced rapid, fluent, closely detailed narratives; there is no wordplay, few if any proverbs, and he did not, as in the Voyages or the letter to Bernou, emphasize details of the violence that must surely have occurred during the conflicts he reports. His stress was entirely on the way in which he manipulated others to achieve his purposes, whether the sailors, the Gillams, father and son, John Bridgar, young Chouart, or the West Main (Swampy) Cree who came to trade. 187 ANOM, AC B11, vol. 11 (1684–85), f.11v., Louis XIV to La Barre, 10 April 1684.

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Radisson knew the Cree bands along Hudson Bay’s west shore from his service at Rupert River and Moose Fort a decade earlier, and they remembered him and immediately welcomed him back by proferring the bonds of kinship that necessarily preceded negotiation or trading. Radisson was adopted yet once more, though in due course his status became that of a father rather than a son. Yet there is nothing in either of the Port Nelson Relations that compares with his writing about Aboriginal life in the Voyages. He makes little attempt to relate the customs of the Native peoples he met but instead demonstrates his expert knowledge of the way in which relations with them had to be conducted by Europeans if they wished to establish a profitable commerce. His encounter with the elderly man who proved to be their chief is a model of good manners, insight, and craft: “I asked them who their chief was, addressing the man himself without knowing it. He lowered his head and another told me: ‘You are speaking to him.’ Then I took him by the hand and, having made him sit down, I spoke to him according to the genius of these people to whom, in order to make oneself respected, it is necessary to boast that one has courage, that one is powerful and in a position to help them and protect them against their enemies. It is also necessary to attest to them that one is acting entirely in their interest and is obliging towards them.” These are in fact precisely the strategies Radisson adopted in framing his entire Relation; daringly, he assumed that, if he showed he had acted honestly in the French interest, the English would accept him as capable of acting in theirs. Radisson’s treatment of the Gillams was a variation on this strategy, at least as he tells it. Old Zachariah Gillam was clearly dying, and his son may have been something of a lout. The older man had to be treated decently and his son kept under control. In fact, there is no way we can tell if this is what really happened; after the return to Quebec, young Gillam accused Radisson of piracy, but was that because Radisson was a pirate or because Gillam was a lout?188 Radisson says suspiciously little about the loss of the Prince Rupert, simply that he recognized that it was being frozen in and “must inevitably perish” and shortly that it had done so. There is no way to tell if he did anything to prevent the ship from drifting out into the sea ice or to rescue those on board, but interestingly the HBC later treated the loss as if it had been Zachariah Gillam’s fault.189 Radisson’s bitter struggle with Governor John Bridgar is a different matter. This was an HBC man who, if he had been able to exercise it, would have claimed authority over him, and certainly remained a fierce enemy when 188 See Gillam’s petition to La Barre, Quebec, 15/25 October 1683, TNA, CO 1/66, no. 115, ff.280r–282v. 189 Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 140.

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they returned to England. Radisson contends that he used every courtesy to Bridgar for as long as he could, but also that “it is true that I used all the ruses I could imagine to succeed in my plans. And while I knew everything that these men were plotting against me, I preferred to catch them rather than to be caught by them, knowing full well that, if they anticipated me, I would pass my time with them worse than they did with me.”‡ While all this was transpiring at Port Nelson, the English and French had been exchanging letters in which each complained of the other’s activities on the Bay. In August 1683 Radisson and Des Groseilliers left a complement of Frenchmen at Port Nelson, with Des Groseilliers’s nephew Jean-Baptiste Chouart in charge, and headed for Quebec, accompanied by the HBC men as virtual prisoners on the Ste Anne. On their arrival in October, the situation was further complicated by the demands of the fermier of taxes and by La Barre’s ill-advised decision not to treat Gillam’s ship as a prize. The HBC very quickly found out what was happening on the Bay. Late in December, Sir James Hayes wrote to Sir John Werden, the Duke of York’s secretary, about the “insolent invasion laterly made upon us by the French from Canada,”190 and the HBC quickly petitioned Charles II for action against the French. La Barre had gotten everyone off his hands by sending Bridgar and Benjamin Gillam to New England, and Radisson and Des Groseilliers to France to have the conflict resolved. What none of them knew was that Colbert, to whom Radisson clearly intended to address their claim for justice, had died on 6 September. Furthermore, when Radisson arrived in Paris it was to discover that “serious complaints” had been made about him. Viscount Preston reported to the secretary of state, Sir Leoline Jenkins, that “a friend of mine who hath seen the former [Radisson] since his arrival and discoursed with him tells me that he finds him much allarum’d with the Charge which is given against him.”191 It is the only situation in which Radisson ever seems to have lost his sense of command. Unnerved, and without Colbert to depend on, Radisson needed a safe base of operations. Louis XIV was treading carefully in order not to disturb his supposedly peaceful relations with his fellow monarch or with Charles’s Catholic heir, James, Duke of York. The king consequently insisted that nothing could be done until he had made inquiries in New France, and the matter dragged on through the spring, chronicled in the letters of Viscount Preston, Hayes, Jenkins, and even the Abbé Bernou, who, far away in Rome, continued to share gossip about Radisson with Eusèbe Renaudot. In London, however, aiming to preserve the HBC’s interest in a situation that was evidently wide open, William 190 TNA, CO 1/66, f.298. Sir James Hayes to Sir John Werden, 27 December 1683. 191 BL, Add 63760, f.20v., Preston to Jenkins, 29 January 1683/4.

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Yonge and James Hayes acted quickly; Yonge wrote “3 or foure Insinuating Letters” to Radisson inviting him back to English service.192 By this time, Preston had realized that the affair could not be allowed to disrupt English and French interests, and he cooperated either directly or indirectly by looking the other way as Radisson, accompanied by Preston’s Huguenot aide Gédeon Godet193 and his daughter Charlotte, slipped away to England in early May.194 La Potherie later stated that Godet had been bribed to get Radisson to England with the promise that the explorer would marry his daughter,195 but if so it was nearly two years before that wedding took place. Welcomed in England by the London Committee, Radisson was required to swear his fidelity, and on 20 May he left for Port Nelson again, with their full, if somewhat anxious, support. In relating the ensuing events of summer, 1684, Radisson thus faced a threefold task. He continued to emphasize his knowledge of the Natives and of trading practices, but it was essential to his future career in the HBC – the only one now open to him since he had cut his ties with France – to deal tactfully with the difficult HBC governor, John Abraham.196 Having arrived at Port Nelson in the fall of 1683 after Radisson’s August departure for England, Abraham had been forced to winter over. Relationships were fraught, because Radisson was contemptuous of the governor’s methods of trading with the Cree. Perhaps most important, the explorer needed to demonstrate his control 192 Yonge to the London Committee, 20 December 1692 (HBC Letters Outward 1688– 96, 169). 193 Gédeon Godet (b.?– d. by 1702). French aide to Richard Graham, Viscount Preston. Huguenot. With his daughter Charlotte he accompanied Radisson to England in May 1684. The extent of his involvement in the plot to return Radisson to English service is uncertain, but see n.194 and the discussion of his life in England (91–2). 194 According to Nute (Caesars of the Wilderness, 208), it was Godet, acting in his own interests, who “engineered” Radisson’s return to England when it became evident that this was what Preston hoping for. But, given the awkward situation he was in, and the letters he was receiving from Yonge, Radisson probably needed no persuading. Godet’s actions suggest he was tagging along; otherwise, why would he convey the company’s thanks to Preston (BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63768, f.160, 22 May 1684), then remind Preston that he had fully explained his intentions to him (BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63768, 6/16 October), and still later apologize to him for making the journey in opposition to Preston’s views, as he did in his long letter of October–November 1684 (BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63768, f. 234v–235v)? 195 Tyrrell, ed., Documents relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay, 242. 196 John Abraham (fl. 1672–89). Seaman and HBC governor at Port Nelson, 1684. For his “long and stormy career,” see Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company 1: 243, HBC Letters Outward 1679–94, and Alice M. Johnson’s biography in DCB, 1: 39.

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over the Frenchmen he had left behind by persuading them to transfer their allegiance to the English. Much would depend on the attitude taken by his nephew Jean-Baptiste Chouart. Radisson’s account suggests that he handled Chouart rather as he handled the West Main Cree in the 1682–83 Relation, with firm reassurance and a promise to contribute to his advancement, adding the blunt reminder that the younger man was, after all, in his power. In fact, Radisson was much less conciliatory to everyone during this visit to Port Nelson than he had been earlier. He frankly told the Cree: Thirty years ago I had been their brother and ... I would be their father in the future, if they continued to love me. But if they had other sentiments I had no difficulty in warning them that I would summon all the surrounding nations and supply them with all my merchandise, that the benefit that those others would receive from this aid would make them powerful and would make it possible for them to challenge the comings and goings of all the wild men who were living in the land. By this means they themselves would pine away and see their women and children die in war or famine, from which their allies, although powerful, would not be able to save them, because I had been advised that they had neither knives nor guns.‡ This boldness signals a yet further distancing in Radisson’s attitude to the Aboriginal peoples. Much of the second narrative of events at Port Nelson consists of a relationwithin-a-relation supposedly by Chouart himself. His task during Radisson’s absence had been to ensure that the Cree continued to trust the French, and one can imagine what he thought when his uncle arrived to tell him that they were now to act on behalf of the English company. Chouart was literate, as two extant letters show,197 and if Radisson kept a diary or log in 1682–83, his nephew may have been instructed to keep one over the winter of 1683–84. There is no way to tell if he composed his own narrative as it stands, but though its integration with Radisson’s was nearly seamless, it told a very different story. Chouart may have known the wilderness well, but he spoke no English. The arrival of English ships must have troubled him greatly and he seems to have made every effort to keep out of the way of Abraham and his men. The fortunate result is that his share in the narrative was focused almost 197 See ANOM, C11A, vol. 7, 255r-v and 256r–257r. Like many others related to these events, the documents are copies made somewhere in the busy secretariat of the French minister, Seignelay, but there is no reason to believe that Chouart was incapable of writing the originals.

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entirely on the Native peoples with whom both French and English had set out to trade. He saw, from the inside, their relationships with each other, their changing animosities, and their willingness to shift the trade from one party to another, and always to their advantage. Chouart also said much more about the occasional violence that occurred. His stance as a narrator is markedly different from Radisson’s, for he has nothing whatsoever to say about his honour or the exceptional nature of his skills. With Radisson, however, it was a matter of authority and expertise. When his knowledge of trading practice was disregarded by HBC men like George Geyer (not totally inexperienced, since he had served with Governor Charles Bayly on the Bay as early as 1672), Radisson showed his anger. He did so again after his return to England in 1684, when, as he relates, certain members of the London Committee tried to take him down a peg for having paid his court to the king before he made his report to them. Contemptuous as Radisson could be of his detractors, his primary defence was always to assert his own honourable behaviour and capabilities. Yet it is evident that he manipulated his associates, may have lied about small particulars to the HBC – and possibly large ones, we cannot know – and exerted enormous personal pressure on his nephew to submit to the bargain he had made with the London Committee. Nor does he have anything to say about Chesnaye’s Compagnie du Nord, which he had abandoned by transferring his allegiance to England in 1684; it suffered heavy losses in 1684–85, in large part because of his defection.198 Probably his behaviour was no more or less honourable than that of any other man in his position at the time. If affidavits concerning the events of 1682–83 later taken from men like John Calvert and John Outlaw showed their deep resentment of Radisson’s methods,199 the numerous French and 198 Borins, La Compagnie du nord, 1682–1700, 217 (Table 5). 199 There are three depositions from John Outlaw (TNA, CO 1/66/119, f.290r, 121, f.294r,122, f.296r) and one from John Calvert and six other men (TNA, CO 1/66/117, f.287r); all were made in the fall of 1683. They claimed that, besides obstructing them at Port Nelson and burning Gillam’s fort, Radisson and Des Groseilliers had sent them down to Quebec in a leaky ship (the Ste Anne) with bad and insuffient food. The same events were recapitulated as late as 1687 in affidavits by Philip Bayley (9 June) and John Calvert (10 June): TNA, CO 134/1, ff.113 and 115. In wording the latter two are almost identical. Both name Radisson and Des Groseilliers, and both confirm that the partners arrived on 23 August 1682, whereas Gillam had been at Port Nelson from 19 August. The 1687 affidavits are closer to Radisson’s account of events than those of 1683. All the affidavits concur in dating Radisson’s arrival at Port Nelson several days later than Benjamin Gillam’s.

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HBC narratives of events during the conflict over territorial rights in the Bay that filled the next decade were carefully crafted in their turn to present their own case favourably. The only certainty about what really happened at Port Nelson is that Radisson did what he was paid to do in both cases, and both times he succeeded. Radisson’s two narratives are the only continuous, detailed ones that we have of what occurred on the Bay between 1682 and 1684. If he had already thought of writing an account of the events of 1682–83, the pressing need to do so came about only after he changed allegiance and had to defend his actions. Perhaps he began drafting his text of the 1682–83 Relation on shipboard while travelling to Port Nelson in late May 1684, and the 1684 Relation on the return voyage in the same year. The result would enter the busy information networks of Europe precisely at a time when Radisson’s public reputation was being determined for the next three centuries. In volume 2 of Radisson’s writings, we will trace the composition and dissemination of what I have termed “The Port Nelson Relations,” as well as his entry into the public sphere in which that information network operated. But as that was taking place, in the fall of 1685 Radisson returned, this time in a position of authority, to the sandy shore of the Hudson Bay lowland and the confluence of the two great rivers at Port Nelson. Superintendent of Trade Radisson had brought his Frenchmen back to England, and though late in 1687 he, Chouart, and Elie Grimard were naturalized as Englishmen,200 as early as 1685 the French were intriguing to induce Chouart and the others to return to French allegiance. Jacques-René Brisay de Denonville201 had succeeded La Barre as governor general of New France, and a letter from the king, or Seignelay on his behalf, dated 6 April 1685, proposed to reward Chouart and all those he induced to return to Quebec with him, and offered 50 pistoles to any of those who managed to seize the man named Radisson and bring him 200 Radisson, Chouart, and Elie Grimard were naturalized at HBC expense; a number of other people were naturalized at the same time so it was unlikely a special arrangement for the three Frenchmen. See TNA, C66/3300, m. 21; letters patent of James II, 5 January 1687/8. 201 Jacques-René Brisay de Denonville (1637–1710). Soldier and governor general of New France from 1685 to 1689. A highly capable military officer, he replaced the incompetent La Barre. It was he who sent Pierre de Troyes north in 1686 to capture the English posts on Hudson Bay.

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to Quebec.202 Chouart travelled back to the Bay with Radisson in 1685, but it is evident that he was preparing to conspire with the French, though he did not make his final break with his uncle until 1687. As for Radisson, despite what he writes at the end of the second Port Nelson Relation, he seems to have been in good odour with the London Committee. Unsurprisingly, however, he had incurred Bridgar’s undying enmity. In 1685 Bridgar told the pilot Pierre Allemand that Radisson was “a traitor and a thief, and vowed he would kill him wherever he could find him.”203 Radisson insisted he would not return to Port Nelson if Bridgar was to be governor, and the London Committee capitulated, sending Bridgar as deputy governor to the Bottom of the Bay and replacing him at Port Nelson with Thomas Phipps.204 When Radisson quarrelled with the London Committee over his pension in the early 1690s (see below), it is evident that Bridgar’s account of what happened at Port Nelson, to which were added later complaints by George Geyer and Stephen Sinclair, whom Radisson had accused of private trading, was still circulating among the members. Late in May 1685 Radisson sailed for Port Nelson as superintendent of trade, with the full if anxious support of the London Committee, at least one of whose members was sure he would defect once more to the French.205 On 11 April 1685 Chouart had sent a letter from London to his mother, Radisson’s sister, who had written of the elder Des Groseilliers’s return to Trois-Rivières from France empty-handed; he was thinking of leaving New France. Chouart 202 ANOM, AC Col. B11, vol. 11, f.118v. The king (or perhaps Seignelay on his behalf) wrote to Denonville on 31 May 1685, advising prudently that, before he gave “gratifications” to the Frenchmen J-B Chouart brought with him [presumably back to New France], he should make sure that they were faithful to their engagements and brought useful intelligence, and only then reward them in proportion to the value of that intelligence (ANOM, AC C11B, vol. 11, f.126v). On 30 March 1687 the king again wrote to Denonville, saying Radisson had done great harm to the colony, and could do more as long as he remained among the English, and Denonville was to do anything he thought appropriate to capture him: ANOM, AC Col B, vol. 13, f.170r. 203 “Journal of Father Silvy,” in Tyrrell, ed., Documents relating to the Early History of Hudson Bay, 78. 204 It is interesting to consider why Radisson was not made a governor himself. Possibly the London Committee did not trust him sufficiently, but alternatively he may have simply been too valuable as superintendent of trade. 205 The suspicious member was Gerrard Weymans, who had contacts in France; in any case, the committee overruled his objections. See Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 158.

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assured her that he himself never had any intention of joining the English; he had been taken by surprise by the “detours,” the circuitous plots of his uncle, who, he said, had induced him to board the English ships without revealing what he intended. For his part, Chouart concluded by saying – doubtless with some satisfaction – that he had not revealed to Radisson his own current plans to abandon the English.206 As for Des Groseilliers père, having returned to New France in a ship of La Salle’s 1684 expedition, he is thought to have died there some time after 1695.207 After twenty-five years of exploration and trading together, the partners seem never to have met again. a n e l d e r ly m a n i n a f u l l - b o t t o m e d w i g

The Newberry Library in Chicago possesses a beautiful manuscript atlas of five portolan maps of the Mediterranean Sea and the African coast. Drawn and painted in 1583 by the Spanish cartographer Joan Martines (1556–90), it passed through the hands of Elizabeth I’s great secretary, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who was passionately interested in cartography, and eventually by unknown means to Charles Bayly, first overseas governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Bayly, a widely travelled man for whom service to the HBC was the last refuge in a strange and troubled religious and literary career, served with Radisson at Charles Fort at the Bottom of the Bay in 1670 and 1673. Perhaps during cold nights on the Bay, the two conversed together as Radisson appears to have done so happily with earlier travelling companions, because in 1673 Bayly gave Radisson his Martines atlas, and it was no small gift. With great formality, Radisson inscribed his name in the book: “Ce livre Ma donné par Charles Bailly gouverneur de la Bay d’Udson En 1673 [word indecipherable] J’apartiene a pierre Esprit Radisson serviteur du Roy de la grande Bretaigne a tous sont qui ces presente.”208 The pride evident in his inscription in this elegant gift is part of 206 ANOM, C11A, vol. 7, f.256v, J-B Chouart to Marguerite Des Groseilliers, 11 April 1685. Rich (History of the Hudson’s Bay Company 1: 205–6) suggests that Chouart was planning to act on behalf of the French on Hudson Bay; the French promised him and those Radisson took with him to England rewards for informing on Radisson. 207 See n.164. 208 “This book was given me by Charles Bayly governor of Hudson Bay in 1673 ... I belong to Pierre Esprit Radisson servant of the king of Great Britain, to all who see these words”(Chicago: Newberry Library [Ayer Collection]). In 1675 Radisson lent the atlas to one Morpin, who returned it to him in 1680 (the date Morpin returned the atlas to Radisson has been read as 1680 or 1690. In terms of Radisson’s chronology, the former

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Radisson’s acute sense of style. Throughout his life he paid attention to presenting himself well; even the Mohawk noticed this trait, as he reports in Voyage I: “the whole nation tooke me for proud, having allways great care to be guarnished with porcelaine, and [never think] that I would fly away like a begger, a thing very unworthy” (161). In later life he spoke proudly of the gold chain and medal given him in 1673 by Charles II.209 And in May 1684, after he departed on his chancy mission to restore Port Nelson to the English, Sir James Hayes wrote to the English ambassador in Paris, “He hath left behind him a small parcell of French gold to erect a monument to his name, in case he should fayle in the present Expedition.”210 The HBC on several occasions took care that on his trips across the Atlantic he was treated with courtesy, housed well, and supplied with wine and fresh food.211 However, in 1684 the Abbé Bernou wrote to Eusèbe Renaudot that he was repelled by unspecified “extravagant notions” on Radisson’s part and had renounced him forever.212 This may mean that he thought the explorer was imprudent about money, or simply that he was too concerned with self-display. Indeed, Radisson’s choice of lodgings in the new and prosperous west end of London rather than in the city, where merchants and traders lived, may have stemmed in part from his desire to present himself well before the world. Radisson’s experiences at Port Nelson, both their drama and their financial consequences, dominated the rest of his life. For a decade and a half, versions of what had taken place at Port Nelson were told and retold: in mémoires, depositions, petitions, and proclamations exchanged between England, France, and New France, all copied and recopied in the secretariats of the two kings and the HBC. But except for Samuel Pepys, who possessed the copy of the Voyages made by Nicholas Hayward, knowledge of Radisson’s earlier adventures went no further, and Radisson henceforth was defined entirely by his actions at Port Nelson. His supposed perfidy suffuses the versions of his story in the French documents, which set out in detail the factitious argument being

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is more likely). In the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, the atlas was owned by the collector George Wilbraham (1779–1852), MP for Cheshire. The chain and its medal were, however, bought and paid for by Sir James Hayes of the Hudson’s Bay Company in December 1673; they cost £4.1.0. See HBCA, A.1/1, f.23 r-v. Radisson mentioned the medal again in his Complaint in Chancery (see volume 2). BL, Add. 63773, Preston Papers, ff.157–8, Hayes to Preston, 22 May 1684. See, for example, 1684 (HBC Letters Outward 1680–87, 115), and 1687 (ibid., 235, 237, 239). In the latter case the request was not observed, since Radisson had quarrelled with Geyer and Sinclair over private trading and was sent home a prisoner. BNFr, NAF 7497, f.154r. Bernou to Renaudot, 2 September 1684.

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pressed first by Seignelay, who died in 1690, and then by his successor, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain (1643–1727), namely, that the French had taken possession of the Bay before Sir Thomas Button wintered at Port Nelson in 1612. In these versions of the story, Des Groseilliers is almost forgotten and Radisson appears prominently as the renegade who had deserted the service of the king of France. The conviction that Radisson was a traitor took hold and dominated French and French Canadian historiography of the events for two centuries. Contrastingly, in the Hudson’s Bay Company petitions and documentation supplied to the commissioners attempting to resolve the territorial claims between 1684 and the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Radisson and Des Groseilliers go almost unmentioned, though from other documents it is clear that on some details they were using information supplied by Radisson.213 A Pensioner in London Thus, in late 1687 Radisson settled in London, and as far as we know never left it. In his affidavit of 23 August 1697, he is described as living in St James, but the sparse records of the parish in these years do not mention him, though it is  possible he was lodging in one of the buildings owned or leased by a “Mr. Young ” in Duke Street.214 On 3 March 1685 he was married to Charlotte Godet in St Martin in the Fields, where their son, born in January, had been baptized two weeks earlier,215 and in 1691 another son was baptized in

213 TNA, CO 134/3 [539, no. 8], 23r–50v, “Transactions between England and France relating to Hudson Bay, 1698 & 1699,” may be the most useful summary of the many documents setting out the English position and what they saw as the French counterarguments. In a long history of events on the Bay beginning in 1497, Radisson and Des Groseilliers go unmentioned until well after the account of the incursions of the Chevalier de Troyes in 1686 and Iberville in 1694–95, but it is clear the authors were indebted to Radisson’s information. 214 He is not the “Peter Rennison” or “Peter Reddish” who is documented in Market Lane, St James, between 1692 and 1707, for by 1703, Radisson was living in Clare Court (CWA, St James Piccadilly, Parish Records, overseers of the Poor Accompts, vols. D10– D15). In vol. D12 of the same series a “Mr. Young” is recorded in 1696 as owning (or leasing?) three houses in Duke St. 215 CWA, Parish Records of St Martin in the Fields, Baptisms, 15 February 1685, “Peter Espritt Radisson, son of Peter Espritt and Charlott Margaret, born January 25.” Marriages: 3 March 1685, “Peter Espritt Radison of this parish with Margarett Charlott Godet of the same parish.” Lic. Epic. London (that is, by bishop’s licence; see n.218).

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Fig 3: Clare Court, Drury Lane.

St Anne’s, Soho.216 Somewhere before 1703 Charlotte must have died, since by that date Radisson was established in Clare Court, presumably with the Elizabeth who bore him the three small daughters mentioned in his will of 1710 (see Fig. 3). The parish records of St Clement Danes show that in Clare Court he regularly paid the assessment for poor relief (around ten shillings, no small sum if his pension was £100 per annum) from 1703 until the year of his death, when no figure is given and a line is drawn beside the name of

216 CWA, Parish Records of St Anne Soho, Baptisms: 9 January 1691/2, “William, son of Pet. and Margt. born Dec. 25.”

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the tenant, now given as Elizabeth Radisson.217 After that, she disappears from Clare Court. Radisson’s rare remarks about women are always respectful, though he is amused and a little shocked by some Native sexual attitudes. His marriages reveal only the typical pattern of a seventeenth-century male Londoner: a series of unions, if possible upward, with women who most often died in childbirth, culminating in one to a younger woman who would take care of him and after his death try to marry upward in her turn. When he married Charlotte Godet in March 1685, she had already borne him a son; did the delay in the marriage mean that Mary Kirke was still alive until early 1685? He and Charlotte were married by bishop’s licence (that is, without the threeweek delay caused by the need to publish the banns) and it was Godet himself who petitioned for the requisite permission.218 Nothing certain is known of Radisson’s third wife, Elizabeth, beyond the reference in his will to “my said dear wife and my three small daughters on her begotten and now living, my former wifes children being by me according to my ability advanced and preferred to severall trades.”219 Dr Jean Radisson has traced several of Radisson’s children through their marriages in London parishes.220 One other, and possibly a second, make dramatic appearances in later records. A James Radisson 217 CWA, Parish of St Clement Danes, Churchwardens’ Accounts and Receipts. Radisson is not listed as living in Clare Court in 1702 (vol. B34), but in 1703 he is assessed ten  shillings fivepence for poor relief there, and in 1709 he is assessed 11 shillings eightpence (vol. B33). 218 LMA, former Guildhall Manuscripts, Bishops Allegations, 2 March 1685; the required bond was supplied by Gédeon Godet. 219 On 2 July 1710 Radisson’s widow was paid six pounds as charity by the secretary of the  HBC (possibly for burial expenses) and in 1729, sick and poor, she appealed to the company again for charity and was given ten pounds to be paid in smaller sums as  needed. Nute surmises that she was the “Elizabeth Radiston” buried at St Bennet Sherehog in 2 January 1732 (Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 279–80). 220 Dr Jean Radisson’s comparison of the entries for Radisson, Raddison, and Radison in the International Genealogical Index and the relevant parish registers shows that Radisson had six known children: Hannah and Matthew (with Mary [?] Kirke); PeterEsprit, John, and William (with Charlotte Godet); and Elizabeth Sophia (with his third wife, Elizabeth), evidently one of the three small daughters mentioned in his will. He has traced some of their descendants in London into the late eighteenth century. (Jean Radisson, personal communication, 1997.) To this list should be added the James Radisson who claimed as his father the explorer (whom he called a captain at sea) and possibly the murdered Constance Radison (see below).

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who claimed to be the explorer’s son was condemned to death in 1713; typically for the period, it was for a minor crime. His petition to Queen Anne for pardon exists, and we can only hope that, as was often the case, his penalty was remitted.221 More tragically, in 1721 a “Constance Radison” was murdered, and in court her killer, Robert Bembridge, sourly dismissed her as “an old St. James whore.”222 She could have been one of Radisson’s late-born daughters, or by this time more likely a granddaughter. None of the men who played important roles in Radisson’s life, except for the Earl of Marlborough, outlived the explorer. Marlborough had risen to a position of great power by the first decade of the eighteenth century; if he paid any heed to his old dependant, there is no sign of it. As Radisson aged, he must have had friends in London but we know nothing of them other than the figures named in the documents surrounding his Chancery case and the witnesses to his will. There is one exception, the Huguenot who travelled with him to London in 1684, Gédeon Godet, and whose daughter he married. Godet was a French lawyer fallen on hard times who had served Lord Preston, England’s ambassador extraordinary in Paris, less as a secretary than as a kind of useful go-between. He had come to Preston with a reluctant letter of reference from Sir Henry Savile, who had preceded Preston in the post. Savile wrote a formal reference in French praising Godet in the usual terms but attached it to one in English warning Preston that he would be a problem: “I never had anybody that I called my secretary, but one Gaudet sometimes called himself [that] ... I found (though later) that he gave an account to other ministers of all that was done in my house.” Savile had to keep getting Godet out of jail for debt, as Preston did later, and he told his successor frankly that “my letter by him is forced from mee by some people who look upon him onely as a Protestant and forget he is a knave.”223 Preston, who was far from being as capable an ambassador as Savile, nevertheless seems to have found Godet useful.

221 TNA, SP 34/34/65, f.204. Petition to Queen Anne from James Radison, lying under sentence of death in Newgate Gaol after his trial on 9 December 1713. Seeks clemency on account of his being drunk at the time of his first offence, cites his previous good behaviour and his ten years’ service in the navy, and names “Peter Radisson ... who before he died was a Captain at sea in the reign of Charles the 2nd & King James” as his father. It is yet to be discovered if he was pardoned. 222 “The Old Bailey On Line,” http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ (accessed 7 April 2011), “Robert Bembridge, Killing > murder, 6th December 1721.” Ref. no. t17211206–18. St James Market was just off Haymarket in the west end of London. 223 BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63764, f.7r-v, Sir Henry Savile to Graham, 15 May 1682.

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Godet and his daughter Charlotte sailed with Radisson from Dieppe, presumably seeking greater freedom to worship as Protestants. Godet wrote to Preston on 22 May 1684 saying mysteriously that “l’homme que vous savez” [the man you know of]” had been well received by His Royal Highness and by the company, who for their part thank you.224 But within a few days Radisson had sailed for Hudson Bay, and Godet was left to his own devices in London. Throughout the summer he wrote with escalating anxiety to Lord Preston as he unsuccessfully approached nobleman after nobleman searching for influence to ensure him a place and an income so he could bring his wife and other daughters to England. In October, Radisson returned, and with a sigh of relief Godet wrote to Preston, not without complaining that the “affaire Radisson” had done him no good in the eyes of the HBC, where he was not warmly regarded. But he was happy to report Radisson’s success in restoring Port Nelson to the English, and added: “He has promised me the journal of his voyage, which I will send, My Lord … it is worthy of your interest.”225 Some of his anxiety may have centred on Charlotte’s now-evident pregnancy, and in March 1685 it was Godet who applied for a special licence for the two to marry quickly, without publishing the banns; he was able to post the required bond, and they married the next day. Godet must have remained in contact with Radisson; early in 1693 he is mentioned among those who approached the HBC during the controversy over the explorer’s pension.226 He seems to have managed to bring his wife, at least, to England where they could practise their faith in safety, but he must have died later in 1693, for in 1702 the “Widow Godet” approached Sir John Ellis, one of William Yonge’s influential contacts, with an appeal for help. She asked for access to a packet of newsletters or gazettes that had been left with Ellis, saying that her husband, who had been dead for nine years, had left her with only the “business of news” to maintain herself.227 So it appears that Godet had given up attempting to persuade the English lords that he was worthy of their support and set up as a professional writer of newsletters; by now his daughter Charlotte must have died. 224 BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63768, f.160, Gédeon Godet to Graham, 22 May 1684. 225 BL, Preston Papers, Add. 63768, 234v-235v, Gédeon Godet to Preston, undated but evidently late October or early November 1684. The promised journal is probably not the Sloane copy, which, if Nute is correct (Caesars of the Wilderness, 256), went directly to the journalist Esprit Cabart de Vellermont. For more on the circulation of Radisson’s 1684 Relation, see volume 2. 226 HBCA, A.1/15, f. 13v; 22 March 1693. 227 BL, Add. 28889, f.392r-v, “Veuve Godet” to J. Ellis, 9 November 1702.

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Two concerns dominated Radisson’s life between 1687 and his death in 1710: his difficult financial situation and his insistence, in the face of the HBC’s resistance, on his rights to the profit on the 12,000 beaver skins he had brought from the Bay in 1684; in his will he would maintain that the HBC still owed him more than £1,800.228 The aging explorer’s situation was complicated; he had been naturalized an English subject in 1687 at the HBC’s expense and given a pension of £50 per annum and stock to the value of £200. With this award went an additional gratuity of £50 per annum to sustain him until James II, as a former governor of the company, or the Earl of Marlborough, who was HBC governor from 1685 to 1692, found a “place” for him, that is, one of the minor offices or sinecures for which dependants on the fringes of the court constantly competed.229 Radisson thus began his twenty-three years in London not only as a pensioner of the HBC but as a client – as the system of court patronage understood that term – of the monarch himself and one of his closest associates. But if the HBC’s current position on the Bay rested on Radisson’s achievement of 1684, it was soon to be seriously threatened. Though the company began the 1690s in good financial shape, in the following decade it would struggle to maintain itself following the raids of Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Pierre de Troyes on the HBC posts on the Bay, and as the European market for beaver dried up.230 In 1698 its charter failed to be renewed and once more its existence was entirely dependent on the royal prerogative.231 Despite its vast territory, the HBC had remained one of the smaller London companies, undercapitalized, producing

228 For Radisson’s explanation of the debt owed him, see his 1694 complaint in the Court of Chancery (volume 2). 229 As Robert D. Hume writes (his example is the playwright William Congreve), in this period “government posts were another [form of patronage]. Congreve became a Commissioner for Licensing Hackney Coaches in 1695 at £100 per annum (basically a sinecure); from 1705 to 1714 he was a Commissioner for Wines at £200; and from 1714 he collected more than £700 a year as secretary for the Island of Jamaica, the beneficiary of a special warrant from the secretary of State allowing him ‘to conduct the office by deputy.’” See Hume, “The Economics of Culture in London, 1660–1740,” 521. 230 The HBC paid a dividend in 1690 but none further until 1718 (Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 238; and see ibid., 307–26 and 355–67). Some of the reasons are evident in the names of lenders to the company c. 1694 (ibid., 317); as Rich notes, a few were ordinary investors, but most of the others had some personal or trade connection with the company. 231 Ibid., 1: 364.

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sparse dividends, and attempting to protect its interests in a field increasingly dominated by joint-stock companies of the modern kind.232 In June 1687 the London Committee had written a fulsome letter to Radisson at Port Nelson thanking him warmly for his “ample narrative” of the year’s events at the post and ordering that he be sent home in the “great cabbin” and given a quarter cask of claret to drink on the way.233 In fact, he returned a virtual prisoner because he had quarrelled with George Geyer and Stephen Sinclair over their private trading. In the end, the committee exonerated him, but the much-desired pension proved difficult to collect and the “place” never materialized. In December 1688 King James fled to France, having previously – so the explorer later maintained in his will – entrusted Radisson to the care of the king’s erstwhile supporter Marlborough, who had been prudently ingratiating himself with the new monarch, William III. However, the clientage system in which honour and loyalty were at least performative strengths, if not always practical realities, could no longer preserve Radisson. The accusations of detractors like Bridgar remained in circulation, and Sir Edward Dering, then deputy governor, must have listened to them, for Sir James Hayes, by 1685 no longer the influence in the company he had once been, pointed to Dering as no friend of Radisson, as did William Yonge in his appeal on behalf of the povertystricken Radisson in 1692.234 Despite earlier indications of favour, the London Committee rather meanly omitted to include Radisson’s stock in the list of investors’ holdings tripled in a division of stock in 1690.235 And in October it suddenly withdrew his temporary £50 gratuity, using current financial pressures as an excuse and maintaining that the award had been meant only to tide Radisson over until his protectors found a position for him. In December 1692 William Yonge, Radisson’s patron, close friend, and, it appears, financial adviser, wrote to the London Committee detailing the desperate financial situation Radisson was in as a result of the withdrawal of half his pension: “he hath at Present but £50 per Annum to mainttaine him selfe, & wife & 4 or 5 Children and servants, & of which £50 £24 goeth for house Rent ... it is Impossible he 232 For the stockbrokers’ attitudes to social class, see Carruthers, City of Capital, 164–71. The views of the landed elite are discussed in Bowen, Elites, Enterprise, and the Making of the British Overseas Empire 1688–1775, 50. The changing social and political circumstances of the London companies are considered in Gauci, The Politics of Trade, 107–55. 233 HBCA, A.6/1, f.91r. 234 HBC Minutes, 1679–84, Second Part, 1682–84, 324; for Yonge’s letter, see volume 2. 235 Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 273, 284; the investors who profited are listed in HBC Letters Outward 1688–1696, 314–15.

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can maintaine a Wife & servants & 4 or 5 Children with £26 per Annum in London with meate & drinke & Clothes ... his debts are soe great, through necessity, not Ill management, that he must bee forced to shift for him selfe, & Leave his wife great with Child & 4 or 5 children more on the parrish, if you Releive him not.”236 Allowing for the exaggeration common in such cases, it is apparent that, if Radisson was paying half his income for rent, his need for the restoration of his pension was genuine. Yonge’s letter is a survey of Radisson’s history as this close friend understood it: the explorer’s role in founding the company, the medal and gold chain, the rejection of his service in 1675, his warm reception by the Natives on the Bay, his exemplary procedures during the events at Port Nelson, Yonge’s role in returning Radisson to HBC service, and the explorer’s reluctance to engage in private trade. Where his account can be assessed against the documents, it confirms the outlines of Radisson’s life, making Yonge, in effect, the explorer’s first biographer. However, it had no effect on the London Committee’s members; their hostile response questioned the veracity of every detail in the letter and concluded by dismissing Radisson’s claims out of hand.237 Radisson was forced to go to law, suing for his pension with a deep sense of injustice and insisting in his complaint that he had always had “a great and natural love to Englishmen.”‡ Perhaps he did love England, but he was bound to the English not only by his three marriages but by his growing family. In the 1690s he needed a secure position in life and the means to support it; the future of his children as well as his own advancing age had to be considered. Between 1694 and 1697, documents of the Court of Chancery record the tenacity with which Radisson pursued and finally achieved the restoration of his gratuity. William Yonge was both his supporter and a long-time member of the London Committee; he was Marlborough’s probable intermediary in managing the nobleman’s company stock holdings, and a friend of both earl and explorer. Marlborough, too, exercised his influence; early in 1693 he wrote a letter of support to the London Committee.238 Radisson told his own story in a formal complaint, probably written by Yonge because it lacks the familiar stylistic features we still see in, for example, Radisson’s affidavit of 1697. Court documents show how energetically the explorer intervened to make his own case, ensuring that the company’s procrastination was countered by material 236 HBC Letters Outward 1688–1696, 171–2. 237 For the company’s very negative response, see ibid., 173–82, and Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 336–43. 238 The London Committee was clearly concerned about Marlborough’s interest in the case; see HBCA, A./1/15, f.5r (14 December 1692), 7v (25 January 1693), f.8r (1 February 1693), 9r (2 February 1693), and 27v (14 September 1693).

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evidence he had secured himself.239 Not only did he find his own witnesses, he firmly held the HBC to the terms he sought. Though in January 1696 the case was settled in Radisson’s favour except for his persisting claim to the 12,000 beaver skins, he typically refused the proposed settlement and continued to sue in Chancery. Only after the case was heard yet once more in November did the company finally settle, ordering payment to Radisson in March 1697. Even then he had to pursue the company further, forcing it in October to issue a bond confirming its obligation to pay him his due.240 The process of settling Radisson’s claim seems to have wakened the London Committee’s members to the possibility that he was an asset, and with the continuing threat of France in view they began to treat the aging explorer as a repository of useful information. As early as August 1697 the minutes record that the Committee Considering Mr Peter Espritt Radison may be verry useful at the time as to the affaires betwixt the French and this Company, The Secretary was ordered to take Coach and Fetch him to the Comittee which he did, after which the Committee had some discourses with him before Dinner. And then Adjourned to the afternoon. The committee now resumed the Debate had w[i]th Mr. Radison before Dinner, & desired an account of him of all Voyages to Hudsons Bay from his first outsett to his last arrivall from Port Nelson which he did, giving a Perticular accompt of the Voyage he made from Canada to Port Nelson in the yeare 1682 & how he left that place ...241 The result was that Radisson told his story twice more, in a long narrative and in an affidavit sworn before Sir Robert Geffery on 23 August 1697. As narratives they reiterate in general terms the details of the two Port Nelson Relations, but with Radisson’s typical weakness in the matter of dates. However, there are differences from his earlier writings. In the “Narrative,” the need to respond to 239 “… this Deponent [Radisson] further saith that he caused search to be made at the Custom House in London where shipps bound to any part or place beyond sea are usually entered (as that Deponent is informed) and Mr. Richard Tirrell who searched the same did assure this Deponent there were noe Entryes in the Custom House books of anyShipp or Shippes bound for Hudson Bay since Christmas 1694.” TNA, C41/32, no. 334 (affidavit, 13 November 1695). 240 See HBCA, A./1/19, ff.11r (9 March 1697), 39r (26 October 1687), 40r (28 October 1697). 241 HBCA, A.1/19, f.34v (17 August 1697).

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the questions posed him means that he has much more to say about geopolitical issues to which he was earlier oblivious. He specifies that his status was that of a servant: “Desgroziliers & Radison were neither of them pilotts or marriners but were entertained in service by the English, the French haveing refused them for such reasons as makes the right of the English appeare”‡. And he gives a final, sad verdict on the Aboriginal peoples he had known so well: “And as to their acknowledging the soveraignty, they have no more then a propriety for the presents they have need of. They would give themselves up this day to God if they had knowledge of him & tomorrow they would give themselves to the devill for a pipe of tobacco, & they would even deliver up their inheritance for the like things.”‡ It is, perhaps, the opinion of a very old man, one who had long forgotten his delight in being adopted by the Mohawk, to say nothing of the Saulteaux and the Cree. Clare Court, Westminster Whatever he thought now about the Aboriginal peoples whose world he had recorded, Radisson, in the decade after his retirement, had once more countered adversity. Demonstrating his usual command of a threatening situation, with the aid of such persons of influence as he could appeal to, and finally by searching for the evidence himself, he had fought his way from the position of half-forgotten and potentially troublesome former employee to that of useful older colleague. Yet there are signs that he continued to struggle financially. Though he apparently moved several times, always in the prosperous west end of London, somehow he managed to sustain his household during the long course of the Chancery suit. William Yonge’s will of 1703 (he died five years later) suggests at least one of his resources; it forgives “Mr Peter Esprit Radisson all the money he oweth me which I think is Fifty Three pounds.”242 After 1697, when the HBC capitulated, its records indicate that Radisson regularly received approximately £100 per annum, the equivalent of what he had once received as superintendent of trade on the Bay.243 This was a respectable income, somewhere between the £80 of a naval officer and the £120 of a

242 TNA, PROB 11/506, sig. 187; will of William Yonge, proved 5 January 1708. 243 The pension was made up of quarterly payments of £12.10, plus £50 pounds every November, as ordered when his Chancery case was resolved (TNA, C 33/288, f.159). For Radisson’s income while on the Bay, see Rich, History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1: 178. In 1685 John Bridgar’s salary as deputy governor at the Bottom of the Bay was £100 per annum (HBC Letters Outward 1680–87, 379).

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person in lower office.244 But in 1698 Radisson took advantage of the review of the HBC’s charter to petition Parliament to require the company not only to pay him the dividends of the six shares of stock he had been promised, but to secure them to his heirs; the petition went nowhere (see volume 2). In 1700, in his sixties, he applied for the position of the company’s warehouse keeper, with its salary of £30 per annum. To be a credible candidate, he would have had to give security, for when Edward West applied for the same position in September 1682 he had been required to post a bond for £500. This Radisson or his friends must have been able to do, since the minutes record that the committee decided the appointment by drawing lots. In the event, Radisson was not chosen and had to be satisfied with his yearly £100.245 Unlike Chesnaye in Canada, he seems rarely to have pursued financial advantage on the model of an astute entrepreneur. Reward came from princes, in the form of louis d’or; gain he defined as recompense for faithful service, not the consequence of strategic financial decisions.246 During the 1690s Radisson’s domestic circumstances thus seem to have been equivalent to those of an established retired naval officer or minor court officeholder, with an income appropriate to that status. His need for domestic servants would have been normal in even a modest pre-industrial urban household; however, his places of residence are significant: the parish of St James, a marriage in St Martin in the Fields, a son baptized in St Anne’s Soho, a lodging in Clare Court, Drury Lane, just north of the Strand, and burial from fashionable St Clement Danes. This was an area of relatively high value in the London of the period; around St Martin in the Fields, rentals in the 1690s had an overall mean value of £1,261 per acre, and around St Clement Danes, £1,012.247 Furthermore, like most Londoners, Radisson was a tenant, not an owner; indeed, there is no evidence that he had investments sufficient to generate useful 244 For comparative incomes in the period and their related social status, see Lindert and Williamson, “Revising England’s Social Tables 1688–1812,” 393. 245 West’s bond was initially for £1,000 but was later lowered to £500; for details, see HBC Minutes 1679–84, Second Part, 1682–84, 24 and 28. The other competitors were Alex. Jennings and William Dolbey. The latter was chosen, “at the Sallery of Thirty pounds per Annum, giving security to the Company, as Usual.” HBCA, A.1/22 f.20v. (14 November 1700). 246 Radisson may have made one investment in New France; on 3 November 1681 he is recorded as receiving a “rente” (rent, or some form of unearned income) from Gilles Rageot and his wife, Marie-Madeleine Morin (ANQ, greffe Duquet). Any income of this sort would likely have been unavailable to him after he changed allegiance. 247 Spence, London in the 1690s, 53.

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revenue. “Ill management,” despite Yonge’s plea, must therefore have been a factor; Radisson’s petitions for assistance, his place of residence, and his borrowing all suggest that, though he regularly paid the parish poor rate assessed to support the indigent, the explorer’s style of living was in conflict with his actual resources. Martin Fournier has argued that Radisson’s aspiration was to be a “gentleman.”248 Certainly, had his court patrons found a sinecure for him as he anticipated they would, in the fluid society of Restoration London he might have crossed the boundary dividing the commercial pensioner from the lower gentry, perhaps even fulfilled the claim of the Windsor manuscript, where he had described himself as “ecuyer.” However, without such a position the disparity between his aspirations and his actual social status would have been obvious. Whatever he pretended to be, few would have been unaware of the difference between a man who engaged in trade and one who did not work with his hands. It is interesting, therefore, that the ever-practical Radisson states in his will that he had “preferred” his former wives’ children to various trades – that is, apprenticed them – a strategy typical of a prudent London tradesman or merchant of moderate means, though not unknown among lesser gentlemen.249 The Client of Kings Despite these realistic arrangements for his children, the dying explorer’s will, both in its substance and in its rhetoric, supports everything we know about his behaviour from 1651 onward.250 As in the dedication to King James in 1685, Radisson had at hand an accepted genre, this time that of the testament dictated by a dying man, and he used it to assert his still powerful sense of entitlement. After appointing his wife and a wine-cooper friend, James Heanes, as executors, he relates how by his efforts “severall Colonies in America formerly in possession of the French were reduced unto the Obedience of the late King”; stresses that the advantages of this achievement still accrue to the monarchy and to the HBC; and recalls that “a great part of which transactions is in the memory of His Grace the Duke of Marlborrough to whose care I have been recomended by the late King James before the Revolution.” He then puts on record the HBC’s payment of his pension, adding that “besides what is due on account of the said Pension there is now above Eighteen hundred pounds due 248 Fournier, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, 238. 249 For Radisson’s will, see volume 2. On the social origins of London apprentices in this period, see Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class, 86–9. 250 TNA, PROB 11/516, sig. 167. See volume 2.

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me for other demands I justly have to the said Company.” With typical tenacity, he thereupon proceeds to leave to his heirs the still-unsatisfied claim for his just share in the proceeds of his 1684 bounty of furs from Hudson Bay. Possibly because of this “legacy,” probate took place in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, signifying that the explorer had left an estate greater than £10. However, as far as is known, his heirs never received their due, and they must have received little else, for nothing is said in the will about the residue of his estate, if any there was. Like the dedication to James II twenty-five years earlier, Radisson’s last testament is entirely devoted to his faithful service and what was justly owing to him in return. If we can see now why his Voyages concentrate so relentlessly on his own performance, the historical problem of Radisson’s actions nevertheless remains: if the explorer saw himself as a loyal serviteur, why did he change allegiance so often, leaving the Mohawk who had adopted him, abandoning New France for England, England for France, and then returning at last to London? For a youth shaped by such necessities, the role of serviteur might provide a solution, for, unlike a gentleman, a serviteur could move between worlds. This would be no disgrace; a serviteur was a man of practical gifts, a useful fellow who was adept at making himself at home in any environment. In the milieu of the court it was service of this kind that made the entire hierarchical system function. And if his own behaviour is any indication – the medal, the monument, the apparent expenditure – Radisson had taken on some of the attitudes of the court ambience, both the reliance on grandeur of display as a sign of authority and the disparity that Norbert Elias notes between bourgeois norms requiring the subordination of expenses to income and the noble obligation to spend on a scale appropriate to one’s rank.251 In such a situation Radisson’s diminished social position is not as important as his perception of that position. It was his confidence in a world in which words like “serviteur” still retained their meaning that led him to call himself “serviteur du Roy,” to write unselfconsciously to a king, and to fight tenaciously for his rights in old age. Insofar as he had a concept of the political, it was a politics of gift exchange, persuasive rhetoric, and stipendiary service. Once, for a brief time during their extraordinary trip to Lake Superior in 1659–60, he and Des Groseilliers could say that “we weare Cesars, being nobody to contradict us.” For the rest of his life, however, Radisson had to negotiate many such contradictions, and it was as a serviteur that he did so, not an emperor.

251 Elias, The Court Society, 66. On the social position of the gentleman in England, see Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class, 6–9.

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Radisson must have fallen ill some time in the winter or spring of 1709–10; in the parish records for that year, his wife, Elizabeth, is listed as tenant of the lodgings in Clare Court, but it appears that she did not or could not pay the sum assessed for parish poor relief.252 The explorer was buried on 21 June 1710, after making his will on 17 June. The record in the parish register of St  Clement Danes describes him as “a decay’d gentleman.”253 St Clement Danes, then as now, is a parish of the Church of England. Is it possible that the shrewd Abbé Bernou had been right in 1685 when he complained, again to Eusèbe Renaudot, that he thought Radisson was wavering in his religion and from time to time had to lecture him on the topic?254 Radisson must have been a Catholic at the time of his marriage to Sir John Kirke’s daughter, because Kirke feared he had drawn the girl to his religion. But both she and Charlotte Godet were Protestant, and, judging from his place of burial, so too was the third, the unknown Elizabeth who survived the explorer and lived on until 1732. Perhaps Radisson had changed masters one last time. It is difficult to imagine under the full-bottomed wig of a late-seventeenthcentury Londoner the youth tortured by Mohawk in his adolescence, the explorer hardened by famine in Wisconsin, the suitor first of Colbert and later James II, the soldier of fortune in Caribbean service, the experienced superintendent of trade at Port Nelson, and, most of all, a member of the gentry fallen on hard times. The “decay’d gentleman,” like the “decay’d beauty” of stage satire, was a well-known social type. The phrase chosen by the parish clerk of St Clement Danes may be a marker of Radisson’s final social status, but it is also a pungent reminder of a hustling urban world preoccupied with “the wealth of nations,” a preoccupation that the courtier in buckskin shared with Daniel Defoe and his contemporaries.255 a feast of the dead

Radisson was buried from St Clement Danes, which in the late seventeenth century interred its more indigent parishoners close to the nearby Thames. Since then the riverbanks have shifted and changed, and later buildings have eaten up the old cemetery, of which nothing remains. The explorer’s bones must be buried deep, or perhaps they have floated down the great estuary from 252 253 254 255

See n.219. CWA, St Clement Danes burial register, vol. 6, 21 June 1710. BN, Fr: NAF 7497, f.219, Bernou to Renaudot, 8 May 1685. Earle, A City Full of People, gives a richly detailed account of the domestic and civic lives of ordinary Londoners in this period.

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which he left England on so many voyages. In his complaint before the Court of Chancery in 1694, Radisson said bitterly than he could “with safety and without boasting say and which the Company well knowes that if it had not been for your Orator and his conduct and mannagement there never had been any Hudsons bay company,”‡ and he was probably right. The Hudson’s Bay Company still exists today, at 342 years one of the oldest mercantile organizations in the world. But the fur trade it was founded to exploit – a richly productive staple in Canada’s early years – has almost disappeared, and with it the thriving Native systems of exchange that made it work. Besides depriving Aboriginal men of crucial social and economic relationships, its loss has particularly affected the lives of Aboriginal women, who are no longer able to maintain the skills required for preparing skins as they traditionally did. “The Bay,” as it is known in Canada, is now an aggressive and successful retail organization with over six hundred outlets, under various names, in Canada and the United States; until recently its head was still called “Governor.” The Port Nelson area is another matter; though the wicked “Kawirinagaw” has been harnessed to produce hydro-electric power, Port Nelson itself was abandoned in 1684 when the first of a series of fur trade posts named York Factory was built across Marsh Point on the more peaceful Hayes River by two men Radisson despised, John Abraham and George Geyer. As everyone connected with the Hudson’s Bay Company recognized, the area was strategically important for trade. For more than two centuries, York Factory was a thriving post, functioning as the portal and administrative centre for the company’s immense network of posts across western Canada. But it was shuttered in 1957, and the great wooden depot, the last of many buildings that once crowded the compound, now stands alone, among the most isolated of Canada’s National Historic Sites. A few kilometres away, the remnants of a dilapidated railway line are the only reminders of an attempt early in the twentieth century to establish Port Nelson itself as a grain-shipping port and terminus for the original Hudson Bay Railway; in the end, the railway was built to Churchill instead.256 Time has also buried other places associated with Radisson; the old butchers’ market around the Châtelet in Paris that his father or uncle may have attempted to redevelop has disappeared, and at Onondaga, on the edge of the city of Syracuse, the salt industry has made the little lake where the Jesuits established their mission the most polluted in the United States. Clare Court, the narrow London passage where the old explorer died, fell on hard times early

256 For details of the aborted project, see David Malaher, “Port Nelson and the Hudson Bay Railway.”

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in the eighteenth century257 and was one of the slums swept away when the Kingsway and Aldwych improvement projects were built in 1903–05. It is now buried beneath the London School of Economics. It remains to the historian to excavate these bones, somewhat in the spirit of the Huron and Saulteaux who celebrated their ancestors at the Feast of the Dead in wintry Wisconsin three centuries ago. It is easy to say that Radisson’s voice, at least, is left to us, but in truth all that remains of Radisson (if we except the hotels and the department store empire) is the manuscript record, diffused across a dozen libraries and archives in four countries. We should not be quick to conclude that, when all those manuscripts are unearthed and edited, we will have answered every question about this unusual man’s career. For example, what more can we learn about the Radissons of Avignon? Why did they move north to Paris, and were they indeed entrepreneurs, or perhaps just prosperous butchers? How were boys like Radisson educated, and did that education foster Radisson’s conviction that his destiny was to explore new countries? Can we plumb further his reasons for escaping from his Mohawk family? Who helped the youth Radisson to cross Europe and return to New France in 1654, or did he manage it alone? And was he indeed making forays into the wilderness between 1654 and 1657? Is there more to learn about why Radisson invented the narrative of Voyage III, and what did he mean when he said in Voyage IV that Des Groseilliers could do nothing without him? What in his make-up made possible the transition from Native adoptee to calculating trader? Did he also travel to James Bay, as Des Groseilliers almost certainly did? In London in 1668 was Radisson indeed under the protection of Prince Rupert while he wrote his Voyages? Where did he and Captain Stannard go on the 1669 voyage of the Wivenhoe? And surely we should be able to find other books Radisson owned besides the beautiful manuscript atlas in which he signed his name. In Paris in 1676 was he being exploited by the Abbé Bernou, or was it the other way around? Why was he sometimes able to count on patrons in London when he never succeeded in assembling a supportive group of “friends” at the court of Louis XIV? Are there other reasons besides the fact that he was French that resulted in his getting so badly under the skins of the sailors and captains of the Hudson’s Bay Company? And why, contrastingly, was the lawyer William Yonge such a patient friend over thirty years, something that puzzled even the members of the London Committee? 257 Clare House at the end of the court (see Fig. 3) had already been turned into separate tenements or dwellings by 1708 (Hatton, A New View of London, 2: 624); for the unsavoury conditions around Covent Garden, Drury Lane, and Clare Market as early as 1717, see George, London Life in the Eighteenth Century, 83–4.

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Why was Radisson not able to exploit the patronage of Marlborough during the first decade of the eighteenth century, when the duke was at the height of his power? Did Radisson and Des Groseilliers exchange letters between 1684, when they parted company, and 1695, when Des Groseilliers is supposed to have died? We can produce a faint sketch of his relationship with Charlotte Godet, his second wife, but we do not even know for sure the forename of his first wife, or the maiden name of his third. Did Radisson retain any connections within the Hudson’s Bay Company after the London Committee exploited his usefulness in the late 1690s? Why did he die in apparent poverty when he was receiving the perfectly respectable pension of £100 a year? And why did a French court artist like Jean-François-Marie Bellier attempt to portray him in 1785 when Radisson had been forgotten for eight decades? Such of Radisson’s bones as we find now make up a fairly well-articulated skeleton, but putting the flesh on that skeleton is where the question of interpretation arises. There is absolutely no guarantee that future historians will see in those many files, books, and papers the Radisson that we see today. Possibly they will be able to answer some of the questions I have just posed. But they will also have different questions to ask, and that is all to the good. If this new edition succeeds in turning the page on Radisson, it is certainly the case that the book itself is still open.

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T E x T uA L I N T r O d u C T I O N

Radisson’s writings and the documents relating to his life fall naturally into two volumes. The first comprises the Voyages of 1668, in English, the second the Miscellaneous Writings (1676?–83) and the two Port Nelson Relations (1682–84), both of which are in French, and the documents covering his life after 1687, in English. After a general introduction to the texts and editorial methodology (repeated in volume 2) the discussion that follows covers the Voyages contained in volume 1. The Textual Introduction to volume 2 covers the remaining writings and documents. previous editions

There exist two relatively complete editions of Radisson’s writings and several edited texts of individual portions: (1) Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson. Ed. Gideon Scull. Boston: Prince Society 1885 The edition of Gideon Scull (1824–1889) is based on the scribal manuscript in the Bodleian Library, described below. For the two Port Nelson Relations, he  used the British Museum (now British Library) translation of Voyage V (Add. 11626) and the Sloane manuscript of Voyage VI in translation (BL, Ms. Sloane 3527; see volume 2). His edition has a modest introduction based on some primary research, and light annotation, both now out of date. Scull discovered the manuscript when he was working among the Pepys manuscripts in the Bodleian on another topic. Recognizing that it was of interest, he wrote about his find to the American historian John Gilmary Shea, the distinguished translator of Charlevoix, who was able to identify the author as Pierre-Esprit Radisson.1 Scull transcribed the manuscript (he believed it was in Radisson’s own hand) and it was published in Boston by the Prince Society 1 Georgetown University, Special Collections, John Gilmary Shea Papers, folder 1:8, Shea to Edmond Mallet, 24 August 1884, relating that a manuscript of travels had been found in the Bodleian Library and he had been able to identify it as by Pierre-Esprit Radisson. On 15 October 1884 he wrote again to say that this had led to the rediscovery of the journals of 1682–83 and 1684, presumably the two manuscripts in the British

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in 1885, thus initiating the modern history of Radisson scholarship. Verbally his text presents a fairly accurate transcription, but the principles of his punctuation and paragraphing are not discussed and there are some silent emendations and misreadings. Scull’s edition was reprinted in 1967 by Burt Franklin, New York. It is still cited by scholars, though not as often as that of Arthur T. Adams (below). (2) The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, from the Original Manuscript in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum. Ed. Arthur T. Adams, modernized by Loren Kallsen. Minneapolis: Ross and Haines 1961 Adams’s text of 1961 is a corrected and modernized edition of Scull’s, with some annotation and an introduction proposing a new interpretation of the chronology of Radisson’s travels. The modernizer, Loren Kallsen, standardizes capitalization and spelling, punctuation and paragraphing, and changes Radisson’s tenses when he thinks they are misleading. Editorial interventions are indicated but “structural redundancies” and “unusual connectives” are silently deleted. Adams’s interest was in tracing Radisson’s itinerary, fixing dates to the events he describes, and reordering the narratives in what he believed was their authentic sequence. On the basis of a faulty interpretation of the evidence, he argued that Voyage IV had to have taken place in 1661, to make room in the chronology for Voyage III, which he thought had to have occurred after the conclusion of the voyage to Onondaga in 1658. Instead of questioning the authenticity of Radisson’s narrative in Voyage III, he transferred Radisson’s description of his arrival at the site of the deaths of Dollard Des Ormeaux and his companions from Voyage IV to the end of Voyage III, and altered the position of another passage for greater consistency. There is no justification in editorial practice for transposing elements of a text without substantial and specifically bibliographical authority in the materials themselves, and the Bodleian manuscript of the Voyages does not invite such intervention, as will be seen below. Adams’s scepticism about the manuscript of the Voyages led him to pose many questions that others had not, and his annotations, based on solid local knowledge of the Lake Superior area, are often helpful. Nevertheless, the resulting edition is seriously flawed. His dating of Voyage IV has been followed by some historians, but others who reject it still cite his text because it is the most readily available. Museum mentioned in volume 2, since the two HBCA manuscripts would not have been easily available at that time.

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Louise Phelps Kellogg republished Scull’s edition of Voyage III in her Early Narratives of the Northwest 1634–1699 (1914); this version is still of interest for its annotations. In addition, there are at least two other editions of portions of the Voyages and the two Port Nelson Relations that appear in volume 2. For the Voyages, see Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, and Warkentin, “Pierre Esprit Radisson Travels to Lake Superior.” For the Relations, see the 1886 publications by the Canadian government archivist Douglas Brymner, transcripts of the two Hudson’s Bay Company manuscripts of the Port Nelson Relations, E.1/1 and E.1/2. The transcriptions were by Robert Miller Christy (1861– 1930?), British botanist and local historian, but the translator is not named. The text has no editorial apparatus or notes but is prefaced with a detailed account of the events of 1682–84 which would have been very useful to other scholars at a time when access to the papers in Hudson’s Bay House in London was fairly strictly controlled. In 1999 Berthe-Fourchier Axelsen translated the Voyages into French and included a modernized version of the French texts of the two Port Nelson Relations, both with limited but useful notes. Grace Lee Nute published a number of documents by or connected with Radisson as appendices to Caesars of the Wilderness (1943); in the intervening years they have been very useful to scholars, but there are errors of transcription, misattributions (see volume 2), and very little annotation. In addition, the designations of some manuscripts she cited are now outdated as a consequence of archival reorganization over the past six decades. g e n e r a l e d i to r i a l p ro c e d u r e

The manuscripts of Radisson’s Voyages, Relations, and miscellaneous writings are predominantly scribal rather than autograph, written in both English and French, and located in five different archives. Consequently, they pose varying editorial problems, which are further complicated by the different editorial traditions of English and French textual study. The Voyages exist in only a single (scribal) manuscript, as do the three manuscripts in Radisson’s own hand. However, the two Relations of events at Port Nelson in 1682–83 and 1684 (also scribal) have a more complicated history, and knowing the differences between the three (detailed in volume 2) gives us useful information about how Radisson might have produced the two narratives and how they might have been circulated. The textual scholar needs an authoritative text prepared for the documentary record and representing the manuscripts as exactly as possible, but the inquiring historian or student of literature needs a readable text to study or for use in the classroom. The goal of this edition is to make Radisson’s writings as

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accessible as possible yet preserve their character as seventeenth-century texts in English and French. We do the explorer no favour either by completely modernizing him or by surrounding his own francophone English or fluent French with editorial obstacles. All the texts, whether French or English, scribal or autograph, share the same problems: sentences that need unraveling in footnotes, inconsistent capitalization, unfamiliar words or spellings, erratic punctuation, and almost no paragraphing (historically a major obstacle for readers of Radisson). Radisson himself, as the three autograph manuscripts in volume 2 show, used almost no punctuation. After much consultation of other carefully edited sixteenth- and seventeenth-century documents in both languages, the following method was adopted, as best suited both to the integrity of these early texts and to the needs of the modern reader. The manuscripts and their histories have been described as closely as possible. All are freshly transcribed, except the “Letter to Claude Bernou” and the “Petition to Seignelay[?],” both in volume 2, where existing transcriptions have been thoroughly revised. The texts, whether in French or English, are reproduced without alterations to spelling or word order, and in the case of those in French, without the addition of modern accents. Abbreviation was common in the manuscripts of the period; except for nautical abbreviations in the French texts these have been expanded, with the expanded material in italics. Words that are clearly scribal errors have been emended and the changes are recorded in the list of emendations at the end of each volume. Words inserted above the line are indicated \thus/ and marginal additions are also noted. Erased words and accidentally repeated words and phrases are not indicated unless directly relevant. Words editorially supplied to clarify the sense appear [thus]. A few inconsistencies have been regularized; for example, in the Voyages the occasional “wildmen” has been changed to the scribe’s more frequent “wild men.” As the three autograph manuscripts included in volume 2 show, Radisson occasionally employs the archaic “c” (the modern “ç”) for “s” and there are a few instances of this as well in the manuscript of the Voyages. These have been silently emended; that the scribe of the Bodleian manuscript actually reproduced them instead of supplying “s” suggests how scrupulous his copy is. Unless otherwise indicated, capitalization and punctuation have been regularized, and in most cases introduced by the editor, wherever possible using the manuscripts’ sparse practices as a directive. I/j and u/v have been normalized. Elided words have been separated and elisions normalized using apostrophes. Page numbers of the original manuscript have been indicated /thus/. Paragraphing is a special case; there are a few paragraphs in the Bodleian manuscript of the Voyages but otherwise the text is an unbroken block. In this case the paragraphing is the editor’s, and the scribe’s own occasional

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paragraphs are indicated thus: ¶. In contrast, the Windsor manuscript of the two Port Nelson Relations is fairly well paragraphed; new paragraphs begin on a new line or are marked by blank spaces at the end of the previous one. No intervention has seemed necessary in the French text, but the English translation has additional paragraph breaks for convenience in reading. The texts collected in “Related Documents” (volume 2) are all scribal and frequently several times removed from any original. They have been treated on the same general principles, with any relevant issues mentioned in the headnotes, but are not described in detail. t h e m a n u s c r i p t o f t h e voya g e s

Location: Oxford: Bodleian Library, Ms. Rawl, A329. Date: 1685–86. The Bodleian manuscript poses few problems of transcription or editing, but for some years it was wrongly described and dated because in 1935 Grace Lee Nute concluded, based on her misinterpretation of a payment for “translating a book of Radisson’s” in the accounts of Sir James Hayes of the HBC,2 that the manuscript was a not very competent translation of Radisson’s original French, copied in 1668–69 shortly after he wrote it.3 Hayes must have been referring to some other document, for besides the redating of the manuscript using the material evidence described below, the scribe has been identified as an expert translator of French who would never have produced a text with so many francophone usages. Analysis of the predominating hand (ms. pages 1–116) shows it is that of Nicolas Hayward, who was closely involved with the HBC from 1677 to 1697 as a stockholder and a frequent member of the London Committee. He was both a professional scrivener and a regular translator of mercantile documents from French.4 As a trained scrivener he would have made an exact copy of the document before him, and as a professional translator he would not have produced the kind of francophone linguistic melange evident in the Voyages. Hayward’s copy is very exact; he does not even change Radisson’s archaic “ç” or “c” to “s” ( it also appears in the 2 “By money disbursed for translating a Book of Radisons 5.0.0.” HBCA, A.14/1 ff.79r. 3 For an earlier version of this argument, now much revised and based on further evidence, see Warkentin, “Radisson’s Voyages and Their Manuscripts.” 4 Nicholas Hayward: see Introduction, n152. The minutes of a committee meeting of 20 January 1686 record that “the answer to the Company’s Memoriall in French was also read, Mr. Hayward is desired to translate the same into English & to return them againe to the Committee” (HBCA, A.1/84, f.12v).

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“Letter to Bernou,” volume 2) in several appearances of the words “sack or “sacke.” The second hand in the manuscript (ms. pages 117–22 and possibly 123) is that of the HBC clerk Richard Beane.5 Description: A vellum-bound book of 68 leaves, collating 2o: 110 218 314 (-37) 416 (±48) 512 (-59, 14). Paginated in an early (but not seventeenth-century) hand, and with a page size approximately 36 cm high, 25.5 cm wide. The text is written without interruption from f.1 to f.65, the remainder being blank. Close analysis suggests that it is chiefly in two very similar but distinguishable hands. Hand A, that of Nicholas Hayward, appears up to the end of page 116 (f.61). At page 117 (f.62), which marks the beginning of a new gathering, a second hand (B) resembling but not identical with Hand A takes over. In the margin of page 116, the name “Beane” (Richard Beane, one of the company’s clerks) appears in a clumsy, rounded hand which does not appear elsewhere in the manuscript. The manuscript is completed in Hand B, except for f.65 (page 123, but unpaginated) which contains a list of Native tribal names; this may or may not be in a third hand (C). On the same page Hand B has added some comments crowded in at the bottom. On page 3 (f.4) one word, “clammie,” with a question mark, was inserted in the fifth line from the bottom, and is almost certainly in the hand of Samuel Pepys, who once owned the manuscript.6 On the front free flyleaf of the volume are written the words “A la plus grande gloire de dieu.”7 The watermark throughout is consistently the familiar crowned lily of Strasbourg papermaking in the mid-seventeenth century, resembling most closely Heawood 1785, dating to about 1670. In HBC minute books the  Strasbourg lily makes sporadic appearances in various forms and with 5 For the identification of Hayward’s hand, see Warkentin, “Who Was the Scribe of the Radisson Manuscript?” which discusses in detail Hayward’s practice as a scrivener and his professional certification. I have changed my opinion about the second hand, which comparison with other documents known to be in his hand confirms is that of Richard Beane (see two other Pepys mss. in the Bodleian, Rawl. A191, p.220, the “Tow Boat project” [undated]; and Rawl. A178, a formal letter to Pepys dated 16 June 1682). I am still uncertain about the copyist of the list of Native tribes on the last page. 6 Samuel Pepys: see Introduction, n37. 7 For the record, there is also a line of Greek near the top edge of the rear pastedown endpaper. Translated, the letters read “l m n – a and o – joy.” The word “joy” (chara) may be in a different hand. The letters, apparently an allusion to Rev. 1:8, seem unrelated to the subject of the manuscript; they might have been written by Pepys or (more likely) Rawlinson – or indeed by someone unknown. I am grateful to Wallace McLeod for assistance with this inscription.

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textual introduction

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differing countermarks, but throughout HBCA, A.1/8, the minute book for 1684–85, we find a version of this watermark which to the naked eye is virtually identical with the one in the Bodleian manuscript and bears the same countermark – the cross/IHS – a combination not so far found in any other document among these papers. The Bodleian manuscript, I conclude, was written on paper drawn from stock used by the Hudson’s Bay Company some time in 1685 or early 1686, a period when Radisson’s affairs were of great interest to the company. Provenance: Beyond its creation about 1685–86 in the orbit of the HBC, the early provenance of the Bodleian manuscript is uncertain. Robert Hilliker has written that I once suggested Radisson had commissioned the copying of the Bodleian manuscript in 1686. To my regret I didn’t, but I wish I had, since it’s an intriguing possibility, and an act very typical of Radisson.8 Whatever the case, when Samuel Pepys died in 1703, the manuscript Hayward copied was in his possession. It is possible that he borrowed the Bodleian manuscript from Hayward to read and never sent it back. Alternatively, Hayward may have been commissioned to copy it for Pepys. Whatever the case, the Bodleian manuscript was among those discarded when Pepys died, subsequently rescued from a waste heap by the great collector Richard Rawlinson (1690–1755) and then left by him to the Bodleian Library along with a mass of other materials.9 In the first volume (1862) of the Quarto Catalogues of the manuscripts in the Bodleian, the author was simply described as “a French settler.”10

8 See Hilliker, “Telling the Transnational Self.” 9 “Rawlinson did not confine himself to the traditional means of purchasing manuscripts through auctioneers and booksellers,” writes Mary Clapinson. “He vastly increased his collections by seeking papers of historical interest which had been sold for scrap, scouring grocers’ and chandlers’ shops, and purchasing by weight important seventeenthcentury archives.” Clapinson, “Richard Rawlinson,” ODNB. 10 W.D. Macray, ed., Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae partis quintae fasciculus 1–5 ... Ricardi Rawlinson ... codicum classes [A-E] complectens (Oxford, 1862–1900), 350.

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Voyage I t o t h e m o h aw k , 1 6 5 2 – 5 3

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1 2 3 4 5 6

Three Rivers / Trois Rivières Tionnontoguen Niottga (probably the Oneida village Oneiout) Nontageya (probably Onondaga) Sauonteronon (probably Oigouën on Cayuga Lake) Chemung River

7 Lake Erie shore between Sandusky and Toledo 8 Fort Orange 9 Menada / Manhattan –➤ – Route is known Return to the Mohawk River (uncertain route across the Appalachians)

GIS and Cartography Office, Department of Geography, University of Toronto

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/1/ The relation of my voyage1 being in bondage in the lands of the Irokoits which was the next yeare after my coming into Canada in the yeare one thousand six hundred fiftie one, the 24th day of May.2 ¶Being persuaded in the morning by two of my comrades to go and recreat our selves in fowling I disposed my selfe to keepe them company3; wherfore I cloathed my selfe the lightest waye I could possible that I might be the nimbler, and not stay behinde, as much for the prey that I hoped for, as for to escape the danger into which wee have ventered our selves, of an enemy the cruelest that ever was uppon the face of the earth. It is to be observed, that the French had warre with a wild nation called Iroquoites, who for that time weare soe strong and so to be feared, that scarce any body durst stirre out either cottage or house without being taken or kild, saving that he had nimble limbs to escape their fury. Being departed, all three well armed, and unanimously rather die than abandon one another, notwithstanding these resolutions [we] weare but young mens deboasting4 being then in a very litle assurance and lesse security. At an offspring5 of a village of Three Rivers we consult together, that two should go the watter side, the other in a wood hard by to warne us, for to advertise us if he accidentaly should light or suspect any barbars in the bush, we also [plan to] retreat our selves to him, if we should discover any thing oppon the river. Having comed to the first river, which was a mile distant from our dwellings,6 wee mett a man who kept catell and asked him, if he had knowne any 1 Radisson uses the word “voyage” in the French sense: a trip or a journey. See, for example, “Our voyage was laborious and most miserable suffering every night the like misery” (135). Note that he also calls it a “relation”; see Introduction for a discussion of the two terms. 2 This is the date Radisson arrived in New France, not of the events he now relates. By the time of his capture, he had had time to learn some Huron (an Iroquoian language) (see 138). He later (228) indicates that he had also picked up some Algonquian. 3 Near the end of his narrative Radisson dates his escape at 29 October 1653 and speaks below of “a yeare and a half of hazards and of miseryes” (116), so the youths’ hunting trip must have taken place in April or May 1652. 4 deboasting: no English or French sources; possibly a scribal misreading, but the sense is clear. 5 offspring: a small tributary of a larger lake or river. The area west of Trois-Rivières was full of woods and creeks. 6 Possibly the Rivière Millette, west of Trois-Rivières.

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appearance of ennemy, and likewise demanded which way he would advise us to gett better fortune and [in] what part he spied more danger. He guiding us the best way he could, prohibiting us by no means not to render our selves att the skirts of the mountains,7 “For” said he, “I discovered oftentimes a multitude of people, which rose up as it weare of a sudaine from of the earth, and that doubtlesse there weare some enemys that way.” Which sayings made us looke to ourselves, and charge two of our fowling peeces* with great shot the one, and the other with small. Priming our pistols we went where our fancy first lead us, being impossible for us to avoid the destinies of the heavens. No sooner [had we] tourned our backs, but my nose fell ableeding8 with out any provocation in the least. Certainly it was a warning to me of a begining of a yeare and a half of hazards and of miseryes that weare to befall me. We did shoot somtimes, and killed some duks which made one of my fellow travellers go no further. I seeing him taking such a resolution, I proferred some words that /2/ did not like him,9 giving him the character of a timorous childish humor; so this did nothing prevaile with him. To the contrary, that had with him quite another issu then what I hopped for, for offending him with my words he prevailed so much with the others, that he persuaded them to doe the same. I lett them goe laughing them to scorne, beseeching them to helpe mee to my fowles, and that I would tell them the discovery* of my designes10 hoping to kill meat to make us meate att my retourne. I went my way along the wood some times by the side of the river, where I finde some thing to shute att though no considerable quantitie, which made me goe a legue off and more so I could not go in all further then St Peeters which is nine mile from the plantation11 by reason of the river Ousmasis,12 which hindered me the passage. I begun’d to think att my retourne, how I might transport my fowle. I hide one part in a hallow tree to keep them from the eagles and other devouring fowles, so as 7 The edge of the Canadian Shield, about forty kilometres north of the St Lawrence River. 8 This (and a second episode, below) is epistaxis, the frequent nosebleeds some children suffer. Like Radisson’s relative beardlessness (see Voyage IV), it reminds us of his youth; he cannot have been older than sixteen when the Mohawk captured him, and perhaps younger. 9 That showed contempt for him. 10 That I would reveal my secret plans to them. 11 St Peeters: Lac Saint-Pierre; plantation: in this period, the customary English term for a settlement or colony – in this case Trois-Rivières. 12 Most likely the Little Yamachiche River. Adams (Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xxxiv) identifies this stream as the Nicolet River, but Radisson and the men who captured him had not yet crossed the St Lawrence (see below).

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I  came backe the same way where before had no bad incounter*, arrived within one halfe a mile where my comrades had left me. I rested a while by reason that I was loaden’d with three geese, tenn ducks and one crane with some teales. After having layed downe my burden uppon the grasse, I thought to have heard a noise in the wood by me which made me to overlook13 my arms. I found one of my girdle pistols14 wette, I shott it off and charged it againe, went up to the wood the saffliest I might, to discover* and defend my selfe the better against any surprise. After I had gone from tree to tree some 30 paces off, I espied nothing. As I came backe from out of the wood to an adjacent brooke, I perceived a great number of duckes; my discovery embouldened me, and for that there was a litle way to the fort15 I determined to shute once more. Coming nigh preparing me selfe for to shute, heare I found an other worke, the two young men that I  left some tenne howres before heere weare killed. Whether they came after mee, or weare brought thither by the barbars, I know not; however [they] weare murthered. Looking over them [I] knew them albeit quite naked, and their hair standing up,16 the one being shott through with three boulletts, and two blowes of an hatchet on the head, and the other runne thorough in severall places, with a sword and smitten with an hatchet. In the same instance my nose begun’d to bleede which made me afraid of my life, but withdrawing my selfe to the watter side to see if any body follow’d me, I espied twenty or thirty heads in a long grasse. Mightily surprized at that view, I must needs passe through the midst of them or tourne backe into the wood. I slipt a boullet uppon the shott, and beate the paper into my gunne.17 I heard a noise, which made me looke on that side, hoping to save my selfe, persuading my selfe I was not yet perceived by them that weare in the medow. And in the meane while some gunns weare sett off with an horrid cry. Seeing my selfe compassed round about by a multitud of dogges, or rather devils that rose from the grasse /3/ rushes and bushesse, I shott my gunne whether onwarrs18 13 To look a thing over, check. 14 A medium-length pistol with a hook for the belt; popular with seamen. 15 For early Trois-Rivières and its fortifications, see Sulte, Histoire des Trois-Rivières (1870), 60–1. 16 The victims’ hair had been made to stand up in the traditional fashion of the Mohawk, who later arrange Radisson’s hair in somewhat the same way (124). 17 He inserted a bullet into the barrel of his musket, on top of the gunpowder, and added paper wadding. Radisson doesn’t say whether he had time to tamp down the charge and shoot, or if all his actual firing was with the pistol. 18 onwarrs: unawares.

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or purposly I know not, but I shott with a pistolle confidently, but was seised on all sids by a great number that threw me downe, taking away my arme[s] without giving mee one blowe. For afterwards I felt no paine att all only a great guidinesse in my heade, from whence it comes I doe not remember. In the same time they brought me into the wood where they shewed me the two heads all bloody. After they consulted together for a while, [they] retired into their boats which weare four or five miles from thence, and wher I have bin a while before. They \layd mee/ thither, houlding me by the hayre, to the imbarking place. There they began to errect their cottages which consisted only of some stiks to boyle their meate whereof they had plenty, but stuncke, which was strange to mee to finde such an alteration so sudain.19 They made [me] sitt downe by [them?]. After this, they searched me and tooke what I had, then stripped me naked, and tyed a rope about my middle,20 wherin I remained fearing to persist in the same posture the rest of the night. After this, they removed me, laughing and howling like as many wolves, I knowing not the reason if not for my skine that was soe whit in respect of theirs.21 But their gaping22 did soone cease because of a false alarme, that their [e]scort who stayed behind gave with23 saying that the French, and the wild Algongins, friends to the French, come with all speed. They presently put out the fire, and tooke houlde of the most advantageous passages,24 sent twenty five men to discover what it meant, who 19 The sudden change from the violence of his capture. Radisson’s experience parallels that of other captives of the Mohawk. Father Isaac Jogues’s torture in 1642 is described by Father Barthelemy Vimont in JR 25: 43–73. See also JR 26: 41–51 for the monthlong sufferings of Father Francesco-Giuseppe Bressani in 1644; amazingly, he survived to give his own account, JR 39: 55–7. The Introduction discusses the Iroquois “mourning war” and the process of social death and rebirth that led chosen victims towards adoption. For Radisson’s passage through the rites, I chiefly follow Lafitau, Customs. 20 Stripping and securing by a rope signify the first stage of the ritual torture of a captive, leading either to death or to adoption. On this occasion Radisson is chosen for adoption; however, after his later escape and recapture, he is subjected to the torments of one chosen to be killed, though he will be rescued by his adoptive mother. 21 An early reference to the difference between red and white skins, which was less commented on in the early modern period than a reader of today might think. Sagard, for example, states that the Natives are the same colour as white people, just tanned by the sun (Sagard, Le grand voyage du pays des Hurons, 220). 22 gaping: staring in wonder. 23 Followed by several words struck out and illegible. 24 Guarded the key entryways.

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brought certaine tydings of assurance and liberty. In the meane while I was garded by fifty men, who gave me a good part of my cloathes. After kindling a fire againe, they got theire supper ready which was sudenly* don. For they dresse their meat halfe boyled, mingling some yallowish meale in the broath of that infected stinking meate.25 So whilst this was adoing, they combed my head and with a filthy grease greased my head, and dashed all over my face with redd paintings. So then when the meat was ready, they feeded me with their hodpot26 forceing me to s[w]allow it in a maner.27 My heart did so faint at this, that in good deede I should have given freely up the ghost to be freed from their clawes, thinking every moment, they would end my life. They perceived that my stomach could not beare such victuals. They tooke some of this stinking meate and boyled it in cleare water then mingled a litle indian meale put to it, which meale before was tossed amongst bourning sand, and then made in powder betwixt two rocks. I to show myselfe cheerfull att this I s[w]allowed downe some of this, that seemed to me very unsavoury and clammie28 by reason of the scume that was upon the meat. Having supped, the[y] untyed mee, and made me lye betwixt them having one end of one side and one of another, and covered me with a read coverlet thorough which I might have counted the starrs.29 I slept a sound sleepe, for they awaked me uppon the breaking of the day. I dreamed that night that I was with the Jesuits at Quebuc drinking beere, which /4/ gave me hopes to be free sometimes and also because I heard those people lived among Dutch people in a place called Meneda and fort of Orang,30 where without doubt I could drinke beere.

25 Coarsely ground corn meal (Indian meal) stewed with meat. Europeans generally thought Native practices with food were unclean (Waugh, Iroquois Foods and Food preparation, 47, 49), but Radisson seems to have been more than ordinarily fastidious. He would have been familiar with gamey meat but this had likely passed that point. 26 hot-pot, hod-pot: stew. 27 They fed me with their stew by force. 28 The scribe, Nicholas Hayward, left a space here and another hand, almost certainly that of Samuel Pepys, inserted “clammie” with a question mark after it. 29 The sleepers on either side held onto their captive. The red blanket full of holes was clearly trade goods. 30 those people: his Mohawk captors. Meneda: Manhattan, spelled in various ways in French texts of the period (including Radisson’s). Only at the end of Voyage IV does Radisson use the term “New Yorke.” fort of Orange: the Dutch fur trade post established by the West India Company in 1624, just south of today’s Albany, New York.

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Fig 4: Map of New Netherland, 1656.

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I after this finding me selfe somewhat altered, and my body more like a divel then anything else, after being so smired and burst with their filthy meate that I could not digest, but must suffer all patiently, finally they seemed to me kinder and kinder, giving me of the best bitts where lesse wormes weare. Then they layd [me] to the watter side where there weare seaven and thirty boats, for each of them imbarked himselfe.31 They tyed me to the barre32 in a boat, where they tooke in the same instance the heads of those that weare killed the day before and for to preserve them they cutt off the flesh to the skul and left nothing but skin and haire, puting of it into a little panne wherein they melt some grease, and gott it dry with hott stones. They spread themselves from of the side of the river a good way, and gathered together againe and made a fearfull noise and shott some gunns off, after which followed a kind of an incondit33 singing after nots which was an oudiousom34 noise. As they weare departing from thence they injoyned silence, and one of the company wherin I was made three shouts, which was answered by the like maner from the whole flock, which done, they tooke their way, singing and leaping and so past the day in such like. They offered mee meate, but such victuals, I reguarded it litle, but could drinke for thirst. My spirit was troubled with infinit deale of thoughts, but all to no purpose for the ease of my sicknesse, somtimes despiring now againe in some hopes, I allways indeavoured to comfort my selfe, though half dead. My resolution was so mastered with feare, that every stroke of oares of those inhumans [I] thought it to be my end. By sun sett we arrived at the Isles of Richelieu,35 a place rather for victores then for captives most pleasant. There is to be seene three hundred wild cowes36 together, a number of ealks and beavers,37 an infinit of fowles. There we must make cottages and for this purpose they imploy altogether their wits and art. For fifteen of those islands are drowned in spring, when the floods begin to rise, 31 Each man in his own canoe. At this point the Mohawk, with Radisson as their prisoner, cross the St Lawrence and head south. 32 The thwart or crossbar of a canoe. 33 incondite: ill arranged or composed. 34 oudiousom: that is, odious; here either a made-up word on the model of “noisome” or a scribal error. 35 The numerous islands at the end of Lac Saint-Pierre; the area is very marshy. 36 wild cowes: since Radisson distinguishes them from the “ealks” (wapiti), these are probably moose (Alces alces americana). For the wapiti, see Voyage III (226n.101). 37 Except for the “Complaint in Chancery” (volume 2), which was probably written by his counsel, this is the only time Radisson uses the word “beaver”; even when writing in English he invariably uses the French “castor.”

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from the melting of the snow, and that by reason of lownesse of the lande. Heere they found a place fitt enough for two hundred and fifty men that their army consisted [of]. They landed mee and showed me great kindnesse, saying chagon,38 which is as much to say (as I understood afterwards) be cheerfull, or merry, but for my part I was both deafe and dumbe. Their behavior made me neverthelesse cheerfull or att least of a smiling countenance, and constraine[d] my aversion and feare to an assurance,39 which proved not ill to my thinking. For the young men tooke delight in combing my /5/ head, greasing and powdering out a kind of redd powder, then tying my haire with a redd string or leashe like to a corde, which caused my haire to grow longer in a short time. The day following they prepared themselves to passe the adjacent places and shoote to gett victualls, where wee stayed three dayes makeing great cheere and fires, I more and more getting familiarity with them, [so] that I had the liberty to goe from cottage having one or two by mee.40 The[y] untyed mee, and tooke delight to make me speake words of their language and weare earnest that I  should pronounce as they. They tooke care to give me meate as often as I would.41 They gave me salt that served me all my voyage; they also took the paines to put it up safe for mee not takeing any of it for themselves.42 There was nothing else but feasting and singing during our aboad. I tooke notice that our men decreased for every night one other boate tooke his way, which persuaded me that they went to the warrs to gett more booty. The fourth day early in the morning my brother viz. he that tooke me (so he called me) embarked me without tying me. He gave me an ore, which I tooke with a good will, and rowed till I sweat againe. They perceaving made me give over. Not content with that, I made a signe of my willingnesse to continue that worke. They consent to my desire, but shewed me how I should row, without putting my selfe into a sweat. Our company being considerable hitherto, was now reduced to three 38 chagon: from the verb root that appears in Huron as “-tsa,on,” meaning “have courage.” Steckley, A Huron-English/English-Huron Dictionary, 260. 39 Which made me less fearful and more confident. 40 Captives were often given some freedom on the journey to their captors’ village (Lafitau, Customs 2: 149) but Radisson seems to have ingratiated himself unusually well with his new companions. 41 As often as I asked for it. 42 Part of the hospitality lavished on a captive selected for adoption; Radisson’s captors took none for themselves. Throughout world history salt has been a valuable mineral, and many ruling groups have made sure to control and profit from its trade and distribution. Adams (Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xxxiv) notes that the region is salt producing.

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score. Midday wee came to the river of Richlieu,43 where we weare not farre gon, but mett a new gang44 of their people in cottages. They began to hoop and hallow as the first day of my taking. They made me stand upright in the boat as they themselves, saluting one another with all kindnesse and joy. In this new company, there was one that had a minde to doe me mischief, but [was] prevented by him that tooke me. I taking notice of the fellow, I showed him more friendshipe. I gott some meate roasted for him, and throwing a little salt and flower over it, which he finding very good tast, gave it to the rest as a rarity. Non did afterwards molested mee. They tooke a fancy to teach mee to sing, and as I had already a beginning of their hooping, it was an easy thing for me to learne, our Algongins making the same noise. They tooke an exceeding delight to heare mee. Often [I] have singed in French to which they give eares with a deepe silence.45 We passed that day and night following with litle rest by reason of their joy and mirth. They lead a dance and tyed my comrades both their heads att the end of a stick, and hopt it.46 This done, every one packt, and embarked him selfe, some going one way some an other. Being separated one of the boats that weant before comes backe againe, and approaches the boat wherin I was. I wondered, a woman of the said company taking hould on my haire, signifying great kindnesse. Shee combs my head with her fingers and tyed my wrist with a bracellet, and sungd. My wish was that shee would proceed in our way.47 After both companys made a shout wee separated. I was sory for this womans departure for having shewed me such favor att her first aspect, doubtlesse but shee might (if need required) saved my life. Our journey was indifferent good, with out any delay, which caused us to arrive in a good and pleasant harbor. /6/ It was on the side of the sand where

43 They paddled half a day to travel from the lowlands at the west end of Lac Saint-Pierre to the mouth of the Richelieu River at present-day Sorel-Tracy. 44 gang: troop or group; not usually pejorative in this period. 45 Radisson’s willingness to sing is entirely characteristic of the early modern period, when music making at home and in small convivial groups was the norm and good manners encouraged everyone to participate. 46 That is, they “danced the heads.” See Voyage IV, where Radisson describes this as part of the Condolence Ceremony: “This done, we are called to the councell of welcome, and to the feast of friendshipp afterwards to the danceing of the heads. But before the danceing, we must mourne for the deceased, and then, for to forgett all sorrow to the dance” (267). 47 Would go along with them.

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our people had any paine scarce48 to errect their cottages, being that it was a place they had secoured before: the place round about [was] full of trees. Heere they kindled a fire and provided what was necessary for their food. In this place they cutt of my haire in the front, and upon the crowne of the head, and turning up the locks of the haire they dabd mee with some thicke grease.49 So done, they brought me a looking glasse,50 I viewing myselfe all in a pickle, smired with redde and black, coverd with such a cappe, and locks tyd up with a piece of leather, and stunked horridly. I could not but fall in love with my selfe, if not that I had better instructions to shun the sin of pride. So after repasting themselves, the[y] made them ready for the journey, with taking repose that night. (This was the time I thought to have escap’d. For in vaine, for I being alone, feared least I should be apprehended, and dealt with more violently, and moreover I was desirous to have seene their country). Att the sun rising, I awaked my brother telling him by signes it was time to goe. He called the rest, but non would stirre, which made him lye downe againe. I rose, and went to the watter side, where I walked a while; if there weare an other we might, I dare say, escape at their seight.51 Heere I recreated my selfe running a naked swoored into the sand.52 One of them seeing mee after such an exercise, calls mee, and shews me his way, which made me more confident in them. They brought mee a dish full of meate to the watter side. I began to eat like a beare. In the mean time they imbarked themselves. One of them tooke notice that I had not a knife brings me his, which I kept the rest of the voyage, with out that they had the least fear of mee. Being ready to goe, saving my boat that was ammending, which was soone done, the other boats weare not as yett out of sight, and in the way my boat killed a stagge. They made me shoot att it, and not quite dead they runed it thorough with their swoords and having cutt it in pieces, they devided it, and proceeded on their way. Att three of the clocke in

48 Had no difficulty in erecting. 49 Radisson later says that when the victim can no longer “take up his haire” he is finished off (140). 50 The mirror would have been trade goods, to which these Mohawk appear to be already well adapted. 51 Escape their sight. 52 Lafitau (Customs 2: 116) relates that the Natives “do not willingly use our swords in the way we do; but they put them on the end of sticks which they hurl swiftly like javelins or handle like pikes or half pikes.” Much later, when he is preparing for his escape, Radisson speaks of cutting “long sticks to make handles for a kind of a sword they use” (161).

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the after none53 we came into a rappid streame, where we weare forced to land, and carry our equipages and boats, thorough a dangerous place. Wee had not any encounter* that day. Att night where we found cottages ready made, there I cutt wood as the rest with all dilligence. The morning early following, we marched without maikeing great noise, or singing as accustomed. Sejourning a while54 we came to a lake six leaugues* wide;55 about it a very pleasant country imbellished with great forests. That day our wild people killed two boars,56 one monstruous like for it’s biggnesse the other, a small one. Wee arrived to a fine sandy bancke where not long before many cabbanes weare errected, and places made where prisoners weare tyed. In this place our wild people sweated after the maner following: first heated stoanes till they weare redde as fire, then they made a lantherne with small sticks, then stoaring the place with deale* trees, saving a place in the middle wher into they put the stoanes, and covered the place with severall covers,* then striped themselves naked went into it. They made a noise as if the devil weare there.57 After they being there for an houer, they58 came out of the watter and then [began] throwing one an other into the watter. I thought veryly they weare insensed,59 [but] it is their usual custome. Being comed out of this place, they feasted themselves with the two bears, /7/ turning the outside of the tripes inward not washed,60 they gave every one his share. As for my part I found them good, and savory to the pallet. In the night they heard some shooting which made them embark themselves speedily. In the mean while they made me lay downe whilst they rowed very hard. I slept securly till the morning where I found me selfe in great high rushes. There they stayed without 53 Radisson often asserts that such and such happened at a certain time of day. Adams (Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xxxiv) suggests he was a close observer of the sun, or might have been carrying a timepiece. The former is more likely; watches in the period were large, heavy, and inaccurate and were worn chiefly for display. Some men did carry small portable sun-dials, but it’s unlikely that the youth would have owned either watch or sun-dial, let alone kept possession of it during his ordeal. 54 Sojourning in the area for a while. 55 Their route led them up the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain. 56 Boars here, but bears below; either is possible, since wild swine had been introduced into the Americas by Christopher Columbus and Hernando de Soto. 57 The sweat bath was described by visitors to North America from Lescarbot onward; see the account in Lafitau, Customs 2: 207–9. 58 Followed by three words struck out, the last two “as if.” 59 incensed: out of their senses. 60 tripes: the stomach; they turned it inside out but did not wash it.

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noise. From thence wee proceeded though not without some feare of an Algongin army. We went on for som dayes [on] that lacke.61 Att last they endeavoured to retire to the woods, every one carrying his bundle. After a dayes march we came to a litle river where we layd that night. The day following we proceeded on our journey, where we mett twoo men with whome our wild men seemed to be acquainted by some signes. These two men began to speake a longe while. After came a company of women, twenty in number, that brought us dry fish and indian corne.62 These women loaded themselves (after that we had eaten) like mules with our baggage. We went through a small wood, the way well beaten, untill the evening we touched a place for fishing of fifteen cabbans. There they weare well received but my selfe, who was stroaken by a yong man. He my keeper made a signe I should to him againe.63 I tourning to him instantly, he to me, taking hould of my haire. All the wild men came about us encouraging with their cryes and hands which encouraged me most that non helpt him more than mee.64 We clawed one an other with hands and tooth and nailes. My adversary being offended I have gotten the best, he kickt me, but my French shooes that they left mee weare harder then his which made him [abandon] that game againe. Hee tooke me about the wrest where he found himselfe downe before he was awarre, houlding him upon the ground till some came and putt us asunder. My company seeing mee free began to cry out, giving me watter to wash me and then fresh fish, to relish me. They encouraged me so much that the one combing my head, the other greasing my haire. There we stayed two dayes, where nobody durst trouble me. In the same cabban that I was, there has bin a wild man wounded with a small shott. I thought I have seen him the day of my taking which made me feare least I was the one that wounded him. He knowing it to be so, had shewed me as much charity as a Christian might have given. An other of his fellowes (I also wounded) came to me att my first coming there, whom I thought to have come for reveng, contrary wise shewed me a cheerfull countenance. He

61 Lake Champlain, approximately 120 kilometres long. 62 indian corne: corn (Zea mays), from ancient times the most widely grown crop in the Americas. In England it is known as maize, and the term “corn” is used for cereal crops in general. 63 Made a sign that I should strike him back. 64 Ambiguous; “no one in the crowd helped him more than they helped me,” that is, the supporters were equally balanced? Or possibly, with some irony, “no one helped him more than I did myself” (by beating him).

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gave me a box full of red paintings65 calling me his brother. I had not as yett caryed any burden, but meeting with an ould man [he] gave me a sacke of tobacco of 12 pounds weight bearing it uppon my head as its their usual coustoms. We made severall stayes that day by reason of the severall encounters* of their people that came from villages as [from?] warres, others from fishing and shooting. In that journey our company increased, among others a great many Hurrons that had bin latly taken and who for the most part are as slaves. We layed in the wood, because they would not goe into their village in the night time. The next day, we marched into a village66 where /8/ as we came in sight we heard nothing but outcryes, as from one side as from the other. Being a quarter of a mile from the village the[y] satt downe and I in the midle where I saw women and men and children with slaves in array which put me in feare and [they] instantly stripped me naked. My keeper gave me a signe to be gone as fast as I could drive.67 In the meane while many of the village came about us, among which a good old woman, and a boy with a hatchet in his hand, came neare mee. The old woman covered* mee, and the young man tooke me by the hand and lead me out of the company. The old woman made me step a side from those that were ready to stricke att mee.68 There I left the two heads of my comrades, and that which comforted me [was] that I escaped the blowes. Then they brought me 65 Either red ochre, widely used among early peoples all over the world for painting, or the much rarer vermilion (cinnabar). 66 Lafitau discusses the entrance of captives into a village; see Customs 2: 149–53. The Mohawk’s three main villages, Caughnawaga, Kanagaro, and Tionnontoguen (the largest and most important), were situated on the south bank of the Mohawk River between Amsterdam and Little Falls, west of present-day Schenectady. They appear on the map Nouvelle France (c. 1641, see frontispiece ) and Heidenreich, “An Analysis of the 17th-Century Map ‘Novvelle France,’” 71. Radisson does not name the village to which he was taken, but judging from the number of people he reports, it may have been Tionnontoguen. 67 drive: chiefly an early modern usage: to move with vehemence or energy. At this point Radisson would have been expected to endure the “running” of the gauntlet, which Richter (Ordeal of the Longhouse, 67) points out was in fact intended to take place as slowly as possible, so as to prolong the torment. When he is made to run the gauntlet later, Radisson writes: “Heere no help, no remedy, we must passe this dangerous passage in our extremity with out helpe” (137). 68 The old woman has chosen Radisson to “requicken” her family’s dead son. The new clothes and the younger woman’s combing of Radisson’s hair signify that he is being adopted.

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into their cottage; there the old woman shewed me kindnesse, shee gave me to eate. The great terror I had a litle before tooke my stomack away from me. I stayd an hower where a great company of people came to see mee. Heere came a company of old men having pipes in their mouthes [and] satt about me. After smoaking they lead me into an other cabban, where there weare a company all smoaking. They made [me] sett downe by the faier which made [me] apprehend they should cast me into the said fier, but it prov’d otherwise, for the old woman followed mee, speaking aloud, whom they answered with a loud “ho.”69 Then shee tooke her girdle and about me shee tyed it, so brought me to her cottage, and made me sitt downe in the same place I was before. Then shee began to dance and sing a while, after brings downe from her box a combe, gives it to a maide[n] that was neare mee, who presently comes to greas and combe my haire, and tooke a way the paint that the fellows stuck to my face. Now the old woman gets me some indian corne toasted in the fire. I tooke pains to gether it out of the fire. After this shee gave me a blew coverlett, stokins and shoos and wherewith to make me drawe[r]s. She looked in my cloathes, and if shee found any lice shee would squize them betwixt her teeth, as if they had been substantiall meate. I layd with her son, who tooke me from those my first takers, a[nd] gott at last great aquaintance with many.70 I did what I could to gett familiarity with them, yeat I suffered no wrong att their hands taking all freedom which the old woman inticed me to doe. But still they altered my face whereever I went, and [gave me] a new dish to satisfy nature. I tooke all the pleasures imaginable having a small peece* at my comand shooting patriges and squerells, playing most part of the day with my companions. The old woman wished that I would make me selfe more familiar with her two daughters which weare tolerable among such people.71 They weare accoustomed to grease and combe my haire in the morning. I went with them into the wilderness, there the[y] would be babling which I could not understand. They wanted no company but I was shure to be of the number.72 69 Lafitau points out that the destination of a captive is decided in council. The “matrons,” as he calls them – the clan mothers – determine whether a captive, once given, is to die or be adopted, and into which family (Customs 2: 153–4). 70 That is, he became acquainted with the lice; the common bed must have been infested with them. 71 By the end of his life Radisson had had three wives, so he certainly must have been interested in women, but he rarely discusses sexual relations, and then does so modestly; see his refusal of the woman at Rensselaerswijck (162). Food, on the other hand, seems to have been a major preoccupation; he comments on it regularly. 72 They insisted I be involved in all their plans.

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I brought all wayes some guifts that I received which I gave /9/ to my prime keeper and refuge the good old woman. I lived five weeks without thinking from whence I came. I learned more of their maners in six weeks then if I had been in France six months.73 Att the end, I was troubled in mind, which made her inquire if I was anjonack, a Huron word.74 Att this I made as if I weare subported75 for speaking in a strang language, which she liked well, calling me by the name of her son who before was killed,76 Orinha, which signifies ledd or stone without difference of the words, so that it was my lordshippe.77 Shee inquired me whether I was asserony, a French.78 I answering no, saying I was panugaga,79 that is of their nation, for which shee was pleased. My father feasted three hundred men that day.80 My sisters made me clean for that purpos, and greased my haire; my mother decked me with a new cover* and a redd and blew cappe, with two necklace[s] of porcelaine*. My sisters tyed me with bracelets and garters of the same porcelaine; my brother painted my face, and [put] feathers on my head and tyed both my locks with porcelaine. My father was liberall to me giving me a garland instead of my blew cap and a necklace 73 Ambiguous, but possibly “I learned more about the Mohawk in six weeks than I would have learned about the French in six months.” 74 anjonack: From the verb root that appears in Huron as “–nnion,en,” meaning “to be French.” Steckley, A Huron-English/English-Huron Dictionary, 195. 75 A variant spelling, but from the context probably support: to keep (a person, his mind, etc.) from failing or giving way; to give courage, confidence, or power of endurance. 76 The ritual of assimilation to the Mohawk is complete, and Radisson has been “requickened” as her son, which he acknowledges when he says he is panugaga, of the Mohawk nation. Yet he will shortly imply to the Algonquin stranger that his loyalties are really to the French (131). 77 Radisson’s French name, Pierre, means “stone,” and his Mohawk name, “Orinha,” comes from the word for stone or boulder (see Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 80, where the noun root is given as “onv´:ya”). The coincidence is noticeable; had he been asked the meaning of his French name, and did his adopted mother choose him because of it? lordshippe: so that it was my title. 78 asserony: Mohawk “onseronni,” meaning “French”; see Bruyas, Radical Words of the Mohawk Language, 84 (examples under “Garackon,” to esteem or prize) and 103 (under “Gate,” to be). 79 Steckley observes that there is no “p” in Iroquoian languages and suggests “Kanyv?kehá:ka,” meaning Mohawk, as in Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 88. (John Steckley, personal communication, 13 July 2010.) 80 The feast, and the new garb, mark Radisson’s formal adoption into his Iroquois family; for the ritual, see Lafitau, Customs 2: 171–2.

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of porcelaine* that hung downe to my heels, and a hattchet in my hand. It was hard for me to defend my selfe against any encounter*, being so laden with riches.81 Then my father made a speech shewing many demonstrations of vallor, broake a kettle full of sagamite with a hattchet, so they sung as is their usual coustom. They weare waited on by a sort of yong men bring[ing] down dishes of meate of oriniacke*, of castors and of red deare mingled with some flowers. The order of makeing was thus, the corne being dried between two stones into powder, being very thick putt it into a kettle full of watter, then a quantity of bears grease. This banquet being over they cryed to me, “Shagon Orinha,” that is, be hearty stone or ledd. Every one withdrew into his quarters and so did I. But to the purpose of my history. As I went to the fields once, where I mett with three of my acquaintance82 who had a designe for to hunt a great way off. They desired me to goe along. I lett them know in Huront language (for that I knew better then that of the Iroquoits83) I was content, desiring them to stay till I acquainted my mother. One of them came a long with mee and gott leave for me of my kindred. My mother gott me presently a sack of meale, 3 paire of shoos my gun and tourned backe where the two stayed for us. My two sisters accompanied mee even out of the wildernesse and carried my bundle, where they took leave. We marched on that day through the woods, till we came by a lake where we travelled without any rest. I wished I had stayed at home, for we had sad* victualls. The next day about no[o]ne we came to a river. There we made a skiffe, so litle that we could scarce go into it. I admired* their skill in doing of it. For in less then two howrs they cutt the tree and pulled up the rind* of which they made the boat. We embarked our selves, and went to the lower end of the river which emptied it selfe into a litle lake of about two miles in lenth and a mile in breath. We passed this lake into an other river broader then the other. There we found a fresh treck of a stagge, which made us stay heere a while. It was five of the /10/ clock at least when two of our men made themselves ready to looke after that beast. The other and I stayed behind; not long after we saw the stagge crosse the river, which foarding brought him to his ending. So done, they went on their cours, and came backe againe att tenn of the clocke, with three bears, a castor, and the stagge, which was slained att our

81 So weighed down by his ceremonial garb that he couldn’t have defended himself in a fight. 82 Followed by “hard at work among the slaves” struck out. 83 Huron was an Iroquoian language, but Radisson understood it better than the Iroquoian spoken by the Mohawk.

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sight. How did wee rejoice to see that kill’d which would make the ketle boyle. After we have eaten wee slept. The next day we made trappes for to trapp castors. Whilest we weare buisie one about one thing one about an other, as three of us retourned homewards to our cottage we heard a wild man singing. He made us looke to ourselves least he should prove an ennemy, but as we have seene him, called to him, who came immediatly, telling us that he was in pursuite of a beare since morning and that he gave him over,84 having lost his two doggs by the same beare. He came with us to our cottage, where we mett our companion after having killed one beare, two staggs and two mountain catts, being five in number. Whilst the meat was aboyling, that wild man spoake to me the Algontin language.85 I wondred to heare this stranger*. He tould me that he was taken two years agoe. He asked me concerning the 3 rivers and of Quebuck, who wished himselfe there, and I said the same though I did not intend it. He asked me if I loved the French. I inquired him also if he loved the Algontins. “Mary” quoth hee, “and so do I my owne nation.” Then replyed he, “Brother cheare up lett us escape, the Three Rivers are not afarre of.” I tould him my three comrades would not permitt me, and that they promissed my mother to bring me back again. Then he inquired whether I would live like the Hurrons who weare in bondage, or have my owne liberty with the French where there was good bread to be eaten. “Feare not” quoth he “we will kill them all three this night when they will bee a sleep which will be an easy matter with their owne hatchetts.” At last I consented considering they weare mortall ennemys to my country, that had cutt the t[h]roats of so many of my relations burned and murdered them, I promising to soucor him in his designe.86 They not understanding our language asked the Algontin what is that that he said, but tould them some other story, nor they suspected us in the least. Their belly full, their mind without care wearyed to the utmost of the foremost* days journey fell asleeppe securly, leaving their armes up and downe without the least danger. Then my wild man pushed me thinking I was asleepe. He rises and sitts him downe by the fire behoulding them one after an other, and taking their armes aside and having the hattchets in his hand gives me one. To tell the truth, I was loathsome to do them mischief that never did me any. Yett for the above said reasons I tooke the hattchett and began the execution which was soone done. 84 Gave up pursuing the bear. 85 The wild man’s information about the French at Quebec suggests he was mostly likely a captive Montagnais. 86 Despite what he had said to his adoptive mother (129), Radisson is clearly uncertain about which community he belongs to.

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My fellow comes to him that was nearest to the fire (I dare say he never saw the stroake) and I have done the like to an other, but I hitting him with the eage of the hattchett could not disingage presently, being so deep in his head, [he] rises upon his breast /11/ but fell back sudainly making a great noise; which almost awaked the third, but my comrad gave him a deadly blow of a hattchett and presently after I shott him dead. Then we prepared our selves with all speed, throwing their dead corps, after that the wild man took off their heads, into the watter. We tooke three guns leaving the fourth, their two swords their hattchetts their powder and shott and all their porcelaine*. We tooke also some meale and meate. I was sorry for to have ben in such an incounter*, but too late to repent. Wee tooke our journey that night a longst the river. The break of day we landed on the side of the rock which was smooth. We carryed our boat and equipage into the wood about a hundred paces from the watter side, where we stayed most sadly* all that day tormented by the maringoines*. We tourned our boats upside downe, we putt us under it from the raine. The night coming, which was the fitest time to leave that place, we goe without any noise for our safty. We travelled fourteen nights in that maner in great feare, hearing boats passing by.87 When we have perceaved any fire, left off rowing, and went by with as litle noise as could possible. Att last with many tournings by lande and by watter wee came to the lake of St Peeters. We landed about foure of the clock leaving our squiff in among rushes farr out of the way, from those that passes that way, and [might] do us injury. We retired into the wood where we made a fire some two hundred paces from the river. There we roasted some meate and boyled meale. After we rested ourselves a while for the many labors of the former night. So having slept my companion awaks first, and stirrs me saying it was high time, that we might by day come to our dweling of which councel I did not approve, tould him the ennemys commonly weare lurking about the river side, and we should doe very well [to] stay in that place till sunn sett. “Then,” said he, “let us begon; we [are] passed all feare. Lett us shake of the yoake of a company of whelps that killed so many French and black coats,88 and so many of my nation. Nay,” saith he, “brother if you come not, I will leav 87 It is uncertain what route Radisson and his companion took northward. The obvious one would have been via Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, but they had to conceal themselves to avoid capture. However, the Algonquin, having spent two years in captivity, may have learned about other pathways. Radisson was unfamiliar with this region and below says vaguely that “with many turnings by land and watter” they came to Lac Saint-Pierre. 88 The Jesuits in their black cassocks.

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you, and will go through the woods till I shall be over against the French quarter. There I will make a fire for a signe that they may feach89 me. I will tell to the governor that you stayed behind. Take courage man” says he. With this he tooke his peece* and things. Att this I considered how if [I] wear taken att the doore by meere rashnesse, the next the impossibility I saw to go by my self if my comrad would leave me, and perhaps the wind might rise that I could come to the end of my journey in a long time, and that I should be accounted a coward for not daring to hazard my selfe with him that had so much ventered for mee. I resolved to go along through the woods, but the litle constancy that is to be expected in wild men, made me feare he should [take] to his heels, which approved90 his unfortunate advise for he hath lost his life by it, and I in great danger have escaped by the help of the Almighty. I consent to goe by watter with him. In a short time wee came to the lake, the watter very calme and cleare, no liklyhood of any storme. We hazarded to the other side of the lake thinking /12/ [it would be] for more security. After we passed the third part of the lake, I being the formost have perceived as it weare a black shaddow, which proved a real thing. He at this rises and tells mee that it was a company of buzards a kinde of geese in that country. We went on where wee soone perceaved our owne fatall blindnesse, for they weare ennemys. We went back againe towards the land with all speed, to escap the evident danger, but it was too late. For before we could come to the russhes that weare within a halfe a league of the water side we weare tired. Seeing them approaching nigher and nigher we threw the three heads in the watter. They meet with these heads, which makes them to row harder after us, thinking that we runed away from their country. We weare so neare the lande that we saw the bottom of the watter, but yet to deepe to step in, when those cruel inhumans came within a musquett shott of us, and fearing least the booty should get a way from them shott severall times att us, and deadly wounded my comrad falling dead. I exspected such another shott. The litle squiffe was pierced in several places with their shooting, that water runed in apace. I defended me selfe with the two arms. Att last they environed me with their boats, that tooke me just as I was asinking. They held up the wild man, and threwed him into one of their boats and me they brought with all diligence to land. I thought to die without mercy. They made a great fire, and tooke my comrad’s heart out, and shoped of his head, which they put on an end of a stick and carryed it to one of their boats. They cutt of some of  the flesh of that miserable, broyled it and eatt it. If he had not been so 89 feach: fetch. 90 approved: confirmed.

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desperatly wounded, they had don their best to keepe him alive to make him suffer the more by bourning him with small fires but being wounded in the chine and [the] boulet gon through the t[h]roat, and an other in the shoulder that broake his armes made him incurable. They burned some parte of his body, and the rest they left there. That was the miserable end of that wretch. Lett us come now to the begining of my miseries and calamities that I was to undergo.91 Whilst they weare buissie about my companions head, the others tyed me safe and fast in a strang maner.92 Having striped me naked, they tyed me above the elbows beyind my back and then they put a collar about me, not of porcelaine* as before but a rope wrought about my midle, so brought me in that pickle to the boat. As I was imbarked, they asked mee severall questions. I being not able to answer [they] gave me great blowes with their fists, then pulled out one of my nailes, and partly untyed me. What a displeasure had I to have seene me selfe taken againe, being almost come to my journeys end, that I must now goe back againe to suffer such torments as death was to be exspected. Having lost all hopes, I resolved all together to die, being a folly to think otherwaise. I was not the [only] one in the clawes of those wolves; their company was composed of a hundred and fifty men. These tooke about Quebecqu and other places, two French men one French woman /13/ seaventen Hurrons, men as women. They had eleven heads, which they sayd weare the Algontins, and I was the thirtieth three victime with those cruels. The wild men that weare prisners sang their fatal song,93 which was a mornfull song or noise. The twelve coulours*94 (which weare heads) stood out for a shew. We prisoners weare separated one in one boat one in an other. As for me I was put into a boat with a Huronit, whose fingers were cutt, and bourne[d], and very [few] amongst them, but had the markes of those inhuman devils. They did not permit me to tarry long with my fellow prisoner leas I should tell him any news (as I imagine) but sent me to an other boat, where I  remained the rest of the voyage by watter, which proved somewhat to my disadvantage. In this boat there was an old man who having examined me, I answered him as I could best, tould him how I was adopted by such an one by name, and as I was ahunting with my companions, that wild man that was killed came to us, and after he had eaten, went his way, in the evening came 91 Radisson is now to be subjected to the full gamut of the torture from which he had been rescued earlier. See Lafitau, Customs 2: 155–64. 92 On tying captives’ arms above the elbows, see Lafitau, Customs 2: 148. 93 Lafitau discusses the death song briefly (Customs 2: 159–60). 94 colours: banners, flags, or visible insignia. In Voyage II (199) Radisson speaks of heads set up “for a signe of warrs.”

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back againe and found us all a sleepe, tooke a hattchett, and kill’d my three companions, and awaked me, and so embarked me, and brought me to this place.95 That old man believed me in some measure, which I perceived in him by his kindnesse towards me, but he was not able to protect me from those that had a will to doe me mischief. Many slandred me but I took no notice. Some four leagues thence they erected cottages by a small river very difficult to gett to it for that there is litle watter on great sand a league wide. In this very howse I tooke notice how they tyed their captives, though att my owne cost.96 They planted severall poasts of the bignesse of an arme, then layd us of a len[g]th, tyed vs to the said poasts, far asunder from one another, then tyed our knees, our wrists and elbows, and our hairs directly upon the crowne of our heads, and then cutt four barrs of the bignesse of a legge and used thus: they took two for the necke puting one of eage side, tying the two ends together, so that our heads weare fast in a hole like a trappe. Likewayes they did to our leggs. And what tormented us most was the marigoines* and great flyes being in abundance. We did all night but puff and blow that by that means we saved our faces from the sting of those ugly creatures, having no use of our hands [we] weare cruelly tormented. Our voyage was laborious and most miserable suffering every night the like misery. When we came neere our dwellings, we mett severall gangs of men to our greatest disadvantage, for we weare forced to sing, and those that came to see us gave porselaine* to those that most did us injury. One cutt of a finger an other plucked out a naile, and putt the end of our fingers into their burning pipes, and burned severall parts in our bodyes. Some took our /14/ fingers, and of a stick made a thing like a fork, with which gave severall blowes on the back of the hands, which caused our hands to swell and became att last insensible as dead, having souffred all these crueltyes, which weare nothing to that they make usualy souffer their prisoners.97 We arrived att last to the place of execution, which is att the coming in to their village, where not [long?] before I escaped, very neere, to be soundly beaten with staves and fists. Now I must think to be no lesse traited by reason of the murder of the three men, but the feare of death takes away the feare of blowes. Nineten of us prisoners weare brought thither, and two left behind with the heads. In this place we had eight coulours. Who would not shake att the sight of so many men women and 95 In this version of the story he told earlier (131–2), Radisson prudently conceals his own role in events. 96 See Lafitau, Customs 2: 148–9, and Fig. 5. 97 These torments were deliberately aimed at non-vital areas, since the aim was to prolong the captives’ suffering as long as possible.

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Fig. 5: Mohawk torture practices, depicted by Lafitau in 1724.

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children armed with all sorte of instruments staves hand irons, heelskins98 wherin they putt halfe a score of bullets. Others had brands, rods of thorne and all such like that the crueltie could invent to putt their prisoners to greater torments. Heere no help, no remedy, we must passe this dangerous passage in our extremity with out helpe.99 He that is the fearfullest, or that is observed to stay the last, getts nothing by it butt more blowes, and putt him to more paine. The meanest sort of people commonly is more cruell to the fearfullest then to the others that they see more fearfull, being att last to suffer chearfuly and with constancy.100 They begun to cry to both sids, we marching one after another, environed with a number of people from all parts to be witnesse to that hidious sight which seriously may be called the image of hell in this world. The men sings their fatall song, the women makes horrible cryes, the victores cryes of joy, and their wives makes acclamations for mirth. In a word all prepares for the ruine of these poore victimes, who are so tyed, having not saving only our leggs free, for to advance by litle and litle, according the will of him that leads us. For as he held us by a long rope, he stayed us to his will and offten he makes us falle, for to them that [is] the cruelty, abuseing you so, for to give them pleasur, and to you more torment. As our band was great, there was a greater crew of people to see the prisoners and the report of my taking being now made, and of the death of the three men, which afflicted the most part of that nation [a] great many of which came through a designe of revenge and to molest me more then any other. But it was alltogether otherwaise, for among the tumult I perceaued my father and mother with their two daughters. The mother pushes in among the crew directly to mee, and when shee was nere enough, shee chaches hould of my haire as one despart, calling me often by my name. Drawing me out of my ranck, shee putts me into the hands of her husband, who then bid me have courage, conducting me an other way home to his cabban, when he made me sitt downe, said to me, “you senslesse /15/ thou was my son, and thou rendered thy selfe enemy. Thou lovest not thy mother, nor thy father that gave thee thy life, and thou not withstanding will kill me.101 Bee merry, Conharrassan, give 98 Possibly “eel-skins” used to carry small objects; half a score of bullets is only ten. 99 “Running” the gauntlet, which Radisson had earlier escaped. See n.67. 100 meanest: low in character or status, thus: “the most ignoble are usually crueller to those who show more fear than to those who show such fear but suffer cheerfully and with constancy.” 101 “Though I gave you life (that is, when Radisson was requickened as his son) your behaviour is like to kill me.”

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him to eate.” That was the name of one of the sisters. My heart sheaked with trembling and feare, which tooke away my stomach. Neverthelesse [I ate] to signifie a bould countenance, knowing well that a bould generous minde is allways accounted among all sort of nations, especially among wariers, as that nation is very presumptuous and haughty, because of their magnanimity and victories opposing themselves into all dangers, and incounters* whatever, runing over the whole land for to make themselves appeare [powerful], slaining and killing all ther meete in exercising their cruelties, or else shewing mercy to whom they please to give liberty. God gave mee the grace to forgett nothing of my duty, as I tould my father the successe of my voyage in the best tearme[s] I could, and how all things passed, mixturing a little of their language with that of the Hurrons, which I learned more fluently then theirs, being longer and more frequently with the Hurons. Everyone attentively gave ears to me, hopeing by this means to save my life. Uppon this heere comes a great number of armed men, enters the cabban, where finding mee yett tyed with my cords sitting by my parents, made their addresses to my father, and spak to him very loud. After a while my father make me rise, and delivers me into their hands; my mother seeing this cryes and laments with both my sisters, and I believing in a terrible motion,102 to goe directly on, to the place of execution. I must march, I must yeeld, where force is predominant.103 Att the publique place, I was conducted where I found a good company of those miserable wreches, alltogether beaten with blowes, covered with blood, and bourned. One miserable French man yett breathing, having now ben consumed with blows of sticks, past so through the hands of this inraged crew, and seeing he could no more, [they] cutt of his head, and threwed it into the fire. This was the end of this execrable wofull body of this miserable. They made me goe up the scaffold, where weare five men, three women, and two children captives, and I made the eleventh. There weare severall scaffolds nigh one an other, where weare these wreches, who with a dolefull singings, replenished the heavens with their cryes. For I can say that an howre before the weather approved very faire, and in an instant the wether changed, and rayned extreamly. The most part retired for to avoid this hayle, and now we must expect the rigor of the weather by the retiration of those perfidious,104 except one /16/ band of hell who stayed about us, for to learne 102 motion: grimace (obsolete). The sentence should probably read something like: “And I, seeing [their?] terrible grimaces, was forced to go directly on to the place of execution.” 103 Radisson’s adoptive parents are forced to hand him over to suffer the ritual torture that ordinarily ends in death. 104 The perfidious ones having retired, we were left to the rigours of the weather.

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the trade of barbary, for those litle devils seeing themselves all alone continued [a] thousand inventions of wickednesse. This is nothing strang seeing that they are brought up and sucks the cruelties from their mothers brest. I prolong a litle from my purpose of my adventure for to say the torments that I have seen souffred att Coutu,105 after that they have passed the sallett,106 att their entering in to the village, and [during?] the rencounters* that they meet ordinarily in the wayes,107 as above said. They tie the prisoners to a poast by their hands, their backs tourned towards the hangman, who hath a bourning fire of dry wood, and rind* of trees, which doth not quench easily. They putt into this fire hattchets, swords and such like instruments of iron; they take thise, and quench them on human flesh. They pluck out their nailes for the most part in this sort. They putt a redd coale of fire uppon it, and when it’s swolen, bits it out with their teeth. After they stop the blood with a brand which by litle and litle drawes the vaines the one after an other from of the fingers and when they draw all as much as they can, they cutt it with peeces of redd hott iron. They squise the fingers between two stones, and so draw the marrow out of the boanes, and when the flesh is all taken away, they putt it in a dish full of bourning sand. After they tye your wrist with a corde putting two for this effect, one drawing him one way, another, of another way. If the sinews be not cutt with a stick, putting it thorough and tourning it, they make them come as fast as they can, and cutt them in the same way as the others. Some others cutts peeces of flesh from all parts of the body, and broyle them, getts you to eat it, t[h]rusting them into your mouth, puting into it a stick of fire. They break your teeth with a stoane or clubbs, and uses the handle of a kettle, and upon this do hang five or six hattchetts red hott, which they hang about their neck, and roste your leggs with brands of fire, and trusting into it some sticks pointed, wherin they putt ledd melted and gunne powder, and then give it fire like unto artificiall fire,108 and make the patient gather it by the stumps of his remaining fingers. If he cannot sing they make him quackle like a henne. I saw two men tyed to a rope one att each end, and hang them so all night, throwing red coales att them, or bourning sand and in such like bourne their feet, leggs thighs, and breech.109 The litle ones doe exercise them selves about 105 Coutu: that is, “in the Mohawk country.” Some of the Algonquian speakers, particularly the Montagnais, called the Iroquois “Kouetakiou”; see HNAI 15: 321. The name is easily corrupted to “Coutu” (Conrad Heidenreich, personal communication, 13 June 2010). 106 sallett: a sally port or place to pass in or out of a fort. 107 And the battles they ordinarily meet with in their travels. 108 artificiall fire: fireworks. 109 breech: buttocks.

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such cruelties. They deck the bodyes all over with hard straw, putting in the end of this straw, thorns. So leaves them now, and then gives them a litle rest, and sometimes gives them fresh watter, and makes them repose on fresh leaves. They also give them to eat of the best they have that they come to themselves againe, to give them more torments. Then when they see that the patient can no more take up his haire,110 they cover his head with a platter made of rind* full of bourning sand, and often setts the platter a fire. In the next place they cloath you /17/ with a suit made of rind of a tree, and this they make bourne out on your body. They cutt of your stoanes,111 and the women play with them, as with bal[l]es. When they see the miserable die, they open him and pluck out his heart, they drink some of his blood, and wash the children’s heads with the rest, to make them valiant. If you have endured all the above said torments patiently and without moans, and have defied death in singing, then they trust burning blades all along your boans and so ending the tragedie cutt off the head and put it on the end of a stick and draw his body in quarters which they halle about their village; lastly trows him into the watter or leave in the fields to be eaten by the crowes or doggs. Now lett me come to our miserable poore captives that stayed all along the raine112 upon the scaffold to the mercy of two or three hundred rogues, that shott us with litle arrows, and so drew out our beards, and the haire from those that had any. The showre of rayne being over, all came together againe, and having kindled fires begun to burne some of those poore wreches. That day they pluckt four nailes out of my fingers, and made me sing though I had no mind att that time. I became speechless oftentimes, then they gave me watter wherin they boyled a certain herbe, that the gunsmiths use to pollish their armes.113 That liquor brought me to my speech againe. The night being come, they made me come downe all naked as I was, and brought me to a strang cottage. I wished heartily it had ben that of my parents. Being come they tyed me to a poast where I stayed a full howre without the least molestation. A woman came there with her boy, inticed him to cutt of one of my fingers with a flintstoan. The boy was not four years old. This takes my finger and begins to worke, but in vaine because he had not the stren[g]th to breake my finger, 110 111 112 113

Radisson has earlier had his own hair turned up (124). stoanes: testicles. Throughout the continuing rain. Equisetum, or horsetail, a reedy plant that grows on riverbanks. Called “gun-bright” because its silica content meant it could be used to polish metal. A very ancient plant, widespread and with many uses, including culinary. (William Eamon, personal communication, 9 January 2010.)

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so my poore finger escaped, having no other hurt don to it, but the flesh cutt round about it. His mother made him suck the very blood that runed from my finger. I had no other torment all that day. Att night I could not slepe for because of the great paine. I did eat a litle and drunk much watter by reason of a feavor I caught by the cruel torments I souffred. The next morning I was brought back againe to the scaffold where there weare company enogh. They made me sing a new, but my mother came there and made me hould my peace, bidding me be cheerfull, and that I should not die, shee brought mee some meate. Her coming comforted me much, but that did not last long, for heare comes severall old people, one of which being on the scaffold, sat him downe by me, houlding in his mouth a puter114 pipe burning, tooke my thumb, and put it on the burning tobbaco, and so smoaked three pipes one after an other, which made my thumb swell, and the nayle and flesh became as coale. My mother was alwayes by me to comfort me, but [I] said not what I thought. That man having finished his hard worke, but I am sure I felt it harder to suffer it, he trembled whether for feare, or for so much action I cannot tell. My mother tyed my fingers with cloath, and when he was gon shee greased my haire and combed my haire with a wooden comb, fitter to comb a horses tayle than any thing else. Shee goes back againe. That day they ended many of those poore wretches, flin[g]ing some all alive into the midle of a great fire. They burned a French woman, they pulled out her breasts and tooke a child out of her belly which they broyled and made the mother eat of it, so /18/ in short [time she] died. I was not abused all that day, till the night. They bourned the soales of my feet and leggs. A soulder runed through my foot a swoord red out of the fire, and plucked severall of my nailes. I stayed in that maner all night. I neither wanted in the meane while meate nor drinke. I was supplied by my mother and sisters. My father also came to see me and tould me I should have courage. That very time there came a litle boy to gnaw with his teeth the end of my fingers. There appeares a man to cutt of my thumb, and being about it, leaves me instantly, and did no harme, for which I was glad. I believe that my father dissuaded him from it. A while after my father was gon, three came to the scaffold who swore they would [do] me a mischiefe, as I think, for that he tyed his leggs to myne, called for a brand of fire, and layd it between his leggs and mine, and sings, but by good looke* it was out in my side, and did non other effect than bourne my skin, but bourned him to some purpos. In this posture I was to follow him, and being not able to 114 Dutch pewter pipes were extremely popular among the Mohawk in the 1640s and 1650s; see Bradley, Before Albany, 121, who specifically cites Radisson.

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hould me draweth me downe. One of the company cutt the rope that held us, with his knife and makes mee goe up againe the scaffold, and then went their way; there I stayed till midday alone. There comes a multitud of people who makes me come downe and layd mee into a cottage where there weare a number of sixty old men smoaking tobbacco. Heere they make mee sitt downe among them, and stayed about halfe an houre without that they asked who, and why I was brought thither, nor did I much care. For the great torments that I souffred, I knewed not whether I was dead or alive. And albeit I was in a hott feavor and great paines, I rejoyced at the sight of my brother, that I have not seene since my arrivement. He comes in very sumptuously covered with several necklaces of porcelaine*, and a hattchett in his hand, satt downe by the company, and cast an eye on me now and then. Presently and comes in my father with a new and long cover,* and a new porcelaine about him, with a hattchet in his hands, likewise satt downe with the company. He had a calumet of red stoane in his hands, a sacke uppon his shoulder that hanged downe his back, and so had the rest of the old men. In that same sacke are inclosed all the things in the world, as they tould me often, advertising mee that I should [not] disoblige them in the least nor make them angry, by reason they had in their power the sun and moone and the heavens, and consequently all the earth.115 You must know in this sakes there is nothing, but tobacco, and roots to heale some wounds, or sores, some others keepe in it the boanes of their diceased friends; most of them wolves116 heades, squarels or any other beasts head. When there they have any debatement among them they sacrifice to this117 tabacco, that they throw into the fire, and make smoake of that they puff out of their pipes, whether for peace or adversity, or prosperity or warre. Such seremonies they make very often. My father taking his place, lights /19/ his pipe, and smoaks as the rest. They held great silence during this, they bring seaven prisoners, to wit seaven women and two men; more, ten children from the age of three to twelve years. Having placed them all by mee who as yett had my armes tyed, the others all att liberty, being not tyed which118 putt me into some despaire, least I should pay for all. A while after one of the company rises, and makes a long speech, now shewing the heavens with his hands, and then the earth, and fire. This good man putt himselfe into a sweate through the earnest discours. Having finished his panigerique, another begins and also many one after an other. They gave the liberty 115 116 117 118

Medicine bundles, which Radisson also describes in Voyage IV (277). Originally followed by “skins,” struck out. Followed by “and make it smoak” struck out. Two words, “made dispaire,” struck out.

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to some (butt killed two children with hattchetts, and a woman of fiftie years old), and threw them out of the cottage, saving onely my selfe, att full liberty. I was left alone for a stake.119 They contested together which [made] my father rise, and made a speech which lasted above an houre, being naked, having nothing on but his drawers, and the cover* of his head, and putt himself all in a heate. His eyes weare hallow in his head, he appeared to mee like mad, and naming often the Algontins in their language attiseruata,120 which made me believe he spoake in my behalfe. In that very time comes [my mother?] with two necklaces of porcelaine*, one in her armes, and another about her like a belt. As soone as shee came in shee begun to sing and dance and flings off one of her necklaces in the midle of the place. Having made many tourns from one end to the other, shee takes the other necklace and gives it mee. Then goes her way; then my brother rises and holding his hattchett in his hand sings a military song; having finished departs. I feared much that he was first to knock me in the head, and happy are those that can escape so well rather than be bourned. My father rises for a second time and sings, so don[e] retired him selfe. I thought all their guifts songs, and speeches should prevaile nothing with mee.121 Those that stayed held a councell and spoake one to an other very low, throwing tobacco into the fire, making exclamations. Then the cottage was open of all sides, by those that came to view, some of the company retires, and place was made for them as if they weare kings. Forty stayes about me, and weare two thousand about my cottage of men, women and children.122 Those that went their way returned presently. Being sett downe, smoaked againe whilest my father, mother, brothers and sisters weare present. My father sings a while, so done makes a speech, and taking the porcelaine necklace from of me throws it att the feet of an old man, and cutts the cord that held me, then makes me rise. The joy that I receaved at that time was incomparable for sudenly all my paines and griefs ceased, not feeling the least paine. He bids me be merry, makes me sing to which I consented with all my heart. Whilst I did sing they hooped and hallowed on all sids. The old man bid me ever be chearfull my son, having don my mother sisters and the rest of their friends [sang?] 119 at a stake: left to be gambled over in the subsequent “contest.” 120 A Huron word, not Algonquian, but unknown in any other Iroquoian language; it comes from a St Lawrence Iroquoian word “Agojuda” or “a,ocha8ata,” meaning “enemy” (John Steckley, person communication, 13 July 2010). 121 Would not prevail on my behalf. 122 Radisson’s “two thousand” may be extravagant, but this was clearly a large village. For data on Iroquois population statistics, and the difficulties in interpreting the little that is known, see Brandão, Your fyre shall burn no more, appendix C, 153–67.

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and danced. Then my father takes me by the arme, and leads me to his cabban. As we went along nothing was heard but hooping and hollowing on all parts biding me to take great courage. My mother was not long after me with the rest of her friends. Now I see my selfe free from death. Their care, att this, was to give me meate, I have not /20/ eaten a bitt all that day, and for the great joy I had conceived, caused me to have a good stomach, so that I did eat lust[i]ly. Then my mother begins to cure my sores and wounds. Then begins my paines to anew,123 for shee cleans my wounds and scraps them with a knife and often trusts a stick in them, and then takes watter in her mouth, and spouts it to make them cleane. The meane while my father goes to seeke roots, and my sister chaws them, and my mother applyes them to my sores as a plaster. The next day the swelling was gone, but [the pain?] worse then before, but in lesse then a fortnight my sores weare healed; saving my feete that kept [me] more then a whole month in my cabban. During this time my nailes grewed a pace. I remained onely lame of my midle finger that they have squised between two stoanes. Every one was kind to mee as before said, and [I] wanted no company to be merry with. I should keepe to long to tell you the particularities, that befell me. During my winter I was beloved of my parents as before. My exercise was allwayes a hunting without that any gave me the least injury. My mother kept me most brave,124 and my sisters took great care for mee. Every moneth I had a white shirt, which my father sent for from the Flemeings125 who weare not a farr of our village. I could never gett leave to goe along with my brother who went there very often. Finaly seeing myselfe in the former condition as before I constituted as long as my father and fortune would permitt mee, to live there. Dayly there weare military feasts for the south nations, and others for the Algontins, and for the French. The exclamations, hoopings and cryes, songs and dances signifies nothing but the murdering and killing, and the intended victory that they will have the next yeare, which is in the begining of spring. In those feasts my father heaves up his hatchett126 against the Algontins, [and] for this effect makes great preparations for his next incamping. Every night never failes to instruct and encourage the young age to take armes and to revenge the death of so many of their ennemy that lived among the French nation.

123 anew: to renew (obsolete). 124 Made sure he was smartly clothed. 125 The Dutch around Fort Orange (see below). Not surprisingly, his adoptive parents made sure that Radisson did not go visiting the “Flemings.” 126 To raise the hatchet and (as below) break the kettle signals a declaration of war.

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The desire that I had to make me beloved, for the assurance of my life, made me resolve to offer myselfe for to serve, and take party with them. But I feared much least he should mistrust me touching his advis to my resolution.127 Neverthelesse I finding him once of a good humor, and on the point of honor128 encourages his son to break the ketle and take the hattchett and to be gon to the foraigne nations, and that [it] was of courage and of great renowne to see the father of one parte, and the son of an other part and that he should not mispraise129 if he should separat from him, but that it was the quickest way to make the world tremble, and by that means have liberty every where by vanquishing the mortall enemy of his nation. Uppon this, I venture to aske him what I was, presently [he] answers that I was a Iroquoite as himselfe. “Lett me revenge,” said I, “my kindred. I love my brother, lett me die with him. I would die with you but you will not [let me] because you goe a gainst the French. Lett me againe goe with my brother, the /21/ prisoners and the heads that I shall bring to the joy of my mother and sisters will make me undertake att my retourne to take up the hattchett against those of Quebucq, of the Three Rivers and Monteroyall in declaring them my name, and that it’s I that kills them. And by that you shall know I am your son, worthy to beare that title that you gave me when you adopted me.” He lett a great crye saying, “have great courage son Orinha; thy brother died in the warres not in the cabban; he was of a courage not of a woman.130 I goe to aveng his death. If I die aveng you mine.” That one word was my leave, which made me hope that one day I might escape, having so great an opportunity. Or att leas I should have the happe131 to see their countrye which I heard so much recommended by the Iroquoites who brought so wounderous stories, and the facilitie of killing so many men.132 Thus the winter was past in thoughts and preparing for to depart before the melting of the snow, which is very soone in that country. I began to sett my witts together how I should resolve this my voyage, for my mother opposed against it mightily, saying I should bee lost in the woods, and that I should put it of till the next yeare. But at last I flattered with her and dissembled. Besids my father had the power in his hands, shee dareing not to deny him any thing because shee was not borne in my fathers country, but was taken litle in the 127 advis: opinion. His adoptive father might doubt his resolve. 128 As a matter of honour or pride. 129 mispraise: to disparage. Already obsolete in English in the period, so Radisson probably has in mind the French “mépriser,” to hold in contempt. 130 He was not fearful like a woman. 131 happe: good fortune. As usual Radisson is eager to visit new places. 132 Were so successful at killing.

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Huronits country; notwithstanding well beloved of her husband, having lived together more than fowrty years, and in that space brought him nine children four males, and five femals. Two girles died after a while and three sons killed in the warrs; and one that went three years before with a band of 13 men to warre against a firy nation which is farre beyonde the great lake.133 The first had allready performed two voyages with a great deale of successe. My father was a great captaine in warrs having ben commander in all his times, and distructed many villages of their enemy having killed nineteen men with his owne hands. Wherof he has marked his right thigh for as many he killed. He should have as many more but that you must know that the commander has not amused himself to kille, but [must be] in the front of his army to encourage his men. If by chance he tooke any prisoners he calles one of his men, and gives him the captives, saying that it’s honor enough to command134 [as] the conqueror, and by his example shews to the yong men that he has the power as much as the honor. He received two gun shots, and seaven arrow shotts, and was runne through the shoulders with a lance. He was aged three score years old. He was tall and of an excellent witt for a wild man. When our bagage was ready my father makes a feast to which he invits a number of people, and declares that he was sorry he had resolved to go to warrs against an enemy which was in a cold country,135 which hindred him to march sooner then he would but [was] willing to see his sonns [go] before him, and that this banquet was made for his two sons farrwell. Then he tould that his adopted son was ready to go with his owne son to be revenged of the death of their brothers, and desired the commander to have a care of us both. This commander loved us both, said that the one which [was] me selfe should be with him to the end. If anything should oppose he would make me /22/ fight him. I was not att home when he spake those words but my mother tould me it att my retourne. I was afishing [near]bye with my sisters and brother. When wee came back wee found all ready, butt [it was] with a heartbroaken that our mother and sisters lett us goe. Few days after I was invited to a military banquett where was the captaine a yong gallant of 20 years old with a company of eight and I made the tenth. We all did sing and made good cheare of a fatt beare. We gave our things to slaves; we carried only our musquetts. Our 133 The Mascoutens, the “nation of the fire,” lived at the south end of Lake Michigan; see Voyage III. 134 Written in the left margin to replace “keepe,” which is struck out. 135 Brandão, Your fyre shall burn no more, appendix D, 216–19, lists all known Iroquois hostilities for the year 1653, but the foray on which Radisson’s adoptive father departs is apparently undocumented.

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kindred brought us a great way. My sister could not forbeare crying yett tould me to be of a stout heart. We tooke [our leave and] att last bid them a Dieu.136 We tooke on our journey over great snowes, for to come to the great lake before the spring.137 We travelled seaven days through woods, an indifferent country, easie in some places, and others difficult. The rivers weare frozen which made us crosse with a great deale of ease. Wee arrived the seaventh day in a village called Noiottga138 where we stayed two days. From thence came a young man with us. We arrived into another village Nontageya, where we stayed foure days. Wee had allways great preparations,139 and weare invited nine or tenne times a day. Our bellyes had not tyme to emptie themselves, because we feeded so much, and that what was prepared for us, weare severall sortes, stagg, indian corne, thick flower,140 bears and especialy eels. We have not yett searched our baggs where our provision was [and] in this place wee mended141 them. For my part I found in myne six pounds of powder and more then fifteen pounds of shot, two shirts, a cupp, eight pair of shoos,142 and where with to make a paire of breeches and about thousand graines of black and white porcelaine*, and my brother as many. Wee had new covers* one to our body, another hung downe from our shoulders like a mantle, every one a small necklace of porcelaine, and a collar made with a thread of nettles to tye

136 On the war feast and departure of the war party, see Lafitau, Customs 2: 111–15. 137 The “great lake” is Lake Erie. The itinerary of the raiding party has been studied by Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” to which the following annotations are partly indebted. The area was full of well-worn Native paths, though a raiding party would aim to stay under cover. Much of the route they followed has to be inferred from the evidence of flora and fauna and from Radisson’s sketchy remarks about the physiography of the area. 138 The names of these villages are undoubtedly rendered phonetically; “Noiottga” (Niottga) may have been Onneiout (Oneida) and “Nontageya” was probably Onnontagué (Onondaga). A journey from Tionnontoguen or its vicinity should not have taken seven days, though Wykoff (“The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 18) points out that the snow was likely to  have been very heavy. However, Radisson had a tendency to use the number seven loosely to mean “a fairly large number.” 139 A big fuss was made over us. 140 thick flower: pounded corn meal. 141 mended: to set to rights (obsolete). 142 Natives travelling on foot through the woods wore out moccasins quickly; on long journeys they were sometimes accompanied by women who could make new ones when required.

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the prisoners. I had a gunne, a hattchett and a daggar. That was all we had. Our slaves brought the packs after us. After we marched three days we came to a village, Sauonteronon.143 There we layd a night. The next day after a small journey we came to the last village of their confederats. Here they doe differ in their speech though of [the same] nation, it’s called Oiongoiconon.144 Here we stay two dayes, and sent away our slaves and carryed our bundles our selves going allways through the woods. We found great plaines of two leagues a halfe a journey without a tree.145 We saw there stagges but would not goe out of our way to kill them. We went through 3 villages of this nation neare one another. They admired* to see a French man accompanying wild men which I understood by their exclamations. I thought I grewed leane to take such litle voyage,146 but the way seemed tedious to all, the raquett* allwayes with the feet and sometimes with the hands which seemed to me hard to indure, yett have I not complained.147 Att the parting of the /23/ slaves I made my bundles light. At the river we found snowes in few places saving where the trees made a shaddow, which hindred the snow to thaw, which made us carry the raquets with our feete and sometimes with the hands. After [came] tenn dayes march through a country covered with water, and where also are mountaines and great plaines. In those plaines wee killed staggs and a great many tourquies. Thence we came to a great river of a mile wide which was not frozen,148 which made us stay there ten or twelve dayes making skiffs of the rind* of a walnut tree.149 We made good chaire [cheer] and wished 143 A village of the Seneca (the Sonnontouan); possibly Gandagaro, south of present-day Rochester, New York. 144 By “confederats” Radisson means the neighbouring Cayuga. Oiongoiconon was probably Oiogouën on present-day Cayuga Lake. Unless he described the journey out of sequence (not impossible after the elapse of sixteen years), the raiding party appears to have doubled back after their visit to the Seneca. 145 Likely the low-lying land along the Chemung River between present-day Elmira and Corning, New York, known as “Big Flats” today (Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 19). 146 The journey seemed short, yet I grew lean. 147 The party has reached the snow belt around the eastern end of Lake Erie (Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 23–4). This was probably Radisson’s first encounter with snowshoes; he has more to say about them in Voyages III and IV. 148 Likely the Allegheny River or one of its tributaries (Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 23). 149 Lafitau (Customs 2: 126) relates that the Iroquois did not make birchbark canoes, though they would trade for them. Their boats used heavier bark: elm, or perhaps as

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to stay there longer. We made three skiffs to hould three men and one to hould two. We imbarked though there weare ice in many places, and yett no hinderance to us. Goeing small journeys fearing least what should befall us. In fower dayes we came to a lake much frozen covered in some places with ice by reason of the tossing of the wind, and the ground all covered with snow. Heere we did our best to save us from the rigor of the aire, and must stay 15 dayes. The wild men admired* that the season of the yeare was so backward. Att the end the wind changes southerly which made the lake free from ice and cleare over all, the skirts of it without either snow or ice. There was such a thawing that made the litle brookes flow like rivers, which made us imbarque to wander that sweet sea,150 the weather lovely, the wind fayre, and nature satisfied,151 tending forward singing and playing, not considering the contrary weather past. [We] continued so six dayes upon the lake and rested the nights ashore. The more we proceeded in our journey the more the pleasant country and warmer.152 Ending the lake we entered into a beatifull sweet river, a stoan cast wide. After halfe a daye we rid on it, weare forced to bring both barke and equipage uppon our backs to the next streame of that river. This done above twenty times, hawling our boats after us all laden, we went up that river att least thirty or fowrty leagues. Att last [this] brought us to a lake of some nine miles in lenght. Being comed to the highest place of the lake, we landed and hid our boats farr enough in the woods, tooke our bundles. We weare three dayes going through153 a great wildernesse where was no wood, not so much as would make us fire.154 Then the thick red flower did serve us instead of meate, mingling it with watter. We foorded many litle rivers, in swiming and sayling our armes, which we putt uppon some stickes tyed together, of such wood as that desolat place could afford, to keepe them from the weatt. The evening we came on the side of a violent river, uppon which we made briges of trees that we mett to goe over. We left this place after being there three dayes. We went up that river in two dayes. There we killed stagges. After we came to a mouth

150 151 152 153 154

here, walnut. Wykoff (“The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 20) notes that the tree is found on flood plains throughout northwestern Pennsylvania and Ohio. sweet sea: a body of fresh water, in this case Lake Erie. They had enough to eat. They have now moved out of the snow belt. Originally followed by “these woods and” all struck out. The raiding party has now turned westward. Radisson gives little information to help in tracking it through the glaciated plateau south of Lake Erie, with its myriad small lakes and creeks. For a knowledgeable description of this rough terrain and its challenges, see Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 33–6.

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of another river, we made a litle fort,155 where it was commanded by our captaine to make no noise; they desired me to be very quiet, which I observed strictly. After refreshment we imbarked though unseasonably in the night for to make som discovery. Some went one way some another. We went a great way but not far of our fort. The next day we meet alltogether, and made some councell, where it was decreed that two should go to the furthermost part of a small river in a boat, to make a /24/ discovery and see if there weare trakes of people there, whilst the other nine should take notice of a villag, that they knewed to be nigh. And because it was lesse danger to make there a discovery, the yongest of the company and [I] weare picked to goe into the river. We tooke the lightest boat; it was well, that [because] in some places of the river there was not watter enough to carry us. We weare fained to draw the boat after us.156 I believe not that ever a wild man went that way because of the great number of trees that stops the passage of the river. After we have gone the best part of the day we found our selves att the end of a small lake some fowre mile in lenght, and seeing the woods weare not so thick there as where wee passed we hid our boate in some bushes takeing onely our armes along, tending on still to pretend some discovery.157 We scarce weare in the midle of the lake when we perceave two persons goeing on the watter side att the other side of the lake, so my comrade getts him up a tree to discerne better, if there weare any more. After he stayed there a while comes and tells me that he thought they weare two women, and that we might goe kill them. “Doubtlesse” said I, “if they are women the men are not a farr from them, and we shall be forced to shoote. Wee are alone and should runne the hazard of two women for to be discovered.158 Our brethren also would be in danger that knowes nothing. Moreover it’s night, what doest thou intend to doe.” “You say well,” replyes he, “lett us hide our selves in the wood for we cannot goe downe in the river in the night time. Att breake of day we will [go] back to our compannions where we will finde them in the fort.” Here we came without any provisions, where we must lie under a rotten tree. That 155 Forts (the English called them “castles”) were of all sorts, from great stone-walled edifices to tiny temporary encampments. In Voyage III Radisson relates memorably, “We tyed our boats together, and made a fort about us of castors skins, which kept us from all danger” (246). Several times in Voyage III he writes of cutting trees to make a fort within a couple of hours, and in Voyage IV he describes in detail the making of a small fort (263). 156 Circumstances forced us to draw the boat after us. 157 pretend: to claim or declare; still moving forward to see what we could find out. 158 Risk being discovered only in order to kill two women.

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night it rayned sadly*. We weare wett, but a naturall exercise is good fire.159 We weare in our boat early in the morning and with great diligence wee came back better than we went up, for the river grewed mighty high by reason of so much that fell, of raine. I will not omitt a strang accident that befell us as we came. You must know that as we past under the trees (as before mentioned) there layde on one of the trees a snake with foure feete, her head very bigg like a Tortle, the nose very small att the End, the necke of five thumbs wide, the body about two feet, and the tayle of a foot and a halfe, of a blackish Coullor unto a shell small and round, with great eyes, her teeth very white but not long.160 That beast was asleepe upon one of the trees under which we weare to goe. Neither of us ever seeing such a creature weare astonished, we could not tell what to doe. It was impossible to carry our boat for the thickness of the wood, to shoot att her we would not least to be discovered, besids it would trouble our company. Att last we weare resolved to goe through att what cost soever, and as we weare under that hellish beast, shee started as shee /25/ awaked, and with that felld down into our boat. There weare herbes161 that served [to protect us] us from that dreadfull animal. Wee durst not ventur to kill her for fear of breaking of our boat. There is the question who was most fearfull, as for me I quaked. Now seeing shee went not about to doe us hurt, and that shee was as fearfull, we lett her quiet, hopeing shortly to land and to tourne upside down of our boat to be ride of such a devill. Then my comrad begun to call it,162 and before we weare out of the litle river our feare was over. So we resolved to bring her to the fort, and when once arrived at the great river nothing163 [was needed] but crosse over it to be neare our fort. But in the mean while a squarell made us good spoart for a quarter of an howre. The squarell would not leap into the water, did but runne (being afraid of us) from one end of the boat to the other. Every time he came nearer, the snake opened her wide mouth, and made a kinde of a noise and rose up, having her two forefeet uppon the side of the boat, which persuaded us that shee would leave us. We leaned on that side of the boat, so 159 Regular exercise keeps you warm. Radisson piously advocates healthy exercise several times, notably in Voyage III when Des Groseilliers is taken ill. 160 This creature has puzzled every commentator on Radisson, but Wykoff (“The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 28–31) convincingly identifies it as a hellbender or giant salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), which is native to the area; the adults may grow as large as seventy centimetres. 161 herbes: foliage. 162 call: make a sound like that made by the beast, to entice it. 163 Probably the Allegheny again.

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with our owers t[h]rusted her out. We seeing her swime so well hasted to kill her with our owers, which she had for her paines. The squarell tooke the flight. So we went, lon[g]ing to be with our comrades to tell them of what we have seene. We found one of our company watching for us att the side of a woode, for they weare in feare least wee should be taken, and exspected* us all night long. As for their part they never have seen nor heard any thing. Wherfore [they] resolved to goe further, but the news we brought them made them alter their resolution. Wee layd all night in our fort, where we made good cheare and great fires, fearing nothing, being far enough in the wood. The next day before the breaking of the day we foorded the river and leaving our three boats in the wood, went a foot, straight towards the place where we have seene the two persons. And before we came to the lake, we tooke notice of some fresh trakes, which made us looke to our selves, and followed the trakes which brought us to a small river where no sooner came but we saw a woman loaden with wood which made us believ that some cottage or village was not afar off. The captaine alone takes notice of the place, where about the discovery* was, who soone brought us there weare five men and fowr women [were] a fishing. We wagged164 at this the saffest to come unawarre uppon them, and like starved doggs or wolves devo[u]red those poore creatures who in a moment weare massacred. What we gott by this was not much onely stagges skins with some guirdles made of goats hair of their owne making. These weare in great estime among our wild men. Two of ours goes to the cabban which was made of rushes where they founde an old woman. They thought it charity to send her into the other world, with two small children whome also they killed. So we left that place /26/ giving them to the fishes their bodyes. Every one of us had his head,165 and my brother two, our share being considerable. [We] went on along the river till we came to a small lake, not desiring to be discovered. We found a faire road close by a wood, withtooke our selves out of it166 with all haste and went towards a village. There we came by night where we visited the wildernesse to finde out a secure place for security to hide ourselves, but no conveniencies.167 We [went] into the wood in a very cleare place; heere we layd downe uppon our bellies. We did eat, among other 164 wagged: travelled or made our way; for the verb, see OED, wag, 7.b, where the example is from John Bunyan. Now obsolete except in sayings like “how the world wags.” 165 Each was allotted a scalp of one of the victims. 166 road: a place to moor their boat; “withtooke ourselves out of it,” that is, out of the river. 167 We could not find a suitable place.

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things, the fish we gott in the cabban of the fishermen. After dispaching one of the company bouldly into the village, being thirsty after eating for heere we had no water, brings [news to] us that all weare very quiet. The great desire we had to catch and take [prisoners] made us to controule168 the businesse. Early in the morning we came to the side of the wildernesse where we layd in an ambush, but could see nobody that morning. Att two of the clock in the after non we see twenty as well men and women a great way from us. We went to the wood, whence we perceived many att worke in the fields. Att evening passed by very nigh us, but they neither see nor perceived us. They went to cutt wood. Whilst they weare all att worke there comes fowre men and three women, that tooke notice of our ambush. This wee could not avoid, so weare forced to appeare to their ruine. We tooke the three women, and kill’d two men. The other two thought to escape but weare stayed with our peeces*. The other two that weare aworking would runne away, but one was taken, the other escaped. The news was brought over all those parts.169 Thence wee runned away with our four prisoners and the fowr new heads with all speed. The women could not goe fast enough and therfore killed them after they went a whole night, their corps we threwed into the river. Heere we found a boat, which served us to goe over. We marched all that day without any delay. Being com’d to an open field, we hid our selves in bushes till the next day. Wee examined our prisoners, who tould us no news. Non could understand them although many Hurron words weare in their language.170 In this place we perceived two men ahunting a farr of; we thought not convenient to discover* our selves, least we should be discovered and passe our aime.171 We tooke an other way, two before and the rest after the prisoners in the midle. We speedily went the rest of the day through a burned country, and the trees blowne downe with some great winds, the fire over came all over fifteen leagues in lenght, and tenne in bredth. We layed in the very midle of that country upon a faire sandy place, where we could see three or fowre leagues off, round about us, and being secure, we made the prisoners sing, which is their acconsoga

168 controule: from the French “contreroller,” to check or monitor; see Nicot, Thresor de la langue françoyse. 169 The news circulated rapidly. 170 Wykoff (“The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 41–2) argues on linguistic grounds (citing Father Bressani in JR 38: 236–7) that the captives were Eries; Brandão (Your fyre shall burn no more, 217) suggests Petuns. 171 passe our aime: forget our purpose; “passe” in the now rare sense of “to neglect, disregard, omit.”

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before death.172 There we made a litle fire to make our kettle boyle a tourky with some meale that was left. Seeing no body pursued we resolved to goe thence before daylight to seeke for more booty. We stayed fourteen nights before we turned back to the village /27/ during which time we mett with nothing, and haveing gon of all sids with great paines173 without victualls att last wee came to kill two stagges, but did not suffice [for] twelve of us. We weare forced to gather the dung of the stagges to boyle it with the meat which made all very bitter but good stomach makes good sause. The hunger forced us to kill our prisoners who weare chargable in eating our food, for want of which have eaten the flesh174 so by that means we weare freed from the trouble. The next day we came neere a village. Att our coming we killed a woman with her child, and seeing no more for us that way we tourned backe againe for feare of pursueing and resolved to goe backe to the first village that was 3 dayes journey. But on the way we mett with five and twenty or thirty men and women, who discovered us which made [us] to goe to it. They fought and defended themselves lustily, but no resisting to the strongest party for our guns was a terror to them and made them give over. During the fight the women ranne away. Five of the women weare wounded with arrowes, and foure escaped, but he that was sent with me att first to make a discovery*, was horridly wounded with two arrows and a blow of a club on the head. If he had stucked to it as wee, he might proceed better.175 We burned him with all speed, that he might not languish long to putt our selves in safty.176 We killed two of them, and five prisoners wee tooke, and came away where wee left our boats, where we arrived within two dayes, without resting or eating or drinking all the time, saveing a little stagges meat. We tooke all their booty which was of two sacks of indian corne, stagges skins, some pipes, some red and green stoanes, and some tobacco in powder with some small loaves of bread, and some girdles, garters, necklaces made of goats haire, and some small coyne of that country,177

172 Possibly derived in part from the noun root “–kuhs-,” meaning “face”; see Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 73 (John Steckley, personal comunication, 13 July 2010). 173 Searched everwhere but without success. 174 We would have had to eat the flesh of the prisoners. 175 He would have fared better. 176 They killed and burned the wounded man so carrying him wouldn’t delay them. 177 Dutch guilders and Spanish reales were in circulation, and by 1652 Massachusetts had begun to mint silver coins, known as “Boston shillings.”

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some bowes and arrowes, and clubbs well wrought. The tournes178 of their heads weare of snakes skin with bears pawes. The hayre of some of them very long, and all proper* men. We went on the other side of the river the soonest we could, and came to our fort. After we looked about us least we should be surprised, and perceiving nothing, we went about to gett meat for our want and then to sleepe. Att midnight we left that place. Six of us tooke a boat, five another, and two the litle one. We row the rest of the night with all strength and the breaking of the day hid our selves in very long rushes, and our boats. The litle boat went att the other side of the river, those hid it in the wood. One of them went up a tree to spie about, in case he could perceive any thing to give notice to his comrade, and he was to come within sight of us to warne us. We weare in great danger goeing downe the stream of that river in the night time, and we had trouble enough to cary all our bagage without the least noise. Being come to the end of the river, which empties it selfe in to a lake of some eight or nine leaugues in compasse we went into a small river to kill salmons, as indeed we took great many with staves, and so sturgeons of which we made provision for a long while. Att last finding our selves out of all feare and danger, we went freely a hunting about the lake where we tarried three dayes, and two of our company mett with two women that runned away from the sanontins179 country which is of the Iriquoit nation. Those poore creatures having taken so much paines to sett themselves att liberty to goe to their native country founde themselves besett in a greater slavery then before, they being /28/ tyed [were] brought to us. The next day we went from thence with the five prisoners and the twenty two heads,180 toe much for the litlenesse of our boats as for the weight we had to putt upon them, being in danger which made us make the more hast to the place where we intended to make new boats. For nine dayes we went through dangerous places, which weare like so many precipices with horrible falling of watters. We weare forced to carry our boats after the same maner as before with great paines. We came att last to a lake181 where we contrived other boats and there we parted our acquisited booty, and then eage had care of his owne. We ordered the biggest boat should hould fowre men and two prisoners, the next three men and the two women that 178 tournes (and see touns, 157): probably headbands. Probably from French tour in its now obsolete meaning of “décoration, accessoire qui entoure quelque chose” (“decoration, accessory that surrounds something”): Trésor de la langue française informatisé (with thanks to Russon Wooldrige). 179 The Seneca (Sonnontouan). 180 This would suggest that, on at least some occasions, entire heads were transported. 181 The raiding party has turned northward to Lake Erie.

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[were] last weare taken, the third should hould three and the other prisoner. My brother and I had a man and a woman with fowre heads to our share, and so the rest accordingly without dispute, or noise. We wandered severall dayes on that lake. It was a most delightfull place, and [has] a great many islands.182 Heere we killed great many bears, afor we came to a most delightfull place for the number of stagges that weare there, thence into a straight river, from thence weare forced to make many carriages* through many stony mountains183 where we made severall trappes for castors. We tooke above two hundred castors there, and fleaed of184 the best skins. There weare some skins so well dressed that held the oyle of beares as pure bottles.185 During that time we mett severall huntsmen of our country, so we heard news of our friends, onely our father was not yett tourned from the warrs against the French and Algontins. We left our small boats that weare purposly confected for our hunting, and tooke our great boats that could carry us and all our luggage. We went up the same river againe, not without great labor.186 Att last with much adoe we arrived to the landing place187 where we made a stay of four days, where many Iriquoites women came and among others my two sisters, that receaved me with great joy with a thousand kindnesses and guifts as ye may think. I gave them the two heads that I had, keeping the woman for my mother to be her slave. There was nothing but sin[g]ing and danceing out of meere joy for our safe retourne. I had twenty castors for my share, with two skins full of oyle of beare, and another full of orinack and stagges grease. I gave to eage of my sisters six stagges skins to make them coats. I kept the grease for my mother, to whom is convenient188 to give what is necessary for the family. We made our slaves carry all our booty, and went on to litle journeys through woods with ease because the woods weare not thick and the earth very faire and plaine. All the way the people made much of me till we came to the village and especially my two sisters, that in all they shewed their respects, giving me meate every time we rested our selves, or painting my face or greasing my haire, or combing my head. Att night they took the paines to 182 The islands on the south shore of Lake Erie between today’s Sandusky and Toledo (Wykoff, “The Land of the Eries in 1653,” 36–7). 183 The party now turns eastward; the many stony mountains are the Appalachians. 184 That is, flayed the beaver of their skins. 185 Retained their oil as if it were in a bottle. 186 The Mohawk River, which was subject to ice jams in March, or possibly the upper east branch of the Susquehanna, which is difficult to navigate going upstream. 187 Near the village near Schenectady (probably Tionnontoguen) from which they set out. 188 convenient: proper, fitting.

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pull off my stokins, and when I supped they made me lay downe by them, and covers me with /29/ their coats, as if the weather had been cold. This voyage being ended, albeit I came to this village and twice with feare and terror, the third time not withstanding with joy and contentment. As we came neare the villages, a multitud of people came to meet us with great exclamations, and for the most part for my sake biding me to be cheerfull and qualifying me dodcon, that is devil,189 being of great veneration in that country to those that shews any vallor. Being arrived within halfe a league of the village, I shewed a great modesty, as usualy warriors use* to doe.190 The whole village prepares to give the scourg to the captives, as you heard before, under which I my selfe I was once to undergoe. My mother comes to meete mee leaping and singing. I was accompanied with both my sisters. Shee takes the woman slave that I had and would not that any should medle with her, but my brothers prisoner as the rest of the captives weare soundly beaten. My mother accepted of my brothers two heads. My brothers prisoner was burned that same day, and the day following I received the sallery of my booty which was of porcelaine*, necklaces, touns191 of heads, pendants and girdles. There was [nothing] but banqueting for a while. The greatest part of both yong men and women came to see me, and the women [gave me] the choicest of meats, and a most dainty and cordiall bit which I goe to tell you doe not long for, it is the best that is among them. First when the corne is greene they gather so much as need requireth, of which leaves they preserve the biggest leaves for the subject that followes. A dozen more or lesse old women meets together alike, of whom the greatest part wants teeth, and seeth not a jott, and their cheeks hangs downe like an old hunting dogg their eyes full of watter and blood shot. Eage takes an eare of corne, and putts in their mouthes which is properly as milke,192 chawes it and when their mouthes are full spitts it out in their hands, which possibly they wash not once one yeare, so that their hands are white inside by reason of the grease that they putt to their haire and rubbing of it with the inside of their hands which keeps them pretty cleane. But the outside in the rinknesse193 of their rinkled hands there is a quarter of an ounce of filth and stinking grease, and so their hands being full of that mince meate minced with their gumms and fill a dish. So they 189 From the Mohawk root verb “–ótku-,” meaning devil, demon, or spirit (Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 34). 190 As it is proper for warriors to do. 191 See n.178 regarding “tournes.” 192 The grain, when chewed, becomes like milk. 193 Rankness, smell.

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chaw chesnutts, then they mingle this with bears grease or oyle of flower (in French we call it tourne sol194) with their hands, so made a mixture. They tye the leaves att one end and make a hodgpot and cover it with the same leaves, and tye the upper end so that what is within these leaves becomes a round ball, which they boile in a kettlefull of watter, or brouth made of meat or fish. So there is the description of the most delicious bitt of the world. I leave ye to tast of their salmigondy195 which I hope to tell you in my following discourses of my other voyages in that country and others that I frequented the space of tenne years. To make a period196 of this my litle voyage. After I stayed a while in this village with all joy and mirth for feasts, dances and playes but of meere gladnesse for our small victorious companys hapy retourne. So after that their heads had [been] so sufficiently danced, they begin to talke to warre against the Hollanders. Most of us are traited197 again for the castors we bestowed on them. They resolve unanimiously to goe on their designe. Every thing ready, we march along. The next day we arrived in a small brough198 of the Hollanders where we masters them without that those beere bellies had the courage to frowne att us. Whether /30/ it was out of hope of lucre, or otherwise, we with violence tooke the meats out of their potts, and opening their coubards we take and eat what wee gett. For drinking of their wine we weare good fellows, so much that they fought with swords among themselves without the least offer of any misdeed to me. I drunk more then they but more soberly letting them make their quarells without any notice.199 The fourth day we come to the fort of Orange wher we weare very well receaved or rather our castors, every one courting us, and was nothing but pruins and reasins and tobbacco plentifully, and all for ho ho, which is thanks, adding niauounhà thank you.200 We went from house to house. I went into the fort with my brother, and have not yett ben knowne a French. But a French souldier of the fort speaks to me in Iroquois language and demanded if I was not a stranger*, and did verily 194 tourne sol: sunflower. 195 salmigondy: salamagundy, in England, a popular savory salad of chopped meat, eggs, and onions. 196 To bring what I have just said to a close. 197 treated: honoured or shown hospitality. 198 brough: French bourgade: burgh; a small town or village, probably Beverwijck, the furtrading village north of Fort Orange that eventually became Albany, New York. 199 The Mohawk got the Dutch drinking and they began to fight among themselves, with Radisson apparently on the sidelines. 200 Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 87, gives “nyawv, nyá:wv” for “thank you.”

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believe I was French for all that I was all dabbed over with painting and greased. I answerd him in the same language that no, and then he speaks in swearing,201 desiring me how I fell in the hands of those people, and hearing him speake French amazed I answered him for which he enjoyed very much, as I. He embraces me, he cryes out with such a stirre that I thought him senslesse. He made a shame for all that I was wild,202 but to blush red, I could be no redder then what they painted me before I came there. All came about me French as well as Du[t]ch, every one makeing [me] drinking out of the bottle, offering me their service. But my time yett was not out203 so that I wanted not their service, for the onely rumor of my being a French man was enough. The Flemish women drawed me by force into their house, striving who should give, one bread, other meate, to drinke and to eate and tobacco. I wanted not for those of my nation (Iroquoise), who followed me in a great squadron, through the streets, as if I had bin a monster in nature or a rare thing to be seen. I went to see the Governor204 and [he] talked with me a long time, and [I] tould him the life that I lead of which happ205 [he] admired*. He offred me to buy me from them at what prise soever, or else should save me which I accepted not, for severall reasons. The one was for not to be behoulding to them, and the other being loathsome to leave such kind of good people, for then I began to love my new parents that weare so good and so favorable to me. The third reason was to watch a better opportunity for to retyre to the French rather then make the long circuit which after I was forced to doe, for to retyre to my country more than two thousand leagues and being that it was my destiny to discover many wild nations, I would not to strive against destinie. I remitted me selfe to fortune and adventure of time as a thing ordained by God, for his greatest glorie (as I hope) it will prove. Our treatis206 being done over ladened with bootyes abundantly, we putt our selves in the way that we came to see again our village, and to passe that winter with our wives, and to eat with them our sagamitié* in peace, hoping that no body should trouble us during our wintering, and also to exspect or finde our fathers retourning home. Leaving that place many cryed to see me among a company of wolves, as that souldier tould me, who knewed me the first howre 201 202 203 204

He cursed at me. He was ashamed I was dressed and painted as a Mohawk. The time before he would reveal himself. Johannis Dyjckman, commissary of Beverwijck in 1653. For the complex administrative situation of the Beverwijck-Fort Orange area in 1653, see Venema, Beverwijck. 205 happ: fortunate chance. 206 treatis: (obsolete) negotiation, trading.

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and the /31/ poore man made the teare come to my eye. The truth is I found many occasions to retire for to save me but have not yet souffred enough to have merited my deliverance.207 In two dayes journey we weare retourned to our cabbans, where every one of us rendered himself to his dearest kindred or master. My sisters weare charged208 of porcelaine*, of which I was shure not to faile, for they weare too liberall to mee, and I towards them. I was not fifteen dayes retourned but that nature it selfe reproached me to leade such a life, remembering the sweet behaviour and mildnesse of the French, and considered with me selfe what end should I exspect of such a barbarous nation enemy to God and to man. The great effect that the Flemings shewed me and the litle space was from us there can I make that journey one day.209 The great belief that the people had in me should make them not to mistrust me, and by that I should have greater occasion to save me without feare of being persued. All these reasons made me deliberate to take a full resolution without further delay of saving me selfe to the Flemings, for I could be att no saftey among such a nation full of reveng, if in case the French and Algontins defeats that troup of theirs, then what spite they will have [and] will reveng it on my boans, for where is no law, no faith. To undertake to goe to the French, I was once interrupted, nor have I had a desire to venture againe for the second time. I should delight to be broyled as before in pitifull torments. I repented of a good occasion I lett slippe, finding me selfe in the place with offers of many to assist me, but he that is of a good resolution must be of strong hopes of what he undertakes, and if the dangers weare considered, which may be found in things of importancy, you ingenious men would become cooks.210 Finally without exspecting* my fathers retourne, putting away all feare and apprehension I constituted211 to deliver me selfe from their hands, at what ever 207 Not likely penitential thinking on Radisson’s part; just an example of his usual irony. 208 I decorated my sisters with strings of wampum beads. 209 The reception I received from the Dutch and the short distance that separated us made me think I could make that journey one day. 210 ingenious: having an aptitude for invention or construction; clever at contriving or making things; skilful (OED, particularly current in the seventeenth century with respect to scientific inquiry). This remark has been construed as evidence that Radisson was addressing his Voyages to the Royal Society, which was certainly composed of “ingenious men.” However, see the similar turn of phrase in the “Letter to Claude Bernou”: “de vous autres noble ames mes patrons.”‡. Radisson always writes as if he’s talking directly to someone, here most likely James Hayes or Prince Rupert (see Introduction). 211 constituted: decided; the meaning is close to OED, constitute (obsolete), “to set up, ordain, establish, appoint, determine.”

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rate it would come too. For this effect I purposed to faine to goe ahunting about the brough, and for to dissemble the better I cutt long sticks to make handles for a kind of a sword they use, that thereby they might not have the least suspition.212 One day I tooke but a simple hattchett, and a knife if occasion presented to cutt some tree and for to have more defence, if unhappily I should be rencountred* to make believe that I was lost in the woods. Moreover as the whole nation tooke me for proud, having allways great care to be guarnished with porcelaine*, and [never think] that I would fly away like a begger, a thing very unworthy.213 In this deliberation I ventured. I inquired my brother if he would keepe me company. I knewed that he never thought, seeing that he was courting of a yonng woman who by the report of many was bastard to a Flemish. I had no difficulty to believe, seeing that the collor of her hayre was much more whiter then that of the Iroquoits. Neverthelesse shee was of a great familie. I left them to their love. In sorte that214 with out any provision I tooke journey through the forests guided by fortune. No difficulty if I could keepe the high way which is greatly beaten with the great concours of that people that comes and goe to trade with the Flemings,215 but to avoid all encounters, I must prolong a farr of.216 Soe being assisted by the best hope of the world,217 I made all diligence in the meane while that my mother nor kindred should mistrust me in the least. I made my departure att eight of the clock in the morning the 29th October 1653. I marched all that journey218 without eating, but being as accoustomed to that, without staying I continued my cours att night. Before the breaking of the day I found my selfe uncapable because of my /32/ feeblenesse and faintnesse of speed for want of food and repose after such constraint. But the feare of death makes vertu of necessity. The morning commanded me to goe for its faire and could ayre, which [was] somewhat advantageous to keepe [me] more cheerfull. Finally the resolution reserving my courage att four of the clock att evening the next day I arrived in a place full of trees cutt which made mee looke to my selfe fearing to abord219 the habitation, though my design was 212 For Mohawk “swords,” see 124. 213 Everyone was aware of his liking for display, so he would delude them by going away with nothing. A key passage for the understanding of Radisson’s later life; see Introduction. 214 in sort that: in such a fashion that. 215 The important Mohawk River trade route. 216 Stay at a distance out of sight. 217 Being optimistic. 218 journey: day, from the French journée. 219 abord: from French aborder: to approach.

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such. It is a strang thing that to save this life they abhorre what they wish, and desire which they apprehend less. Approaching nigher and nigher untill I perceivd an opening that was made by cutting of wood where was one man cutting still wood, I went nearer and called him. Incontinently220 [he] leaves his work and comes to me thinking I was Iroquoise. I said nothing to him to the contrary. I kept him in that thought promising him to trait with him all my castors att his house, if he should promisse me there should be non of my brother Iroquoises there, by reason we must be liberall to one an other.221 He assured me there was non then. I tould him that my castor was hiden, and that I should goe for it the morrow. So satisfied [he] leads me to his cabban, and setts before me what good cheare he had. Not desiring to loose time, because the affaire concerned me much, I tould him I was savage but that I lived a while among the French, and that I had some thing valluable to communicat to the Governor that he would give me a peece of paper and inck and pen. He wondered very much to see that what he never saw before don by a wild man. He charges himself with my letter with promise that he should [not] tell it any body of my being there, and to retourne the soonest he could possible, having but two litle miles to the fort of Orang. In the meane while of his absence shee shews me good countenance as much as shee could hopeing of a better imaginary profit by me. Shee asked me if we had so much libertie with the French women to lye with them as they. But I had no desire to doe anything seeing my selfe so insnared att deaths doore amongst the terrible torments but must shew a better countenance to a worse game.222 In the night we heard some wild men singing, which redoubled my torments and apprehension which inticed me to declare to that woman, that my nation would kill [me] because I loved the French and the Flemings more than they; and that I resolved hereafter to live with the Flemings. Shee perceiving my reason, hids me in a corner behind a sack or two of wheat. Nothing was to me but feare. I was scarcely there an howre in the corner but the Flemings came foure in number wherof [one was] that French man had knowne me the first, who presently getts me out, and gives me a suite that they brought purposly to disguise me, if I chanced to light upon any of the Iroquoits. I tooke leave of my landlady and landlord, yett grieved me much that I had nothing to bestow upon them but thanks being that they weare very poore, but not so much as I. I was conducted to the fort of Orange, where we had no incounter* in the way, where 220 incontinently: quickly, suddenly. 221 He would have to share the results of his trading with the others. 222 For Radisson’s delight in proverbs and sayings, see Introduction. Here, “show myself unperturbed in the face of danger.”

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I have had the honor to salute the Governor who spoake French, and by his speech thought him a French man.223 The next day he caused another habit to be given me, with shoos and stokins and also linnen. A minister that was a Jesuit, gave me great offer,224 also a marchand to whom I shall ever have infinit obligations, although they weare satisfied when I /33/ came to France att Rochel.225 I stayed three days inclosed in the fort and hidden. Many came ther to search [for] me, and doubt not but my parents weare of the party. If my father had ben there he would ventur hard, and no doubt but was troubled att it and so was my mother and my parents who loved me as if I weare their owne naturall son. My poore sisters cryed out and lamented through the towne of the Flemings, as I was tould they called me by my name for the[y] came the third day after my flight. Many Flemings wondered, and could not perceaue how those could loue me so well. But the pleasure caused it, as it agrees well with the Roman proverb, doe as they doe. I was imbarked by the Governor’s order after taking leave, and thanks for all his favors. I was conducted to Menada a towne faire enough for a new country,226 where after some three weeks I embarked in one of their shipps 223 The man Radisson calls “Governor” was probably Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer, director of the patroonship of Rensselaerswijck. The son of a wealthy Amsterdam merchant, he was well educated and probably spoke French. 224 Father Joseph Poncet, captured at Cap Rouge and taken by the Mohawk into their country. See the account of his capture, torture, and adoption in JR 40: 119–55. Poncet relates, “A young man who had been captured at Three Rivers by the Iroquois, and ransomed by the Dutch, whom he served as interpreter, came to find me, and, after some conversation, told me that he was coming to make his confession on the next day, which was Sunday … The Frenchman whom I mentioned above was living in that house; and he set his conscience in order during the three nights that I spent with him under the roof of that worthy man ...” (143–5). Scull (Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, 3) believed the young man was Radisson. If so, at this point Radisson was a practising Catholic and could speak some Dutch. In 1677 he was able to act as an interpreter during D’Estrées’s second seige of the Dutch fortress at Tobago (see volume 2). It is doubtful, however, that he was ransomed, since the puzzlement of his Mohawk family at the course of events was evident. 225 Unfortunately, no trace has yet been found in the notarial documents now preserved at La Rochelle of Radisson’s transaction, though this kind of transfer was common enough in the period, and he did business there in 1677 (the document is noted by Bosher, “The Imperial Environment,” 72). 226 Menada: Manhattan; already a well-established town of 1,000 inhabitants; see n.30 and Introduction.

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for Holland where we arrived after many boisterous winds and ill weather and after some six weeks sayle and some days we landed att Amsterdam the 4/7th of January 1654.227 Some days after I imbarked myselfe for France and came to Rochelle well and safe, not without blowing my fingers228 many times as well as I done before I arrived in Holland. I stayed till spring exspecting* the transporte of a shippe for New France.229

227 4/7: between the fourth and the seventh? Ms. says 1664; emended here to 1654; the date on p. 1 is correct. 228 Contemporary slang for waiting around idly for something to happen; found as early as 1591 and as late as 1819; see examples in texts listed in Early English Books On Line (EEBO), http://eebo.chadwyck.com/home. 229 At the beginning of Voyage II, Radisson states that he left La Rochelle for Percée in Acadia on 16 March 1654, arriving on 7 May; he then found transport to Quebec, a five-day journey. He probably travelled on Le Château fort, the only ship Delafosse (“La Rochelle et le Canada au XVIIe siècle,” 493) records as sailing from La Rochelle to Acadia that year.

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GIS and Cartography Office, Department of Geography, University of Toronto

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[/33/] The second Voyage made in the upper Country of the Iroquoit1 The 15th day of March2 I embarked in a fisher boat to go for Peerce Island3 which is six score leagues of Quebucq. Being there arrived the 7th of May, I search diligently the means possible for to end my voyage, and render me selfe neere my naturall parents and country people.4 Att last I found an occasion to goe by some shallops, and small boats of the wildernesse which went up as farre as the French habitation5 there to joyne with the Algontins and Mountaignaies to warre against the Iroquoits. From all times as their histories mentions, their memory is their chronicle for it from father to son, and assuredly very excellent for as much as I know, and many others has remarked.6 I embarked into one of their shallops, and had the wind favorable for us N.E. In five dayes came to Quebucq the first dwelling place of the French. I mean not to tell you the great joy I perceived in me to see those persons that I never thought to see more, and they in like maner with me thought I was dead long since. In my absence peace was made betweene the French and the Iroquoits7 which was the reason I stayed not long in a place.8 The yeare before the French 1 Aurélien Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués) has translated this voyage into French and provided extensive annotations, which I have relied on in a number of places. 2 Originally “March,” but the “r” converted to “y” and the “ch” struck out, to produce “May,” presumably on the basis of “May” later in the sentence. However, Radisson would have left La Rochelle in March, when the fishermen customarily left for the Gulf of St Lawrence (Boisvert Voyage chez les Onontagués, 83). As noted in Voyage I, n.229, he likely travelled on Le Château fort, the only ship Delafosse (“La Rochelle et le Canada au XVIIe siècle,” 493) records as sailing from La Rochelle to Acadia that year. 3 Roche Percée on the Gaspé peninsula, or rather the fine harbour between there and Isle Bonaventure. 4 natural parents: Radisson’s birth relations (his sisters) as opposed to his adoptive Mohawk relations; country people: his French countrymen. 5 Probably Tadoussac, 190 kilometres from Quebec, a good five days’ journey. 6 For Radisson’s acceptance of Native historiography, exceptional in his period and for centuries to come, see Introduction and Heidi Bohaker’s essay in the appendix to this volume. 7 The Onondaga unexpectedly made peace overtures to the French at Montreal in June 1653. For this eventful year see the Relation for 1652–53, sent by Father Le Mercier (JR 40: especially 89–91); JR 41 and 42; the overview in Campeau, Gannentaha, 7–15; and the summary from a military and political point of view in Brandão, “Your fyre shall burn no more,” 105–10. 8 Did not stay long in a place: for speculation about Radisson’s wanderings between 1654 and 1657, see Introduction.

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began a new plantation in the upper country of the Iroquoits,9 which is distant from the low Iroquois country som fowr score leagues10 where I was prisoner and been in the warrs of that country.11 I tooke great notice of it12 as mentioned in my formest* voyage, which made me have mind to goe thither againe, by that reason the peace was concluded among them. For I must confesse I loved those poore people entirly well. Moreover nothing was to be feared by reason of the great distance which causes a difference in their speech, yett they understand one another. Att that very time the reverend fathers /34/ Jesuits embarked themselves for a second time13 to dwell there, and teach Christian doctrin. I offered my selfe to them and was (as their coustome is) kindly accepted.14 I prepare me self for the journey which was to be in June.15 You must know that the Hurrons weare contained in the article of peace, but not the Algontins which caused more difficultie for those Iroquoits who imbarked us durst not come downe [to] the Three Rivers where the French should embarque, because it is the dwelling place of the Algontins. To remedye this, the French and the barbarrs that weare to march must come to Mont Royall, the last French inhabitation in shalopps. It will not be amisse to leave the

9 Radisson’s chronology is uncertain here, but he may be referring to Father Simon Le Moyne’s first, exploratory trip to the Onondaga, which took place in 1654 (JR 41: 90–129). 10 Probably closer to forty leagues (Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 87). 11 The upper country: that is, the Finger Lakes area south of Lake Ontario and west of the  Mohawk area in the Hudson valley. The upper Iroquois were (east to west) the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca; the lower Iroquois were the Mohawk and the Oneida. See Map 3. 12 Notice of it: of the new plantation. 13 Father Joseph-Marie Chaumonot and Father Claude Dablon, with a party of Huron, set out for Onondaga on 19 September 1655 (JR 42: 59); Dablon’s account is in JR 42: 60–216. Radisson was not part of this group; his party, led by Father Paul Ragueneau, left on 26 July 1657 (JR 44: 69). The names of the participants in the different expeditions are given by Campeau, Gannentaha, 25–6, 34. For the twenty-six soldiers, see Campeau, Monumenta novae Franciae 9, item 57: 178–81. As the presence of the soldiers indicates, the establishment was civil as well as religious (Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 87). 14 Radisson would probably travel with the Jesuits as an engagé, or hired worker. 15 An unidentified hand, probably in the late nineteenth century, adds in the left margin: “Jesuits for Upper Iroquois.” There are four such annotations on this page and another on the next (“falls of Montmorency”).

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following of the voyage,16 for to repeat the reasons why those poor Hurrons ventured themselves into their hands who have been ennemy one to another all their liftime (and that naturaly17) you must know that the Hurrons (so called by the French) have a bush of a haire rised up artificialy uppon the heads like to a cocks comb. Those people I say weare twenty or thirty thousand by report of many not 20 years agoe.18 Their dwelling is neere the upper lake, so called by name of the French.19 That people tell us of their pedegree from the begining20 that their habitation [was] above the lake, many years agoe, and as they increased many, great many began to search out another country; for to tend towards the south, they durst not for the multitud of people that was there, and besids some of their owne nations had [fought?] against them.21 Then resolved to goe to the north parts, for westward there was much watter which (as the report then) was without end, moreover many inhabitants monstruous for their greatnesse of body.22 We will speake about this in another place more att large, where [we] will give an exact account of what came to our knowledge dureing our travells, and the land we have discovered since.23 If [they went] eastward they had found the Iroquoits who possessed some parts of the River 16 To depart from a strictly chronological account. Radisson will signal the end of this digression with “Lett us come to our purpose, and follow our voyage” (176). 17 By nature, not just politically. 18 Trigger (HNAI 15: 369) estimated the pre-epidemic population of Huronia as 18,000– 22,000, but see his Children of Aataentsic, 32 for an estimate of 18,000–40,000. 19 the upper lake: Lake Superior, where the remnant Huron/Petun, hard pressed by the Iroquois, lived in various places from 1650 to 1700. 20 pedegree from the begining: the oral history of their people from the earliest times. 21 Possibly the Matouweskarini; for their dispersal in 1649, see Historical Atlas of Canada, vol. 1, plate 35, “The Great Dispersions, 1648–53.” They left the Madawaska River in present-day Ontario and moved north towards the James Bay Cree, with whom they had close relations. The narrative that follows is factually very doubtful, since the starving Huron could not have taken “provision for a twelvemonth,” nor as agriculturalists had they the technical capacity to build “great boats” (Conrad Heidenreich, personal communication, 8 February 2010). 22 Possibly the now-extinct Susquehannock (Andaste). “Physically the Susquehannock were ‘a giant-like people’ according to [Captain] John Smith, but a few skeletal remains indicate an average male height of 5' 3.7''” Francis Jennings, “Susquehannock,” HNAI 15: 363. Giant people are also mentioned in Voyage III (239). 23 This is one of several occasions when Radisson frames the writing of his Voyages as a project. If his use of the Olympian “we” is any indication, he has also acquired the beginnings of an authorial persona.

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of Canada,24 and their dwelling was where Quebucq is situated, and about that place, and att the upper end of Montmerency, two leagues from Quebucq, where was a great village, where now is seene a desolat country, that is, for woods and forests, nor more nor lesse then what small busshes nigh the Three Rivers side, in the place called the Cape de Magdelaine.25 Its such a country that the French calls it the burned country twenty miles about, and in many places the same is to be seene where there weare forests. So seeing that the north regions weare not so peopled they pursued the root [route] of that way, and for the purpose provided themselves provision for a twelmonth to live, [and] with all their equipage imbarqued in the begining of the spring. After that they passed great wayes26 coming to a lake which conducts them into a great river27 which river leads them to a great extent of salt watter, so as they being good fishers wants no fish. They coasted this great watter for a long time, finding always some litle nation whose languag they knew not, and having great feare of one another.28 Finaly finding but a fearful country full of mountains and rocks, they made great boats that might hould some thirty men to travers with more assurance the great bay, for to decline29 from the tediousnesse of the high way, which they must doe, having but small boats. Whence /35/ they came to a country full of mountains of ice, which made us believe that they descended to the goulden arme.30 So fearing the winter should come on, they made sayles wherein they made greate way when the wind was behind, 24 The St Lawrence. 25 That is, the country around the falls of Montmorency had no more forest cover than the small bushes around Cap de la Madeleine, to the east across the Saint-Maurice River from Trois-Rivières. 26 Travelled a long distance. 27 Possibly Lake Abitibi and the Abitibi River? 28 Thus far, the narrative suggests Huron knowledge of the James Bay area; the “small nations” might be Inuit along the east shore of James Bay, who were often hostile to strangers, but possibly also the East Main Cree. 29 decline: to turn away (obsolete). 30 The narrative implausibly describes the fleeing Huron as rounding Cape Wolstenholme on the Ungava peninsula and descending the Labrador coast. Writing in 1668 Radisson may have been unaware that the name “Labrador” came not from “bras d’or” (golden arm) but from the Portuguese explorer who visited it in 1498, João Fernandes Lavrador. It is also possible (though geographically less likely) that he intended some kind of reference to the Bras d’Or area of Cape Breton, where he had visited Nicolas Denys (“Monsieur Denier”) probably in the spring of 1663 (303). When Voyage II was written he would have known Labrador only from maps, but by the mid-1670s he had learned

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otherwyse they could not make use of their sayles,31 and many of their boats weare lost but [they] still went on, hopeing of a better country. They wandered so many moons with great danger and famine for they began to misse such plenty as they used*. Att last [they] gott out, and coasting the skirts of the sea, and enters as it weare, into a country where the sumer begins again, they weare incourag’d to greater hopes, insomuch that the poore people became (as to say it so) from their first origine to lead another life, being onely conducted by their imaginary idea, or instinct of nature.32 For steering they knewed nothing but toward the roots of the sun,33 and likewise by some starrs, finaly the coast brings them to the great river St. Laurence, River of Canada, knowing not that it was a river till they came just opposit against the mounts of our blessed Lady,34 where they then perceaved is betwixt two lands. Albeit that litle summer was past, and that the season of the yeare growing on som what sharpe, which made them think to search for winter, [they] mounted allways up the river and finding one side most beautifull for the eye, they pass’d it over, and planted their cabbans in many parts by reason of the many streams there flowing, with quantity of fish wherof they made a good store for their wintering. After a while that upon this undertaking they made cognicence,35 and commerc’d with the highlanders inhabitants of that country who gave them notice that there weare a nation higher [up]36 who should understand them being that they weare great travellers, that they should goe on the other side and there should find another river named Tatousac. They seeing the winter drawing on, they made a fort, and sent to discover the said place a band of their men, to Tatousac. They finde a nation that understands them not more then the first; but by chance, some that escaped the hands of their ennemy Iroquoits, and doubts that there is great difference of language between the Iroquoits and the Hurrons. They weare heard; and further you must note that neere the Lake

31 32 33 34 35 36

much about these coastal waters; see his 1677 “Mémoire on the Northern Seacoast of North America” (volume 2). For contemporary images of Native boats with sails, see Nicolas, Codex Canadensis, 128, 132. Instinct led them to abandon their old way of life for a new one. Steering eastward, by the sun. Les Monts de Notre Dame, on the south shore of the St Lawrence, from Gaspé to the Île d’Orléans. Made acquaintance with. The highlanders would be the Montagnais (Innu); the nation to the north is possibly the East Main Cree, who traded east and south.

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of the Hurrons some 40 leagues estward there is another lake belon[g]ing to the nation of the castors,37 which is 30 miles about, this nation have no other trafick nor industry than huntsmen. They use* to goe once a yeare to the furthest place of the Lake of the Hurons to sell their castors for indian corne, for some collors [collars] made of nettles, for sacks and such things, for which they weare curious enough.38 So coming backe to their small lake againe those marchandises weare transported to a nation beyond that lake towards N.N.E. and that nation had commerce with a people called the White fish which is norwest to the Three Rivers, some hundred and fifty leagues in the land.39 That nation had intelligence with the Saguines,40 who are those that liveth about Tadousac, so that the two nation[s] have great correspondency with one another because of their mutual language, saving that each one have a particular letter41 and accent. Finding that nation of the castors, who for the most part understands the Hurron idiom, they conversed together and weare supplied with meat by that wandring nation that lives onely by what they may or can gett.42 Contrary wise the Hurrons are seditious.43 We shall speak of them more amply in it’s place. So those miserable /36/ adventurers had ayd during that winter, who doubtlesse should souffer without this favor. They consulted together often. Seeing themselves renforced with such a succor of people44 for to make warrs against the Iroquois, the next spring, their warre was conducted with success. For they chassed the Iroquois out of their country, which they lost some winters before. They march up to the furthest part of the Lake Champlaine to know, if that was their formest* dwelling, but they speak no further of it. ¶Those Iroquoits [began?] to wander up and downe and spread themselves as you have heard to the Lake d’Ontario of which I will after make mention. 37 The Ojibwe roughly of the Georgian Bay-Lake Michigan area. There is some difficulty in defining them as a group in the seventeenth century (see HNAI 15: 760–1). Radisson does not seem to mean the Saulteaux, whom he later speaks of as a separate group. 38 Which they were eager to have. 39 The Attikamek or Attigamègue of the upper Saint-Maurice River (HNAI 6: 213). 40 The people living around the Saguenay River, that is, the Montagnais (Innu). 41 letter (or in French, “caractère”) suggests alphabetic writing, which these peoples did not use at the time; Radisson probably means something like “syllable.” 42 Judging from Radisson’s description of the “wandering nation” near the end of Voyage IV, he means here the James Bay Cree. 43 seditious: a delightful malapropism; from the context, Radisson must mean “sedentary.” (Scribal misreading of such a word is unlikely.) 44 Finding they had the help of so many.

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I heard all this from French men that knewed the Huron speech better then I my selfe, and after I heard it from the wild men, and it’s strang (beeing if it be so as the French and wild men doe aleadg) that those people should have made a circuit of that litle world.45 The Iroquoits after being putt out of that country of Quebucq, the Hurrons and Algontins made themselves masters in it, that is to say they went up above Momorency after that they left the place of  their wintring which was over against Tadousac, att the height of the Chaudiere46 (so called in French) and after many years they retourn’d to live att the gape of their lake,47 which is two hundred leaugues long and fifty or sixtie leaugues large. Those Hurrons lived in a vast country that they found unhabited, and they in a great number builded villages, and they multiplied very many. The Iroquoits also gott a great country, as much by sweetnesse as by force. They became warriors uppon their owne dispenses and cost,48 they multiplied so much but they became better souldiers as it’s seene by the following of this discours. The Hurrons then inhabited most advantagiously in that place, for as much as for the abundance of bears and staggs, from whence they have the name since of staggy.49 It’s certaine that they have had severall other callings, according, as they have builded villages.50 Fishing they have in abundance in his season of every kind, I may say, more then wee have in Europe. In some places in this lake where is an innumerable quantity of fish, that in two howres, they load their boat with as many as they can carry. At last [they] became so eminent strong, that they weare of a minde to fight against the neighbouring nation. Hearing that their sworne ennemys the Iroquoits retired towards the nation called Andasstoüeronon which is beyond the Lake d’Ontario between

45 The Huron’s wanderings; interestingly, Radisson has his doubts! 46 Opposite Tadoussac; Radisson’s geography is weak here: the Chaudière River flows from the south into the St Lawrence at Lévis, Quebec. 47 The traditional territory of the Huron was on the Penetanguishene peninsula at the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay; see the detailed description and map in Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 27–31. By the “gap” Radisson may simply mean the lower extremity of the bay. 48 Dispenses (obsolete): the act of spending; thus (roughly), “they spent what it cost to become warriors.” 49 Staggy: the people of the deer, the Tahontaenrat, who joined the Huron Confederacy about 1610. For uncertainty about their name, see Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 437n.5. 50 They have had several other names, corresponding to the villages they built.

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Virginea and that lake.51 They resolved to goe and search them for to warre against them, but they shall find it52 to their ruine. Which I can affirme and assure, because the Iroquoits53 in the most part of their speeches, which comes from father to son, says, we bears (for it’s their name) whilst we scraped the earth with our clawes for to make the wheat grow for to maintaine our wives, not thinking that the deare shall leape over the lake to kill the beare that slept, but they found that the beare could scratch the stagge, for his head and leggs are small to oppose. Such speeches have they commonly together, in such that they have had warrs many years. The Holanders being com’d to inhabit Menada54 /37/ furnished that nation55 with weapons by which means they became conquerors. The French planters in New France came up to live among this nation. In effect they doe live now many years, but the ambition of the fathers Jesuits not willing to permitt French families to goe there for to conserve the best to their profitt, houlding this pretext that yong men should frequent the wild women, so that the Christian religion by evil example could not be established but the time came that they have forsook it themselves.56 For a while after the Iroquoits came there [in] the number of seaven hundred on the snow in the begining of spring, where they make a cruell slaughter as the precedent years, where some ghostly57 fathers, or brothers, or their servants weare consumed taken or burnt, as their relation makes mention.58 This selfe same yeare they tooke prisoners of 51 Andasostoüeronon: The Andaste (French) or Susquehannock (English), and see n.22 above. The name “Virginia” was often used to refer simply to the area south and east of the St Lawrence, extending to present-day Virginia. The Andaste lived in today’s southern New York State and Pennsylvania. 52 Originally written “found” and “should be,” both struck out. 53 Iroquoits: confusingly for Radisson’s narrative, both the Huron and the Mohawk employed the clan name “Bear.” Among the Huron the people of the Bear, the Attignawantan were one of the four tribes of the Huron Confederacy. The Mohawk clans were Bear, Turtle, and Wolf. Radisson’s story relates how the Mohawk cultivated the soil not thinking that the deer (the “staggy” people, the Tahontaenrat mentioned above) were a threat, but in the end found that “the beare could scratch the stagge.” 54 Peter Minuit’s “purchase” of the island of Manhattan took place in 1624. 55 The Iroquois, and specifically the Mohawk. 56 Evil example overcame the Jesuits’ efforts to establish Christianity through intermarriage, and Native beliefs reasserted themselves. 57 ghostly: spiritual. 58 The Jesuit Relation of 1648–49 (JR 34), chiefly written by Father Paul Ragueneau, recounts the Iroquois capture of the Huron villages and the martyrdoms of Antoine

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eleven or twelve thousand59 of those poore people in a village att sight of the Jesuits fort, which had the name of saint but at that howre it might have the name of feare.60 Heere follows sicknesse, and famine also was gott among those people. Flying from all parts to escape the sword, they found a more rud and cruell ennemy, for some after being taken gott their lives, but the hunger and their treachery mad them kill on[e] another. Be it for booty or whatsoever other non[e] escaped, saving some hundred came to Quebuc for to recover their first liberty but contrary they found their end. So the fathers left walls, wildernesse and all open wide to the ennemy and came to Quebuc. With the rest of the poore fugitives they weare placed in the wildernesse neere the habitation of Quebuc, but being not a convenient place, they weare putt to the Isle of Orleans, three leaugues below Quebuc,61 in a fort that was made with the souccor of the French, where they lived some years planting and sowing indian corne for their nourishment and greased rob[e]s of castor62 of which grease the profit came to the fathers the summe of ten thousand livres tournois yearly.63 In this place they weare catched when they least thought of it, not without subject of conivance God knoweth. There weare escaped that time about a hundred and fifty women, and some twenty men, the rest all killed taken and brought away of which for the most part weare sett at liberty in the country of their ennemy where they found a great number of their kindred and relations who lived with all sorte of liberty, and went along with the Iroquoits to warr as if they weare natives.64 In them was no trust to be given, for they weare more cruell then the Iroquois even to their proper* country;65 in so much that the rest resolved to surrender themselves then

59 60 61 62

63 64 65

Daniel, Jean de Brébeuf, and Gabriel Lalemant. This is one of the few references by Radisson to a book he has read; see Introduction. Trigger (Children of Aataentsic, 32) reports estimates of the population of Huronia at 18,000–40,000 but favours the lower figure. See the tables in HNAI 15: 369–70. A sardonic play of words on the name of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons; that is, it was called “saint” (holy) but might as well have been called “fear.” For this settlement, see Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 801–4. Furs that had been worn close to the body (and thus picked up body oil) were prized more in trade than fresh, unworn furs. Trigger specifically cites Radisson on the greased beaver skins traded at the settlement (Children of Aatentsic, 804). livre tournois: a money of account, not a coin. See section on “Money” under General Information. For the Huron who were taken prisoner by the Iroquois or joined them voluntarily, see Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 826–31. Even to their own people.

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undergoe the hazard to be taken by force. The peace was made by the instancy of the father Jesuits as before. Some weare going there to live, as they have already begun’d. They seeing our departure and transporting of our goods in the king’s navie66 to Mont Royal, for to runne yea the hazard, they also must come. To lett you know our fortune or theirs be better or worse, it should be a hard thing for me to declare. You may juge your selfe. ¶Lett us come to our purpose, and follow our voyage.67 Being arrived att the last French habitation,68 where we must stay above 15 dayes, for to passe that place without a /38/ guid was a thing impossible, but after the time expired, our guides arrived. It was a band of Iroquois that was appointed to fetch us and conduct us into their country. One day att ten of the clock in the morning, when we least thought of any, [we] saw several boats coming from the point of St. Louis directly att the foot of a hill so called som three milles from Mont Royal. Then [there was] rejoycing [by] all to see coming those that they never thought to have seene againe, for they promissed to come att the begining of spring, and should arrive 15 dayes before us. But seeing them, every one speaks but of his imbarcation. The Hurrons that weare present began to make speeches to encourage their wives, to make ready with all their stuffe, and to fear nothing, being that the heavens would have it so disposed, and that it was better to die in Iroquois country and peace with their brethren, then stay in the knott69 of their nativity that is their country to be murdered, and better in the Iroquois country in warre for to be burned. All things so disposed, they prepare themselves to receave the Iroquoits, who weare no more then three thousand in number,70 and made a halt for to hould councell to know what they must say, that the[y] thought of every one and of the Hurrons. But those barbars had an other designe, for their destiny was to doe, and not to speake, but for to doe this there must be a treachery in which they are expected.71 66 Written over an indecipherable phrase; omitted in Scull’s edition (Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson). 67 Elements of the story of the Jesuit foundation of Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha are scattered among a number of the Relations and letters of this period: see especially JR 44: 69–77 (the massacre on Cornwall Island, Ragueneau’s letter, date not given) and JR 44: 149–221, an anonymous Relation including letters by Ragueneau (153–83) and others. See also Marie de l’Incarnation to her son, lettre clxxix, Quebec, 4 October 1658 (Guyart, Correspondance, 602–7), which recounts the escape. 68 Montreal. 69 Possibly from Fr. nœud, which means both knot in the usual sense and the ties of friendship. 70 An unsubstantiated number, and unlikely. 71 Treachery was expected of them.

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You must know that that bande [of] Irokois descending the last streame or falling water one of their skiffs made shipwrake in which weare seaven, all drowned, without non[e] could souccor them; a thing remarkable that every one strive to help him selfe without that they will give ayde or assistance to an other. Uppon this, that ontoward army, those wild [men] barbarous with vengeance, held councell as is before said, for to be revenged of the losse of their compagnions, where they determined being that they come to fetch the French and the Hurrons, to revenge this uppon them and kill them as soone as they should be in their jurisdiction. But considering after that wee French had a fort in their country with a good strong guard,72 and that that should cause affairs,73 it was concluded that their furor should not be discharged but uppon the poor Hurrons. Upon this deliberation they broake councell and arrived att the fort. Their speech was cleare contrary to their designe and promises inviolably friendshipp. There was presents, and guif[t]s given of both party; but when they pertooke74 the death of their compagnions, they must make other presents. Perhaps that prevailed some what in their thoughts, and tourns them from their perfidious75 undertakings. For often the liberalitie of those savage[s] was soon executed, but the76 desire brings great booty and observance causes that covetousnesse will prove deare to the French, as to the Hurrons in few dayes.77 Presently they procure some boats, for the Iroquoits had but eleven and the Hurrons non[e], for they came in the French shallope, so that it must be contrivance for the one and other which was soone done [and] in lesse then eight dayes, [we de]parted the dwelling. We found more than thirty boats and all very great we being also so many in company, eighty Iroquoits, som hundred huron /39/ women, and some ten or twelve men, twenty French with two fathers Jesuits.78 In this maner we departed Montroyall, every one loadened with his burden. Wee passed the same journée, wee passed the gulfe of 72 The fort at Montreal, at Pointe-à-Callières (Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 103). 73 The French, too, were likely to become involved in any fighting. 74 Pertooke (obsolete): to share in information, to make known; here, “when they learned of.” 75 Originally followed by “thoughts,” which is struck out. 76 Originally followed by one word, “envy,” struck out; another was interlined to replace it, likewise struck out and replaced by “desire,” also interlined. 77 The Natives could be generous, but they also desired riches, and experience suggests that their practices would cost the French dearly, as it shortly would the Huron. 78 The two priests were Ragueneau and François Du Peron. Ragueneau’s letter of 9 August 1657 (JR 44: 69–77) states that there were fifteen to sixteen Sonnonteronon (Seneca), thirty Ononteronon (Onondaga), and fifty Christian Huron. He gives the date of departure

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St. Loüis,79 and made cabbans in the further most part of the streame. That day was laborious to us, so much that the Iroquoits resolved80 to be backe againe, and make a company to fight against the Algontins of Quebuc. Upon this thirty left us. The next day we embarqued though not without confusion, because many weare not content nor satisfied. What a pleasure the two fathers to see them trott up and downe the rocks to gett their menag[e] into the boat, which with much a doe they gott in.81 The boats weare so loaden that many could not proceed if bad weather should happen. The journey but small came only to the Lake of St. Louis 3 leaugues beyond the streame. There the savage threwed the fathers bundle on the watter side, and would take no care for them. Seeing many of their men gone, the French as well as Hurrons who would have disputed with them for their lives, and had prevented them if their designs had bin discovered, so that after a great debat, we must yeeld to the strongest party.82 For the next embarquing the fathers merchandis weare left behind to oblige the French to stay with it, and seaven of us only embarqued, one of the fathers with six more, and the rest stayed to bring what was left behind, so that our men weare diminished above 40 men. Wee embarqued indifferently one with another French Iroquoits and Hurons! After we came to the highest of the isle of Montroyale, we saw the separation or rather the great two rivers that of Canada are composed. The one hath it’s origine from the west and the other from south southeast.83 It was the last that wee sayled, coming to the end of that lake which is 14 or 15 leaugues long and 3 in breath.84 We must make carriages*, which are high withall and the boats by lande, because no other way to passe. The trainag85 is where the watter is not

79

80 81 82 83

84 85

as 26 July 1657. Campeau gives the names of the French who participated: Jesuits, brothers, donnés, and engagés (Campeau, Gannentaha, 25–6, and see n.13). On the same day we left Montreal we passed Lake St Louis. “Journée” and “St. Loüis” both suggest Radisson’s French orthography as represented in his few autograph manuscripts. “resolved” is written over “sought.” Radisson’s amusement should be set beside Ragueneau’s weary account of these frustrations (JR 44: 71). That is, to the Mohawk. the highest of the isle: the westernmost point. The two great rivers: the Ottawa River, flowing from the west to meet the St Lawrence at Montreal. The St Lawrence channel runs south southeast, but the current flows northeast to the Atlantic. the last: the latter, that is, the St Lawrence. The lake in question is Lac Saint-Louis. trainag: rare, though not obsolete: hauling along. They are making their way past the Lachine Rapids.

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so trepid.86 We draw the boats loaden after us, and when there is not water enough, every one [carries] his bundle by lande. Havin[g] proceeded three dayes journey on that river, we entered another lake som what bigger. It’s called St. Francis.87 This is delightfull to the eye as the formost*. I speake not of the goodnesse for there are many things to be spoaken off. I am satisfied to assure you it is a delightfull and beautifull country; we wanted nothing to the vieu, passing those skirts88 killing staggs, auriniacks and fowles. As for the fish, what a thing it is to see them in the bottom of the watter, and take it biting the hooke, or lancing it with lance or crampiron.89 In this lake the Hurrons began to suspect the treachery conspirated against them for they observed that the Iroquoits allways consulted privatly together, not giving them the least notice, which made a Hurron with three men and two women goe away and run away to the French of Quebuc. And for this intent one very morning after being imbarqued as the rest, went in to the midle of the river where they began to sing and tooke their leave to the great astonishment of the rest, and to the great discontent of the /40/ Iroquoits that saw themselves so frustrated of so much booty that they exspected. But yett they made no signe att that present, but lett them goe without trouble for feare the rest would doe the same, and so be deprived of the conspiracy layde for the death of their compagnions. To that purpose knowing the place where they weare to land, which was in an island in the midle of the river, a leaugue long and a quarter broade, they resolv’d to murder them in the said place, which was promptly executed in this maner following.90 They embarqued both Hurron men and women in their boats, and among them made up som twenty that embarqued themselves in two of their boats, in a posture* as if they should goe to the warrs and went before the breake of day. 86 trepid: agitated. 87 A widening in the St Lawrence River between present-day Cornwall, Ontario, and Valleyfield, Quebec. 88 The view lacked nothing as we passed along the skirts of the hills. 89 crampiron: a hook or grappling iron. 90 Present-day Cornwall Island; however, Boisvert argues that the massacre took place on Saint-Régis, the large island at the end of Lake St Francis (Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 106.) The Journal des jesuites records: “Oct. 6 [1657]: Boquet arrived in the evening with 8 frenchmen, from Onontagé, without savages, and brought us news of the murder committed on the 3rd day of August, 4 days journey above Montreal, by the Onontageronons upon the Hurons of Quebec, who were going up with Father Ragueneau to Onontagé” (JR 43: 59). See also JR 44: 73. However, Radisson’s account of the massacre gives much more detail.

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We weare but seaven French men, and they put us seaven [in] severall boats. I find me selfe with three Iroquoits and one Hurron man. Coming within sight of the isle, where they weare to play their game, one of the Iroquoits in the same boat as I landed, takes his gunne and charges it. The Hurron and I saw this but neither dreamed of the tragedy that was att hand. After [one of them] goes into the woode, and the Iroquois that governed the boat takes up a hattchett and knocks downe the poor Hurron that never thought to be so ended, and the other that charged his musket in the wood shoots him, and [he] fell downe uppon my heels. My feet soone swims in the miserable Hurrons bloode. He di[e]d quite as if he had an eague [ague], and was wounded with great many wounds that still they doubled.91 Both Iroquoits came to me, and bid courage for they would not hurt me, but for him that was killed he was a dogg good for nothing. The small knowledge that I have had of their speech,92 made of a better hope, but one that could not have understood them, would have ben certainly in a great terror. This murder could not be committed so, but that the rest of the boats should know it, and therefore in that very time we heard sad moans and cryes horidly by Hurron women. They threwed the corps immediatly into the water, and went the other side of the river into the abovesaid isle. Being landed together, the poore women went in a flock like sheep that sees the wolves ready to devouer them. There weare eight Hurron men that tooke their armes, the Iroquoits not hindering them in the least, but contrarily the captaine of the Iroquoits appeared to defend their cause, giving sharp apprehensions to those that held up armes, and so farr that he did beat those that offerd to hurt them. In this example you may perceive the dissimulation and vengence of this coursed people. So that the company reassured in some respects the affrighted company, made them goe up to the topp of the hill and there errect cottage some forty paces from them. Dureing the while I walked on the side where they weare hard at work and firmly believed that the poor Hurron was killed by the Iroquoit out of malice, so much trust I putt in the traitors words. As I was dirrectly coming where the Hurrons weare, what should I see [but] a band of Iroquois rushing out of a wood all p[a]inted which is the signe of warrs. I thought they weare those that I have seen in [the] morning before as effectualy they weare. I came to the place where weare all those poore victims. There was the good father /41/ comforting the poore innocent women, the 91 They continued to wound him as he was dying. 92 Evidently a dialect of Iroquois different from that of the Mohawk who captured Radisson in Voyage I. In JR 44: 73 they are described as Onontageronon, who wanted to cut down the Huron but were in conflict with the Sonnontoueronon in the party.

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chief of them satt by a valliant Huron who all his life time killed many Iroquoits, and by his vallor acquired the name of great captaine att home and abroad. The Iroquoit spake to him, as the father told us and as I my self have heard, brother cheare up, says he, and assure your selfe you shall not be killed by doggs. Thou art both man and captaine as I my selfe am, and [I] will die in thy defence. And as the aforesaid crew shewed such a horrid noise of a sudaine, the captaine took hold of the chaine that was about him, thou shalt not be kill’d by another hand then by mine. Att that instant the cruell Iroquoits fell upon those Hurrons, as many wolves, with hattchetts swords and daggars, and killed as many as there weare save onely one man. That Hurron captaine seeing himselfe so basly betrayed, he tooke hold of his hattchett that hanged downe his side and strook downe a Iroquoit, but the infinit deale93 tooke his courage and life away. This that was saved was an old man, who in his time had ben at the defeat and takeing of severall Iroquoits. He in authority by his means saved some.94 This news [was] brought to them, and his name as benefactor which deed then saved his life. Heere you see a good example, that it is decent [for a man] to be good to his ennemy. After this was done and their corps throwne into the watter, the women weare brought together. I admired* att them, seeing them in such a deepe silence looking on the grounde with their coverletts uppon their heads. Not a sigh heard, where a litle before they made such a lamentable noise for the loss of their compangnion that was killed in my boate. [In] some two howers all was pacified, and the kettle almost ready for to goe to worke. In this very moment there calls a councell.95 The father was called as a stat[e]s man to that councell, where he hears their wild reasons, that what they had done was in reveng of their deare comrades, that weare drowned in coming for them, and alsoe to certifie the French of their good will. So done the meate was dressed; we weare invited. The father comes to take his dish, and finds us all five in armes, resolving to die valiantly, thinking the councell was called to conclud our death, as the Hurrons, the sixth, was not able to menage armes being a litle boy. The father gave us a brother of his company who had invincible good looke* and a stout heart.96 We waited onely for his shooting. The father could not persuade him to draw. We told him, if he would not fight, to leave our 93 infinite deale: A heavy blow? In any case the blow expended the strength of the Huron captain himself, who thereupon died, saving the old Huron. 94 The old Huron had been at the defeat of several Iroquois and had by his authority saved some of them; his reputation as a benefactor now saved his own life. 95 JR 44: 75, where Ragueneau states that it was he who called the council. 96 Brother Louis de Bohesme (Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 110).

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company, which perceaved by the Iroquoits, made them looke to themselves. They came and assured us of their good will. The foure French men that understood not longed for the schermish, and die for it. Att last the father prevailed with us, and tould us what was done in councell. Two Iroquoits came to us with weapens, who signifies there is nothing layd against you, and commended their compagnions to put by their armes, that they weare our brethren. The agreement was made. Some went to the feast, some stayed. Having eaten the father calls them againe to councell, and for that purpose borrows some porcelaine* from the captaine /42/ to make three guifts.97 All being together, the Father begins his speech throwing the first guift into the midle of the place desiring that it might be accepted for the conservation of the friendshipe that had ben long between them and us, and so was accepted with a ho ho, which is an assurance and a promise as thanks. The second was for the lives of the women which weare in their hands, and to conduct them with saftie into their country which was accepted in like maner. The third was to encourage them to bring us to their owne country, and carry our marchandises in such that they may not be weatt nor leave them behind which was as abovesaid punctualy observed. The councel being ended, the captaines made speeches to encourage the masters of the boats to take a bundle to his care and charge, and give an account of it in the country. I wish the lotts weare so distributed before we came from Mont Royal but that it is the miserable comfort better late, then never. Att night every one to his cabban, and the women dispersed into every cabban with their children which was a sight of compassion. The day following being the eight day of our departure, some went a hunting, some stayed att home. The next day to that, we embarqued all a sunder, a boat for each. I was more chearful then the rest, because I knewed a litle of their language, and many saw me in the Low Country, wherefore [they?] made me embarque with a yong man taller and properer* then my selfe.98 We had paines and toyles enough. Especialy my sperit was grieved, and have souffred much troubles six weeks together. I thought we should come to our journeys end, and so help one another by things past, for a man is glad to drive away the time by honest ingenuous discours, and I would rejoyce very much to be allwayes in company uppon my journey. It was contrary to me all the voyage, for my boat and an other where in weare two men and a woman Iroquoit stayed behind, without seeing or hearing from one another. I leave 97 For Ragueneau’s three gifts, see JR 44: 75–7. His description of the first gift differs from Radisson’s; he writes, “The first is that you stay your fury and your hatchets, and that you do not continue to vent your cruelty on those who remain.” 98 For Radisson’s young male friends, see Voyage 1.

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with you to think if they weare troubled for me or I for them. There was a great alteration a litle before a whole fleete of boats, now to be reduced [to] two onely; but patience perforce. We wandered on that gay river by the means of high and low gulfs that are in it, for since99 I made reflexion of the quantity of water that comes in that river, that comes from the top of the high mountains100 with such a torrent, that it causes a mighty noise, which would make the bouldest men afraid. We went on some journeys with a deale of paines and labour because for our weaknesse, and moreover a man of the other boat fell sick of the ague,101 soe that one of us must helpe him either in the carriag* or drawing the boat and which was wors, my compagnion was childish and yong as I. The long familiarity we had with one an other breeded contempt, so that we would take nothing from one another which made us goe together by the ears, and fought very often till we weare covered in blood. The rest tooke delight to see us fight, but /43/ when they saw us take either gun or sword then came they to put us a sunder. When we weare in the boat we could not fight but with our tongues, flying water att one another. I believe if the fathers paket had been there, the guift could not keepe it from wetting.102 As for meat we wanted none, and we had store of large staggs along the watter side. We killed some almost every day more for sport than for neede. We finding them sometimes in islands, made them goe into the watter, and after we kill’d about a score, we clipped the ears of the rest and hung a bell to it, and then lett them loose. What a sporte to see the rest flye from that, that had the bell. As I satt with my compagnion I saw once of an evening a very remarquable thing. There comes out of a vast forest a multitud of bears, three hundred att least together, making a horrid noise, breaking small trees [and] throwing the rocks downe by the watter side.103 We shot att them, but [they] stirred not a step, which frightened us that they slighted our shooting. We knewed not whether we killed any or no because of the darke, neither dare we venter to see. The wild men tould me that they never 99 100 101 102

Possibly “since then I have thought about.” The Adirondacks. ague: likely malaria. The gifts we gave each other (flinging water) would not have prevented the packet from getting wet. 103 Bears would seem unlikely, since they are ordinarily solitary creatures. However, Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués, 111) notes that the Oswego River was very rich in salmon in the seventeenth century (on which bears fed), and cites the Jesuit Relation of 1656 which reported that the Onondaga killed eight bears on one day, and thirty the next.

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heard their father speake of so many together. We went to the other side to make cabbans, where being arrived, where we made fire, and put the kettle on. When it was ready, we eat our belly full. After supper the sick wild man tould me a story and confirmed it to be true which hapened to him being in warre in  the upper country of the Iroquoits neere the great river that divids it self in two.104 “Brother” sayes he “its a thing to be admired* to goe a far to travell. You must know, although I am sick, I am man, and fought stoutly, and invaded many. I loved all wayes the French for their goodnesse, but they should have given us [guns to] kill the Algontins. We should not warre against the French, but traited with them for our castors. You shall know I am above fiftie years” (yett the fellow did not looke as if he had fourty). “I was once a captaine” says he, “of thirteen men, against the nation of the fire,105 and against the stairing hairs our ennemys.106 We stayed three whole winters from our country, and most of that time among our ennemy, but durst not appeare because of the small number we had against a multitud which made us march in the night, and hide ourselves in the day time in forests. Att last weare weary to be so long absent from our wives and countrey. We resolved [on] some more execution, and take the first nation that we should incountre; we have already killed many. We went some dayes on that river which is bordered of fine sands, no rocks there to be seene.107 Being landed one morning to goe out of the way least we should be discovered, and for [to] know the place that we weare, sent two of our men to make a discovery, who coming backe brought us that they have seen devils, and could not believe that they weare men. We presently putt our selves on our gards, and looke to our armes. Thought to have ben lost but tooke a strong resolution to die like men, and went to meet those monsters. We weare close to one an other, saveing they that made a discovery, that went just before us tould us being neere the water side that they have seen afar of (as they thought) a great heape of stoanes. We needing them mightily we went to get some. Within two /44/ hundred paces nigh we found them converted into men, who weare of an extraordinary height, lying all along the strand [a]sleepe. Brother you must know that we weare all in feare to see such a man and

104 Most likely the confluence of the Allegheny and the Ohio in western Pennsylvania. 105 The Mascoutens (for which see Voyage III). 106 The Odawa, known as the “staring hairs” or “cheveux relevés” since the time of Champlain and Sagard. 107 The reference to sandy banks suggests that the storyteller may have reached a river like the Wabash, which divides present-day Indiana and Illinois.

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woman of a vast lenght.108 They weare by two feete taller then I and big accordingly. They had by them two basquetts, a bow and arrows. I came nigh the place. Their arrowes weare not so long as ours but bigger and their bows the same. Each had a small staggs skin to cover their nakednesse. They have no winter in their country. “After being gone we held a councell, to consider what was to be done. We weare two boats, the one did carry eight men the other five. That of eight would goe back againe, but that of five would goe forward into another river. So we departed. The night being come, as precedent nights, we saw fir[e]s in severall places on the other side of the river, which made us goe there at the breake of day, to know what it was, which was men as tall as the other man and woman, and great many of them together a fishing. We stealed away with out any noise, and resolved not to stay longer in them parts, where every thing was so bigg. The fruits of trees109 are as bigg as the heart of an horiniac* which is bigger then that of an ox. The day after our retourne being in cottage covered with bushes we heard a noise in the wood, which made us speedily take our weapons, every one hiding himself behind a tree the better to defend himselfe. But [we] perceaved it was a beast, like a Dutch horse, that had a long and straight horne in the forehead, and came towards us.110 We shott twice at him, falls downe on the ground, but on a sudaine starts up againe, and runs full boot111 at us, and as we weare behind the trees trusts her horne very farr into the tree, and so broak it, and died. We would eat none of her flesh, because the 108 It’s unclear whether this is a fable or evidence of an encounter with an unknown nation, possibly from farther south. Giant men are also mentioned above (the Susquehannock?) and in Voyage III (239), and Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués, 114) cites a similar story from the Brochet area in Manitoba. 109 Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués, 115) suggests this may be the osage orange (maclura pomifera), also known as the horse-apple. In this period it was generally found in the south. 110 Dutch: in seventeenth-century English, this meant “German.” However, this “horse” appears to be that mythical beast the unicorn. Stories persisted that unicorns could be  found in the Americas; see, for example, Scull (Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, 107), who cites (via O’Callaghan, Documentary History of New York, 4: 77) a 1671 Amsterdam report that such beasts are to be found “on the borders of Canada.” The Jesuit priest Louis Nicolas depicts one in his Codex Canadensis (CC 27) and in his “Histoire naturelle des indes occidentales” (328) insists that he has heard reliable reports that they exist. 111 Obscure; perhaps slang or a scribal misreading for “full out,” a phrase not unknown in the period.

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Flemings eat not their horses flesh, but tooke of the skin which proved heavy, so we left it there. Her horne five foot long, and bigger then the biggest part of an arme. We still proceeded in our journey; in seaven dayes we overtook the boat that left us.” Now whether it was an unicorne or a fibbe made by that wild man, that I cannot tell, but several others tould me the same, who have seene severall times the same beast so that I firmely believe it. So his story ended which lasted a great while. For having an excellent memory [he] tould me all the circumstances of his rencounters*. ¶We [went] from thence the next morning. We came to a beatifull river wide one leaugue and a halfe which was not violent nor deepe112 soe that we made no carriages* for 15 or 20 leaugues where we had the view of eagles, and other birds takeing fishes, which we ourselves have done and killed salmons with staves. One of my compagnions lanced a sturgeon six fadoms deepe and brought it. Going along the wood side we came where a greate many trees weare cutt, as it weare intended for a fort. At the end of it there was a tree left standing but the rind* taken away from it, upon it there was painted with a coale six men hanged with their heads at their feete, cutt off. They weare so well /45/ drawen that the one of them was [a] father by the shortnesse of his haire, which lett us know that the French that was before us weare executed. A litle further an other was painted of two boats, on[e] of three men, an other of two wherof one was standing with a hattchett in his hands striking on the head. Att another weare presented seaven boats pursueing 3 bears, a man drawen as if he weare on land with his gune shooting a stagge.113 I considering those things troubled me very much, yea caused my heart to tremble within me and moreover, when those that weare with me certified me of what I was too sure, telling me the six French men weare dead, but tould me to be cheerfull, that I should not die. After I found so much treachery in them I could but trust litle in their words or promises. Yett must shew good countenance to a wors[e] game then I had a minde, telling [them] the contrary of what they told me of the death of the French men, to shew them that I was in no feare. Being embarqued, the wild men tould me we should goe on the other side of that broad river. It was extreamly hott, no wind stirring. I was ready that both should be together for the better assurance of my life. I perceived well that he alone was not able to performe the voyage, there was the other sick of the other boat, that did row but very slowly. I thought to me selfe, they must needs 112 They are still on the St Lawrence, so this must mean “a beautiful stretch of the river.” 113 Radisson later finds out who drew the images (190). For Iroquois hieroglyphic painting, see Lafitau, Customs 2: 36–7 and his Plate III.

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bring me into their countrey, if they meet non[e] by the way: and so I comforted me self with better hope. We soone came to the other side of the river. The other boat followed not, being nigh the land. My comrade perceived an eagle on a tree, the feathers of which are in esteeme among them. He lands and takes his gunne, charges it, and goes into the wood. I was in feare without blame, for I knewed not what he meant. I remembered how the poor Hurron was served so a litle before on his boat, and in like maner. As he went about I could not imagine what was best, but resolved to kill [rather] then to be killed. Upon this I take my gunne, which the other saw, desires me not to make any noise, shewing me the eagle that as yett I have not seene. To obey him I stoops downe like a monkey visiting my weapon that he should not suspect. My eyes never the lesse followed [him] for feare. I see at last the truth of his designe. He shoots and kills the eagle. After [we] imbarqued our selves, the night drawing on, and [we] must think to goe to the other boat or he to us, which he did. I admired*, the weather cleare and calme that we could scarce see him yet that we should heare them speake, and understand, as if they weare but twenty or thirty paces from us. He being come, we sought for conveniency to make cottage, which soone was done. The others sooner landed then we; they came to receive us att our landing. One tooke my gunne the other a litle bondle of mine; I was surprised at this. Then they asked me [for] my powder and shott, and opened my baigge; began to partage my combs and other things that I had. I thought it the consultest114 way to submitt to the strongest party, therefore I tooke notice of what they did. The woman kindled the fire. Seeing my selfe out of care of my fright [I] sett me downe by the woman. Shee looked now and then uppon me, which made me more and more mistrust. In the meane while he that was sick calls me. I came and asked him what he /46/ pleased. I will sayd he, that you imbarque your selfe by me and throws his cappet115 away biding me also to leave my capot. He takes his hattchet, and hangs it to his wrest goes into the boat, and I with him. I would have carryed my gunne. I tooke it from the place where they layd it. They seeing, laughed, and gave a shout, as many beasts. Yett it was not in their power to make me goe to the boat without my weapon so [they] lett me have it, and went straight as if we weare to goe on the other sid of the river. About the midle the wild man bids mee goe out, to which I would not consent. I bid him goe. After we disputed a while, I not obeying began to consider if he had a minde to drowne me that he himself would not go in the water. Being come a litle better to my 114 consultive, meaning deliberative, is found in the period. In the case of consultest Radisson probably had the French conseillier (to advise, recommend) in mind. 115 Cappet or capot: a long coat with a hood.

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selfe I perceived that the water was not two foote deep; it was so darke, yett one might perceive the bottom covered with muskles. Having so much experience,116 I desired him to have patience, so gott of my shirt and lept into the watter, and gathered about half a bushell of those shells or mussells. I made sure that the boat should not leave me for I fastened my girdle to it, and held the end. Mistrust is the mother of safty. We came back againe. We found the kettle ready. They give me meat and a dish of broth which exercised me a while. Having done, the man comes, and makes me pull of my shirt. Having then nothing but my drawe[r]s to cover my nackednesse he putts on my shirt on his back, takes a knif and cutts a medail that hung to my necke. He was a great while searching me, and feeling if I was fatt. I wished him farr enough. I looked [for] an opportunity to be from him, thinking to be better sheltered by the woman. I thought every foot117 he was to cutt my t[h]roat. I could feare,118 I had rather dye once then being so often tormented. I rose and satt me downe by the woman, in whome was all my trust. Shee perceived I was in great feare, whether by collor of face or other, I know not. Shee putts her hands uppon my head, and combs it downe with her fingers. My son, says shee, be chearfull it is my husband, he will not hurt thee. He loves me, and knoweth that I love thee, and have a mind to have thee to our dwelling. Then shee rose and takes my shirt from her husband, and brings it me. Shee gave me one of her covers*, sleep, said shee. I  wanted not many persuations, so chuse rather the fatal blow sleeping then awake, for I thought never to escape. The next morning I finding me selfe freed which made me hope for the future. I have reason to remember that day for two contrary things, first for my spirits being very much perplexed and the other for that the weather was contrary thoug very lowly.119 That morning they rendred all my things againe, and filled my bagge with victualls. We left this place which feared me most then hurt was done.120 Some laughed att me afterwards for the feare wherin I was which I more and more hoped for better intertainment. The way was faire /47/ all that day, but the next wee must make a waynage121 which [was] not very hard. But my comrade drew carelesly, and the boat slipps 116 Having recognized they were mussels. 117 Radisson uses this phrase several times; it seems to be a slang intensifier. 118 Problematic; the reading is clearly “feare”; thus possibly, “I feared it would be better to die once.” 119 With a low overcast. 120 Where I was more fearful than hurt. 121 waynage: “Gainage, or Wainage, a Word anciently us’d to signify all Plough-tackle, and necessary Implements of Husbandry,” a definition of 1706 (OED). Radisson evidently means pulling the canoe along with a rope (tackle); elsewhere he uses “trainage.”*

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from his hands which turned with such force that it had me along if I had not lett my hould goe, chusing that then venter my self in danger, so that it [no] sooner gott downe that we gott it up againe. But by fortune [it] was not hurted, yett it runned aground among rocks. We must goe downe the river. I was driven to swime to it, where I found it full of watter and a hole that two fists might goe through it, so that I could not drive it to land without mending it. My compagnion must also in the water like a watter dogg, comes and takes hould of the fowre oares. All the wild men swims like watter doggs, not as we swime.122 We mende the boat there neatly, not without miscalling one an other. They spoake to me a word that I understood not because of the difference between the low Iroquoits and their speech, and in the anger and heat we layde the blame uppon one an other to have lett the boat slippe purposly. I took no heed of what he alleadged. He comes sudainely uppon me, and there cuffed on[e] an other untill we weare all in bloode. Being weary att last out of breath, we gave over like two cocks overtyred with fighting. We could not fight longer but must find strenght to draw up the boat against the streame and overtake the other which was a good way from us. It was impossible to overtake that day nor the next; so that we must lay three nights by our selves. The third day we arrived to a vast place full of isl[e]s, which are called the Isles of Toniata123 where we overtooke our compagnions who stayd for us. There they killd a great bigg and fatt beare. We tooke some of it into our boate and went on our journey together. We came thence to a place like a bazon made out of an isle like a half moone.124 Heere we caught eals five fadoms or more deep in the watter, seeing clearly the bottome in abundance of fishes. We finde there nine low country Iroquoits in their cabbans that came backe from the warre that was against the nation of the catts.125 They had with them two women with a younger of twenty five years, and a girle of six years all prisoners. They 122 According to the authority on Renaissance sport, John McClelland, Everard Digby, in his De arte natandi (1587), describes a number of different strokes, including “to swim like a dog.” The stroke he prefers, however, is “to swim upon his side.” It is likely that Radisson had the sidestroke in mind, as being more sophisticated than the (to Digby) rudimentary dog-paddle. (John McClelland, personal communication, 20 December 2005.) 123 The Thousand Islands. The village of Toniata is believed to have been on Grenadier Island. 124 The basin between Grindstone and Wellesley islands is a crescent-shaped formation known today as Eel Bay. 125 The Eries (Erielhonan), an Iroquoian-speaking nation living south and east along the Lake Erie shore, and whom Radisson encountered on the raiding party in Voyage I.

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had a head with short haire of one of that nation, that uses* to have their hair turned up like the prickles of an headghogge. We cottaged ourselves by them. Some of them knewed me, and made much of mee. They gave me a guirland of porcelaine* and a girdle of goats haire. They asked when should I visit my friends.126 I promised to come there as soone as I could arrive att the upper village. I gave them my hattchett to give to my father and two dozen of brasse rings, and t[w]o shooting knifes127 for my sisters, promissing to bring a cover* for my mother. They inquired what was it that made me goe away and how? I tould them [I went] through woods, and arrived att the Three Rivers in twelfe dayes, and that I souffred much hunger by the way. I would not tell them that I escaped by reason of the Du[t]ch. They called me often devill to have undertaken such a task. I resolved to goe along with them.128 /48/ Heere I found certainty and not till then129 of the six French men, whome they have seene seaven dayes before att the coming in of the great lake Dontorio130 and that undoubtedly the markes we have seene on the trees weare done by seaven other boats of their owne nation that came backe from the warrs in the north that mett two Hurron boats of eight men, who fought and kill’d three Iroquoits and wounded others. Of the Hurrons six weare slained one taken a live and the other escaped. Those two boats weare goeing to the French to live there. That news satisfied much my wild men, and much more I rejoiced at this. We stayed with them the next day feasting one another. They cutt and burned the fingers of those miserable wretches, makeing them sing while they plucked out some of their nailes, which done wee parted well satisfied for our meeting. From that place we came to lye att the mouth of a lake in an island131 where we have had some tokens of our Frenchmen, by the impression of their shooes on the sand that was in the said island. In that island our wild men hid t[w]o caskes of indian corne, which did us a kindnesse, for there was no more venison 126 That is, the Mohawk with whom he lived in Voyage I. 127 Possibly the “bayonette,” which had recently emerged as a useful weapon to attach to slow-firing muskets. Another possibility is a “jambette,” a “couteau pliant” or claspknife; Father Le Jeune made sure the missionaries carried some (JR 16: 119–21) and Father Marquette gave them as presents to Natives he encountered (JR 59: 177). 128 As the following passage makes clear: to travel with them briefly, picking up news to bring back to his companions. 129 It was only then that I found out for sure. 130 At the entry to Lake Ontario. 131 Radisson has returned to the party heading for Onondaga; the island may be Wolfe Island near today’s Kingston, Ontario.

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pye to be gotten.132 The next day we make up our bundles in readinesse to wander uppon that sweet sea,133 as is the saying of the Iroquoits who reckens by their dayes journey.134 This was above a hundred leaugues in lenght and thirty in brea[d]th. Seeing the water so calme and faire we ventured som three leaugues, to gain a point of the firme land, that by that means we should shorten seaven or eight leaugues in our way. We went on along the lake in that maner with great delight, some times with paine and labor as we went along the water side. The weather very faire, it comes in my minde to put out a cover* instead of a saile.135 My companion liked it very well, for generally wild men are given to leasinesse. We seeing that our sayle made us goe faster then the other boat, not perceiving that the wind came from the land, which carried us far in the lake, our compagnions made a signe having more experience then wee, and judged of the weather that was to come. We would not heare them thinking to have an advantage. Soone after the wind began to blow harder [and] made us soone strike sayle, and putt our armes to worke.136 We feeled nott the wind because it was in our backs. But turning aside we find that we had enough to doe. We must gett ourselves to a better element then that we weare. Instantly comes a sho[w]re of raine with a storme of winde that was able to perish us, by reason of the great quantity of watter that came into our boat. The lake began to vapor and make a show of his Neptun’s sheepes.137 Seeing we went backwards rather then forwards we thought our selves uterly lost. That rogue that was with me sayd, “see thy god that thou sayest he is above, will you make me believe now that he is good, as the black coats say” (the father Jesuits). “They doe lie, and you see the contrary. /49/ For first you see that the sun burns us often, the raine wetts us, the wind makes us have shipwrakes, the thundering the lightnings, burns and kills, and all come from above. And you say that it’s good to be there. For my part I will not goe there. Contrary they say that the reprobats and 132 There was no more fresh meat, so they were glad to have the corn. Radisson’s phrasing sounds like a proverb or saying, but in fact Thomas Gorst speaks of feasting on venison pasties at the Bottom of the Bay in 1670 (Gorst, extracts from his journal, LMA, CLC/495/MS01757, f.35v), and see Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness, 289. 133 sweet sea: a body of fresh water, in this case Lake Ontario. 134 Thus the manuscript, but in view of the way the sentence concludes, something may be left out, for example: “to wander thus and so many leagues on that sweet sea.” 135 To put up a blanket as a sail. 136 They have taken an unwise short cut across open water, possibly between Cape Vincent and Stony Point on the south shore of Lake Ontario. 137 Waves breaking into foam, or “white horses.”

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guilty goeth downe and burne. They are mistaken, all is good heare. Doe not you see this earth that nourishes all living creatures, the water the fishes, and they us, and that corne and all other seasonable fruits for our food? Which things are not soe contrary to us as that from above.” As he said soe he [dis] coursed vehemently after his owne maner. He tooke his instruments138 and shewed them to the heavens, saying “I will not be above. Here [I] will stay on earth where all my friends are, and not with the French that are to be burned above139 with torments.” How should one think to escape this torments and stormes, but God who through his tender mercy easd the tempest140 and gave us strenght to row, till we came to the side of the water. I may call it a mighty storme by reason of the litlenesse of the boat, that are all in watter to the breath of five fingers or lesse. I thought uppon it, and out of distresse made a venture to seeke the means to save our selves. We tyed a sack full of corne in the fore end of our boat and threw it into the water, which hung downe some fowr fathoms and wee putt ourselves in the other end, so that the end that was towards the wind was higher then the other, and by that means escaped the waves, that with out doubt if we had not used that means we had sunkd.141 The other boat landed to lett that storme [blow] over. We found them in the even[ing] att there cottage, and [they] thought impossible for us to escape. After severall dayes travele we came to an isle where wee made cottage.142 We went so farre that evening that we might be so much the nearer to take a broader passage which should shorten our voyage above twenty leaugues.143 Att night wee saw severall fires uppon the land. We all judged that it was our company that went before us. Before brake of day we did what we could to overtake them, not without hazard, by reason the wind that blewed hard, which we could not percieve before being come to the bay of the isle. We could not turne back without greater danger, so resolved to proceede. We came to the 138 Possibly his arms, spear, etc. 139 More correctly: below, in hell. 140 Matt. 8: 23–27. On the few occasions Radisson echoes the Bible, it is apparently just that, an echo of something he has heard rather than read. 141 A neat bit of seamanship; the sack of corn functioned as a sea anchor, holding one end high and towards the wind so as to prevent the canoe from shipping water (Douglas Creelman, personal communication, 1 August 2006). 142 Possibly Stony Island. 143 They must have hoped to cross Mexico Bay (Baie de La Famine) between Stony Point and Lycoming.

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very place where we saw the fires, and found that we weare not mistaken in our opinions. By good looke* they weare there else we had perished for all being so neare the land. For the lake swelled by reason of the great wind that blew which stayed them there above forteen night. Neither for this reason was there any landing because of a great banck or heape of rock, untill those that weare ashore came to us into the watter to their oxtars,144 and stoped our boats. We then cast ourselves and all that we had over board, leaving our boats there which weare immediatly in thousand peeces. Being arrived, we placed our cottage by a most pleasant delicat river, where for delightfullnesse was what mans heart could wish.145 There weare woods, forests, medows. There we stayed 3 dayes by reason of the weather. One night I layd neare a faire comly lasse that was with us. There they take no notice, for they have in so great liberty that they /50/ are never gealous one of another. I admired* of a sudaine to heare new musick. Shee was in travell146 and immediatly delivered. I waked all astonished to see her drying her child by the fire side. Having done [she] lapt the child in her bosome and went to bed as if it had ben nothing, without moan or cry as doe our European women. Before we left the place that babe died. I had great mind to baptize him but feared least they should accuse me to be the cause of his death.147 Being come to the above named place,148 where weare the ghostly fathers with eight other French, three came to meet us from the fort which weare but thirty leaugues of[f] where I have received a censure for being so timidous, not dareing to fling watter on the head of that poore innocent to make him happy. We French men began to tell our adventures, haveing ben out of hopes of ever to see one another being exceeding glad that we weare deceived in our opinions. Some [of the Iroquois] leaves us and went by land to their cabbans. The rest stayes for faire weather, to come to our journeys ende. We wanted not slaves from that place to carry our packs. We came into a river towards the fort 144 oxtars: armpits. 145 Either the Rivière de la Grande-Famine (today Sage Creek) or the Rivière de la PetitFamine (today Butterhill Creek). 146 travail: childbirth. 147 The Jesuits made a point of baptizing Native converts on the very point of death, sometimes secretly. As Radisson relates below, when he reached the mission the Jesuits admonished him for failing to baptize the infant. For Radisson’s religious position, see Introduction. 148 This is retrospective: “when we eventually came to the fort thirty leagues away, I was reproved.”

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Fig. 6: Remains of Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha, sketched in 1797.

which was dangerous for its swiftnesse.149 From that river that brought us within 30 leaugues of the lake we came into a narrower river from a small lake where a French fort150 was built. This river was two leaug’s long and the lake five in compasse, about it a most pleasant country very fruitfull. Goeing up that same river, we meet two French that weare fishing a kind of fish call’d dab151 which is excellent and have done us great kindnesse having left us no more provision than what we needed much.152 Having come to the landing place att the foot of the fort,153 we found there a most faire castle very neatly built two great 149 The Oswego River, which was swift-flowing before the canalization of the early nineteenth century. 150 The Onondaga River, flowing into Lake Onondaga. 151 A common name for any small flat fish (OED); the dab itself (limanda limanda) is native to northern Europe. 152 Having left us barely the provision we needed. 153 That is, at the French mission on the northeast shore of Lake Onondaga, Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha. Remnants of the fort were once found under the village of Liverpool, a suburb of the city of Syracuse, New York. See Fig. 6.

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and two small ones.154 The bottome was built with great trees, and well tyed in the topp with twiggs of ashure;155 strengthened with two strong walles, and two bastions which made the fort ippregnable of the wild men. There was also a fine fall156 of woods about it. The French corne growed there exceeding well, where was as much as covered half a league of land. The country smooth like a board a matter of some three or four leaugues about. Severall fields of all sids of indian corne, citrull*, of french tournaps, full of chesnutts, and oakes of accornes with thousand such like fruit in abundance. A great company of hoggs so fatt that they weare not able to goe,157 a plenty of all sorts of fowles. The ringdowes158 in such a number that in a nett fifteen or sixteen hundred att once might be taken, so this was not a wild country to our imagination, but plentifull in every thing. We weare humanely received by the reverend fathers Jesuits, and some other forty French men, as well domestiques as voluntiers. We prepared ourselves to take the countrys recreation, some to hunt some to fish, but prevented by a feavor that seised on us all. Some continued a month, some more, and some lesse, which is the tribut that one must pay /51/ for changement of climat. Some dayes after we had news that another company of Iroquoits weare arrived att Mont Royall as soone we went from thence. The father159 and the rest of the French that did stay behind did embark themselves with them, and followed us so close that ere long would be at us. As they went up to make cottage in the island of the masacre160 which was 16 dayes before our departure one of the company goes to shute for his pleasur [and] finds a woman half starved for hunger, lying on a rock by a water. He brings her to the cottage, and made so much by giving her some luck warme 154 castle: not in OED with this meaning but used by the English to refer to Iroquois villages, and sometimes to the forts within them, in this case one with two great towers and two small ones. See Fenton, The Great Law and the Longhouse (1998), 271 and passim. 155 ashure: not found in OED or French dictionaries of the period. However, ash was both strong and elastic, so ash twigs are likely what is meant. Green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) is found widely near lakes and rivers across a wide swatch of eastern and central North America. 156 A wooded slope. 157 Unable to move about. 158 The ringdove (Streptopelia risoria) is a domesticated species, but Radisson was describing a wild bird. 159 Father François Du Peron. 160 Cornwall Island.

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water which he boyled with flower and grease, that shee came to herself entierly againe. Shee was examined. Shee tould them what is abovesaid and when it happened. Shee hid her selfe in a rotten tree during the slaughter, where shee remained three dayes. After we weare gone shee came foorth for to gett some foode, and founde nothing but founde only some small grapes of roots the three first dayes, and nothing else. Shee finding her self feeble and weake [and] not able to sustaine such resolved for death. The father knowing her to be a Christian, had a singular care for her, and brought her where I overtooke the said father with the eight French. Being brought [she] was fraighten’d againe for seeing a man charging his gunne to kill her, as she said, so went away that night and non[e] knowes what became of her. Being weake not thoroughly heald shee fancied that such a thing might be done. By this, we poore, many have recovred.161 The father arrives that affirmes this news to us, being very sorry for the losse of this poor creature that God had so long preserved without any subsistance, which shews us apparently that we ought not to despaire, and that keeps those that lives in his feare. We went to meete the father, I mean those that weare able, to bid the father welcome and his company. Being come safe and in a good disposition together, we rendered God thanks. There weare many that waited for us, desiering to tourne back againe to Quebuc, obtaining their desier from the fathers, and the Governor of the fort,162 they weare thirteen in number and one father. After six weeks end we recoverd our health. So we went to bring them a part of the way, some to the water side, some to the lake ende where we tooke of one an other farwell, with such seramonys as are used when friends depart. Some dayes after we heare that the poor woman was in the woods, not that she knew’d which way to tourn, but did follow her owne fancy whersoever it lead her, and so wandered six dayes, getting some times for her substance wild garlick yong buds of trees, and roots. Shee was seene in an evening by a river wherby shee was for three dayes by three Hurrons renegades. They tooke her but in a sad* condition. They not considering that she was of their owne nation, stript her. It is the custom to strip whomsoever is lost in woods.163 They brought her to the village, where the father was that brought her from the place of murdering, to that place whence shee runned away the second time. This father knowing her brings her to our fort, that we might see her as a thing in161 By this time many of us who were feeling poorly from the fever had recovered. 162 The governor of the fort was the military officer Zacharie Dupuy, leader of the French contingent and commandant at Onondaga. For the soldiers who were planning to desert, see Ragueneau, in JR 44: 159. 163 As Radisson was stripped when he was captured in Voyage I.

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credible, but by the mercy of God.164 I was in the village with the father and with another /52/ Frenchman, where we see the cruellest thing in nature acted. Those Iroquoits that came a long the river with us some weare about fishing some a hunting they seeing this woman makes her slave. One day a man of theirs was forewarned for his insolency for not referring to the Governor doing all out of his owne head.165 Himselfe was to come that day, leading two women with their two children, he not intending to give an account of any thing but by his owne authority. The elders heering this goes and meets him some 50 paces out of the village for to maintaine their rights. They asked this man what weare those beasts, he answered they weare his. He no sooner had spoaken, but one old man spoak to him thus, “Nephew you must know that all slaves as well men as women, are first brought before the councell and we alone can dispose them.” So said, and turned to the other side, and gave a signe to some souldiers that they brought for that purpos to knock those beasts in the head, who executed their office and murdered the women. One tooke the child, sett foot on his head taking his leggs in his hands, wrought the head by often turning from of the body. An other souldier tooke the other child from his mothers brest, that was not yett quiet dead, by the feete and knocks his head against the trunck of a tree. This a dayly exercise with them, nor I can tell the one halfe of their cruelties in like sorte. Those with many others weare executed, some for not being able to serve, and the children for hindering their mothers to worke, so they reckne [it] a trouble to lett them live. (O wicked and barbarous inhumanity). I forgott to tell that the day the woman layed in, some howres before shee and I roasted some indian corne in the fire. Being ready shee pulled out the graines one by one with a stick, and as shee was so doing, she made a horrid outcry shewing me a toad, which was in the brea[d]th of a dish, which was in the midle of the read ashes, striving to gett out. We wondered for the like was never seene before. After he gott out of the fire we threwed stoanes and staves att him till it was killd. That toad lived two dayes in or under the fire. Having remained in that village six dayes,166 we have seen horrible cruelties committed. Three of us resolved to turne back to our fort which was five milles of. We brought above a hundred women, Hurron slaves and others all loadened with corne. We weare allwayes in scarcity for pollicy though we had 164 That she still lived was incredible, unless it was by God’s mercy. 165 Acting independently of both the governor and the Native council. 166 Radisson’s narrative is very unclear; he appears to have taken a side trip of about eight kilometres from Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha, but also talks about events that took place earlier in the journey.

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enough,167 for certainty is farre better than the in certainty. Before we departed this base place we recieved [news] that the Hurron, who was saved by the consent of the rest in the ile of masacre,168 as is above said, two dayes after his deliverance rund away by night towards the lower country of the Iroquoits where he arrived safe, not without suffrings in the way. For such /53/ long voyages cannot be performed otherwise, having gon through vast forests, finding no inn in the way, neither having the least provision. Att his coming there he spoak whatsovere the reveng, the wrath and indignation could provoke or utter against the French, especialy against the fathers, saying that it was they that have sold and betrayd them; and that he would bestow the same uppon them, if ever he should meet with them. As for him he gave heaven thanks that he was yett living, that he had his life saved by them to whome he would render like service; warning them not to lett the French build a fort as the upper Iroquoits had done, that he could tell them of it by experience. That they should remember the nation of the stagges so bigg.169 As soone as the French came there, nothing but death and slaughter was exspected having caused their death by sorcery which brought a strange sicknesse among them.170 Such things can prevaile much uppon such a wild credulous nation, their minds altogether for the warrs in which they delight most of any thing in the world. We came our way.171 This news troubled us very much, knowing the litle fidelity that is [in] that wild nation, that have neither faith nor religion, neither law nor absolut goverment172 as we shall heare the effects of it. The autumne scarce began but we heare that the lower Iroquoits contrived a treason against the French. So having contrived and discovered that they weare resolved to leavy an armie of five hundred men of their owne nation, who are esteemed the best souldiers having the Anoiot173 to assist them, a bold rash nation, and so thought to surprise the inhabitants of that place as they weare 167 Our policy was to conserve provisions deliberately; thus, food was scarce, though sufficient for our needs. 168 The massacre on Cornwall Island. 169 The people of the deer, the Tahontaenrat; see Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 30. 170 The increasing suspicion that the epidemics befalling the Native population were caused by the sorcery of the Black Robes. The Jesuits unwittingly aggravated this impression by cautiously baptizing people already at the point of death. 171 We came away. 172 absolut: fully organized government (OED “absolute” A.10, obsolete or rare); Louis XIV’s policy of an all-powerful monarchy exercising “absolute” government was just beginning to develop at this date. 173 The Oneiochronnon, called Onneiout in French, Oneida in English.

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contriving, and consequently seas’d upon the fort and towne thinking to execute their plott with ease, because of their assurance, trusting (if contrary to their contrivance) to the peace; saying that the French weare as many hoggs layed up to be fatted in their country. But o liberality what strenght hast thou? Thou art the onely means, whereby men know all, and pierce the hearts of the most wild and barbarous people of the world. Hearing such news we make friends by store of guifts, yea such guifts that weare able to betray their country.174 What is that, that interrest* will not doe? We discover dayly new contryvances of treason by a councellor. There is nothing done or said but we have advice of it. Their dayly exercise is feasting of warrs songs, throwing of hattchetts, breaking kettles.175 What can we doe? We are in their hands. Its hard to gett away from them. Yea as much as a ship in full sea without pilot, as passengers without skill.176 We must resolve to be uppon guard being in the midle of our ennemy. For this purpose we begin to make provisions for the future end. We are tould that a company of the Aniot nation volontiers was already in their march, to breake heads, and so declare open warres. This company finds enough to doe at Mount Royal, for the French being carlesse of themselves, working incomparably afarre from their fortifications without the least apprehention, they killd two French, and brought them away in triumph; their heads sett up for a signe of warrs.177 We seeing no other remedy but must be /54/ gone and leave a delightfull country. The onely thing that we wanted most was that wee had no boats to carry our bagage. It’s sad to tend from such a place that is compassed with those great lakes, that composes that Empire, that can be named the greatest part of the knowne world. Att last they contrived some deale* boords to make shipps with large bottoms, which was the cause of our destruction sooner then was exspected. You have heard abovesaid how the fathers inhabited the Hurron country to instruct them in Christian doctrine. They preach the mighty power of the Almighty, who had drowned the world for to punish the wicked, saving onely our father Nöe with his familie was saved in an arke. One came bringing indian corne, named Jaluck, who escaped the ship wrake that his countrymen had 174 175 176 177

Gifts that were large enough to make them betray their country. The ritual signs of approaching war. Another of Radisson’s “sayings.” See Voyage I, where scalps or heads are also set up as “colours” (134). According to Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués, 135), Radisson was referring to the murder of Nicolas Godé, his son-in-law Jean de Saint-Père, and their servant Jacques Noel in October 1657, and the taking of two heads.

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[under]gone. Being slave among us, he received such instructions of those deale* boords, and reflected soundly upon the structure, that he thought verily they weare to make an other arke to escape their hands, and by our inventions cause all the rest to be drowned by a second deluge. They imputing so much power to us, as Noe had that grace from God, thought that God at least, commanded us so to doe. All frighted [he] runns to his village. This [man] comes back, makes them all afraid, each talkes of it. The elders gathered together to consult what was to be done. In their councell [it] was concluded, that our fort should be visited, that our fathers should be examined and according to their answers deliberation should be taken, to preserve both their lif[e] and countrey. We had allwayes spyes of our side which weare out of zele and obedience. The fathers Jesuits and others volontarily ventered their lives for the preservation of the common liberty. They remaine in the village of those barbars to spie what their intent should be, houlding correspondence with some of those of the councell, by giving them guifts, to the end that we might know what was concluded in the councell and give us advise with all speede. We by these means had intelligence that they weare to come and visit our forts. To take away all suspicion of our178 innocency from thinking to build any shipp, which if it had come to their knowledge had don a great prejudice to our former designe. A shippe then uppon the dock [was] almost finished. Heere we made a double floore in the hall, where the shipe was abuilding, so that the wild men being ignorant of our way of building could not take any notice of our cuningnesse, which proved to our desire.179 So done finding nothing that was reported, all began to be quiet, and out of feare. By this we weare warned from thence fowrth, mistrusting all that came there, so preserved our selves puting nothing in sight that should give the least suspition. Both shipps weare accomplished. We kept them secretly, and covered them with 12 boats of rind180 that we kept for fishing and hunting. The wild men knowed of these small things but suspected nothing believing that  the French would never suscept181 to venter such a voyage for the difficultie of the way, and violence of the swiftnesse of the rivers, and lenght /55/ of the way. We stayed for opportunity in some quietnesse, devising to contrive our game as soone as the spring should begin. The winter we past not without apprehentions, having had severall allarmes false as true, for often weare we putt to our armes in so much that one of our sentryes was drawen once by force from the doore of the fort. He to avoid the danger drawes his sword, and wounds one 178 179 180 181

Followed by one word struck out, “dishonesty.” Which was what we desired. Bark canoes, which the Iroquois made of elm-bark. Possibly from susception (obsolete): to accept or undertake.

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of them, and comes to the fort crying “to your armes.” This was soone appeased, some guifts healed the wound. The season drawing nigh,182 we must think of some stratageme to escape their hands, and the rest of ours that weare among them which was a difficulty because they would have some of us by them all ways for the better assurance. But all their contrivances and wit weare too weake, to strive against our plotts which weare already invented to their deceipt, that would deceave us. We lett them understand that the time drew neere, that the French uses* to trait their friends in feasting and meriment183 and all should be welcome, having no greater friends then they wear. They to see our fashions as well as to fill their gutts gave consent. By that means the considerablest persons are invited [that is], the father and two French. These they weare made much of two days with great joy, with sounds of trompetts drumms and flageoletts, with songs in French as wild. So done, they are sent a way, the father with them. He was not a mile of but fains to get a falle and sighed that his arme was broaken.184 The wild [men] being much troubled at this accident brings the father back, and makes guifts that he may be cured. A plaster was sett to his arme, which done [he was] put into a bed; then all the wild men came to see him. He incouraged them, that he should soone recover, and see them. The French that knewed not the plott, cryed for the father, which confirmed the beliefe of the wild men. They all retyred to their village, and wee [prepared] the meanes to embarke ourselves. We resolved once more to make another feast when we should have every thing ready for our purpose. That is when the father should be well of his fayned sicknesse. For they also doe delight in feasting which was to be done for the saf[e] recovery of the fathers health. We dayly had messengers from the elders of the country to know how he did, who (after the lake was opened from the ice that was covered with ice) should be in good disposition. Many wished to have the sune shine ardently, their desire was so great to be gon. Att last our patient begins to walk with a scharfe about his arme. When the shipps and boats were ready, we then sent word that the father was well, and for joy would make a feast. The elders are invited. They weare sure not to faile, but to be first. Being come there are speeches made to incourage those to sing and eat. Its folly to induce them to that for they goe about it more bould then welcome. They are tould that the morrow should be the day of mirth. Heare is  but play and dances, the French by turns to keepe them still in exercise, 182 Spring was on its way. 183 The period of carnival traditionally preceding the austerities of Lent; in 1658 this would have been in the first week of March. 184 The priest’s broken arm is not mentioned in other accounts of the escape, but when Radisson says “the Father” he usually means Ragueneau.

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shewing them tricks to keep them a wake as the bird cacher doth to teach the bird to sing, and not to fly a way, as we then intended. Not one wild man was admitted to come into the fort that day saying, it was not our coustomes to shew the splendor of our banquetts before they should /56/ be presented at table. The wild men have no other then the ground for their table. In the mean time we weare not idle, the impatient father exercising himselfe as the rest. The evening being come the wild men are brought to the place destinated, not far from our forte. Every one makes his bundle of provisions and marchandises and houshold stuff, gunns etc. some hid in the ground, and the rest scatter’d because we could not save them. We made excellent bisquetts of the last years corne and forgott not the hoggs that weare afat[e]ning. Att last the trumpetts blowes, putt yourselves in order. There is nothing but outcryes, clapping of hands and capering that they may have better stomach to their meat. There comes a dozen of great kettles full of beaten indian corne dressed with mince meate. The wisest begins his speech giving heaven thanks to have brought such generous French to honnor them so. They eate as many wolves, having eyes bigger then bellies. They are rare at it without noise.185 The time was not yett com’d to acknowledge the happinesse we received from such incomparable hosts. Here comes two great kettles full of bustards broyled and salted before the winter, with as many kettles full of ducks, as many turtles was taken in the season by the nett. Heere att this nothing but hooping to a mans admiration*, whilst one was a-eating, and other sort comes as divers of fish, eels, salmon and carps which gives them a new stomach, weare they to burst heere they will show their courage. The time comes on. The best is that we are sure non[e] will forsake his place nor man nor woman. A number of French entertaines them keeping them from sleepe in danceing and singing, for that is the custome.186 Their lutrill187 an instrumental musick is much heere in use. Yeat 185 This is the Aboriginal custom of the “eat-all” feast; Radisson describes several of them over his career. 186 Ragueneau (JR 44:177). As Marie de l’Incarnation tells the story (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre clxxix, 602–3), the plot to hold an “eat-all” feast and then escape was devised by an unnamed young Frenchman formerly adopted by a famous Iroquois, who made sure there was music at the feast. The circumstances suggested to Nute (Caesars of the Wilderness, 55) that this inventive young person might have been Radisson, but he was adopted by a Mohawk, not an Onondaga, and if the exploit had been his, he would surely have said so. Nevertheless, gossip may later have attributed the performance to him; see Introduction. 187 lutrill: not found in this form in either French or English; possibly a scribal error, but certainly indicating a lute or stringed instrument of some sort.

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nothing is done as yett, for there comes the thickened flower, the oyle of bears, venison, to this the knif is not enough, the spunes also are used. We see allready severall postures, the one beats his belly, the other shakes his head, others stopp their mouthes to keep in what they have eaten. They weare in such an admiration* making strange kinds of faces, that turned their eyes up and downe. We bid them cheare up, and tould them it was an usuall custome with the French to make much of themselves and of their friends: They affect188 you and yee must shew such like to them, by shewing your respects to them that they so splendidly trait you. Cheere up, like brave men, if the sleepe overcomes you, you must awake. Come sound drummes, it is not now to beat the gien,189 come make a noise. Trumpet blow and make thy cheeks swell, to make the bellyes swell alsoe. In the end nothing spared that can be invented to the greater confusion. There is a strif[e] between the French who will make the greatest noise. But there is an end to all things. The houre is come for all is embarked. The wild men can hold out no longer, they must sleepe. They cry out, skenon, enough,190 we can beare no more. Lett them cry skenon we will cry /57/ hunnay,191 we are agoeing says we. They are told that the French are weary and will sleep alsoe a while. They say, be it so. We come a way all is quiet. No body makes a noise after such a hurley burly. The fort is shutt up as if we had ben in it. We leave a hogg at the doore for sentry with a rope tyed to his foot. He wanted no meat for the time.192 Here we make a proposition, being three and fifty French in number to make a slaughter without any difficulty, they being but a hundred beasts not able to bu[d]ge and as many women. That done, we could goe to their village at the breake of the day, where we weare sure there were not twenty men left nor yong nor old. It was no great matter to deale with five or six hundred women, and may be a thousand children, besids the huntsmen should not be ready this two months to come home. Having done so we might have a great hole in the skirts of that untoward and pervers nation. That it was in way of revenge because of their disloyalty, breaking the peace and watching an opportunity to doe the like to us. That we should by

188 Probably from Fr. affectionner, to like or become fond of. 189 gien: unknown but clearly meant to contrast with beating the drum; Boisvert (Voyage chez les Onontagués, 137–8) suggests “guitar.” 190 Woodbury, Onondaga-English/English Onondaga Dictionary, 1265, gives “sg´_.n´_?”: peace, peacefulness. 191 “Hunnay” in the manuscript, both in the catchword on p. 56 and on p. 57, but the word is unknown in this form. 192 We left him enough food to last a short time.

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that means have a better opportunity to escape, shewing by this, whosoever intends to betray, betrays himself. The fathers answer was to this, that they weare sent to instruct the people in the faith of Jesus Christ and not to destroy, that the crosse must be their sword. Moreover that they are told that we weare able to keepe the place, having victualls for the space of fowr years, with other provisions. So done, in the mean while some sixteen French should goe downe to the French and tell the news. For the rest they weare able to oppose all the Iroquoits, having such a strong fort and before the time could be expired, some souccor was to be exspected out of France [when] as well as with the helpe of some of the wild men their alleyes [we could] make an assault, and so free our selves of such a slavery and the many miseries wherin we weare dayly to undergoe. That by that means we might save the lives of many French and cleare away from such inhumans. It was in vaine, to think to convert them, but the destroying of them was to convert them [and] so discover nations and countryes and that the French finding some fowrty resolut brothers that would have ventured themselves for liberty and assurance of their lives to preserve them from the cruelest enemy that ever was found uppon earth. All these sayings could prevail nothing uppon people that will avoid all slaughter. So to be obedient to our superiors without noise of trompet or drum but yeat with grief [we] so left that place. We are all embarked, and now must looke for the mouth of the river, and weare put to it, for it frized every night, and the ice of good thicknesse, and consequently dangerous to ventur our boats against it. We must all the way breake the ice with great staves to make a passage. This gave us paines enough. Att the brake of day we weare in sight att the mouth of the river, where we weare free from ice. If those had but the least suspicion and had looked out they had seen us. We soone by all dilligence putt our selves out of that apprehension, and came att the first rising of the river, where freed from ice tenne leaugues from the fort, where we kept a good watch. The day following we came to the Lake d’Ontorio; the wind being boisterous, could goe no further. There we sought for a place to make /58/ cottage which was in an island very advantageous, where we stayed two dayes, for the weather. We weare not without feare, thinking that the wild men should follow us. They contrary wise stayed (as we heard) seaven nights thinking that we weare asleepe; onely that some rose now and then, and rung the litle bell which stook to the hoggs foot. Soonest missing the affaire,193 went and brought news to the village, which

193 He who first missed us.

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made them come and looke over the pallisados, and saw in good earnest, the Anomiacks194 weare gone. In our journey bad weather, high winds, snow, and every day raine on our backs. We came to the river at last, where was difficulty enough, by reason of the going out of the lake which is hard to find, by the many isles that are about the opning of the river.195 We weare in a maner of sheepe scattered. After many crossing to and fro we find ourselves att the first streame. The watters high [we] went on without danger, but the navigation proved worse and wors, because we came into a coulder country;196 and into the most dangerousest precipices. Now the river [was] covered over with ice and snow, which made the river give a terrible noise, the land also cover’d all over with snow, which rendered us incapable of knowledge where we weare and consequently found our selves in great perils. It was well that the river swelled, for not a mothers son of us could else escape. For where we might have made cariages*, we innocently did goe in uppon those torrents. One of our greatest vessells runn’d on sand, and [was] soone full by reason of the running of the streame, but by tournings with much adoe, we gott it out againe, and by all dexterity brought [it] to a harbor which is hard to find in that place. For the ice and the stream continually cutts the coasts steepe downe, and so no landing thereabouts. Heere a boat of fowre men made shipwrack, heere every one for himselfe and God for all, heere is no reliefe. There the three that could swime weare drowned, because they held not the boat, but would swime to land. The other that held it was saved with much adoe. After wards we came where the streame was not suift at all, but as dangerous for its ice. We cutt the ice with hattchetts and we found places where [it] was rotten, so we hazarded our selves often to sinke downe to our necks. We knewed the isle of murder againe because of the woman that run’d away was with us. Shee had reason to know it, though all covered with snow. The fathers some dayes before our departure caused her to come to the fort to deliver her out of the hands of her ennemy, because she was a Christian; in short time after her arrivall at Quebuc, was mary’d, and died in child bed.197

194 Michelson, A Thousand Words of Mohawk, 28, gives the verb root “anot” for “to tell about, interpret”; Anomiacks would then mean “those people we were talking about.” Boisvert, Voyage chez les Onontagués, 144, suggests perhaps “birds,” as in “the birds have flown.” 195 The islands at the east end of Lake Ontario, where they would enter the St Lawrence River. 196 They are moving north up the St Lawrence. 197 The woman’s story is also told by Marie de l’Incarnation, (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre clxxix, 605).

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Six weeks being expired we came to the hight of St. Louis, three leaugues from Montroyal, the first198 habitation of the French. We went [over] all that hight with out making carriages* trusting to the dept[h] of the watter, and passed it by Gods providence that have made us that passage free. For if we had come there the day before we could not possibly passe (by the report of the French) by reason that underneath the water was mighty swift, the river was frozen and covered with ice, and could not have turned back for the streame could bring us against our will under the ice. It was our lott to come after /59/ the ice was melted. The French inquirs who is there with astonishment thinking that it should be the charge of the Iroquoits.199 We thanked God for our deliverance. Heere we had time to rest our selves a while att ease, which was not permitted by the way. About the last of March we ended our great paines and incredible dangers. About fourteen nights after we went downe [to] the Three Rivers where most of us stayed.200 A month after my brother201 and I resolves to travell and see countryes. We find a good opportunity. In our voyage we proceeded three years. Dureing that time we had the happinesse to see very faire countryes. The ende of the second voyage made in the upper country of the Iroquoits.

198 That is, the closest; also the first going upstream. 199 Thinking the Iroquois were attacking. 200 The Journal des jesuites reports for 23 April 1658: “The mission of onontage was broken up. All our fathers, brethren, and frenchmen who were there arrived at quebec, about five o’clock in the evening” (JR 44: 95). 201 This is Radisson’s first direct reference to Des Groseilliers, though earlier (169) he used the pronoun “we” in promising “an exact account of what came to our knowledge dureing our travells, and the land we have discovered since.”

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Voyage III to lake michigan, 1654–56

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/59/ Now followeth the Auxoticiat1 Voyage into the great and filthy* lake of the Hurrons upper sea of the east and Bay of the North2 ¶Being come to the Three Rivers where I found my brother who the yeare before came bake from the lake of the Hurrons, with [an]other French.3 Both weare upon the point of resolution to make a journey a purpose for to discover the great lakes, that they heard the wild men speake off; yea [they] have seene before. For my brother made severall journeys when the fathers lived about the lake of the Hurrons which was upon the border of the sea. So my brother seeing me back from those two dangerous voyages, so much by the cruelties of the barbars as for the difficulties of the wayes; for this reason he thought I was fitter and more faithfull4 for the discovery that he was to make. He plainly told me his minde. I knowing it, longed to see my selfe in a boat. There weare severall companies of wild men exspected from severall places, because they promised the yeare before to take the advantage of the spring (this for to deceive the Iroquoits who are allwayes in wait for to destroy them) and of the rivers, which is by reason of the melting5 of the great snows, which is onely that time. For otherwyse no possibility was to come that way, because

1 The term “Auxoticiat” has been much debated. The name cannot be a casual error, since it is repeated as “Auxotacicac” at the end of Voyage III. Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xliii) follows Gale, suggesting it represents a misreading of “Aux Ottawa” (to the Odawa) but even for Radisson this is grammatically improbable. And in fact both scribes of the Bodleian manuscript copy out Radisson’s Native names with evident care, including Otauack (Odawa) (308). One of them, Nicholas Hayward, was an experienced French translator and would not have produced a linguistic hash like “Auxoticiat.” The problem remains unresolved. 2 the bay of the North: Hudson or more likely James Bay. A journey there forms a problematic section of Voyage IV (286–9). At the end of this voyage (242), Radisson says that he and Des Groseilliers decided not to reveal what they had heard about the Bay of the North. However, they must have had some information of value, since Father Druillettes is known to have interviewed Des Groseilliers when compiling information on routes to the bay after the explorer’s return in 1656; see JR 44: 237 and Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 108. 3 For the 1654–56 trip westward by Des Groseilliers and another, unnamed Frenchman, see JR 42: 219–23 and Introduction. 4 Fitter and more faithful than his former companion. 5 Written over “swelling of the river.”

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for the suift streams that runs in summer; and in other places the want of watter, so that no boat can come through. We soone see the performance of those people. For a company came to the 3 Rivers where we weare. They tould us that another company was arrived att Mount Royal, and that two more weare to come shortly, the one to the Three Rivers the other to Saegne6 a river of Tadousack who arrived within two dayes after. They divided themselves because of the scant of provision, for if they weare together they could not have victualls enough. Many goes and comes to Quebuc for to know the resolution of Monsieur Governor7 who together with the fathers thought fitt to send a company of French,8 to bring backe (if possible) those wild men the next yeare, or others, being that it is the best manna of the countrey by which the inhabitants doe subsist and makes the French vessels to come there and goe back loaden with merchandises for the traffique of ferriers9 /60/ who comes from the remotest part of the north of Amerique. As soone as the resolution was made many undertakes the voyage for where that there is lucre there are people enough to be had. The best and ablest men for that businesse weare chosen: they make them goe up the Three Rivers with the band that came with the Saeqnes,10 then takes those that weare most capable for the purpose. Two fathers11 weare chosen to conduct that company and endeavor to convert some of those foraigners of the remotist country to the Christian faith. We no sooner heard their designe, but saw the effects of the buisinesse, which effected in us much gladnesse, for the pleasur we could doe to one another, and so abler to oppose an ennemy, if by fortune we should meet with any that would doe us hurt, or hinder us in our way. About the midle of June we began to take leave of our company, and venter our lives for the common good. We find two and thirty men, some inhabitants,

6 The Saguenay River. 7 Jean de Lauson, governor from January 1651 to September 1656. 8 This must refer to the aborted journey begun in the fall of 1656 and described in JR 42: 225–33. See Introduction. 9 ferriers: those who ferry or convey, in this case Native middlemen in the trade networks of North America. 10 The Montagnais, from the Saguenay region. 11 Fathers Leonard Garreau and Gabriel Druillettes, accompanied by a brother, Louis de Boësme, and three Frenchmen who were part of the missionary party, in addition to thirty other Frenchmen. Radisson says twenty-nine French in all, and then thirty-one, and a number of Natives (and see JR 42: 225).

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some gailliards12 that desired but [to] doe well. What a fairer bastion then a good tongue especialy when one sees his owne chimney smoak or when we can kise our owne wives, or kisse our neighbors wife with ease and delight. It is a strange thing when victuals are wanting, worke whole nights and days, lye downe on the bare ground, and not allwayes that hap,13 the breech in the water, the feare in the buttocks, to have the belly empty, the wearinesse in the boans, and drowsiness of the body by the bad weather that ye are to suffer, having nothing to keepe ye from such calamity. At last we take our journey to see the issue of a prosperous adventure in such a dangerous entrepris. We resolved not to be the first that should complaine. The French weare together in order, the wild men also, saving my brother and I that weare accustomed to such like voyages [and] have foreseene what happened afterwards. Before our setting forth we made some guifts, and by that means we weare sure of their good will. So that he and I went into the boats of the wild men. We weare nine and twenty French in number, and six wild men. We embarked our traine in the night, because our number should not be known to some spyes that might bee in some ambush to knew our departure for the Iroquoits are allwayes abroad. We weare two nights to gett to Montroyall where eight Octauac stayed for us and two French. If not for that company, we had passed the River of the Meddowes,14 which makes an isle of Mountroyal and joines itselfe to the lake of St. Loüis, three leaugues further then the hight of that name. We stayed no longer there then as the French gott themselves ready. We tooke leave without noise of gun.15 We cannot avoid the ambush of that eagle, which is like the owle that sees better in the night then in the day.16 We weare not sooner come to the first river but our wild men17 sees five sorts of people of divers countrys laden with marchandise and gunns, which served 12 Fr. gaillards: merry fellows, who think exploration is like life at home with one’s wife or mistress. 13 hap: luck. 14 Rivière des Prairies. 15 Without parting ceremony. In fact, according to the Jesuit Relations, there was a cannon salute (JR 42: 225). From this point until Lake Huron is reached, Radisson is describing the traditional fur-trade route west via the Ottawa, Mattawa, and French rivers. For a discussion of the route by an expert canoist, with useful maps, see Morse, Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada, chapter V, “Montrealers’ Mainline: Lachine to Grand Portage.” 16 eagle: the Iroquois. 17 According to the Relation of 1655–56, the party was composed chiefly of Odawa with a few refugee Huron (JR 42: 225, 229).

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them for a show, then for defence if by chance they should be sett on, so that the glorie begins to shew itselfe, no order /61/ being observed among them, the one sings, the other before goes in the postur*. Without bad encounter* we advanced three dayes. There was no need of such a silence among us. Our men composed only of seaven score men,18 we had done well if we had kept together not to goe before in the river nor stay behind some two or three leaugues, some three or fowre boats now and then to land to kill a wild beast.19 And so putt themselves into a danger of their lives. And if there weare any precipice the rest should be impotent to help. We warned them to looke to themselves. They laughed att us saying we weare women, that the Iroquoits durst not sett on them. That pride had such power that they thought themselves masters of the earth. But they will see themselves soone mistaken. How that great God that takes great care of the most wild creatures, and will that every man confesses his faults, and gives them grace to come to obedience for the preservation of their lives sends them a remarquable power and ordnance, which should give terror and retinue20 to those poor misled people from the way of assurance.21 As we wandered in the afforesaid maner all a sunder, there comes a man alone out of the wood with a hattchett in his hand, with his brayer*, and a cover* over his shoulder making signes aloud that we should come to him. The greatest part of that flock shewed a palish face for feare at the sight of this man, knowing him an ennemy, they approached not without feare and apprehension of some plot. By this you may see the boldnesse of these buzards that think themselves heeroes when they see but their shades, and tremble when they see a Iroquoit. That wild man seeing us neerer, setts him down on the ground and throwes his hattchet away, and raises againe all naked to shew that he hath no armes, desires them to approach neerer for he is their friend, and would give

18 There must have been well over a hundred Natives dressed for show (“glorie”) if Radisson’s numbers are remotely accurate. Radisson’s “silence” is typically sardonic. 19 In Voyage IV Radisson writes: “wee had eight boats in number, but weare a great distance one from another as is said in my former voyage, before we could gaine the height of the river” (248). The duplication suggests that he was indeed rearranging material from one voyage to fit into the other, but which was which is unclear. 20 retinue: restraining force; now obsolete but in use in the 1650s. 21 A wandering sentence, but possibly as follows: sends them [the Iroquois] a remarquable power and ordnance [the guns provided by the Dutch], which should give terror and retinue [restraining force] to those poor misled people [the party of Natives dressed for “glorie”] from the way of assurance [as God’s demonstration of His power].

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his life to save theirs. Hee shewed indeed a right captaine22 for saveing of men that runned to their ruine by their indiscretion and want of conduct, and what he did was out of meere piety; seeing well that the[y] wanted wit, to goe so like a company of bucks every one to his fancy where his litle experience leads him: nor thinking [about] that danger wherin they weare: shewing by their march they weare no men, for not fearing.23 As for him he was ready to die to render them service and [render himself] prisoner into their hands freely. “For,” saith he, “I might have escap’d your sight, But that I would have saved you. I feare,” sayth he, “not death,” so with that comes downe into the watter to his midle.24 There comes many boat[s] about him; [they] takes him into one of the boats, tying a coard fast about his body.25 There is he fastened; he begins to sing his fatal song that they call a nouroyall,26 that horrid tone being finished makes a long a very long speech, saying “Breathren today the sunne is favorable to mee; appointed me to tell you that you are witlesse, before I die: neither can they escape their ennemys that are spred up and downe every where that watches all moments their coming to destroy them. Take great courage brethren sleepe not the ennemy is att hand, they wait for you. They are soe neare that they see you, and heare you, and are assure[d] that you are their prey. /62/ Therfor I was willing to die to give you notice. For my part that what I have ben, I am a man and commander in the warrs, and tooke severall prisoners yet I would put me selfe in death’s hands to save your lives; believe me, keepe ye altogether, spend not your powder in vaine thinking to frighten your enemys by the noise of your guns. See if the stoanes of your arrowes be not bent or loose. Bend your bowes. Open your ears, keep your hattchets sharpe to cutt trees to make you a fort, doe not spend soe much greas to greas your selves but keep it for your bellies. Stay not to long in the way, it’s robbery to die with conduct.”27 That poore wreach spoke the truth, and gave good instructions, but the greatest part did 22 Showed himself a real leader. 23 That is, real men are fearful. 24 In the Jesuits’ version of the episode, the party is warned off by two French soldiers dispatched by the governor of Trois-Rivières (at the time, Pierre Boucher); see JR 42: 225–7. 25 For the tying of a captive, see Voyage I. 26 Radisson says below that only the Huron could understand this man, so “nouroyall” is probably his attempt to render the Huron word onnonh8aroria, “death song”; see Steckley, Words of the Huron, 191–4. 27 conduct (obsolete): moving in convoy, thus slowly, and unfortunately making a good target.

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not understand what he said, saving the Hurrons that weare with him, and I that tould them as much as I could perceive.28 Every one laugh’s saying he himselfe is afraid and tells us that story. We call him a dogg, a woman and a henne which will make you know that we weare men, and for his paines we should burne him when we come to our country. Heere you shall see the brutishness of those people that think themselves valliant to the last point. No comparision is to be made with them for vallor. But quite contrary29 they passe away the rest of that day with great exclamations of joy, but it will not last long. That night wee layd in our boats and made not the kettle boyle because we had meat ready dressed. Every boat is tyed up in the rushes, whether out of feare for what the prisoner told them or that the prisoner should escape I know not. They went to sleepe without any wa[t]ch. The French began to wish and moane for that place whence they came from. What will it be if wee heare yeatt cryes and sorrows after all past. The breake of day every one takes his oare to row, the formest oars have great advantage. We heard the torrent rumble30 but could not come to the land that day although not farr from us. Some twelve boats gott afore us; there we are saluted with guns and outcrys. In the meane while one boat runs one way one another, some men lands and runs away, we are all put to it, non knowes where he is, they are put to such a confusion. All those beasts gathers together againe, frighted. Seeing no way to escap, gott themselves all in a heape like unto duks that sees the eagle come to them. That first feare being over a litle, they resolved to land and to make a fort with all speed which was done in lesse then two howres. The most stupidest drowsy are the nimbleste for the hattchett and cutting of trees. The fort being finished every one maketh himself in a readinesse to sustaine the assault if any had tempted.31 The prisoner was brought who soone was dispatched, burned and roasted and eaten. The Iroquoits had so served them as many as they have taken. We mist twenty of our company but some came safe to us, and lost thirteen that weare kille’d and taken in that defeat. The Iroquoite finding himself /63/ weake would not venture and was obliged to leave us least he should be discovered and served as the other, neverthelesse they shewed good countenance, went and builded a fort as we have done where they fortified themselves, and feed on human flesh which they gott in the warrs. They 28 The Huron spoke an Iroquoian tongue; Radisson told the Algonquian-speaking Odawa what he understood. 29 Not like prudent men preparing for war, but making merry. 30 The Long Sault rapids at Lachine, Quebec. 31 Had attempted it.

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weare afraid so much as we, but far from that.32 For the night being come, every one imbarks himselfe to the sound of a low trumpet. By the help of the darknesse we went to the other side leaving our marchandises for our ransome to the ennemy that used us so unkindly. We made some cariages* that night with a world of paines; we mist fowr of our boats so that we must alter our equipages. The wild men complained much that the French could not swime,33 for that they might be together. The French seeing that they weare not able to undergoe such a voyage, they consult together, and for conclusion, resolved to give an end to such labors and dangers, moreover found themselves incapable to follow the wild men who went with all the speed possible night and day for the feare that they weare in. The fathers seeing our weaknesse desired the wild men that they might have one or two to direct them,34 which by no means was granted, but bid as doe as the rest. We35 kept still our resolution, and knowing more tricks than they, would not goe back, which should be but disdainfull and prejudiciall. We told them so plainly that we would finish that voyage or die by the way, beside that the wild men did not complaine of us att all, but incourag’d us. After a long arguing, every one had the liberty to goe backwards, or forwards if any had courage to venter himself with us. Seeing the great difficulties, all [the French] with one consent went back againe; and we went on.36 The wild men weare not sorry for their departure, because of their ignorance in the affaire of such navigation. It’s a great alteration to see one and thirty reduced to two; we encouraged one an other. Both willing to live and die with one another, and the least we could doe being brothers. Before we [came] to the lake of the Hurrons we had crosses enough, but no encounter*.37 We travell’d onely in the night in those dangerous places which could not be done without many vexation[s] and labors. The vanity was some what cooler for the example we have seene the day before.38 The Hungar, was that [which] tormented us most, for him39 we could 32 They were afraid, as we were, but much bolder. 33 Europeans, particularly northerners, generally shunned the water unless they lived near the sea or it was very hot. In the sixteenth century the sport made headway, but only as one of the gentlemanly accomplishments. See also Voyage II (189). 34 To help them paddle; both priests were in fact experienced wilderness travellers. 35 That is, Radisson and Des Groseilliers. 36 If Kellogg (The French Régime in Wisconsin, 106) is correct, this is the point at which Radisson and the other French would have turned back in 1656. 37 Their numerous meetings with Natives along the route to Lake Huron were not battles. 38 The example afforded by the French inability to sustain the journey. 39 for him: because of the Hunger, here personified.

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not goe seeke for some wild beasts. Our chiefest food was onely some few fishes, which the wild men caught by a line maybe two dozens a whole day, no bigger then my hand. Being come to the place of repose, some did goe along the water side on the rocks, and these exposed ourselves to the riguor of the weather. Upon those rocks we find some shells blackish without and the inner part whitish by reason of the heat of the sun, and of the humidity.40 They are in a maner glued to the rock so we must gett another stone to gett them off by scraping them hard. When we thought to have enough [we] went back again to the cottages, where the rest weare getting the litle fishes ready with trip[e]s gutts and all. The kettle was full with the scraping of the rocks /64/ which soone after it boyled became like starch, black and clammie and easily to be s[w]allowed. I think if any bird had lighted upon the excrements of the said stuff, they had stucke to it as if it weare glue. In the fields we have gathered several fruits as goosberyes, black berrys, that in an howre we gathered above a bushell of such sorts, although not as yett full ripe. We boyled it, and then every one had his share. Heere was daintinesse slighted, the belly did not permitt us to gett on neither shoos nor stokins, that the better we might goe over the rocks,41 which did our feet smart that we came backe our feet and thighes and leggs weare scraped with thornes, in a heap of blood. The good God looked uppon those infidels by sending them now and then a beare into the river, or if we perceived any in an isle forced them to swime that by that means we might the sooner kill them. But the most parts there abouts is so sterill, that there is nothing to be seene but rocks and sand,42 and on the high wayes but deale* trees that grow most miraculously, for that earth is not to be seene43 that can nourish the roots and most of them trees are very bigg and high. We tooke a litle refreshment in a place called the lake of Castors44 which is some thirty leaugues from the first great lake.45 Some of those wild men hid a net as they went downe to the French, but the lake was so full of fishes we tooke so much that served in a long while. We came to a place where weare abundance of otters, in so much that I believe all gathered to hinder our passage. We killed some with our arrows, not daring to shoote, because we 40 Probably a form of shell lichen; some edible species are found in eastern and central Canada. 41 They were in such haste that they did not eat daintily and pulled off their footwear to move along quickly. 42 They are travelling across typical Canadian Shield country. 43 There is not enough earth. 44 Lake Nipissing. 45 Georgian Bay, not Lake Huron itself, as a reference in Voyage IV shows (255).

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discovered there abouts som tracks judging to be our ennemy by the impression of their feet in the sand. All knowes there one an other by their march, for each hath his proper* steps, some upon their toes some on their heele which is naturaly to them for when they are infants the mother wrapeth them to their mode.46 Here I speake not of the horrid streames we passed, nor of the falls of the watter which weare of an incredible height. In some parts [it was] most faire and delicious, where people formerly lived onely by what they could gett by the bow and arrows. We weare come above three hundred leaugues47 allwayes against the stream and made sixty carriages*, besids drawing,48 besids the swift streams we overcame by the oars and poles to come to the litle lake of Castors, which may be 30 or 40 leaugues in compasse. The upper end of it is full of islands, where there is not time lost to wander about, finding wherewithall to make the kettle boyle, with venison, great bears castors and fishes which are plenty in that place. The river that we goe to the great lake is som what favorable. We goe downe with ease and runing of the watter, which empties it’s selfe in that lake in which we /65/ are now coming in. This river hath but eight high and violent streams which is some 30 leaugues in lenght.49 The place where we weare is a bay all full of rocks, smale isles and most between wind and water with an infinite of fishes, which are seene in the water so cleare as christiall. That is the reason of so many otters, that lives onely uppon fish. Each of us begins to looke to his bundle and merchandises, and prepares him selfe for the bad weather that uses to be on that great extent of water. The wild men finds what they hid among the rocks 3 months before they came up to the French. Heere we are stiring about in our boats, as nimble as bees, and divided 46 In his Journal of 8 August 1857–29 June 1858, Henry David Thoreau reports on the lecture he attended on 5 March 1858 by Maungwudaus (George Henry), a Mississauga performer, missionary worker, and interpreter. Maungwudaus gave a wide-ranging talk on Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) customs, and brought out a cradleboard, explaining that (in Thoreau’s summary) “they place the feet of the child in the cradle straight, or as they would have them. Indians step with the feet straight, but whites, who toe out seem to have no use for any of the toes but the great one in walking. Indian women are brought up to toe in. It is improper for them to toe out.” Thoreau, Journal, 5 March 1858, vol. 10: 292–3. 47 From Montreal to Lake Nipissing via the Ottawa, Mattawa, and La Vase rivers is roughly 510 kilometres. After Etienne Brulé first probed the area in 1610, this became the traditional fur-trade route west. See Morse, Fur Trade Canoe Routes of Canada. 48 Pulling the boats along with ropes, cordelling. 49 The eleven-kilometre stretch of the La Vase Portage.

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our selves into two companys. Seaven boats went towards west norwest, and the rest to the south. After we mourned enough for the death of our deare country men that weare slained coming up we take leave of each other with promise of amitie and good correspondence one with another. As for the continuance of peace, as for the assistance of strenght, if the enemy should make an assault. That they should not goe to the French without giving notice one to another, and soe goe together. We that weare for the south50 went on severall dayes merily and saw by the way the place where the fathers Jesuits had heretofore lived,51 a delicious place albeit we could but see it afarre of. The co[a]st of this lake is most delightfull to the minde, the land smooth, and wood of all sorts: in many places there are many large open fields wherin (I believe) wild men formerly lived before the destruction of the many nations which did inhabit and tooke more place then six hundred leaugues about.52 For I can well say that from the river of Canada to the great lake of the Hurrons, which was two hundred leaugues in lenght, and sixty in breath (as I guesse) for I have found about it plenty of fish, there are banks of sand five or six leaugues from the waterside,53 where such an infinit deale of fish that scarcely we are able to draw out our netts. There are fishes as bigg as children of two years old, there is sturgeon enough, and other sorte that is not knowne to us. The south part is without isles onely in some bayes where there are some. It is delightfull to goe along the side of the watter in summer where you may pluck the ducks. We must often stay in a place two or three dayes for the contrary winds. For if the winds weare any thing high we durst not venter the boats against the impetuosity of the waves, which is the reason that our voyages are so long and tedious. A great many large deep rivers empties themselves in that lake, and an infinit number of

50 Des Groseilliers’s party now heads southward along the shore of Georgian Bay and then along the east side of the Bruce peninsula and northward on Lake Huron. This is the point where the material Radisson drew from Des Groseilliers and the unnamed Frenchman begins. It continues to page 232, to “oppose an ennemy.” 51 Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, site of the Jesuit martyrdoms in 1649; the site cannot in fact be seen from the lake. 52 See “The Great Dispersions 1648–53,” Historical Atlas of Canada, vol. 1, plate 35, and Trigger, The Children of Aataensic, chapter 11. Near the beginning of Voyage II, Radisson relies on Huron oral history for an account of one group’s dispersal; see Introduction. 53 The shallow water and sandy shoals along Nottawasaga Bay, at the south end of Georgian Bay.

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other small rivers, that cane bear boats and all from lakes and pools which are in abundance in that country.54 After we travelled many dayes we arrived att a large island,55 where we found their village their wives and children; you must know that we passed a strait some three leaugues beyond that place. The wild men give it a name, it is an other lake but not so bigge as that we passed before. We calle it the Lake of the Staring Hairs,56 because those that live about it have their hair like a brush turned up. They all have a hole in their nose /66/ which is done by a straw which is above a foot long, it barrs their faces.57 Their ears have ordinarily five holes, where one may putt the end of his finger; they use those holes in this sort: to make themselves gallant they passe through it a skrew of coper with much dexterity, and goe on the lake in that posture. When the winter comes they weare no cap[p]es because of their haire turned up. They fill those skrews with swans downe58 and with it their ears covered. But I dare say that the people doe not for to hold out the cold, but rather for pride, for their country is not so cold as the North; and other lakes that we have seene since. It should be difficult to describ what variety of faces, our arrivement did cause. Some out of joy, others out of sadnesse, neverthelesse, the number of joyfull, exceeded that of the sorrowfull. The season began to invite the lustiest 54 A mere sketch of their itinerary, but it appears that after travelling along the Bruce peninsula they headed for Mackinac. Radisson reports that on the south side there were few islands except in the bays, but this is probably just hearsay, since to travel that way would have required either a lengthy circumnavigation of the whole lake or crossing open water, which was always dangerous. The “large island” is not Manitoulin, for at that time the inhabitants had scattered after the attacks of the Iroquois (Trigger, The Children of Aataensic, 820), but probably Rock Island (see below). Thus, they would have passed Manitoulin, entered the Strait of Mackinac, and moved down the Garden peninsula and across the narrow strait to the Door peninsula at Green Bay. People of a number of Native nations, many of them refugees from the Iroquois, were established there, but the dominant ones were the Algonquian-speaking Potawatomi (HNAI 15: 727). 55 Rock Island, at the tip of the Door peninsula (HNAI 15: 726). 56 Lake Huron, which the party would have passed on the left before reaching the Door peninsula. The strait three leagues beyond the “large island” may be the passage between the Garden and Door peninsulas, but Radisson is too vague here to be certain. 57 It crosses their faces. The decoration being described here is Odawa; see Quimby, Indian Culture and European Trade Goods, 135, on archaeological evidence of the metal ear screws (he cites Radisson’s description). 58 Ms: swans dung; “downe” is written above but dung is not crossed out.

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to hunting. We neither desiere to be idle in any place, having learned by experience that idlenesse is the mother of all evil, for it breeds most part of all sicknesse in those parts where the aire is most delightfull.59 So that they who had most knowledg in those quarters, had familiarity with the people that live there about the last lake.60 The nation that we weare with had warrs with the Iroquoits, and must trade, our wild men out of feare must consent to their enemy to live in their land.61 It’s true that those who lived about the first lake62 had not for the most part the conveniency of our French merchandise, as [they] since [have]; which obliged most of the remotest people to make peace considering the enemy of theirs, that came as a thunderbolt upon them, so that they joyned with them, and forgett what was past for their owne preservation. Att our coming there we made large guifts, to dry up the tears of the friends of the deceased; as we came there, the circumjacent neighbors came to visit us that bid us welcome. As weare so, there comes news, that there weare ennemy in the fields, that they weare seene att the great field. There is a councell called, and resolved that they should be searched, and sett uppon them as possible may bee,63 which executed speedily. I offered my service, soe went and looked for them two dayes, finding them the third day, gave them the assault when they least thought off it. We played the game so furiously that none escaped. The day following we [re]turned to our village, with eight of our enemys dead and three alive. The dead weare eaten, and the living weare burned with finall fire to the rigor of cruelties, which comforted the desolat to see them revenged of the death of their relation, that was so served.64

59 Possibly an interjection into the unnamed Frenchman’s account; Radisson several times observes that healthy activity is good for you. As noted in previous voyages, he has a fondness for proverbs and “sayings” such as “idlenesse is the mother of all evil.” 60 The conclusion of this paragraph is one of the most opaque in the narrative; it is almost impossible to be certain what is meant by “the first lake” and “the last lake,” the people who had not yet encountered French trade goods, or the “remotest people” and their enemies. 61 The account is also vague here. Des Groseilliers was travelling with Odawa and refugee Huron, and he had landed among the Potawatomi of the Door peninsula, who were active traders. 62 Probably the remoter reaches of Georgian Bay and beyond, as the narrative in Voyage IV would suggest. 63 That they should be located and we should set upon them right away. 64 That had been treated this way.

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We weare then possessed by the Hurrons and Octauac;65 but our minde was not to stay in an island but to be knowne with the remotest people. The vic- /67/ tory that we have gotten made them consent to what we could desire, and because that we shewed [ourselves] willing to die for their defence; so we desired to goe with a company of theirs that was going to the nation of the stairing haires.66 We weare wellcomed, and much made of saying that we weare the Gods and devils of the earth; that we should fournish67 them, and that they would bring us to their ennemy to destroy them. We tould them very well content, we persuaded them first to come peaceably; not to destroy them presently,68 and if they would not condescend then would we throw away the hattchett, and make use of our thunders. We sent ambassadors to them with guifts. That nation called Poatouatemick,69 without more adoe, comes and meets us with the rest, and peace was concluded. Feasts weare made, and dames70 with guifts came of each side with great deale of mirth. We visited them during that winter,71 and by that means we made acquaintance with an other nation called Escotecke72 which signified fire, a faire proper* nation, they are tall and bigg and very strong. We came there in the spring: when we arrived there weare extraordinary banquets, there they never have seen men with beards, because they pull their haires as soone as it comes out, but weare more astonished when they saw our armes especialy our guns, which they worshiped by blowing smoake of tobacco instead of sacrifice. I will not 65 Our companions at that time were Huron and Odawa. (The following narrative is very much condensed and it is not always clear to what groups the pronouns refer.) 66 Presumably back to the territory of the Odawa (the “staring hairs” or “cheveux relevés”). 67 Supply them with trade goods. 68 Not destroy them immediately. 69 The Potawatomi. 70 Likely mature women, as opposed to the “maidens” Radisson sometime speaks of. 71 Des Groseilliers probably spent the winter of 1654–55 with the Potawatomi and other nations at the southern end of Lake Michigan, but the chronology is very uncertain at this point. 72 The Mascouten, or Nation of the Fire, called by the Hurons Assistaeronon. Now extinct or absorbed into other groups. At the time they were living at the south end of Lake Michigan. Little is known about them; those Des Groseilliers met with appear to have been unacquainted with European arms. According to Marquette, writing a decade and a half later, “here is the limit of the discoveries which the French have made, for they have not yet gone any farther” (JR 59: 101); he does not, however, mention Des Groseilliers.

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insist much upon their way of living, for of their seremonys heere you will see a patron73 in the last voyage that wee made. I will lett you onely know what cours we runned in three years time.74 We desired them75 to lett us know their neighboring nations. They gave us the names, which I hope to describe their names in the end of this most imperfect discours,76 at least those that I can remember. Among others they told us of a nation called Nadoueceronon,77 which is very strong, whome they weare in warrs with, and another wandering nation living onely uppon what they could come by. Their dwelling was on the side of the salt watter in summer time, and in the land in the winter time, for it’s cold in their country. They calle them selves Christinos,78 and [are] their confederates from all times by reason of their speech which is the same, and often have joyned together, and have had companys of souldiers to warre against that great nation.79 We desired not to goe to the north, till we had made a discovery in the south, being desirous to know what they did. They told us, if we would goe with them to the great lake of the stinkings.80 The time was come of their trafick which was of as many knives as they could gett from the French nation, because of their dwellings which was at the coming in of a lake called Superior. But since the

73 patron: a pattern, that is, an example, which he provides in Voyage IV. 74 See Introduction; Radisson could not have been on this expedition for three years. Des Groseilliers left in 1654 and returned in 1656, and Radisson was in the east and travelling to Onondaga in the Iroquois country in July 1657. 75 Judging by what follows (for example, the alliance with the Cree), Radisson turns now to an account of what Des Groseilliers and his companion were told by the Odawa and the Saulteaux before they headed south into Lake Michigan. However, the chronology here is uncertain. 76 this most imperfect discours: in early modern rhetoric this kind of statement is known as the “topos of affected humility.” Radisson makes similar rhetorical gestures in his 1678 letter to the Abbé Bernou (see Introduction and volume 2). The names appear at the end of Voyage IV. 77 The Dakota Sioux, whom we meet in Voyage IV. 78 This is the first reference to the Cree, with whom Radisson was later to have much to do (see Voyage IV and the Port Nelson Relations of 1682–84, in volume 2). 79 The Cree are allies of the Saulteaux and Odawa; the “great nation” is the Dakota Sioux. 80 Lake Michigan, “Lac des puans” (Lake of the Stinkings). Father Le Jeune, writing in 1640, said that the Quinipigou (Winnebago) are the Puants and that their name derives from the Algonquian word “ouinipeg,” which means “bad smelling water, sea or salt water (JR 18: 231).

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destructions of many neighbouring nations, they retired themselves to the height of the lake.81 We knewed those people well; we went to them almost yearly, and the company that came up with us weare of the said nation, but never could tell punctualy82 where they lived because they make the barre of the Christinos83 from whence they have the castors that they bring to the French. This place is six  hundred leaugues off by reason of the circuit that we must doe.84 The Hurrons and the Octauacks, from whence we came last, furnishes them also, and comes to /68/ the furthest part of the lake of the stinkings there to have light earthen pots85 and girdle[s] made of go[a]ts haire and small shells that grow att the sea side with which they trim their cloath made of skin. We finding this opportunity would not lett it slippe but made guifts, telling that the other nation would stand in feare of them, because of us. We flattered them, saying non would dare to give them the least wrong, in so much that many of the Octauaks that weare present [wished] to make the same voyage. I can assure you I liked noe country as I have that wherin we wintered, for what ever a man could desire was to be had in great plenty, viz. staggs, fishes in abundance and all sort of meat [and] corne enough. Those of the two nations86 would not come with us but turned back to their nation: we neverthelesse put our selves in hazard for our curiosity to stay two or three years among that nation. We ventured for that we understand some of their idiome, and trusted to that; we embarked ourselves on the delightsomest lake of the world.87 I tooke notice of their cottages and of the journeys of our navigation, for because that the countrey was so pleasant, so beautifull and fruitfull that it grieved me to see that the world could not discover* such inticeing countrys to 81 The Saulteaux lived around the entry to Lake Superior, though ongoing warfare had driven them farther up the lake. They eagerly sought to trade with the French, and in Voyage IV a party of Saulteaux accompanied Radisson and Des Groseilliers west from Trois-Rivières. 82 punctualy: precisely. 83 The Odawa bar access to the Christinos (the Cree) in order to function as middlemen. 84 We would have to travel 600 leagues to get to the Cree. 85 For archaeological evidence of Potawatomi pottery, see Quimby, Indian Culture and European Trade Goods, 33, on the pre-contact site of Dumaw Creek. 86 The Huron and Saulteaux mentioned above. 87 Heidenreich (“Early French Exploration,” 106) argues that Des Groseilliers wintered at the bottom of Green Bay among refugees from the Iroquois wars, visiting “all the native groups around the bay as far inland as Lake Winnebago … They also heard of other groups including the Dakota, Illinois and Cree Indians.”

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live in. This I say because that the Europians fight for a rock in the sea against one another, or for a sterill land, and horrid country that the people sent here or there by the changement of the aire ingenders sicknesse and dies therof. Contrarywise those kingdoms, are so delicious and under so temperat a climat, plentifull of all things, the earth bringing foorth its fruit twise a yeare, the people live long and lusty, and wise in their way. What conquest would that bee att litle or no cost, what laborinth of pleasure should millions of people have, instead that millions complaine of misery and poverty? What should not men reap out of the love [of] God in converting the souls. Heere is more to be gained to heaven then what is by differences of nothing. There should not be so many dangers committed under the pretence of religion? Why so many treasures are hid from us by our owne faults? By our negligence covetousness and unbelief. It’s true I confess that the accesse is difficult, but must say that we are like the cockscombs of Paris when first they begin to have wings, imagining that the larks will fall in their mouthes rosted; but we ought [to know?] that vertue is not acquired without labor and taking great paines.88 We meet with severall nations all sedentary [that were] amazed to see us, and weare very civil. The further we sejourned the delightfuller the land was to us. I can say that my liftime I never saw a more incomparable country for all I have ben in Italy, yett Italy comes short to it, as I think when it was inhabited, and now /69/ forsaken of the wild men.89 Being about the great sea90 we conversed with people that dwelleth about the salt water who tould us that they saw some great white thing sometimes uppon the water, and came towards the 88 Such a passionate digression is unusual in Radisson’s writings. Though he is normally quick to press his own advantage, he rarely editorializes. His admiration of the Natives and their world is evident, but as usual he is inconsistent. He could join in the violence of his Native companions yet at the same time deplore warfare in Europe, where Louis XIV’s armies were known for their cruelty. Nor did this prevent him from participating in, and reporting enthusiastically on, the butchery during Vice-Admiral D’Estrées’s attack on Tobago in 1677 (volume 2). 89 Radisson had Italian connections through his Avignonese relatives, which suggests that he could have travelled to Italy as a boy, but he makes no other mention of such a trip. At least one reference originating in the Hudson’s Bay Company calls him “an Italian” (TNA, CO 134/1, f.16). The country “forsaken by the wild men” may be a general reference to the desolation of Huronia, but also to the area around Lake Michigan through which various Native groups were passing. 90 Lake Michigan (Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 106). Des Groseilliers appears to have travelled south and west, possibly as far as Lake Winnebago or even the Wisconsin River (see below).

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shore and men in the top of it, and made a noise like a company of swans, which made me believe that they weare mistaken, for I could not imagine what it should bee, except the Spaniard, and the reason is, that we found a barill broken as they use in Spaine.91 Those people have their haires long. They reape twice a yeare. They are called Tatanga that is to say buff*.92 The[y] warre against Nadoueceronons, and warre also against the Christinos. These two93 doe no great harme to one another because the lake is betweene both. They are generaly stout men, that they are able to defend themselves. They come but once a yeare to fight. If the season of the yeare had permitted us to stay (for we intended to goe back the yeare following) we had indeavoured to make peace betweene them. We had not as yett seene the nation Nadoueceronons. We had Hurrons with us; wee persuaded them to come a long to see their owne nation that fled there,94 but they would not by any means. We thought to gett some castors there to bring downe to the French, seeing att last [it was] impossible to us to make such a circuit in a twelve months time.95 We weare every where 91 The Spanish made a number of forays from Mexico into what is now the southern United States in the second half of the sixteenth century; Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540–42 reached well into Kansas. The stories heard by Des Groseilliers and his companion likely reflect oral traditions about these encounters. For the Spanish engagement with Native peoples on the northern periphery of their American empire, see Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, chapter 3. 92 “Tetanka” is the Siouan word for buffalo; Kellogg (Early Narratives, 48) thinks this may be a reference to the Teton branch of the Sioux. However, from Radisson’s description, it seems Des Groseilliers met a nation that lived well south of Lake Michigan and that fought with tribes west of the Mississippi, hunted buffalo, and reaped two crops a year. This roughly fits the Algonquian-speaking Illinois (Inoka) group, some of whose territories extended as far south as Missouri and Arkansas, and who certainly fought with the Missouri, Osage, and others (HNAI 15: 674). The Illinois were already known as far north as Chequamegon on Lake Superior; later in the decade a Jesuit priest there, Louis Nicolas, sketched a fine portrait of a “Capitaine de la Nation Illinois” in his Codex Canadensis. Des Groseilliers’s visit to the Illinois seems to have been unknown to the Jesuits; Claude Dablon, commenting on the 1673 journey of Marquette and Jolliet, says that “they set out ... to enter countries wherein no European had ever set foot” (JR 58: 95). 93 One of Radisson’s frustrating feats of condensation; “these two” ought to mean the Dakota Sioux and the Cree, who did engage in warfare, the Cree in alliance with the Assiniboine (HNAI 6: 159). 94 The Huron refugees who fled Huronia in 1650 for the Green Bay area of Wisconsin. 95 Seeing that it was impossible to return to New France in a single year.

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much made off, neither wanted victuals for all the different nations that we mett, [they] conducted us and furnished us with all necessaries. Tending to those peoples [we] went towards the south, and came backe by the north.96 The summer passed away with admiration* by the diversity of the nations that we saw, as for the beauty of the shore of that sweet sea.97 Heere we saw fishes of divers[kinds] some like the sturgeons and have a kind of slice at the end of their nose, some three fingers broad in the end and two onely neere the nose and some eight thumbs long marbled of a blackish collor.98 There are birds whose bills are two and twenty thumbs long.99 That bird swallows a whole sallmon, keeps it a long time in his bill. We saw alsoe shee goats very bigg.100 There is an animal somwhat lesse than a cow whose meat is exceeding good.101 There is no want of staggs nor Buffes.* There are so many tourkeys that the boys throws stoans att them for their recreation. We found no sea serpents as we in other laks have seene especialy in that of d’Ontorio and that of the Stairing Haires. There are some in that of the Hurrons102 but scarce for the great cold in winter. They come not neere the upper lake.103 In that of the Stairing Haires I saw [a] yong boy was bitten, he taks immediately his stony knife and with a pointed stick and cuts of the whole wound being no other remedy for it. They are great sorcerers and turne the wheele.104 I shall speake of this at large in my last voyage. 96 Des Groseilliers had circumnavigated Lake Michigan; having wintered in the south, he “came back by the north,” that is, by the eastern shore (Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 106). 97 sweet sea: a body of fresh water, in this case Lake Michigan. 98 The fish resembling a sturgeon is probably the lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens). The fish broader at the end than at the head is harder to identify. Those marbled of a blackish colour may be northern pike (Esox lucius) or lake trout (salvelinus namaycush). 99 The American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). 100 The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), also known as the pronghorn antelope, speedgoat, or antelope. The true antelope is not native to North America. 101 The elk or wapiti (Cervus canadensis), termed “vache sauvage” by Radisson’s contemporary at Trois-Rivières, Pierre Boucher, in Histoire veritable et naturelle, 38, 56–7, and see JR 29: 221–3 and JR 42: 63–5. 102 The narrative seems to distinguish here between the Lake of the Staring Hairs (Lake Huron) and “that of the Hurrons”; by the latter is probably meant Georgian Bay. 103 Fr. serpent: snake; as Adams notes (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xlvii), Radisson is referring to poisonous water snakes. the upper lake: probably Lake Superior. 104 The ancient stone circle or “medicine wheel” of the North American Aboriginal peoples. Such wheels had ritual and possibly astronomical functions, but as the idiomatic “turne

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Most of the shores of the lak, is nothing but sand. There are mountaines to be seene farre in the land. There comes not so many rivers from that lake as from others; these that flow from it are deeper and broader. The /70/ trees are very bigg, but not so thick, there is a great distance from one another, and a quantitie of all sorts of fruits, but small. The vines grows all by the river side. The lemons are not so bigg as ours, and sowrer. The grape is very bigge. Green is seene there at all times. It never snows nor freezes there, but mighty hot.105 Yett for all that the country is not so unholsom for we seldome have seene infirmed people. I will speake of their manners in my last voyage which I made. In October we came to the strait of the two lakes of the Stinkings and the upper lake where there are litle isles towards norwest: few towards the southest very small.106 The lake towards the north att the side of it is full of rocks and sand yett great shipps can ride on it, without danger. We being of three nations107 arrived there with booty; [we] disputed a while for some would returne to their country. That was the nation of the fire,108 and [they] would have us backe to their dwelling. We by all means would know the Christinos, [but] to goe backe was out of our way. We contented the Hurrons to our advantage with promisses, and others with hope and persuaded the Octouack to keepe his resolution, because we weare but five dayes from those of late that lived in the sault of the coming in of the said upper lake109 from whence that name of Sa[u]lt which is Pauoesligonce in the wild language.110

105

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107 108 109 110

the wheele” suggests, Radisson assumes their purpose is divination. See the definition of “rouë” in Furetière, Dictionnaire Universel (1690): “On fait aussi de certains jeux & divinations en tournant un roue de Fortune” (“Certain tricks and divinations can be made while turning a wheel of Fortune ”). The eastern shore of Lake Michigan is marked by beaches and sand dunes. At the extreme southwest of the lake, Des Groseilliers would have entered the rolling plains of eastern Wisconsin. During this part of the journey he would have encountered Natives (possibly the Illinois, see above) from as far south as present-day Arkansas and Tennessee who were familiar with a warmer climate. The two lakes are Lake Michigan (lac des Puants or Lake of the Stinkings) and Lake Superior (the “upper lake,” where great ships can ride).The strait is evidently Mackinac (see “five days journey,” below), with numerous small islands to the south. three nations: Huron, Saulteaux, and Odawa. The Mascouten, the “nation of the fire,” wanted the group to return with them to their home at the southwestern end of Lake Michigan. That is, they were at Mackinac, five days’ journey from Sault Sainte-Marie. There are a number of variations of this name; see “Synonymy” in E.S. Rogers’s article on the Southeastern Ojibwa (HNAI 15: 769).

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Which hereafter we will call the nation of the Sa[u]lt. Not many years since that they had a cruell warrs against the Nadoueseronons, although much inferior in number. Neverthelesse that small number of the Sa[u]lt was a terror unto them since they had trade with the French. They never have seene such instruments as the French furnished them withall.111 It is a proude nation, therfore would not submitt, although they had to doe with a bigger nation thirty times then they weare, because that they weare called ennemy by all those that have the accent of the Algontin language, that the wild men call Nadoue which is the begining of their name. The Iroquoits have the title of bad ennemy Maesocchy Nadoue. Now seeing that the Christinos had hattchetts and knives, for that they resolved to make peace with those of the Sault, that durst not have gone [a] hundred of leaugues uppon that upper lake with assurance. They [the Saulteaux] would not hearken to any thing, because their general resolved to make peace with those of the Christinos, and an other nation that gott gunns: the noise of which had frighted them more than the bulletts that weare in them. The time approached, there came about one hundred of the nation of the Sault to those that lived towards the north. The Christinos gott a bigger company and fought a batail. Some weare slaine of both /71/ sids. The captaine of those of the Sault lost his eye by an arrow. The batail being over he made a speech and said that he lost his sight of one side, and of the other he forsee[s] what he would doe. His courage being abject by that losse, [he said?] that he himself should be ambassador and conclud the peace. He seeing that the Iroquoits came too often, a visit I must confesse very displeasing, being that some [of] ours looses their lives or liberty. So that we retired ourselves to the higher lake112 neere the nation of the Nadoueceronons where we weare well receaved but weare mistrusted, when many weare seene together. We arrived then where the nation of the Sault was, where we found some French men that came up with us,113 who thanks us kindly for to come and visit them. The wild Octauaks that came with us, found some of their nations 111 “Neverthelesse that small number of the Sa[u]lt was a terror unto them since they [the Saulteaux] had trade with the French. They [the Nadoueseronons or Dakota Sioux] never have seene such instruments as the French furnished them [the Saulteaux] withall.” 112 The south shore of Lake Superior, probably at Ontonagon, safely out of reach of the hunting territory of the Dakota Sioux farther west (Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 107). 113 There is no information on who these might be.

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slaves who weare also glad to see them. For all they weare slaves they had meat enough, which they have not in their owne country so plentifull being no huntsmen, but alltogether fishers. As for those towards the north, they are most expert in hunting, and live uppon nothing else the most part of the yeare. We weare long there before we gott acquaintance with those that we desired so much,114 and they in lik[e] maner had a fervent desire to know us, as we them. Here comes a company of Christinos from the Bay of the North sea,115 to live more at ease in the medle of woods, and forests, by reason they might trade with those of the Sault, and have the conveniency to kill more beasts. There we passed the winter, and learned the particularities that since we saw by experience.116 Here I will not make a long discours during that time, onely made good cheere,117 and killed staggs, buffes* elends118 and castors. The Christinos had skill in that game above the rest. The snow proved favorable that yeare, which caused much plenty of every thing.119 Most of the woods and forest are very thick so that I was in some places as darke as in a cellar by reason of the boughs of trees. The snow that falls being very light hath not the strenght to stopp the elend, which is a mighty strong beast much like a mule having a tayle cutt off two or three or fowr thumbs long, the foot cloven lik a stagge. He has a muzzle mighty bigge. I have seene some that have the nostrills so bigg that I putt in to it my two fists at once with ease. Those that uses* to be, where the buffes* be, are not so bigg but about the bignesse of a coach horse. The wild men call them the litle sort. As for the buff* it is a furious animal.120 One must have a care of him for every yeare he kills some Nadoueseronons. He comes for the most part in the /72/ plains and meddows. He feeds like an ox, and [like] the oriniack* but seldom he galopps. I have seen of their hornes that a man could not lift them from of the ground, they are branchy and flatt in the midle of which the wild men makes dishes that can well hold three quarts. These horns fall of every yeare, and its a thing 114 115 116 117 118

The Christinos (Cree). James Bay. They heard about things they were later able to see for themselves. I won’t speak at length about that time, only that we made good cheer, and hunted. Elend (correctly Eland): the Dutch word for European elk, which is not native to North America (Kellogg, Early Narratives, 51n.1. From the description below of the animal’s huge muzzle, this is almost certainly the moose (Alces alces). 119 There would have been good hunting for those on snowshoes; their prey could not move effectively in the heavy snow. 120 The North American buffalo (Bison bison).

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impossible that they will grow againe.121 The horns of buffs* are as those of an ox, but not so long, but bigger and of a blackish collor. He hath a very long hairy taile. He is reddish, his haire frized and very fine, all the parts of his body much unto an oxe. The biggest are bigger then any oxe whatsoever. Those are to be found about the Lake of the Stinkings and towards the north of the same.122 They come not to the upper lake but by chance. It’s a pleasure to find the place of their abode, for they turne round about compassing two or three acres of land, beating the snow with their feete, and coming to the center they lye downe and rise again to eate the bows of trees that they can reach. They go not out of their circle that they have made untill hunger compells them.123 We did what we could to have correspondence with that warlick nation, and reconcile them with the Christinos.124 We went not there that winter. Many weare slained of both sids the summer last. The wound was yett fresh wherfore it was hard to conclude peace between them. We could doe nothing for we intended to turne back to the French the summer following. Two years weare expired, we hoped to be att the two years end with those that gave us over for dead. Having before to came back at a years end. As we are once in those remote countreys we cannot doe as we would.125 Att last we declared our mind first to those of the Sault, encouraging those of the north, that we are their brethren, and that we would come back and force their ennemy to peace, or that we would help against them. We made guifts one to another. And thwarted* a land of almost 50 leaugues before the snow was melted.126 121 a thing impossible: impossible to believe. The account is confused, suggesting that Radisson may have heard of the buffalo of the plains but never seen one. Unlike the members of the deer family that have horns (Cervidae), the Bovidae, including cattle, bison, buffalo, and antelope, do not shed either the horn core or the sheath. (Personal communication, Susan Woodward, 23 August 2010.) 122 The rolling open land west of Lake Michigan. 123 According to F.G. Roe’s account of “The ‘Buffalo Year,’” wallowing is a summer activity. His section on buffalo behaviour in snow conditions observes that they keep moving where possible and tend to hug wooded areas when they can. They do paw the snow to get at grass, but he makes no mention of such winter circles. (Roe, North American Buffalo, 100–5). 124 The “warlick nation” is the Dakota Sioux, with whom Radisson and Des Groseilliers made diplomatic contact in 1659–60 (see Voyage IV). 125 As this was our first visit to this remote area we were not at liberty to do as we wished. 126 Heidenreich (“Early French Exploration,” 107) believes this passage describes an overland trip to the headwaters of the Menomonee or Escabana River and down one of those rivers to the mouth of Green Bay.

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In the morning it was a pleasure to walke for we could goe without racketts*. The snow was hard enough because it freezed every night. When the sun began to shine we payd for the time past. The snow stucke so to our racketts* that I believ our shoes weighed 30 pounds, which was a paine having a burden uppon our backs besids. We arrived some hundred and fifty of us men and women to a river sid where we stayed three weeks making boats. Here we wanted not fish. Dur[ing] that /73/ time we made feasts att a high rate, so we refreshed ourselves from our labor. In that time we tooke notice that the budds of trees began to spring which made us to make more hast and begone. We went up that river eight dayes till we came to a nation called Poutouatenick and Matoueuock that is, the scrattchers.127 There we gott some indian meale and corne from those two nations which lasted us till we came to the first landing isle.128 There we weare well received againe. We made guifts to the elders to encourage the yong people to bring us downe to the French, but [we were] mightily mistaken for they would reply, “should you bring us to be killed? The Iroquoits are every where about the river, and undoubtedly will destroy us if we goe downe; and afterwards our wives and those that stayed behinde. Be wise brethren and offer not to goe downe this yeare to the French. Lett us keepe our lives.” We made many private suits, but all in vaine. And that vexed us most that we had given away most of our merchandises, and swap[p]ed a great deale for castors. Moreover they made no great harvest, being but newly there, beside they weare no great huntsmen.129 Our journey was broaken till the next yeare, and must per force. That summer I went a hunting and my brother stayed where he was welcome and putt up130 a great deale of indian corne that was given him. He intended to furnish the wild men that weare to goe downe to the French, if they had not enough. The wild men did not perceive this, for if they wanted any, we could hardly [have] kept it for our use. The winter passes away in good correspondence one with another, and [we] sent ambassadors to the nations that uses* to goe downe to the French,131 which rejoyced them the more and made 127 The Potawatomi and the Matouenocks. 128 Rock Island on the Door peninsula. 129 Possibly these were refugee Huron, and therefore agriculturalists rather than expert hunters. 130 Stored away. For the importance of corn to a fur trade extending far into the interior, see Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada, 36. For corn as a major factor in the interior economy of North America before contact, see Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, chapter 2. 131 Probably the Saulteaux mentioned above.

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us passe that yeare with a greater pleasur, saving that my brother fell into the falling sicknesse,132 and many weare sorry for it. That proceeded onely of a long stay in a new discovered countrey and the idlenesse contributs much to it. There is nothing comparable to exercise. It is the only remedy of such diseases. After he languished a while God gave him his health againe. The desire that every one had to goe downe to the French made them earnestly looke out for castors. They have not so many there as in the north part. So in the begining of spring many came to our isle. There weare no lesse, I believe, then five hundred men that weare willing to ventur themselves: the corne that my brother kept did us a world of service. The wild men brought a quantity of flesh salted in a vesell. When we weare ready to depart, here comes strang news of the defeat of the Hurrons, which news, I thought, would put off the voyage.133 There was a councell held, and most of them weare against the goeing downe to the French saying that the Iroquoits weare to barre [them] this yeare and the best way was to stay till the following yeare. And now the ennemy seeing himself frustrated of his exspectation would not stay longer; thinking there by that we weare resolved never more to goe down /74/ and that next yeare there should be a bigger company, and better able to oppose an ennemy.134 My brother and I seeing ourselves all out of hopes of our voyag without our corne which was allready bestowed and without any merchandis or scarce 132 Adams calls this an attack of epilepsy, once known as “the falling sickness.” However, no other epileptic seizure is mentioned in any document referring to Des Groseilliers. Furthermore, “it is uncommon for epilepsy to present in adulthood without some acute injury to the brain,” writes Dr Cecil Hahn. “A stroke or brain infection (encephalitis / meningitis) would have been the most likely causes of new-onset seizures. This might account for his prolonged recovery period. If he had a stroke, depending on its location in the brain, there may not have been any obvious physical disability, but there may have been cognitive disability, which could account for the fact that [as Radisson states at the end of Voyage IV, 302] Des Groseilliers ‘could not do anything without’ Radisson. The same could be said for an infectious etiology. If the seizures were caused by an encephalitis or meningitis, then this must have been of viral cause, because he would have not survived a bacterial infection without antibiotic treatment.” (Personal communication, Dr Cecil Hahn, 9 March 2009.) 133 Des Groseilliers was in the second winter of his journey, 1655–56; it is possible that news had reached him of the precarious situation of the Huron refugees newly settled on the Isle d’Orléans; see Trigger, Children of Aataentsic, 806–15. 134 At this point Radisson begins to relate what he has experienced himself, and the section runs to “loose all then lose his life” (238).

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having one knife betwixt us both, so we weare in a great apprehension least that the Hurrons should as they have done often (when the fathers weare in their countrey) kill a French man. Seeing the equipage ready and many more that thought long to depart thence for marchandise, we uppon this resolved to call a publique councell in the place. Which the elders hearing came and advised us not to undertake it, giving many faire words, saying “brethren why are you such ennemys to your selves to putt your selves in the hands of those that wait for you? They will destroy you and cary you away captives. Will you have your brethren destroyed that loves you, being slained, who then will come up and baptize our children. Stay till the next yeare and then you are like to have the number of six hundred men in company with you: Then you may freely goe without intermission. Yee shall take the church along with you135 and the fathers and mothers will send their children to be taught in the way of truth of the Lord.” Our answer was that we would speake in publique which granted, the day appointed is come. There gathered above eight hundred men to see who should have the glorie in a round.136 They satt downe on the ground. We desired silence: the elders being in the midle, and we in their midle. My brother began to speake. “Who am I? am I a foe or a friend? if I am a foe, why did you suffer me to live so long among you? If I am friend and if you take me to be, hearken to what I shall say. You know my uncles and brethren that I hazarded my life goeing up with you. If I have no courage why did you not tell me att my first coming here. And if you have more witt then we, why doe not you use it, by preserving your knives, your hattchetts and your gunns that you had from the French. You will see if the ennemy will sett upon you, that you will be attraped like castors in a trape. How will you defend your selves like men. That is not courageous to lett your selves be catched like beasts? How will you defend [your] villages? with castors skins? How will you defend your wives and children from the ennemys hands?” Then my brother made me stand up, saying shew them the way to make warrs if they are able to uphold it. I tooke a gowne of castors skins that one of them had uppon his shoulders and did beat him with it. I asked the others if I was a souldier. “Those are the armes that kill and not your robbes.137 What will your ennemy say when you perish without defending /75/ yourselves. Doe not you know the French way; we are used* to fight with armes and not with 135 Native dwellings being supremely portable, it is possible that the fathers’ church also was, or at least that the Odawa and Huron thought it was. 136 To see who should have the honour of sitting in the circle. 137 It is arms that win wars, not the possession of fur robes. For Radisson’s cool admission that his bizarre gesture was a calculated piece of rhetoric, see below.

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robes. You say that the Iroquoits waits for you because some of your men weare killed. It is onely to make you stay untill you are quite out of stocke that they dispatch you with ease. Doe you think that the French will come up here when the greatest part of you is slained by your owne fault. You know that they cannot come up without you. Shall they come to baptise the dead, shall your children learne to be slaves among the Iroquoits, for their fathers cowardnesse. You call me Iroquoit: have not you seene me disposing my life with you? Who has given you your life if not the French. Now you will not venter because many of your confederats are come to visit you and venter their lives with you. If you will deceave them, you must not think that they will come another time for thy words nor desire. You have spoaken of it first, doe what you will. For myne owne part I will venter choosing to die like a man [rather] then live like a beggar, having not wherwithal to defend my selfe. Farrewell, I have my sacke of corne ready, take all my castors. I shall live without you.” And then [I] departed that company. They weare amazed of our proceeding. They stayed long before they spoake one to an other. Att last sent us some considerable persons, who bid us “cheare up we see that you are in the right. The voyage is not broaken. The yong people tooke very ill that you have beaten them with the skin. All avowed to die like men, and undertake the journey. You shall heare what the councell will ordaine the morrow: they are to meet privatly, and you shall be call’d to it: cheare up and speake as you have done. That is my councell to you: for this you will remember me when you will see me in your country, for I will venter meselfe with you.” Now we are more satisfied then the day before; we weare to use all rhetorique138 to persuade them to goe downe. For we saw the country languish very much, for they could not subsist and moreover, they weare afraid of us. The councell is called, but we had no need to make a speech, finding them disposed to make the voyage, and to su[b]mitt. Yee women gett your husbands bundles ready, they goe to gett wherwithall to defend themselves and you alive. Our equipage was ready in six dayes. We embarked ourselves. We weare in number about five hundred all stout men. We had with us a great store of castors skins. We came to the south. We now goe back to the north, because to overtake a band of men that went before to give notice to others.139 We passed the lake without danger. We wanted nothing, having good store of corne, and netts to catch fish, which is plentifull in the rivers. We came to a place where eight Iroquoits wintered. That was the company that made a slaughter before 138 We had to use a great deal of rhetoric. 139 We had travelled to the south; now we must turn north, that is, back towards the Ottawa, Mattawa, and French River route by which they came, but in reverse.

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our departure from home; our men repented now they did not goe sooner, for it might be they should have surprised them. Att last we are out of those lakes; one hids a sackeof meale, the other his campiron140 and all that could be cumbersome. After many paines and labors wee arrived to the Sault of Calumest141 so called because of the stones that are there very convenient to make tobacco pipes. We are now within a hundred leaugues of the French habitation, and hitherto no bad encounter*. We still found tracks of men /76/ which made us still to have the more care and guard of our selves. Some thirty leaugues from this place we killed wild cowes,142 and then gott our selves in to cottages, where we heard some guns goe off, which made us putt out our fires, and imbark our selves with all speed; we navigated all that night. About the breake of day we made a stay, that not to goe through the violent streames, for feare the enemy should be there to dispute the passage. We landed, and instantly sent two men, to know whether the passage was free: They weare not halfe a mille of when we see a boat of the ennemy thwarting* the river, which they had not done without discovering our boats, having nothing to cover our boats nor hid them. Our lightest boats shewed them selves by pursuing the ennemy, they did shoot but to no effect. Which made our two men come back in all hast. Wee seeing our selves but merchand men so we would not long follow a man of warre, because he run’d suifter than ours. We proceeded in our way with great diligence till we came to the carriage* place, where the one halfe of our men weare in a readinesse whilst the other halfe carried the baggage and the boats. We had a great alarum, but no hurt done. Wee saw but one boat, but have seene fowre more goeing up the river. Me thinks, they thought themselves some what weake for us, which persuaded us two things, first, that they weare afraid, secondly that they went to warne their company; which thing warned us the more to make hast. The second day att evening after we landed and boyled an horiniack* which we kill’d. We then see sixteen boats of our ennemy coming; they no sooner perceived us, but they went on the other side of the river. It was a good looke* for us to have seene them. Our wild men did not say what they thought, for they esteemed themselves already lost. We encouraged them, and desired them to have courage and not [be] afraid; and so farr as I think we weare strong enough for them. That we must stoutly goe and meet them. And they should stand still, wee should be all together, and put our castors skins upon pearches* which could keep us from the shott, which we did. 140 crampiron: a hook or grappling iron. 141 Île du Grand Calumet, in the Ottawa River north of Renfrew, Ontario. 142 Possibly elk or moose.

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We had fowr and twenty gunns ready, and gave them to the Hurrons, who knewed how to handle them better than the others. The Iroquoits seeing us come and that we weare five to one, could not imagine what to doe, neverthelesse they would shew their courage, being that they must passe, [so] they putt themselves in array to fight. If we had not been with some Hurrons that knewed the Iroquoit’s trick, I believ that our wild men had runn’d away, leaving their fusiques143 behind. ¶We being neere one an other we commanded that they should row with all their strenght towards them. We kept close one to an other to persecut what was our intent. We begin to /77/ make our cryes and sing. The Hurrons in one side, the Algonquins att the other side the Ottauak the Pauoestigons, the Amickkoick, the Nadouecenago, the Ticacon,144 and we both, encourag’d them all crying out with a loud noise. The Iroquoit begins to shoot, but we made ours to goe on forwards without any shooting, and that it was the onely way of fighting. They indeed turned their backs, and we followed them a while. Then was it that we weare called devils with great thanks and incouragements that they gave us, attributing to us the masters of warrs and the onely captaines. We desired them to keep good watch and sentery, and if we weare not surprized we should come save and sound without hurt to the French. The Iroquoit seeing us goe on our way, made as if they would leave us. We made three carriages* that day, where the enemy could doe us mischief if they had ben there. The cunning knaves followed us neverthelesse pretty close. We left five boats behind that weare not loaden; we did so to see what invention our enemy could invent* knowing very well that his mind was to surprize us. It is enough that we are warned that they follow us. Att last we perceived that he was before us, which put us in some feare. But seeing us resolut, [he] did what he could to augment his number. But we weare mighty vigilant, and sent some to make a discovery att every carriage through the woods. We weare told that they weare in an ambush, and there builded a fort below the Long Sault145 where we weare to passe. 143 fusique: a fusil or light musket with a firelock. 144 Pauoestigons: Ojibwe. Amickkoick: Amikwa (Southern Ojibwe; HNAI 15: 770); Nadouecenago: possibly a variant of (Ojibwe) Natowe, meaning Wendat or Wyandot (HNAI 15: 406 and HNAI 15: 320); neither appears in the lengthy list of Native groups at the end of Voyage IV. Tiacon: possibly the Titascons of Radisson’s list in Voyage IV, but he seems to be the only source for this name. Kellogg, Early Narratives, 58n.4, says he is referring to the Kiskakon, a subgroup of the Odawa (for which see HNAI 15: 772). 145 At present-day Carillon, Quebec.

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Our wild men said, doubtlesse they have gott another company of their nation so that some minded to throw their castors away and returne home. We told them that we weare almost att the gat[e]s of the French habitation,146 and bid [them] therefore have courage and that our lives weare in as great danger as theirs, and if that we weare taken, we should never escape because they knewed us, and because I runned away from their country having slained some of their brethren, and my brother, that long since was the man that furnished their enemy with arms.147 They att last weare persuaded and landed within a mile of the landing place, and sent three hundred men before armed. We made them great bucklers that the shot could not pearce in some places; they weare to be carryed if there had ben occasion for it. Being come neare the torrent, we finding the Iroquoits lying in ambush who began to shoot. The rest of our company went about cutting of trees, and making a fort, whilst some brought the boats, which being come, we left as few men as possible might bee. The rest helped to carry wood. We had about two hundred men that weare gallant souldiers. The most weare Hurrons, Pasuoestigons and Amickkoick [who] frequented the French for a time. The rest weare skillfull in their bows and arrows. The Iroquoits perceiving our device resolved to fight, by forceing them to lett us passe with our armes.148 They did not know best what to doe, being not so munish[ion]ed nor so many men above a hundred and fifty. They forsooke the place, and retired into the fort which was underneath the /78/ rapid.149 We in the meane while have slained five of theirs, and not one of ours hurted, which encouraged our wild men. We bid them still to have good courage, that we should have the victory. Wee went and made another fort nere theirs, where two of our men weare wounded, but lightly. It is a horrid thing to heare the enormity of outcryes of those different nations. The Iroquoits sung like devils,

146 The Long Sault at Carillon is 100 kilometres by canoe from Montreal. 147 Radisson’s escape from the Iroquois is chronicled in Voyage I. Grace Lee Nute, who examined a large number of the contemporary records, speculates that Des Groseilliers had been in Huronia as a military man (DCB 1: 223), which is possible; Coté, Donnés in Huronia , 98, lists him among the “hired men” or engagés, as opposed to the donnés. A note to JR 28: 319 states that on his return from Huronia in 1646 Des Groseilliers had been first a soldier in the Quebec garrison and then a pilot on the St Lawrence, but gives no source for this information. 148 The Iroquois, perceiving our device of forcing them to let us pass with our arms, resolved to fight. 149 underneath: down-river from the rapids.

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and often mad[e] salleys to mak us decline;150 they gott nothing by that, but some arrows that did incommodat them to some purpose. We foresee that such a batail could not hold out long for want of powder of shott and arrows, so by the consent of my brother and the rest [I] made a speech in the Iroquoit language indueing151 me selfe with armor that I might not be wounded with every bullett or arrow that the ennemy sent perpetualy. Then I spoake. “Brethren we came from your countrey, and bring you to ours, not to see you perish unlesse we perish with you. You know that the French are men, and maks forts that cannot be taken so soone therefore cheare up for we love you, and will die with you.” This being ended, [there was] nothing but howling and crying. We brought our castors and tyed them eight by eight, and rowled them before us. The Iroquoits finding that they must come out of their fort to the watter side, where they left their boats, to make use of them in case of neede: where indeed [they] made an escape leaving all their baggage behind which was not much, neither had we enough to fill our bellyes with the meat that was left. There weare kettles, broaken gunns and rusty hattchetts. They being gone, our passage was free, so we made hast and endeavored to come to our journeys end. And to make the more hast, some boats went downe that faist streame without making any carriage* hopeing to follow the ennemy. But the bad looke* was that where my brother was the boat turned in the torrent, [and] being seaven of them together [they] weare in great danger. For God was mercifull to give them strenght to save themselves to the great admiration* [of all], for few can speed so well in such precipices. When they came to lande, they cutt rocks.152 My brother lost his booke of annotations of the last yeare, of our being in these foraigne nations. We lost never a castor, but, may be, some better thing.153 It’s better loose all then lose his life.154 We weare fowre moneths in our voyage, without doeing any thing but goe from river to river.155 We met severall sorts of people, we conversed with them 150 151 152 153

To make us weaker by wounding or killing a few men. indueing: to put on as a garment; to clothe or cover. They landed among sharp rocks (were cut by rocks?). We lost no castors but something more important: Des Groseilliers’s notes on the events of the past year. 154 The text that follows, up to 240, marks Radisson’s return to the narrative style he uses when employing information received from Des Groseilliers and the unnamed Frenchman. 155 Radisson now inserts a summary of what happened over a period of four months during the journey south of Lake Michigan. As we see below (240), he reports it as if he alone made the trip because Des Groseilliers was still recovering from his illness.

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being long time in alliance with them. By the persuation of some of them we went into the great river that divids itselfe in two, where the Hurrons with some Ottauaks and the wild men that had warrs with them, had retired.156 There is not great difference in their language, as we weare told. This nation have warrs against those of [the] forked river; it is so called because it has two branches, the one towards the west, the other towards the south which /79/ we believe runns towards Mexico, by the tokens they gave us.157 Being among these people they told us the prisoners they take tells them that they have warrs against men that build great cabbans and have great beards, and had such knives as we have had. Moreover they shewed a decad of beads and guilded pearls158 that they have had from that people, which made us believe they weare Europians. They shewed one of that nation that was taken the yeare before. We understood him not. He was much more tany159 than they with whome we weare. His armes and leggs weare turned outsid that was the punishment inflicted uppon him,160 so they doe with them that they take, and kill them with clubbs and doe often eat them. They doe not burne their prisoners as those of the northren parts. We weare informed of that nation that live in the other river. There weare men of an extraordinary height and biggnesse: that made us believ they had no communication with them.161 They live onely uppon corne and citrulles* which are mighty bigg. They have fish in plenty throughout the yeare They 156 For the controversy over Radisson’s account of this apparent sighting of the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri, see Introduction. The refugee Huron and other Algonquian-speaking groups had steadily moved southward as pressure from the Iroquois increased. 157 The Missouri and Mississippi meet just north of present-day St Louis. The people with whom the newcomers from the north were warring may have been the Illinois. The “tokens” appear to be the Spanish-made barrel mentioned above and the string of beads and pearls (see below). 158 decad: a string of beads and pearls; if divided into groups of ten, almost certainly a rosary. 159 tany: tawny (OED). Evidently from one of the Native peoples farther south; for some possibilities see the map “The Pueblo World, ca. 1680” in Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, 137. 160 No information has been found on this particular form of torture. 161 Radisson treats this tale as hearsay about which he is sceptical. Giant people are also mentioned in Voyage II (169), but this may be a factual reference to the Osage, who were very tall. During this period they were moving westward towards present-day Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.

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have fruit as big as the heart of an oriniak* which grows on vast trees. which are three armfull in compasse. When they see litle men they are afraid and cry out which makes many come help them. Their arrows are not of stones as ours are, but of fish boans and other boans that they worke greatly, as all other things.162 Their dishes are made of wood; I having seene them, could not but admire the curiosity of their worke. They have great calumets of great stones red and greene. They make a store of tobacco. They have a kind of drink that makes them mad for a whole day.163 This I have not seene therefore you may believe as you please. When I came back I found my brother sick, as I said before. God gave him his health, more by his courage then by any good medecine, for our bodyes are not like those of the wild men.164 To our purpose;165 we came back to our carriage*. Whilst we endeavoured to ayde our compagnions in their extremity, the Iroquoits gott a great way before, not well satisfied to have stayed for us, having lost seaven of their men, two of them weare not nimble enough. For our bulletts and arrows made them stay for good and all. Seaven of our[s] weare sick they have ben lik to be drowned, and the other two weare wounded by the Iroquoits. The next day we went on without any delay or encounter.* I give you leave if those of Mont Royal weare not overjoyed to see us arrived. Where they affirme us the pitifull conditions that the country was by the cruelty of those cruell barbars, that perpetualy killed and slaughtered to the very gates of the French fort. All this hindered not our goeing to the French att the Three Rivers after we refreshed ourselves three dayes. But [we were] like to pay dearly for our bold attempt; twenty inhabitants came downe with us in a shawlopp. As we doubled the point of the River of the Meddows,166 we weare sett uppon by severall of the Iroquoits, but durst not come neere us, because of two small brasse pieces* that the shaloup carryed. We tyed our boats together, and made a fort about us /80/ of castors skins, which kept us from all danger. We went downe the streame in that posture*. The ennemy left us, and did well, for our wild men weare disposed to fight, and our shaloupp could not come neare them because for want of watter. 162 worke: to carve or otherwise decorate. 163 No information has been located on this intoxicating drink, which does not appear to be European. 164 Here we return to Radisson’s account of his own experiences, though it is not clear where or when the events happened. 165 But to return to my narrative; that is, to the narrative of the battle at the Long Sault, begun above (236). 166 Rivière des Prairies.

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We came to Quebuc where weare saluted with the thundring of the guns, and batteryes of the fort; and of the three shipps that weare then att anchor, which had gon back to France without castors, if we had not come. We weare well traited for five dayes. The Governor made guifts, and sent two brigantins167 to bring us to the Three Rivers, where we arrived the second day after and the fourth day, they went away. That is the end of our three years voyage and few months. After so much paine and danger, God was so mercifull to bring us back saf to our dwelling, where the one was made much off by his wife, the other by his friends and kindred. The ennemy that had discovered us in our goeing downe gott more company with as many as they could to come to the passages, and there to waite for the retourne of those people, knowing well that they could not stay there long, because the season of the yeare was almost spent, but we made them by our persuations goe downe to Quebuc, which proved well, for the Iroquoits thought they weare gone another way, so came the next day after our arrivall to make a discovery* to the Three Rivers, where being perceived there is care taken to receiv them.168 The French cannot goe as the wild men through the woods, but imbarks themselves in small boats, and went along the river side, knowing that if the ennemy was repulsed, he would make his retreat to the river side. Some Algonquins weare then att the habitation, who, for to shew their vallor, disposed themselves to be the first in the poursuit of the enemy. Some of the strongest and nimblest French kept them company, with another great number of men called Ottauaks, so that we weare soone together by the ears.169 There weare some three hundred men of the enemy that came in the space of a fourteen night together, but when they saw us, they made use of their heels; we weare about five hundred, but the better to play their game after they runned half a mile in the wood they turned againe, where then the batail began most furiously by shooting att one an other. That uppermost nation170 being not used to shooting nor heare such noise, began to shake off their armor and took their bows and arrows: which indeed made [better?] execution then all the gunns that they had brought. So seeing fifty Algonquins and /81/ fifteen French keep to it, they resolved to stick to it also. Which had not long lasted for seeing that their arrows weare almost spent and they must close together, and that the[y] had an advantage by keeping themselves behind the trees, and 167 A small two-masted vessel. 168 They persuaded their party to set out for Quebec, whereas the Iroquois attackers thought they were heading for Trois-Rivières. 169 We were soon engaged in battle. 170 The Odawa, who were wearing typical Odawa armour, which they “shook off.”

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[if] we [were] to fall uppon [them] we must be without bucklers171 which diminished much our company that was foremost. We gave them in spight [of] us, place to retire themselves, which they did with all speed. Having come to the watter side where their boats weare, [we] saw the French all in a row, who layd in an ambush to receiv them, which they had done, if God had not ben for us. For they thinking that the enemy was att hand mistrusted nothing to the contrary. The French that weare in the wood, seeing the evident danger where their country men layd, encouraged the Ottauaks; who tooke their armes againe and followed the enemy, who not feared that way, arrived before the French weare apprehended by good looke*. One of the Iroquoits thinking his boat would be seene goes quickly and putts it out of sight, and discovers* himselfe. which warned the French to hinder them to goe further uppon that score. Our wild men made a stand, and fell uppon them stoutly. The combat begins anew, they see the French that weare uppon the watter come neere, which renforced them to take their boats with all hast and leave their booty behind. The few boats that the French had brought that could enter but the sixty French who weare enough.172 The wild men neverthelesse did not goe without their prey, which was of three mens heads that they killed att the first fight. But they left eleven of theirs in the place, besids many more that weare wounded. They went straight to their countrey, which did a great service to the retourne of our wild men, and mett with non all their journey, as we heard afterwards. They went away the next day, and we stayed at home att rest that yeere. My brother and I considered whether we should discover* what we have seene 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,173 not knowing any thing but by report of the wild Christinos, we would make no mention of it, for fear 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. The ende of the Auxotacicac voyage which is the third voyage.174

171 buckler: a round shield. A plate in Champlain’s Voyages ... 1615– ... 1618 shows an Odawa warrior with just such a shield (Champlain, Works, 1922–36, vol. 3, plate IIIc). 172 The French had brought few boats, but sixty French were enough to enter and carry out the attack. 173 James Bay, or possibly Hudson Bay itself. 174 Auxotacicac: another spelling of this problematic word.

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[/81b continued/]1 The spring following we weare in hopes to meet with some company, having ben so fortunat the yeare before.2 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 fathers Jesuits weare desierous to find out away how they might gett downe the castors from the bay of the north /82/ by the Sacgnes, and so make themselves masters of that trade.3 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 myself 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, because I heard the wild men say that although the way be easy, the wild men that are feed4 att their doors would have hindered them, because they make a livelyhood of that trade.5 In my last voyage I tooke notice of that that goes to three hands, which is first from the people of the north to another nation, that the French call Squerells, and another nation that they call Porquepique, and from them to the Montignes and Algonquins, that live in or about Quebucque. But the greatest hinderance, is the scant of watter, and the horrid torrents, and want of victuals, being no way to carry more than can serve fourteen dayes or three weeks navigation on that river.6 Neverthelesse

1 Voyage IV has no heading; the text follows on from “the Auxotacicac voyage which is the third voyage.” 2 For problems in the chronology of Radisson’s alleged first western journey (Voyage III), see Introduction. 3 Sacgnes: The Saguenay River; evidence of the growing interest of the French, and especially the Jesuits, in gaining access to the north by an inland route. 4 Radisson frequently uses near-obsolete forms; this is the past participle of “to fee” (to pay to) and he is referring to the role in trading played by Native middlemen. 5 They functioned as middlemen in the elaborate Native trade network of eastern Canada, which Radisson then describes. Goods travelled from the Cree on James Bay to the Squirrel (Assaanago) nation on Georgian Bay to the Porcupine nation, in the Lac SaintJean region, and from there south to the Montagnais and Algonquins. See Fox, “The Odawa,” in Ellis and Ferris, The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650, 457–74. 6 This is the alternate route to Quebec, more difficult to travel, but safer since there was no fear of Iroquois attack. The route is discussed briefly in Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic, 735. The Jesuits made use of people who travelled this route to carry letters

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the fathers are gone with the Governor’s son of the Three Rivers, and six other French, and twelve wild men. During that time we made our proposition to the Governor of Quebuc,7 that we weare willing to ventur our lives for the good of the countrey, and goe to travell to the remotest countrys with two Hurrons that made their escape from the Iroquoits. They wished nothing more then to bee in those parts, where their wives and families weare, about the Lake of the Stairing Haire;8 to that intent would stay untill August to see if any body would come from thence. My brother and I weare of one minde, and for more assurance my brother went to Montroyall to bring those two men along. He came backe, being in danger. The Governor gives him leave, conditionaly that he must carry two of his servants along with him, and give them the moitié9 of the profit. My brother was vexed att such an unreasonable a demand, to take inexperted men to their ruine. All our knowledge and desir depended10 onely of this last voyage. Besids that the governor should compare two of his servants to us, that have ventured our lives so many years and maintained the country with our generosity in the presence of all, neither was there one that had the courage to undertake what wee have done.11 We made the Governor a slight answer, and tould him for our part we knewed what we weare, discoverers before governors. If the wild men came downe, the way [was the same?] for them as for us, and that we should be glad to have the honnor of his company, but not of that of his servants, and that we weare both masters and servants.12 The Governor was much displeasd att this, and commanded us not /83/ to go without his leave. We desired the fathers to speak to him about it, our

7 8 9 10 11 12

back and forth to those working among the Huron-Wendat. (Heidi Bohaker, personal communication, 7 January 2011.) Pierre de Voyer d’Argenson. See Introduction, n.56. Lake Huron. moitié: a half-share (Eng.: moiety). depend: here, to be contingent on; thus “all our knowledge and ambition would come from (or perhaps be focused on) this last voyage.” For Radisson’s acute sense of his honour and reputation, see Introduction. both masters and servants: on the one hand, Radisson means that they governed their own activities, rather than being subject to the orders of others. Yet they were also “servants,” seemingly of what Radisson construes as the common purpose. The word “servant” had a complex social significance in the period; a servant could have quite a high status, but essentially he was someone who expected to be paid for his work as opposed to a gentleman, defined as someone who did not work for money. For Radisson’s confidence that he was a good servant, see Introduction.

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addresses weare slight because of the shame was putt uppon them the yeare before of their retourne.13 Besids they stayed for an opportunity to goe there themselves; for their designe is to further the Christian faith to the greatest glory of God. And indeed are charitable to all those that are in distresse and needy especialy to those that are worthy or industrious in their way of honesty. This is the truth. Let who he will speak otherwise, for this realy I know me selfe by experience. I hope I offend non to tell the truth.14 We are forced to goe back without doeing any thing. The month of August that brings a company of the Sault who weare come by the river of the Three Rivers with incredible paines as they said.15 It was a company of seaven boats. We wrote the news of their arrivement to Quebuc. They send us word that they will stay untill the two fathers be [re]turned from Sacquenes that we should goe with them, an answer without reason.16 Necessity obliged us to goe. Those people are not to be inticed, for as soon as they have done their affaire they goe. The Governor of that place defends17 us to goe. We tould him that the offense was pardonable because it was every ones interest neverthelesse we knowed what we weare to doe, and that he should not be blamed for us. We made guifts to the wild men that wished with all their hearts that we might goe a long with them, we told them that the Governor minded to send servants with them, and forbids us to goe along with them. The wild men would not accept of their compagny, but told us that they would stay for us two dayes in the Lake of St Peter in the grasse some six leaugues from the Three Rivers. But we did not lett them stay so long, for that very night my brother having the keyes of the brough as being captaine of the place,18 we embarqued ourselves. We made ready in the morning, so that 13 We did not appeal at length to the Jesuits since they were under a cloud because of their hurried escape from Onondaga in 1658 (see Voyage II). 14 In this passage Radisson is likely trying to accommodate himself to English anti-Jesuit prejudices. 15 Saulteaux who have arrived via the Saint-Maurice River. Radisson does not always name, or name with precision, the Native nations he encounters. Here, he travels from New France with the Saulteaux, and possibly some displaced Huron, and they overtake a party of Odawa. The French and Saulteaux at one point engage in a fray with some Iroquois. Radisson later encounters more Odawa at the Sault and in modern Minnesota and Wisconsin. 16 One of the two unnamed fathers may have been Father Charles Albanel, who travelled frequently between Quebec and Tadoussac, on the Saguenay River. 17 From French defendre: to forbid. 18 Brough: a small village or town; captaine of the place: that is, of the militia.

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we went three of us about midnight. Being come opposit to the fort they aske who is there. My brother tells his name. Every one knows what good services we had don to the country, and loved us, the inhabitants as well as the souldiers. The sentery answers him God give you a good voyag. We went on the rest of that night. Att six in the morning we are arrived to the appointed place, but found no body. We weare well armed, and had a good boat. We resolved to goe day and night to the River of the Meddows19 to overtake them. The wild men did feare that it was somwhat else, but three leaugues beyond that of the Fort Richelieu,20 we saw them coming to us. We putt ourselves uppon our guards thinking they weare ennemy, but weare friends, and received us with joy and said that if we had not come in three dayes time, they would have sent their boats to know the reason of our delay. There we are in that river waiting for the night. Being come to the River of the Medows we did separat our selves, three into three boats.21 The man that we have taken with us was putt into a boat of three men and a woman, but not of the same nation as the rest but of that we call sorcerers.22 They weare going downe to see some friends that lived with the nation of the fire, that now liveth with the Pouoestigonce or the Sault.23 It is to be understood that this river24 is divided much into streams very swift and small, before you goe to the river /84/ of Canada. [Because of] the great game that therein is, the ennemy is to be feared, which made us goe through these torrents. This could make any one afraid, who is inexperted in such voyages. We suffered much for three dayes and three nights, without rest. As we went, we heard the noise of guns, which made us believe firmly they weare ennemyes. We saw five boats goe by, and heard others which daunted our hearts for feare, although wee had eight boats in number, but weare a great distance one from another as is said in my former voyage,25 before we could gaine the height of the river. The boat of the Sorcerers, where was one of us, albeit [it] made a voyage into the Hurrons country before 19 Rivière des Prairies. 20 Built in 1642 at the mouth of Rivière Richelieu (formerly Sorel River). 21 Arriving at the Rivière des Prairies, we separated, three persons each into a total of three boats. 22 sorcerers: the Nipissing. 23 The nation of the fire: Mascouten. Pouoestigonce: Ojibwe. These are groups Des Groseilliers encountered in 1654–56; see Voyage III. 24 The rapids of the Ottawa River above Montreal. 25 In Voyage III Radisson writes: “we had done well if we had kept together not to goe before in the river nor stay behind some two or three leaugues” (212). He repeats material in Voyage III, making it evident he was rearranging the material available to him.

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with the fathers, it was not usefull, soe we made him embark an other, but stayed not there long. The night following [he] that was in the boat, dreamed that the Iroquoits had taken him with the rest. In his dreame he cryes out aloud, those that weare att rest awakes of the noise. We are in alarum, and ready to be gone. Those that weare with the man, resolved to goe back againe, explicating that an evill presage. The wild men councelled to send back the Frenchman, saying, he should die before he could come to their countrey. It’s usualy spoaken among the wild men, when a man is sick or not able to doe any thing, to discourage him in such sayings. Here I will give a relation of that Frenchman before I goe further, and what a thing it is to have an intrigue.26 The next day they see a boat of their ennemys as we heard since they presently landed. The wild men runned away, the Frenchman alsoe; as he went along the watter side for fear of loosing himselfe, he finds there an harbour very thick,27 layes himself downe, and falls asleepe. The night being come the wild men being come to know whether the ennemy had perceived them, but non pursued them, and found their boat in the same place, and imbarques themselves, and comes in good time to Mount Royall. They left the poor Frenchman there, thinking he had wit enough to come along the watter side, being not above tenne leaugues from thence. Those wild men after their arrivement for feare, spoak not one word of him but went downe to the Three Rivers where their habitation was. Fourteen dayes after some boats ventured to goe look for some oriniak*, came to the same place where they made cottages, and that within a quarter of mille where this wrech was. One of the French finds him on his back, and almost quite spent, had his gunne by him. He was very weake and desirous that he should be discovered by some or other. He fed as long as he could on grappes, and att last became so weake that he was not able [to go] any further, untill those French found him. After a while being come to himselfe, he tends downe [to] the Three Rivers, where being arrived the Governor emprisons him. He stayed not there long. The inhabitants seeing that the ennemy the hungar and all other miseries tormented this poore man, and that it was by a /85/ divine providence he was alive. They would not have souffred such inhumanity but gott him out. Three dayes after wee found the tracks of seaven boats, and fire yett burning. We found out by their characters28 they weare no ennemys, but imagined that 26 intrigue: a plot or scheme. 27 harbour: a safe place to lie down, with heavy bush. 28 The signs they left (see 186n.113).

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they weare Octauaks that went up in to their countrey, which made us mak hast to overtake them; we took no rest till we overtooke them. They came from Mountroyall; and gone by the great river, so that we are now fourteen boats together which weare to goe the same way to the height of the upper lake. The day following wee weare set uppon by a company of Iroquoits, that fortified themselves in the passage where the[y] waited of Octauack, for they knewed of their going downe. Our wild men seeing that there was no way to avoid them resolved to be together, being the best way for them to make a quick expedition, for the season of the yeare pressed us to make expedition.29 We resolved to give a combat, we prepared ourselves with targetts.30 Now the buissines was to make a discovery*.31 I doubt not but the ennemy was much surprized to see us so in number. The councell was held, and resolution taken. I and a wild man weare appointed to goe and see their fort. I offered my selfe with a free will, to lett them see how willing I was to defend them; that is the onely way to gaine the hearts of those wild men. We saw that their fort was environed with great rocks, that there was no way to mine32 it because there weare no trees neere it. The mine was nothing else but to cutt the nearest tree, and so by his fall make a bracke33 and so goe and give an assault. Their fort was nothing but trees one against another in a round, or square without side. The ennemy seeing us come neere, shot att us but in vaine for we have forewarned ourselves before we came there. It was a pleasur to see our wild men with their guns and arrows, which agreed not together, neverthelesse we told them when the[y] received a bracke, their guns would be to no purpose, therefore to putt them by, and make use of their bows and arrows. The Iroquoits saw themselves putt to it, and the evident danger that they weare in, but to late, except they would runne away, yett our wild men weare better foote men then they. There weare French men that should give them good dirrections to ouerthrow them,34 resolved to speake for peace, and throw necklaces of porcelaine* over the stakes of their fort. Our wild men weare da29 To get the battle over quickly. The party had left for the west in August, which in that latitude did not leave much time before the approach of winter. 30 targetts: shields, and see Odawa shields in Voyage III (241). 31 Here, from the French se decouvrir: to reveal oneself. 32 to mine: to tunnel or dig beneath their defences. 33 bracke: an obstacle, as in “windbreak.” A few lines later, “bracke” seems to mean obstacle in a more general sense, i.e., “repulse” or “rebuff.” 34 The French (that is, Radisson and Des Groseilliers) gave useful instructions to “our wild men” to overthrow the Iroquois, and tried to persuade them to do so with gifts of wampum, but without success.

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zelled att such guifts, because that the porcelaine* is very rare and costly in their countrey, and then seeing themselves flattered with faire words, to which they gave eare, we t[h]rust them by force to putt their first designe in execution. But [they] feared [for] their lives, and loved the porcelaine, seeing they had it without danger of any life. They weare persuaded to stay till the next day, because now it was almost night. The Iroquoits make their escape. This occasion lost, our consolation was that we had that passage free, but vexed for having lost that opportunity and contrary wise weare contented of our side for doubtlesse some of us had ben killed in the bataill. The day following we embarqued our selves quietly, being uppon our guards for feare of any /86/ surprize, for that ennemy’s danger scarcely begane who with his furour made himselfe so redoubted35 having ben there up and downe to make a new slaughter. This morning passes in assurance enough. In the afternone the two boats that had orders to land some two hundred paces from the landing place. One tooke onely a small bundle very light [and] tends to the other side of the carriage* imagining there to make the kettle boyle, having killed two staggs two howres agoe and was scarce halfe way when he meets the Iroquoits, without doubt for that same bussinesse. I think both weare much surprized. The Iroquoit had a bundle of castor, that he left behind without much adoe, our wild men did the same. They both runne away to their partners to give them notice. By chance my brother meets them in the way. The wild men seeing that they all weare frightened and out of breath they asked the matter and was told Nadouuée,36 and so soone said, he letts fall his bundle that he had uppon his back into a bush and comes backe where he finds all the wild men de[s]paired. He desired me to encourag them, which I performed with all earnestnesse. We runned to the height of the cariage*. As we weare agoing they tooke their armes with all speed. In the way we found the bundle of castors that the ennemy had left. By this means we found out that they weare in a fright as we [were] and that they came from the warrs of the upper country which we told the wild men, so encouraged them to gaine the watter side to discover their forces, where we no sooner came but two boats weare landed, and charged their guns either to defend themselves or to sett uppon us. We prevented this affaire by our diligence and shott att them with our bows and arrows as with our guns. They finding such an assault, immediately forsooke the place. They would have

35 redoubt: To dread, fear; to stand in awe or apprehension of (OED); and see “two redoubted nations,” below. 36 Nadouuée: enemy. Ojibwe term for both for a serpent and an Iroquois. See Baraga, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, 264.

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gone into their boats but we gave them not so much time, they threwed themselves into the river to gaine the other side. This river was very narrow so that it was very violent. We had killed and taken them all if two boats of theirs had not come to their souccor which made us gave over to follow37 them and looke to ourselves for we knewed not the number of their men. Three of their men neverthelesse weare killed, the rest is on the other sid of the river where there was a fort which was made long before. There they retired themselves with all speed. We passe our boats to augment our victory38 seeing that they weare many in number. They did what they could to hinder our passage, butt all in vaine for we made use of the bundle of castors that they left which weare to us instead of gabbions39 for we putt them att the heads of our boats, and by that means gott ground in spight of their noses.40 They killed one of our men as we landed. Their number was not [able] to resist ours. They retired themselves into the fort and brought the rest of their [number?] in hopes to save it. In this they weare far mistaken for we furiously gave an assault, not sparing time to make us bucklers,41 and made use of nothing else but of castors tyed together so without any more adoe we gathered together. The Iroquoits spared not their powder, but made more noise then hurt. The darknes covered the earth42 which was somewhat favorable for us. But to overcome them the sooner, we filled a barill full of gun powder, and having stoped the hole of it well and tyed it to the end of a long pole, being att the foote of the fort. Heere we lost three of our men. Our machine did play with an execution.43 I may well say that the ennemy never had seen /87/ the like. More over I tooke three or four pounds of powder, this I put into a rind* of a tree, then a fusy44 to have the time to throw the rind*, warning the wild men as soone as the rind made his execution that they should enter in, and breake the fort upside downe with the hattchett and the sword in their hands. In the meane time 37 Gave up following. 38 A word may have dropped out here, but the sense seems to be that they pressed forward in their boats. 39 gabion: a cylindrical wicker basket, usually filled with earth for use in fortification (OED). 40 Under their noses. 41 buckler: a small round shield, like the earlier “targett”; see n.30. 42 Biblical phrasing here; see, for example, Gen. 1: 2, Isa. 60: 2, Luke 23: 44. Radisson rarely echoes Scripture. 43 From the French faire jouer: to set in motion. 44 fusy (Fr.: fusée): a fuse.

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the Iroquoits did sing exspecting death or [took] to their heels att the noise of such a smoake and noise that our machines made with the slaughter of many of them. Seeing themselves soe betrayed, they lett us goe free into their fort that thereby they might save themselves, but having environed the fort, we are mingled pell mell, so that we could not know one another in that skirmish of blowes. There was such an noise that should terrifie the stoutest men. Now there falls a showre of raine and a terrible storme that to my thinking there was somthing extraordinary that the devill himself made that storme to give those men leave to escape from our hands to destroy another time more of these innocents. In that darknesse every one looked about for shelter, not thinking of those braves that layd downe halfe dead to pursue them. It was a thing impossible, yett doe believe that the ennemy was not far. As the storme was over, we came together making a noise, and I am persuaded that many thought themselves prisoners that weare att liberty. Some sang their fatall song albeit without any wounds, so that those that had the confidence to come neare the others, weare comforted by assuring them the victory, and that the ennemy was routed. We presently make a great fire, and with all hast make upp45 the fort againe for feare of any surprise. We searched for those that weare missing. Those that weare dead and wounded were visited.46 We found eleven of our enemy slain’d, and two onely of ours, besides seaven were wounded, who in a short time passed all danger of life. While some weare buisie in tying five of the ennemy that [they] could not escape, the others visited the wounds of their compagnions, who for to shew their courage sung’d lowder then those that weare well. The sleepe that we tooke that night did not make our heads guidy, although we had need of reposing. Many liked the occupation, for they filled their bellyes with the flesh of their ennemyes; we boiled some of it, and ketles full of the rest. We bourned our comrades, being their coustume to reduce such into ashes, being slained in bataill. It is an honnor to give them such a buriall. Att the brake of day we cooked what could accommodate us and flung the rest away. The greatest marke of our victory was that we had ten heads and fowre prisoners whom we embarqued in hopes to bring them into our countrey, and there to burne them att our owne leasures for the more satisfaction of our wives. We left that place of masacre with horrid cryes, [not] forgetting the death of our parents, we plagued those infortunates, we plucked out their nails one after an other.

45 make upp: repair, build up (for wilderness forts and construction, see 150n.155). 46 visited: to come to (persons) in order to judge of their state or condition (OED).

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The next morning after we slept a litle in our boats, we made a signe to be gone. They prayed [me] to lett off my peece* which made greate noise. To fullfill their desire, I lett it of. I noe sooner shott but perceived seaven boats of the Iroquoits going from a point towards the land. We weare surprised of such an incounter* seeing death before us, being not strong enough to resist such a company /88/ for there weare ten or twelve in every boat. They perceaving us thought that we weare more in number, began in all hast to make a fort, as we received from two discoverers that wee sent to know their postures*. It was with much adoe that those two went. Dureing [that time] we persuaded our wild men to send seaven of our boats to an isle neare [at] hand, and turne often againe to frighten our adversarys, by our shew of our forces. They had a minde to fortifie themselves in that island, but we would not suffer it, because there was time enough in case of necessity which we represented unto them, makeing them to gather together all the broaken trees to make them a kind of barricad [and] prohibiting them to cutt trees, that thereby the ennemy might not suspect our feare and our small number which they had knowne by the stroaks of their hattchetts. Those wild men thinking to be lost, obeyed us in every thing telling us every foot be cheerfull, and dispose of us as you will for we are men lost. We killed our fowre prisoners because they embarassed us.47 They sent as soone as we weare together some fourty that perpetualy went to and againe to find out our pollicy and weaknesse. In the meane time we told the people, that they weare men, and if they must die [to do so] alltogether, and for us to make a fort in the lande was to destroy our selves, because we should put our selves in prison. To take courage, if in case we should be forced to take a retreat the isle was a fort for us from whence we might well escape in the night. That we weare strangers*, and they (if I must say so) in their countrey, and shutting48 ourselves in a fort all passages would be open uppon us, for to save ourselves through the woods was a miserable comfort. In the meane time the Iroquoit worked lustily, think[ing] at every step we weare to give them an assault, but farr deceived. For if ever blind49 wished the light, we wished then the obscurity of the night, which no sooner approched but we embarqued our selves without any noise, and went along.

47 Fr. embarrasser: to encumber, weigh down. 48 Ms. “shooting” (and so Scull and Adams), conjecturally emended to “shutting” because the sense seems to be “to shut ourselves in a fort would mean all its entries would lead to us” (as opposed to the safety of an island). Dispersing in the woods, however, seems not to have offered much more safety. 49 Fr., aveugle: here as later, a blind man.

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It’s strang[e] to me that the ennemy did not encounter* us. Without question he had store of prisoners and booty. We left the Iroquoit in his fort and the feare in our breeches,50 for without apprehension we rowed from Friday to Tuesday without intermission; we had scarce to eat a bit of sault meat. It was pitty to see our feete and leggs in blood by drawing our boats through the swift streames, where the rocks have such sharp points, that there is nothing but death could make men doe what we did. On the third day the paines and labours we tooke forced us to an intermission for we weare quite spent. After this we went on without any rencounter* whatsoever having escaped very narrowly. We passed a sault that falls from a vast height.51 Some of our wild men went underneath it, which I have seene, and I myselfe had the curiosity but that quiver makes a man the surer.52 The watter runs over the heads with such impetuosity and violence, that it’s incredible. We went under this torrent a quarter of a mille that falles from the toppe above fowrty foot downwards. Having come to the lake of the castors,53 we went about the lake of the castors for some victuals being in great want, and suffered much hungar. So every one constituts himselfe.54 Some went a hunting, some a fishing, this done we went downe the river of the Sorcerers which brought us to the first great lake.55 What joy had we to see our selves out of that river so dangerous /89/ after we wrought two and twenty dayes and as many nights having not slept one howre on land all that while. Now being out of danger as safe from our enemy, perhaps we must enter in to another which perhaps may give practice and trouble. Consequently, our equipage and we weare ready to wander uppon that sweet sea.56 But most of that coast is void of wild beasts, so there was great famine amongst us for want. Yett the coast afforded us some small fruits. There I found the kindnesse and charity of the wild men, for when they found any place of any quantity of it they called me and my brother to eat and replenish our bellys, shewing themselves far gratefuller then many Christians even to 50 That is, shitting in our breeches for fear. 51 Probably the Rideau Falls on the Ottawa River; Radisson says he has seen these falls before, which confirms that, whether in 1656 or on some undocumented journey between 1654 and 1657, he had passed up the river. 52 A shiver of fear provides a useful caution. As the next passage makes clear, Radisson did go under the waterfall. For Radisson’s habit of using proverbs and conventional sayings, see Introduction. 53 Lake Nipissing. 54 Establishes or sets himself in order to do the tasks in the following sentence. 55 The French River, leading to Georgian Bay. 56 sweet sea: a freshwater lake, in this case Georgian Bay.

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their owne relations. I cannot forget here the subtility of one of those wild men that was in the same boat with me. We see a castor along the watter side that puts his head out of the watter. That wildman no sooner saw him but throwes him[self] out into the watter, and downe to the bottom without so much time as to give notice to any, and before many knewed of any thing he brings up that castor in his armes, as a child which fearing to be bitten. By this we see that hungar can doe much. Afterwards we entered into a straight which had ten leaugues in lenght full of islands where we wanted not fish. We came after to a rapid, that makes the seperation of the Lake of the Hurrons, that we calle Superior or Upper,57 for that the wild men hold it to be longer and broader besids a great many islands, which maks [it] appeare in a bigger extent. This rapid was formerly the dwelling of those with whome wee weare,58 and consequently we must not aske them if they knew where the hare layed.59 Wee made cottages att our advantages, and found the truth of what those men had often [said], that if once we could come to that place, we should make good cheare of a fish that they call assickmack which signifieth a white fish.60 The beare the castors and the oriniack* sheweth themselves often but to their loss. Indeed it was to us like a terrestriall paradise after so long fasting, after so great paines that we had taken, [to] finde our selves so well, by choosing our dyet, and resting when we had a minde to it. Tis here that we must tast with pleasur a sweet bitt, we doe not aske for a good sauce. It’s better to have it naturaly, it is the way to distinguish the sweet from the bitter. But the season was far spent, and we \use/61 diligence, and leave that place so wished, which we shall bewaile to the coursed Iroquoits. What hath that poore nation done to thee, and being so far from thy country, yett if they had the same liberty that in former dayes they have had, we poor French should not goe further with our heads.62 Except we had a strong army, those great lakes had not so soone comed to our knowledge. If it had not been for those brutish people two men had not found out the truth of these seas; so cheape the

57 Sault Sainte-Marie. 58 The Saulteaux. 59 where the hare layed: an old proverbial expression meaning “where the secret is” or “the gist of the matter.” Radisson is unwilling to ask the Saulteaux for information, possibly out of courtesy. 60 White fish: Adikameg or Attickmack (Coregonus clupeaformis). 61 Conjectural reading (flaw in paper of the manuscript). 62 We would be beheaded.

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interest,63 and the glorie could not doe, what terror doth. Att the end we are a litle better come to ourselves and furnished. We left that inne without reckoning with our hoast. It is cheape when wee are not to put the hand to the purse, neverthelesse we must pay out of civility. The one gives thanks to the woods, the other to the river, the third to the earth, the other to the rocks that stayes the fish, in a word there is nothing but kinekoiur64 of all sorts; the encens of our /90/ encens65 is not spared. The weather was agreable when we began to navigat upon that great extent of watter finding it so calme and the aire so cleere. We thwarted* [it] in a pretty broad place,66 came to an isle most delightfull for the diversity of its fruits, we called it the Isle of the Fowre Beggars.67 We arived about five of the clocke in the after none that we came there. We sudainly* put the kettle to the fire. We reside there a while, and seeing all this while the faire weather, and calme, we went from thence att tenne of the cloake the same night to gaine the firme lande, which was six leaugues from us where we arrived before day. Here we found a small river. I was so curious that I inquired my dearest friends the name

63 Our stake in the venture would be of so little value. A confusing passage, but Radisson seems to be saying that the very opposition of the Iroquois fuelled their desire to see the Great Lakes. 64 kinekoiur: meaning uncertain; neither Algonquian nor Iroquoian, it could be a scribal misreading of some other word. Heidi Bohaker (personal communication) suggests it is a misspelling of an Algonquian word, not only given the context but based on hints in two seventeenth-century Anishinaabe dictionaries. Kina or kine is “us” (inclusive), and ko (also in Baraga, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, 198) is a “particle denoting use or custom.” 65 the encens of our encens is not spared: Radisson uses the same kind of repetition in the Relation of 1682–83 where he threatens a Cree opponent that he will “eate sagamite in the head of the head of his grandmother” and observes that this is regarded as the most shocking of threat.‡ The event itself is a smudging ceremony prior to his party’s departure; “the season is far spent” and fall is typically the time when the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) dispersed into their winter hunting territories. The ceremony is one of thanksgiving and appears to honour the places where the Anishinaabe secured their food, and quite possibly the owners of the animals, the Manitou who would ensure a good hunt assuming they were respectfully treated. (Heidi Bohaker, personal communication, 7 January 2011.) 66 Perhaps Whitefish Bay. 67 Perhaps Isle Parisienne in Whitefish Bay.

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of this streame, they named me it Pauabickkomesibs,68 which signifieth a small river of copper. I asked him the reason, he told me, come, and I shall shew thee the reason why. I was in a place which is not two hundred paces in the wood, where many peeces of copper weare uncovered. Further he told me that the mountaine I saw was of nothing else. Seeing it so faire and pure, I had a mind to take a peece of it, but they hindred me, telling my brother, there was more where we weare to goe. In this great lake of myne owne eyes have seene [copper pieces] which are admirable*, and cane maintaine of a hundred pounds teem will not be decayed.69 From this place we went along the coasts, which are most delightfull, and wounderous for it’s nature that made it so pleasant to the eye the sperit and the belly. As we went along we saw banckes of sand so high, that one of our wild men went upp for our curiositie [and] being there did shew no more then a crow. That place is most dangerous when that there is any storme, being no landing place so long as the sandy bancks are under watter, and when the wind blowes, that sand doth rise by a strang kind of whirling that are able to choake the passengers.70 One day you will see fifty small mountaines att one side, and the next day if the wind changes on the other side. This putt me in mind of the great and vast wildernesses of Turkey land as the Turques makes their pylgrimages.71 Some dayes after we observed that there were some boats before us, but knewed not certainly what they weare. We made all the hast to overtake them fearing the ennemy no more; indeed the faster we could goe the better for us because of the season of the yeare that began to be cold, and freeze. They were a nation that live in a land towards the south. This nation is very small being 68 Pauabickkomesibs. Copper River. Not in Baraga, A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language, in this form, but root words for copper contain “ik” or “isk”; and “sibi” appears in words connected with river. Radisson is referring to the extensive copper deposits – utilized by the Natives for thousands of years – on this part of the Lake Superior shore. See Griffin, Lake Superior Copper and the Indians, 32–45, who notes references to copper in the interior as early as Cartier and Champlain. 69 If “teem” here has the meaning “production” (now obsolete), this obscure sentence possibly means that Radisson has seen more such copper nuggets, and the place can produce a hundred pounds (in copper or in value?) on a regular basis. 70 The Grand Sable dunes at what today is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, northern Michigan. 71 This passage has led readers to wonder if Radisson had sailed to Turkey as a boy, but the word “pylgrimages” suggests he may simply have been reading a book of travels, perhaps one of the various editions of Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimage (1617). The scant evidence of Radisson’s reading is mentioned in the Introduction.

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not hundred in all men and women together. As we came neere them they weare surprised of our safe retourne,72 and astonied to see us, admiring* the rich marchandises that their confederats brought from the French, that weare hattchetts and knives and other utensils very commodious, rare, precious and necessary in those countreys. They told the news one to another whilst we made good cheere, and great fires. They mourned for the death of their comrades, the heads of their ennemy weare danced. [After] some dayes we seperated our selves, and presented guiftes to those that weare going an other way, for which we received great store of meate which was putt up in barrills,73 and grease of bears and oriniacke*. After this we came to a remarquable place. It’s a banke of /91/ rocks that the wild men made a sacrifice to. They calle it Nanitouck sinagoit74 which signifies the likness of the devill, they fling much tobacco and other things in its veneration. It is a thing most incredible that that lake should be so boisterous, that the waves of it should have the strenght to doe what I have to say by this my discours. First that it’s so high and soe deepe that it’s impossible to claime up to the point; there comes many sorte of birds that makes there nest here, the goilants75 which is a white sea bird, of the bignesse of pigeon, which makes me believe what the wild men told me concerning the sea to be neare directly to the point. It’s like a great portall, by reason of the beating of the waves, the lower part of that oppening 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 five hundred tuns could passe by so bigg is the arch. I gave it the name of the Portall of St Peter, because 72 These may be Mascouten (never a large group) whom Des Groseilliers had encountered in 1655–56; see Voyage III (221n.72). 73 barrils: probably the large, deep birchbark containers used by the Ojibwe to transport and store foodstuffs. The Algonquian name is makak (Ojibwe) or mahkahk (Cree), but James Isham and later traders called them “rogans,” a name drawn from an extinct dialect of Cree. (Laura Peers, personal communication, 15 September 2010.) 74 The Pictured Rocks, sandstone cliffs naturally carved into various shapes, run for twenty-five kilometres along the south shore of Lake Superior northeast of Munising, Michigan. Nanitouck sinagoit: “Radisson likely heard what would be rendered in today’s orthography as ‘manidoong zhinaagwad: It looks like a manidoo.’ People offered tobacco at such places out of respect for the beings who dwelt there. In contrast with Radisson’s description of an other-than-human being as a ‘devil,’ the word ‘manitou’ has no such negative connotation.” (Personal communication, Alan Corbiere, 8 December 2010.) 75 goelants: the Goéland or seagull, in this area probably the American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus).

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my name is so called, and that I was the first Christian that ever saw it.76 There is in that place caves very deepe, caused by the same violence. We must looke to our selves; and take time with our small boats, the coast of rocks is five or six leaugues and there scarce a place to putt a boat in assurance from the waves. When the lake is agitated the waves goeth in these concavities with force, and make a most horrible noise, most like the shooting of great guns. Some dayes afterwards we arrived to a very beautifull point of sand where there are three beautifull islands that we called of the Trinity,77 there be three in triangle. From this place we discovered a bay very deepe, where a river empties it selfe with a noise for the quantitie and dept of the water.78 We must stay there three dayes to wait for faire weather to make the trainage79 which was about six leaugues wide. Soe done, we came to the mouth of a small river, where we killed some oriniacks*. We found meddows that weare squared, and [for] ten leaugues as smooth as a boord. We went up some five leaugues further, where we found some pools made by the castors, we must breake them that we might passe. The sluce being broaken what a wounderfull thing to see the industrie of that animal, which had drowned more then twenty leaugues in the grounds, and cutt all the trees, having left non to make a fire if the countrey should be dried up. Being come to the height, we must drague our boats over a trembling ground80 for the space of an howre. The ground became trembling by this means. The castor drowning great soyles with dead water, herein growes mosse which is two foot thick or there abouts, and when you think to goe safe and dry, if you take not great care you sink downe to your head or to the midle of your body. When you are out of one hole you find yourselfe in another. This I speake by experience for I meselfe have bin catched often. But the wild men warned me which saved me, that is that when the mosse should break under I should cast my whole body into the watter on sudaine*. I must with my hands hold the mosse, and goe soe like a frogg, then to draw my boat after me there 76 This is the only place in any of his Voyages where Radisson names himself even indirectly. Grand Portal (which indeed was once as high as he says) is west of Grand Marais, Michigan. Much of the great arch collapsed in 1900, and there was a second collapse in 2002. 77 “These must be the three little islands just west of Presque Isle Point, north of Marquette, Michigan ... the only islands ‘set in a triangle’ some days past Grand Portal.” (Conrad Heidenreich, personal communication, 1992.) 78 The Falls River at L’Anse on Keweenaw Bay. 79 trainage: (from the Fr.), to haul with a rope, using a sled or slide. 80 trembling ground: Fr. “sable mouvant” or quicksand; however, from the description this is more likely to be the unstable surface of a cedar swamp.

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was no danger. Having passed that place we made a /92/ cariag* through the land for two leaugues. The way was well beatten because of the commers and goers, who by makeing that passage, shortens their passage by eight dayes, by tourning about the point that goes very farr in that great lake.81 That is to say, five to come to the point, and three for to come to the landing of that place of cariage. In the end of that point that goeth very farre, there is an isle,82 as I was told, all of copper; this I have not seene. They say that from the isle of copper, which is a leaugue in the lake, when they are minded to thwart* it in a faire and calme wether, begining from sun rising to sun sett they come to a great island,83 from whence they came the next morning to firme land att the other side. So by reason of twenty leaugues a day, that lake should be broad of six score and ten leaugues.84 The wild men doe not much lesse when the weather is faire. Five dayes after we came to a place where there was a company of Christinos that weare in their cottages, they weare transported for joy to see us come backe. They made much of us, and called us men indeed85 to performe our promisse to come and see them againe. We gave them great guifts, which caused some suspicion, for it is a very jealous nation,86 but the short stay that we made tooke away that jealousy. We went on and came to a shallow river which was a quarter of a mile in breth, many of our wild men went to win the shortest way to their nation,87 and weare then three and twenty boats for we mett with some in that lake that joined with us, and came to keepe us company in hopes to gett knives from us, which they love better than we to serve God, which should make us blush for shame. Seaven boats stayed of the nation of the Sault. We went on half a day before we could come to the landing place, and wear forced to make an other carriage* [across] a point of two leaugues long and some sixty paces broad.88 As we came to the other sid, we weare in a bay of ten leaugues about if we had gone in, by goeing about that same point, we passed a straight, for that point was very nigh the other side which is a cape very much 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

Evidently a well-travelled short cut across the Keweenaw peninsula. Manitou Island, where there is evidence of old copper workings. Isle Royale. The actual distance across at this point is 175 kilometres. called us men indeed: that is honourable, as mature men are expected to be. The Saulteaux with whom they were travelling were touchy. Possibly refugee Huron traveling with Radisson and Des Groseilliers’s group of Saulteaux (Adams, The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lvii). 88 Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lvii) suggests this was the sandbar now known as Long Island.

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elevated like piramides.89 That point should be very fitt to build and advantageous for the building of a fort as we did the spring following. In that bay there is a chanell where we take great store of fishes, sturgeons of a vast biggnesse, and pycks of seaven foot long. Att the end of this bay we landed.90 The wild men gave thanks to that which the[y] worship, wee to God of Gods to see our selves in a place where we must leave our navigation, and forsake our boats to undertake a harder peece of worke in hand, to which we are forced. The men told us that wee had five great dayes journeyes before we should arrive where their wives weare. We foresee the hard task that we weare to undergoe by carrying our bundles uppon our backs. They weare used to it. Here every one for himselfe and God for all. We finding ourselves not able to performe such a taske, and they could not well tell where to finde their wives, fearing least the Nadouceronons91 had warrs against their nation, and forced them from their appointed place, my brother and I we consulted what was best to doe, and declared our will to them which was /93/ thus: Brethren we resolve to stay here, being not accoustumed to make any cariage on our backs as yee are wont. Goe yee and looke for your wives; wee will build us a fort here. And seeing that you are not able to carry all your marchandises att once, we will keepe them for you, and will stay for you fourteen days. Before the time expired you will send to us if your wives be alive, and if you find them they will fetch what you leave here, and what we have. For their paines, they shall receive guifts of us. Soe you will see us in your countrey. If they be dead, we will spend all to be revenged, and will gather up the whole countrey for the next spring for that purpose to destroy those that weare the causers of their death, and you shall see our strenght and vallour. Although there are seaven thousand fighting men in one village, yo’ill see we will make them runne away and you shall kill them to your best liking by the very noise of our armes and our presence, who are the Gods of the earth among those people. They woundered very much att our resolution.

89 Radisson’s syntax is unclear here, but the bay is Chequamegon; Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lvii) suggests that the “cape very much elevated like piramides” may be Houghton Point, or possibly La Pointe on Madeline island, or Van Tassell’s Point. 90 A tablet now marks the place where they are thought to have landed, near the mouth of Wittlesey Creek (Adams, The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lvii). 91 Nadouceronons: Sioux. Possibly a hybrid word blending the Ojibwe term for “snake” and “enemy” (see above) and the Huron “ronnon” (people or nation) to produce “people of the snake.”

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The next day they went their way and we stay, for our assurance in the midst of many nations being but two, almost starved for want of foode. We went about to make a fort of stackes,92 which was in this manner. Suppose that the watter side had ben in one end, att the same end there should be murtherers, and att need93 we made a bastion in a triangle to defend us from an assault. The doore was neare the watter side, our fire was in the midle, and our bed on the right hand covered, there weare boughs of trees all about our fort layed a crosse one uppon an other. Besides these boughs we had a long cord tyed with some small bells, which were senteryes. Finaly, we made an ende of that fort in two dayes time. We made an end of some fish that we putt by for neede. But as soone as we are lodged, we went to fish for more whilst the other kept the house. I was the fittest to goe out being younges. I tooke my gunne, and goes where I never was before so I choosed not one way before another.94 I went to the wood some three or fowre miles. I find a small brooke, where I walked by the sid a while, which brought me into meddowes. There was a poole where weare a good store of bustards. I began to creepe [as] though I might come neare. [I] thought to be in Canada95 where the fowle is scared away, but the poore creatures seeing me flatt uppon the ground thought I was a beast as well as they, so they came neare me whisling like gosslings thinking to frighten me. The whistling that I made them heare, was another musick than theirs. There I killed three, and the rest scared, which neverthelesse came to that place againe to see what sudaine sicknesse befeled their comrads. I shott againe, two payed for their curiosity. I think the Spaniards had no more to fullfill then, as kill those birds, that thought not of such a thunder bolt.96 There are yett more countreys as fruitfull and as beautifull as the Spaniards to conquer, which may be done with as much ease and facility and prove as rich if not richer for bread and wine, and all other things are as plentifull as is any part of Europ. This I have seene, which am sure the Spaniards have not in such plenty. Now I come backe with my victory /94/ which was to us more than tenne thousand pistoles, we lived by it five dayes. I tooke good notice of the place in hopes to come there more frequent, but this place is not [the] only [one] so there we stayed still full twelve dayes without any 92 93 94 95

Stakes. To deal with that problem. I had no reason to choose one path over another. As if I were in Canada (that is, New France) where the birds have learned to be fearful. 96 This passage seems to reflect something (unidentified) that Radisson has heard or read about the Spanish shooting fowl in America.

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news. But we had the company of other wild men of other countreys that came to us admiring our fort, and the workmanshipp. We suffered non to goe in but one person, and liked it so much the better and often durst not goe in, so much they stood in feare of our armes that weare in good order. Which weare five guns two musquetons,97 three fowling peeces*,98 three paire of great pistoletts and two paire of pockett on[e]s and every one his sword and daggar, so that we might say that a coward was not well enough armed. Mistrust neverthelesse is the mother of safty and the occasion makes the thiefe. During that time we had severall alarums. In the night the squerels and other small beasts as well as foxes came in and assaulted us. One night I forgott my braier* which was wett, being up and downe in those pooles to fetch my fowles. One of those beasts carried it away which did us a great deale of wrong, and saved the life to great many of those against whom I declared my self an ennemy.99 We immagin’d that some wild men might have surprised us, but I may say they weare far more afrayd then we. Some dayes after we found it one-half a mile from the fort in a hole of a tree the most part torne. Then I killed an oriniack*, I could have killed more but we liked the fowles better. If we had both libertie to goe from our fort we should have provided in a month that should serve us a whole winter. The wild men brought us more meate then we would, and as much fish as we might eate. The 12th day we perceived a far off some fifty yong men coming towards us, with some of our formest* compaignions. We gave them leave to come into our fort, but they are astonied calling us every foot devils to have made such a machine. They brought us victuals thinking we weare halfe starved but weare mightily mistaken, for we had more for them then they weare able to eate having three score bustards, and many sticks where was meate hanged plentifully. They offred to carry our baggage being come a purpose, but we had not so much marchandize as when they went from us, because we hid some of them that they might not have suspicion of us. We told them that for feare of the dayly multitud of people that came to see us for to have our goods would kill us. We therefore tooke a boat and putt in to it our marchandises. This we brought farre into the bay, where we sunke them, bi[d]ding our devill not to lett them to be wett nor rustied, nor suffer them to be taken away, which he promised faithlesse, that we should retourne and take them out of his hands att which they weare astonished believing it to be true as the Christians the 97 A musket or rifle. 98 A rifle with a particularly long barrel, for shooting birds. 99 “to great” is probably “of a great.” Radisson’s meaning seems to be that they wasted so much time looking for the lost undergarment that they were not able to kill many enemies.

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gospels. We hid them in the ground on the other sid of the river in a peece of ground.100 We told them that lye, that the[y] should not have suspicion of us. We made good cheere. They stayed there three dayes, during which time many of their wives came thither, and we /95/ treated them well for they eat not fowle att all scarce because they know not how to catch them except with their arrowes. We putt a great many rind* about our fort, and broake all the boats that we could have for the frost would have broaken them or wild men had stolen them away. That rind* was tyed all in lenght to putt the fire in it, to frighten the more those people for they could not approach it without being discovered if they ventured. Att the going out we putt the fire to all the torches shewing them how we would have defended ourselves. We weare Cesars, being no body to contradict us. We went away free from any burden whilest those poor miserable [people] thought themselves happy to carry our equipage, for the hope that they had that we should give them a brasse ring, or an awle or an needle. There came above fowre hundred persons to see us goe away from that place, which admired* more our actions [than] the fools of Paris to see enter their King and the Infanta of Spaine, his spouse for they cry out, God save the King and Queene.101 Those made horrid noise and called [us] gods and devils of the earth and heavens. We marched fowre dayes through the woods. The country is beautifull, with very few mountaines, the woods cleare. Att last we came within a leaugue of the cabbans where we layed, that the next day might be for our entrey. We two poore adventurers for the honnour of our countrey, or of those that shall deserve it from that day. The nimblest and stoutest went before to warne before the people that we should make our entry to morow. Every one prepares to see what they never before have seene. We weare in cottages which weare neare a litle lake some eight leaugues in circuit.102 Att the 100 A subterfuge to deceive the Saulteaux into thinking that their trade goods had been sunk in the lake and were protected by occult powers; the goods were in fact buried secretly. 101 The royal entry into Paris of Louis XIV and his bride, Maria Theresa of Austria, on 26 August 1660, which Radisson would have heard about later, probably after his return to Europe. Despite his contempt for the “fools of Paris,” Radisson’s own account of his and Des Groseilliers’s “entry” and the Feast of the Dead (see below) shows not only his awareness of the crucial political role of allegorical pageantry but his knowledge of how to devise it when required. See Introduction. 102 Lac Courte Oreilles, in Sawyer County, Wisconsin. In 1897 H.C. Campbell reported that according to Father Chrysostom Verwyst, then a missionary at the lake, a trail led from the lake to Chequamegon Bay, and concludes that “the Courtes Oreilles route is undoubtedly the one which Radisson and his companion took”; see Campbell, “Père

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watter side there weare abundance of litle boats made of trees that they have hallowed, and of rind*. The next day we weare to embarque in them and arrived att the village103 by watter, which was composed of a hundred cabans without pallasados. There is nothing but cryes, the women throw themselves backwards uppon the ground thinking to give us tokens of friendship and of wellcome.104 We destinated three presents, one for the men one for the women and the other for the children to the end that they should remember that journy, that we should be spoaken of a hundred years after, if other Europians should not come in those quarters and be liberal to them which will hardly come to passe. The first present was a kettle, two hattchetts, and six knives and a blade for a sword. The kettles was to call all nations that weare their friends to the feast which is made for the rememberance of the death.105 That is, they make it once in seaven years, it’s a renewing of friendshippe. I will talke further of it in the following discours. The hattchetts weare to encourage the yong people to strenghten them selves in all places to preserve their wives and shew themselves men by knocking the heads of their ennemyes with the said hattchetts, the knives were to shew that the French weare great and mighty and their confederats and friends, the sword was to signifie that we would be masters both of peace and warrs, being willing /96/ to healpe and relieve them, and to destroy our ennemyes with our armes. The second guift was of two and twenty awles, fifty needles, two gratters106 of castors two ivory combs and two wooden ones with red painte,107 six looking glasses of tin. The awles signifieth to take good courage, that we should keepe their lives, and that they with their husbands should come down to the French when time and season should permitt, the needles for to make them robes of castor, because the French loved them, the two gratters weare to dresse the skins, the combes [and?] the paint, to make themselves beautifull, the looking-glasses to admire themselves. The third guift was of brasse rings, of small bells, and rasades108 of divers colours and given in

103 104 105 106 107 108

René Ménard,” 13 and n.17. His view is supported by Heidenreich, “Early French Exploration,” 111. The trail was still in existence in the early twentieth century; see Adams, The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lvii. A Saulteaux village. The customary sexual hospitality. The gift of the kettle was likely carefully calculated; for Jean de Brébeuf it was the central symbolic object of the Feast of the Dead (JR 10: 279) which would later take place. Gratters: scrapers for skins. “Along with” some red paint? (see below). Fr. rassades: glass trade beads.

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this maner. We sent a man to make all the children come together. When they weare there we throw these things over their heads. You would admire* what a beat109 was among them, every one striving to behave the best. This was done oppon this consideration that they should be allways under our protection, giving them wherewithall to make them merry and remember us when they should be men. This done, we are called to the councell of welcome, and to the feast of friendshipp afterwards to the danceing of the heads. But before the danceing, we must mourne for the deceased, and then, for to forgett all sorrow to the dance. We gave them foure small guifts that they should continue such ceremonyes, which they tooke willingly, and did us good, that gave us authority among the whole nation. We knewed their councels, and made them doe whatsoever we thought best. This was a great advantage for us, you must think. Amongst such a rawish kind of people a guift is much, and well bestowed, and liberality much esteemed, but prodigalitie [is] not in esteeme, for they abuse it being brutish. Wee have ben useing such ceremonyes three whole dayes, and weare lodged in the cabban of the chiefest captaine who came with us from the  French. We liked not the company of that blind,110 therefore left him; he wondred at this, but durst not speake because we weare demigods. We came to a cottage of an ancient witty111 man, that had had a great familie and many children, his wife old neverthelesse handsome. They weare of a nation called Malhonmines, that is, the nation of oats,112 graine that is much in that country. Of this afterwards more att large. I tooke this man for my father and the woman for my mother, soe the children consequently brothers and sisters. They adopted me, I gave every one a guift, and they to mee. Having so disposed of our bussinesse, the winter comes on, that warns us the snow begins to fall; soe we must retire from this place to seeke our living in the woods. Every one getts his equipage ready, so away we goe, but not all to the same place. Two, three att the most, went one way, and so of an other. They have so done because victuals weare scant for all in a place.113 But lett us where we will, we cannot escap the myghty hand of God that disposes as he pleases, and who chastens us as a good and a common loving father /97/ and not as our sins doe deserve. Finaly wee depart one from an other. As many as we weare in 109 110 111 112

Beat: a competition that blind: blind man. Fr. aveugle, as in passage above (254). witty: wise or intelligent. Malhomine or Menominee, the “Wild Rice People” of the area around Green Bay, Wisconsin. 113 There was too little food for all of them to live in one place.

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number, we are reduced to a small company. We appointed a rendezvous after two months and a half, to take a new road, and an advice what we should doe. During the said tearme we sent messengers every where to give speciall notice to all manner of persons and nation that within five moons the feast of death was to be celebrated, and that wee should apeare together, and explaine what the devill should command us to say, and then present them presents of peace and union. Now we must live on what God sends, and warre against the bears in the meane time, for we could aime att nothing else, which was the cause that we had no great cheere. I can say that we with our comrads who weare about sixty, killed in the space of two moons and a halfe [enough bears to last] a thousand moons, we wanted not bears grease to annoint our selves to runne the better. We beated downe the woods dayly for to discover novelties. We killed severall other beasts, as oriniacks*, staggs, wild cows, camboucks, fallow does and bucks, catts of mountains, child of the devil,114 in a word we lead a good life. The snow increases dayly, there we make rakettes*, not to play att ball but to exercise ourselves in a game harder, and more necessary. They are broad made like raketts, that they may goe, in the snow and not sinke when they runne after the elend or other beast. We are come to the small lake, the place of rendezvous,115 where we found some company, that weare there before us. We cottage ourselves, staying for the rest that came every day. We stayed fourteen dayes in this place most miserable, like to a church yard, for there did fall such a quantity of snow and frost, and with such a thick mist, that all the snow stooke to those trees that are there so ruffe being deale* trees, pousse116 cedars, and thorns, that caused that darknesse uppon the earth, that it is to be believed that the sun was eclipsed them two months. For after the trees weare so laden with snow, that feld afterwards, was as if it had been sifted, so by that means very light and not able to beare us, albeit we made racketts* of six foot long and a foot and a halfe broad. So often thinking to tourne our selves we felld over and over againe in the snow and if we weare alone we should have difficultie enough to rise again. By the noyse we made the beasts heard us a great way of, so the famine was among great many, that had not provided before hand, and live upon what they gott that day, never thinking for the next. It grows wors and wors dayly. 114 wild cowes: elks (wapiti); see Voyage III (226n.101); cambouks: unidentified; catts of mountains: catamount, i.e., cougar (Puma concolor). Elend: see Voyage III (229n.118). 115 Heidenreich (“Early French Exploration,” 111) suggests this was a Saulteaux village in the Mille Lacs area of Minnesota, east of today’s Brainerd, where the Dakota Sioux were then living. 116 Cedar saplings.

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To augment our misery we receive news of the Octauaks who weare about a hundred and fifty with their families. They had a quarell with /98/ the Hurrons in the isle where we had come from some years before in the Lake of the Stairing Hairs;117 and came purposly to make warrs against them the next summer. But lett us see if they brought us anything to subsist withall. But are worst provided then we, having no huntsmen they are reduced to famine. But ô cursed couvetousnesse what art thou going to doe. It should be farr better to see a company of rogues perish then see our selves in danger to perish, by that scourg so cruell. Hearing that they have had knives and hatchetts the victuals of their poore children is taken away from them yea what ever they have those doggs must have their share. They are the coursedest, unablest the unfamous and cowarliest people that I have seen amongst fowr score nations that I have frequented.118 O yee poore people you shall have their booty but you shall pay dearly for it. Every one cryes out for hungar. The women become baren, and drie like wood,119 you men must eate the cord, being you have no more strenght to make use of the bow, children you must die. French you called yourselves Gods of the earth that you should be feared, for your interest,* notwithstanding you shall tast of the bitternesse, and too happy if you escape. Where is the time past? Where is the plentinesse that yee had in all places and countreys. Here comes a new family of those poore people dayly to us, half dead for they have but the skin and boans. How shall we have strenght to make a hole in the snow to lay us downe seeing we have it not to hale our racketts* after us, nor to cutt a litle wood to make a fire to keepe us from the rigour of the cold which is extreame in those countreyes in its season. Oh! if the musick that we heare could give us recreation. We wanted not any lamentable musick nor sad spectacle. In the morning the husband looks uppon his wife, the brother his sister, the cozen the cozen, the oncle the nevew, that weare for the most part found deade. They languish with cryes and hideous noise that it was able to make the 117 Some confusion here; the Lake of the Stairing Hairs is Lake Huron, but the island Radisson must be referring to is Rock Island in Green Bay (see Voyage III, 231). 118 A confusing passage, but it seems to mean that the Odawa came to Rock Island to make war with the Huron there and then moved on, starving, to meet up with the already hard-pressed Huron accompanying Radisson and Des Groseilliers. The pronouns are uncertain, but the meaning seems to be that Radisson’s companions earned his curses by behaving badly. 119 According to the physiology Radisson would have known, which was based on the ancient theory of the four humours, under normal conditions the natural “humour” or physical make-up of women was moist.

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haire stare on the heads that have any apprehension. Good God have mercy on soe many poore innocent people, and of us that accknowledge thee, that having offended thee punishes us. But wee are not free of that cruell executioner. Those that have any life seeketh out for roots which could not be done without great difficultie, the earth being frozen two or three foote deep and the snow five or six above it, the greatest subsistance that we can have is of rind* tree which growes like ivie about the trees.120 But to s[w]allow it, we cutt the stick some two foot long tying it in faggot,121 and boyle it, and when it boyls one howre or two the rind or skinne comes off with ease, which we take and drie it in the smoake and then reduce it into powder betwixt two graine stoans and putting the /99/ kettle with the same watter uppon the fire we make it a kind of broath, which nourished us, but becam thirstier and drier then the woode we eate. The two first weeke we did eat our doggs. As we went backe uppon our stepps for to gett any thing to fill our bellyes, we weare glad to gett the boans and carcasses of the beasts that we killed; and happy was he, that could gett what the other did throw away, after it had been boyled three or fowre times to gett the substance out of it. We contrived another plott, to reduce to powder those boanes, the rest122 of crows and doggs, so putt all that together halfe foot within grownde, and so makes a fire uppon it. We covered all that very well with earth, soe feeling the heat, and boyled them againe, and gave more froth then before. In the next place [we ate] the skins that weare reserved to make us shoose, cloath, and stokins yea most of the skins of our cottages, the castors skins where the children beshit them above a hundred times, we burned the haire on the coals. The rest goes downe throats eating heartily these things most abhorred. We went so eagerly to it that our gumms did bleede lik one newly wounded. The wood was our food the rest of sorrowfull time. Finaly we became the very images of death. We mistook ourselves very often taking the living for the dead and the dead for the living. We wanted strenght to draw the dead out of the cabans, or if we did when we could, it was to putt them fowr paces in the snow. Att the end the wrath of God begins to appease it selfe, and pityes his poore creatures. If I should expresse all that befell us in that strange accidents a great volume would not containe it. Here are above five hundred dead, 120 Probably Parthenocissus quinquefolia, the Virginia creeper. The stems when boiled yield an edible substance located between the bark and the wood. (Paul H. Zedler, personal comunication, 9 August 2010.) 121 Tied in a bundle. 122 rest: remainder; what was left behind by crows and dogs.

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men, women and children. It’s time to come out of such miseryes. Our bodyes are not able to hold out any further; after the storme, calme comes. But stormes favoured us, being that calme kills us. Here comes a wind and raine, that putts a new life in us, the snow falls, the forest cleers it selfe, att which sight, those that had strings left in their bowes, takes courage to use it. The weather continued so three dayes, [so] that we needed no racketts* more, for the snow hardened much. The small staggs are as if they weare stakes in it123 after they made seaven or eight capers it’s an easy matter for us to take them and cutt their throats with our knives. Now we see ourselves a litle fournished, but yett have not payed, for it cost many their lives. Our gutts became very straight by our long fasting, that they could not containe the quantity that some putt in them. I cannot omitt the pleasant thoughts of some of them wild men: seeing my brother all wayes in the same condition, they said that some devill brought him wherewithall to eate, but if they had seene his body, they should be of another oppinion; the beard that covered his face, made as if he had not altered his face. For me that had no beard124 they /100/ said I loved them, because I lived as well as they from the second day we began to walke.125 There came two men from a strange country who had a dogg, the buissinesse was how to catch him cunningly, knowing well those people love their be[a]sts. Neverthelesse wee offred guifts: but they would not, which made me stuborne. That dogge was very l[e]ane, and as hungry as we weare, but the masters have not suffered so much. I went one night neere that same cottage to doe what discretion permitts me not to speake. Those men weare Nadoueseronons, they were [so] much respected that no body durst not126 offend them: being that we weare uppon their land with their leave. The dogg comes out, not by any smell, but by good likes.127 I take him and bring him a litle way, I stabbed him with my dagger, I brought him to the cottage where was broyled like a pigge and cut in peeces gutts and all, soe every one of the family had his share. The snow where he was killed was not lost, for one of our company went and gott it to season the kettle. We began to looke better dayly.

123 After a few capers they were almost frozen in. 124 For the problem of Radisson’s age, see Introduction. In 1659 he would have been between nineteen and twenty-three, certainly old enough to be bearded, but he may simply have had scant or very pale facial hair. 125 I lived as they did from the second day of our wanderings. 126 A double negative: “none dared offend them.” 127 Because Radisson was familiar to him.

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Fig. 7: A chief of the Sioux, depicted by Louis Nicolas.

We gave the rendezvous to the convenientest place to celebrat that great feast.128 Some two moons after there came eight ambassadors from the nation

128 This marks the beginning of Radisson’s long account of the diplomatic exchanges, feasting, and merriment that took place at the celebration of the Feast of the Dead. For the spiritual significance of the feast, see Jean de Brébeuf, JR 10: 279–311. The Feast of the Dead was a Huron custom, but in the late seventeenth century it was also practised among other linguistic groups further inland, here, for example, Saulteaux, Cree, and Dakota. There is an extensive literature on this important ceremony; for early accounts, see Sagard, Le grand voyage du pays des Hurons, 284–6; Brébeuf, JR 10: 279–311; Perrot, Moeurs, 237–9; and Lafitau, Customs, 2: 246–52. Radisson and Des Groseilliers’s

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of Nadoueseronons that we will call now the nation of the beefe.129 Those men each had two wives, loadened of oats corne that growes in that countrey,130 of a small quantity of indian corne with other grains and it was to present to us which we received as a great favour and token of friendshippe, but it had been welcome if they had brought it a month or two before. They made great ceremonys in greasing our feete and leggs, and we painted them with red. The[y] stript us naked, and putt uppon us cloath of buffe* and of white castors. After this they weeped uppon our heads, untill we wear weatted by their tears131 and made us smoake in their pipes after they kindled them. It was not in common pipes, but in pipes of peace, and of the warrs that they pull out but very seldom, when there is occasion for heaven and earth.132 This done they perfumed our deaths133 and armor one after an other and to conclude did throw a great quantity of tobbacco into the fire. We told them that they prevented134 us, for letting us know thatt all persons of their nation came to visite us that we might dispose of them.135 The next morning they were called by our interpreter. We understood not a word of their language being quit[e] contrary to those that we were with.136 They are arrived, they satt downe; we made a place for us more elevated to be more att our ease, and to appeare in more state. We borrowed their calumet saying that [we] weare in their countrey and that it was not lawfull for us to

129 130 131

132 133 134 135 136

participation is discussed in the Introduction. For a closer reading of these ceremonies from the point of view of Dakota Sioux and Aboriginal ritual in general, see White, “Encounters with Spirits,” and Black-Rogers, “‘Starving’ and Survival in the Subarctic Fur Trade.” That is, the Santee or eastern Dakota Sioux. Marquette also calls this grain wild oats, but it is apparent from his description of the grain and its harvesting that he is speaking of wild rice; see JR 59: 93–5. For the weeping greeting of the Sioux, and the act of perfuming newcomers with smoke, see Hall, An Archaeology of the Soul, 1–4. According to Henry C. Campbell, “Exploration of Lake Superior,” Radisson is the first writer to describe the weeping ritual. occasion for heaven and earth: a serious ritual and/or spiritual occasion. The smoking of the calumet was a political ritual designed to show that conflicts had been resolved. A problematic reading; possibly a scribal error for “heads,” but in this context possibly also the bones of the dead (“the deaths”) being honoured at the feast. prevented: anticipated. dispose of them: deal formally with their questions. Radisson was a talented linguist, but he had never encountered Siouan and would have had to find an interpreter locally. Later he says he began to learn some of the language (290).

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carry any thing out of our countrey. That pipe is of a red stone,137 as bigge as a fist, and as long as a hand. The small reede as long as five foot and in bredth of the thicknesse of a thumb. There is tyed to it the tayle of an eagle all painted over with severall coullours and open like a fan, or like that makes a kind of a wheele when he shits below. The toppe of the steeke is covered with feathers of ducks /101/ and other birds that are of a fine collour. We tooke the tayle of the eagle, and instead of it we hung twelve iron bows, in the same manner as the feathers were and a blad[e] about it along the staffe.138 A hatchett [was] planted in the ground, and that calumet over it and over all our armour about it uppon forks.139 Everyone smoaked his pipe of tabacco: nor they never goe without it. Dureing that while there was a great silence. We prepared some powder that was litle wetted, and the good powder was precious to us.140 Our interpreter told them in our name, “Brethren, we have accepted of your guifts; yee are called here to know our will and pleasur that is such. First wee tacke you for our brethren by tacking you into our protection, and for to shew you, we instead of the eagles tayle, have putt some of our armour, to the end that no ennemy shall approach it, to breake the affinitie, that we make now with you.” Then we tooke the twelve iron of the bowes, and lift them up, telling them those points shall passe over the whole world to defend and destroy your ennemyes, that are ours. Then we putt the irons in the same place againe. Then we tooke the sword, and bad them have good courage that by our means they should vanquish their ennemy. After we tooke the hattchett that was planted in the ground, we tourned round about, telling them that we should kill those that would warre against them and that we would make forts that they should come with more assurance to the feast of the dead. That done, we throw powder in the fire, that had more strenght than we thought, it made the brands fly from one side to the other. We intended to make them believe that it was some of our tobacco, and make them smoake as they made us smoake, but hearing such a noise, and they seeing that fire fled of every 137 red stone: catlinite, a very soft and workable stone, named after the nineteenth-century artist George Catlin, who first described it; it is found around Pipestone, Minnesota. 138 The pipe, with illustration, is discussed by Hall, Archaeology of the Soul, 2. By the twelve iron “bows” Radisson presumably means the points or iron arrowheads mentioned a few lines later; iron arrowheads were early European trade goods. (Heidi Bohaker, personal communication, 10 January 2011.) 139 Hung on forked tree branches. 140 Uncertain; either “some powder that was little wetted, because the good powder was precious to us,” or “some powder that was a little wetted, and the good [unwetted] powder was precious to us.”

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side, without any further delay or looke for so much time as looke for the dore of the cottage one runne one way another an other way, for they never saw a sacrifice of tabacco so violent. They went all away and we onely stayed in the place. We followed them to reasure them of their faintings. We visited them in their apartments where they received all trembling for feare: believing realy by that same means that we weare the devils of the earth. There was nothing but feasting for eight dayes. The time now was nigh that we must goe to the rendezvous. This was betwixt a small lake and a medow.141 Being arrived most of ours weare allready in their cottages. In three dayes time, there arrived eighten severall nations, and came privatly142 to have done the sooner. As we became to the number of five hundred we held a councell; then the shouts and cryes and the encouragements weare proclaimed, that a fort should be builded. They went about the worke and made a large fort. It was about six hundred and three score paces in lenght and six hundred in breath, so that it was a square. There we had a brooke that came from the lake and emptied itselfe in those medowes which had more then fowre leaugues in lenght. Our fort might be seene afar off, and on that side [was] most delightfull, for the great many staggs that tooke the boldnesse to be carried by quarters, where att other times they made good cheare.143 In two dayes this was finished. Some thirty yong men of the nation of the beefe arrived there, having nothing but bows and arrows, with very short garments to be the nimbler in chassing the stagges. The iron of their arrows144 /102/ weare made of staggs pointed horens very neatly. They weare all proper* men, and dressed with paint. They weare the discoverers and the foreguard. We kept a round place in the midle of our cabban and covered it with long poles with skins over them that we might have a shelter to keepe us from the snow. The cottages weare all in good order in each ten twelve companies or families. That company was brought, to that place where there was wood layd for the fires. The snow was taken away, and the earth covered with deale* treebows. Severall kettles weare brought there full of meate. They rested, and eat above

141 The location was almost certainly identified by Adams as Spring Brook Hill, in the Mille Lacs region of Minnesota (Adams, The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lviii–lxi). 142 Informally, without special ceremony. 143 They were slaughtered, where previously they had roamed free. 144 “Iron” for Radisson seems to be synonymous with arrowhead, since these were made of stags’ horn.

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five howres without speaking one to another. The considerables145 of our companys went and made speeches to them. After one takes his bow and shoots an arrow, and then cryes aloud. There speaks some wordes, saying that they weare to lett them know the elders of their village weare to come the morrow to renew ther friendship and to make it with the French, and that a great many of their yong people came and brought them some part of their wayes to take their advice for they had a minde to goe against the Christinos who weare ready for them, and they in like manner to save their wives and children. They weare scattered in many cabbans that night expecting those that weare to come. To that purpose there was a vast large place prepared some hundred paces from the fort where every thing was ready for the receiving of those persons. They weare to sett their tents that they bring uppon their backs. The pearches* weare putt out and planted as we received the news. The snow [was] putt aside and the boughs of trees covered the ground. The day following they arrived with an incredible pomp. This made me thinke of the intrance that the Polanders did in Paris, saving that they had not so many jewells, but instead of them they had so many feathers.146 The first weare yong people with their bows and arrows and bucklers on their shoulders uppon which were represented all maner of figurs according to their knowledge, as of the sun and moone, of terrestrial beasts, about it feathers very artificialy147 painted. Most of the men their faces weare all over dabbed with severall collours their hair turned up like a crowne, and weare cutt very even, but rather so burned for the fire is their cicers.148 They leave a tuff of haire upon their crowne of their heads, tye it, and putt at the end of it some small pearles or some turkey stones149 to bind their heads. They have a role commonly made of a snakes skin where they tye severall bears paws, or give a forme to some bitts of buff’s* horns, and put it about the side role. They grease them selves with very thick grease and mingle it in reddish earth which they bourne, as we our

145 considerables: the important persons. 146 In 1573 Prince Albertus Laski came to France with a delegation of Polish ambassadors to offer the throne of Poland to Henri III. The richness of their jewels and robes impressed the French deeply and in popular legend long remained a standard for exotic magnificence. 147 artificialy: artfully. 148 Their hair was trimmed by burning, instead of cut with scissors. 149 Turquoise, sometimes called “turkey stones” because they were thought to come from Turkey. Possibly also Lake Superior amethyst, as Heidenreich (“Early French Exploration,” 114) suggests.

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breeks.150 With this stuffe they gett their haire to stand up. They cutt some downe of swan or other fowle that hath a white feather and cover with it the crowne of their heads. Their ears are pierced in five places. The holes are so bigg that your little finger might passe through. They have yallow waire that they make with copper made like a starre or a half moone, and there hang it. Many have turkeys. They are cloathed with oriniack* and stagg’s skins but very light. Every one had the skin of a crow hanging att their guirdles. Their stokens all in brodered with pearles and with their owne porke pick worke.151 /103/ They have very handsome shoose laced very thick all over with a peece sowen at the side of the heele which was of a haire of buff,* which trailed above halfe a foot upon the earth, or rather on the snow. They had swords and knives of a foot and a halfe long, and hattchetts very ingeniously done, and clubbs of wood made like backswords.152 Some made of a round head that I admired* it. When they kille their ennemy, they cutt off the tuffe of haire and tye it about their armes. After all153 they have a white robe made of castors skins painted. Those having passed through the midle of ours that weare ranged at every side of the way, the elders came with great gravitie and modestie covered with buff* coats which hung downe to the grounde. Every one had in his hand a pipe of councell sett with precious jowells. They had a sack on their shoulders and that that holds it grows in the midle of their stomacks, and on their shoulders. In this sacke all the world is inclosed.154 Their face is not painted, but their heads dressed, as the foremost*. Then the women laden like unto so many mules. Their burdens made a greater shew than they themselves, but I supose the weight was not equipolent to its bignesse. They weare conducted to the appointed place, where the women unfolded their bundles, and flang155 their skins wherof their tents are made, so that they had howses [in] less then half an howre. After they rested, they came to the biggest cabban constituted for that purpose. There weare fires kindled, our captaine made a speech of thanksgiving which should be long to writ it. We are called to the councell of new come cheifes, where we came in great pompe as you shall heare. First they come to make a sacrifice to the French, being gods and masters of all things as of peace as warrs, making the knives the 150 151 152 153 154 155

Breeches, which were greased so that they shed water. Porcupine-quill embroidery. A sword with only one cutting edge, or a similar stick used in fencing practice. As a cover over everything else. A medicine bundle; Radisson also mentions medicine bundles in Voyage I (142). Flung the skins over the tent poles.

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hattchetts and the kettles rattle etc. That they came purposly to putt themselves under their protection. Moreover that they came to bring them back againe to their country, having by their means destroyed their ennemyes abroad and neere. So said, they present us with guifts of castors skins, assuring us that the mountains weare elevated the valleys risen, the ways very smooth, the bows of trees cutt downe to goe with more ease, and bridges errected over rivers, for not to wett our feete.156 That the dores of their villages, cottages of their wives and daughters weare open at any time to receive us, being wee kept them alive by our merchandises. The second guift was, that they should die in their alliance, and that to certifie to all nations by continuing the peace, and weare willing to receive and assist them in their countrey, being well satisfied they weare come to celebrat the feast of the dead. The third guift was for to have one of the doors of the fort opened, if neede required, to receive and keepe them from the Christinos, that come to destroy them, being allwayes men, and the heavens made them so.157 That they weare obliged to goe before to defend their country and their wives, which is the dearest thing they had in the world, and in all times they weare esteemed stout and true souldiers and that yett they would make it appeare158 by going to meet them, and that they would not degenerate but shew by their actions that they weare as valiant as their forefathers. The fourth guift was presented to us, which [was] of robes of buff* skins to desire our assistance for being the masters of their lives, and could dispose of them as we would, as well of the peace as of the warrs, and that we might very well see that they did well to goe defend their owne countrey. That the true means to gett the victory was to have a thunder. They meant a gune calling it /104/ miniskoick.159 The speech being finished they intreated us to be att the feast. We goe presently back againe to fournish us with wooden bowls.160 We made fowre men 156 This begins a series of solemn reciprocal exchanges of gifts, of great importance in diplomatic encounters and for successful trading. See Bohaker (317–19) and, specifically on Lake Superior practices, White, “‘Give Us a Little Milk,’” “A Skilled Game of Exchange,” and “Encounters with Spirits.” For the French awareness of the protocols of gift exchange, see Davis, The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France. 157 Being made men by nature, and having to fulfil the obligations of men, that is, to make war and defend their families. 158 Make it evident. 159 The Dakota word for “gun” is “Mázakam”; see Williamson, An English-Dakota Dictionary, 79. 160 Champlain (Works, 2: 282) also speaks of bringing his own bowl and spoon to a feast in his honour.

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to carry our guns afore us that we charged of powder alone, because of their unskillfullnesse that they might have killed their fathers. We each of us had a paire of pistoletts and a sword, a daggar. We had a role of porkepick about our heads which was as a crowne, and two litle boyes that carryed the vessells that we had most need of: this was our dishes and our spoons. They made a place higher and most elevate (knowing our customs),161 in the midle for us to sitt where we had the men lay our armes. Presently comes fowre elders with the calumet kindled in their hands. They present the calumets to us to smoake, and fowre beautiful maids that went before us carrying bears skins to putt under us. When we weare together, an old man rises, and throws our callumet att our feet, and bids them, taike of the kettles from of the fire, and spoake, that he thanked the sun, that never was a day to him so happy as when he saw those terrible men, whose words make the earth quacke, and sang a while. Having ended, came and covers us with his vestment and all naked except his feet and leggs, he saith, yee are masters over us. Dead or alive you have the power over us, and may dispose of us as your pleasur.162 So done, takes the callumet of the feast, and brings it to a maiden [who] brings us a coale of fire to kindle it. So done, we rose, and one of us begins to sing. We bad the interpreter to tell them we should save and keepe their lives, takeing them for our brethren, and to testify that, we shott of all our artillery which was of twelve gunns. We draw our swords and long knives to our defence, if need should require, which putt the men in such a terrour that they knewed not what was best, to run or stay. We throw a handfull of powder in the fire to make a greater noise and smoake. Our songs being finished, we began our teeth to worke. We had there a kinde of rice, much like oats.163 It grows in the watter in three or foure foote deepe. There is a god that shews himself in every country, almighty full of goodnesse, and [cares for?] the preservation of those poore people who knoweth him not. They have a particular way to gather up that graine. Two takes a boat and two sticks by which they gett the eare downe and gett the corne out of it. Their boat being full they bring it to a fitt place to dry it, and that is their food for the most part of the winter, and doe dresse it thus. For each man a handfull of that they 161 Earlier, Radisson wrote that “we made a place for us more elevated to be more att our ease” (273). Radisson and Des Groseilliers may have been expecting treatment according to their presumed rank, but possibly their hosts had heard that Europeans did not customarily sit on the ground. 162 The behaviour of the Sioux throughout was a ritual expression of courtesy, not the political submission the Europeans may have thought they were receiving. 163 Northern wild rice (Zizania palustris) which is still gathered today in the manner Radisson describes.

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put in the pott that swells so much that it can suffice a man. After the feast was over there comes two maidens bringing wherewithall to smoake the one the pipes, the other the fire, they offered first to one of the elders that satt downe by us. When he had smoaked he bids them give it us, this being /105/ done we went back to our fort as we came. The day following we made the principall persons come together to answer 164 to their guifts. Being come with great solemnity there we made our interpreter tell them, that we weare come from the other side of the great salted lake, not to kill you but to make ye live, acknowledging you for our brethren and children whom we will love hence forth as our owne. Then we gave them a kettle. The second guift, was to encourage them in all their undertakings, telling them that we liked men that generously defended themselves against all their ennemyes, and as we weare masters of peace and warrs we are to dispose the affaire.165 That we would see an universall peace all over the earth and that this time we could not goe and force the nations that weare yett further to condescend and submitt to our will, but that we would see the neighboring countreys in peace and union. That the Christinos weare our brethren, and [we] have frequented them many winters; that we adopted them for our children and tooke them under our protection; that we should send them ambassadors, that I my self should make them come, and conclude a generall peace. That we weare sure of their obedience to us. That the first that should breake the peace, we would be their ennemy, and would reduce them to powder with our heavenly fire. That we had the word of the Christinos as well as theirs, and our thunder should serve us to make warrs against those that would not submitt to our will and desire, which was to see them good friends to goe and make warrs against the upper nations,166 that doth not know us as yett. The guift was of six hattchetts. The third [gift] was to oblige them to receive our propositions, likwise the Christinos to lead them to the dance of union which was to be celebrated at the death’s feast, and banquett of kindred. If they would continue the warrs, that was not the means to see us againe in their countrey. The fourth was that we thanked them for makeing us a free passage through their countreys. The guift was of two dozen of knives. The last was of smaller trifles, six gratters, 2 dozen of awles, two dozen of needles, 6 dozens of looking glasses made of tine,167 a dozen of litle bells, six ivory combs with a litle vermillion. But for to make a 164 165 166 167

answer to: so that we could respond to their gifts. We are to function as diplomats, negotiating and conciliating. Nations farther away and still unknown; perhaps the Assiniboine? Tin.

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recompense to the good old man that spoke so favourably we gave him a hattchett and to the elders each a blade for a sword, and to the two maidens that served us two necklaces, which putt about their necks, and two braceletts for their armes. The last guift168 was in generall for all the women to love us, and give us to eat when we should come to their cottages. The company gave us great hohoho that is thanks. Our wild men made others for their interest*.169 A company of about 50 weare dispatched to warne the Christinos of what we have done. I went myself where we arrived the third day early in the morning. I was received with great demonstration of friendshippe; all that day we feasted danced and sing. I compared that place before to the buttery of Paris, for the great quantity of meat that they use* to have there, but now will compare it to that of London.170 There I received guifts of all sorts of meate, of grease more then twenty men could carry. The custome is not to deface171 any thing that they present. There weare above six hundred men in a fort with a great deale of baggage on their shoulders and draw it upon light /106/ slids, made very neatly. I have not seen them att their entrance for the snow blinded mee. Coming back we passed a lake hardly frozen,172 and [reflecting] the sun for the most part. For I looked a while steadfastly on it so I was troubled with this seaven or eight dayes. The mean while that [we] weare there, arrived above a thousand, that had not ben there, but for those two redoubted nations173 that weare to see them doe what they never before had, a difference,174 which was executed with a great deale of mirth. I for feare of being invied I will obmitt,175 onely that there weare playes mirths, and bataills for sport, goeing and coming with cryes, each plaid his part. In the publick place the women danced with melody. The yong men that indeavored to gett a pryse, indeavored to clime up a great post very 168 That is, the awls, needles, etc. 169 Other Ojibwe and Huron made their own gifts to the Sioux, on whose territory they were living. 170 buttery: Fr. boucherie (abbatoir). An intriguing statement, since there is no earlier reference in the Voyages as we know them to Paris or its abbatoirs. Possibly Radisson means he mentioned it in a letter or conversation. The abbatoirs were in the parish of SaintJacques de la Boucherie, near the Châtelet; see the Introduction for the “Radisson” (father or uncle?) who proposed to rebuild the Châtelet, with new stalls for the butchers. 171 deface: to reject or set little value on. 172 Returning from the visit to the Christinos we passed a lake frozen hard. 173 Besides these two nations, respected for their power. 174 difference: a contest arranged between two parties. 175 I will leave out some details for fear of being envied.

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smooth and greased with oyle of beare, and oriniack* grease. The stake was att least of fifteen foot high. The price176 was a knife or other thing. We layd the stake there but whoso could catch it should have it. The feast was made to eate all up.177 To honnor the feast many men and women did burst. Those of that place coming backe, came in sight of those of the village or fort made postures* in similitud of warrs. This was to discover the ennemy by signs. Any that should doe soe we gave orders to take him or kill him and take his head off. The prisoner to be tyed, to fight in retreating; to pull an arrow out of the body. To exercise and strike with a clubb, a buckler to their feete, and take it if neede requireth, and defende him selfe if need requires from the enemy. Being in sentery to heark the ennemy that comes neere and to heare the better lay him downe on the side. These postures are playd while the drums beat. This was a serious thing, without speaking, except by noddyng or gesture.178 Their drums weare earthen potts full of watter, covered with staggs skin. The sticks like hammers for that purpose. The elders have bomkins179 to the end of their staves, full of small stones, which makes a ratle, to which yong men and women goe in a cadance.180 The elders are about these potts beating them and singing. The women also by, having a nosegay in their hands, and dance very modestly not lifting much their feete from the ground keeping their heads downewards makeing a sweet harmony. We made guifts for that while [for?] fourteen days time. Every one brings the most exquisit things to shew what his country affoards. The renewing of their alliances, the mariages according to their countrey coustoms are made; also the visit of the boans of their deceased friends for they keepe them and bestow them uppon one another. We sang in our language as they in theirs, to which they gave greate attention. We gave them severall guifts, and received many. They bestowed upon us above 3 hundred rob[e]s of castors out of which we brought not five to the French being [too] far in the countrey. This feast ended, everyone retourns to his countrey well satisfied.

176 price: prize. 177 For another “eat-all” feast, see Voyage II (202). 178 Marquette describes a similar staged combat: “This is done so well – with slow and measured steps, and to the rhythmic sounds of the voices and drums – that it might pass for a very fine ballet in France” (JR 59: 135–7). 179 bomkins: pumpkins, though elsewhere “citrull” from Fr. citrouille; here evidently meaning gourds filled with stones. 180 In a rhythmical dance.

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To be as good as our words we came to the nation of the beefe which was seaven small journeys181 from that place. We promised in like maner to the Christinos the next spring we should come to their side of the upper lake, and there they should meet us to come into their country. We being arrived among that nation of the beefe we wondred to find ourselves in a towne where weare great cabbans most covered with skins, and other close[-woven] /107/ matts.182 They tould us that there weare seaven thousand men. This we believed. Those have as many wives as they can keepe. If any one did trespasse upon the other, his nose was cutt off, and often the crowne of his head.183 The maidens have all maner of freedome, but are forced to mary when they come to the age. The more they beare children, the more they are respected. I have seene a man having fourteen wives. There they have no wood, and make provision of mosse for their firing. This their place is environed with pearches* which are a good distance one from an other, that they gett in the valleys where the buffe* use* to repair uppon which they do live. They sow corne but their harvest is small. The soyle is good but the cold hinders it, and the graine very small. In their countrey are mines of copper, of pewter and of ledd.184 There are mountains covered with a kind of stone that is transparent and tender, and like to that of Venice.185 The people stay not there all the yeare. They retire in winter towards the woods of the north where they kill a quantity of castors and I say that there are not so good in the whole world, but not in such a store as the Christinos, but far better. Wee stayed there six weeks and came back with a company of people of the nation of the Sault that came along with us loaden with booty. We weare twelve dayes before we could overtake our company that went to the lake. The spring approaches, which [is] the fitest time to kill the oriniack*. A wild man and I with my brother killed that time above six hundred, besids other beasts. We came to the lake side with much paines for we sent our wild men before and 181 An easy seven-day journey which must have brought them to the edge of the prairie, because Radisson notes that the Sioux lacked wood. 182 These Sioux were living in round-topped wigwams, rather than the light, easily moveable tipis prevalent after horse culture came to the plains in the eighteenth century. 183 See JR 45: 233–9. 184 There are deposits of copper and lead in Minnesota. Pewter is an alloy, so Radisson may have meant tin, or possibly even nickel. 185 The transparent and tender stone is probably mica. For “that of Venice” Radisson may have had in mind Murano glass, which in the seventeenth century was thought to be very brittle.

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we two weare forced to make carriages* five dayes through the woods. After we mett with a company that did us a great deale of service for they carryed what we had, and arrived at the appointed place before three dayes ended. Here we make a fort. Att our arrivall we found at least twenty cottages full. One very faire evening we went to find what we hide before186 which we finde in a good condition. We went about to execut our resolution forseeing that we must stay that yeare there for which we weare not very sorry, being resolved to know what we heard before we waited untill the ice should vanish. But [we] received [information] that the Octauaks built a fort on the point that formes that bay, which resembles a small lake.187 We went towards it with all speede. We had a great store of booty which we would not trust to the wild men for the occasion makes the thiefe. We overloaded our slide on that rotten ice, and the further we went the sun was stronger which made our trainage* have more difficultie. I seeing my brother so strained, I tooke the slid which was heavier then mine, and he mine. Being in that extent above fowre leaugues from the ground,188 we sunke downe above the one halfe of the legge in the ice: and must advance in spight of our teeth. To leave our booty was to undoe us. We strived so that I hurted my selfe in so much that I could not stand up right, nor [go] any further.189 This putt us in great trouble. Uppon this I advised my brother to leave me with his slide. We putt the two sleds one by another. I took some cloathes to cover mee. After I stripped my selfe from my wett cloathes I layed my selfe downe on the slide. My brother leaves me to the keeping of that good God. We had not above two leaugues more to goe. He makes hast and came there in time and sent wild men for me and the slids. There we found the perfidiousness of the Octauaks /108/ [who] seeing us in extremitie would prescrib us laws. We promised them whatever they asked. They came to fetch me. For eight dayes I was so tormented I thought never to recover, I rested neither day or night. At last by means that God and my brother did use which was by rubbing my leggs with hott oyle of bears and keeping my thigh and leggs well tyed, it came to it’s former strenght. After a while I came to me selfe.

186 187 188 189

See above (265). Chequamegon Bay. From solid ground. Radisson had been tortured, so he knew how to hide his pain, but in this case it seems to have been so extreme that he may possibly have suffered a hernia. If so, Des Groseilliers’s binding of his lower limbs was possibly a rough-and-ready but effective treatment.

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There comes a great company of new wild men to seeke a nation in that land for a weighty buissinesse.190 They desired me to goe along; so I prepare my selfe to goe with them. I marched well two dayes; the third day the sore begins to breake out againe in so much that I could goe no further. Those left me albeit I came for their sake. You will see the cruelties of those beasts, and I may think that those that liveth on fish uses more inhumanities then those that feed upon flesh. Neverthelesse I proceed forwards the best I could, but knewed where for the most part, the sun being my onely guide.191 There was some snow as yett on the ground, which was so hard in the mornings that I could not perceave my tracks. The worst was that I had not a hattchett nor other arme and not above the weight of ten pounds of victualls without any drink. I was obliged to proceed five days for my good fortune. I indured much in the morning, but a litle warmed I went with more ease. I looked betimes192 for som old cabbans where I found wood to make fire wherwith I melted the snow in my cappe that was so greasy. One night I finding a cottage covered it with boughs of trees that I found ready cutt. The fire came to it as I began to slumber which soone awaked me. In hast as lame as I was to save me selfe from the fire, my racketts* shoos and stokens kept me my life. I must needs save them. I tooke them and flung them as far as I could in the snow. The fire being out, I was forced to looke for them as dark as it was, in the said snow all naked and very lame and almost starved both for hungar and cold. But what is it that a man cannot doe, when he seeth that it concerns his life, that one day he must loose, yett we are to prolong it as much as we can, and the very feare maketh us to invent new wayes. The fifth day I heard a noyse, and thought it of a wolfe. I stood still and soone perceived that it was of a man. Many wild men weare up and downe looking for me fearing least the bears should have devoured me. That man came neere and saluts me and demands whether it was I. We both satt downe, he looks in my sacke to see if I had victualls, where he finds a peece as bigg as my fist. He eats this without [my] participation being their usuall way. He inquireth if I was ahungary. I tould him no, to shew me selfe stout and resolute. He takes a pipe of tobacco, and then above twenty pounds of victuals he takes out of his sack, and greasd, and gives it me to eate. I eat what I could, and gave him the rest. He bids me have courage, that the village was not far off. He demands if I knewed the way but I was not such as should say no. The village was att hand. 190 Possibly Siouan-speaking Assiniboine from the Lake of the Woods area. 191 My sole guide was the sun. 192 Before it was too late.

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The other wild men arrived but the day before and after a while came by boats to the lake. The boats weare made of oriniacks* skins. I find my brother with a company of Christinos, that weare arrived in my absence. We resolved to cover our buissinesse better and close our designe193 as if /109/ we weare going a hunting and send them before, that we would follow them the next night. Which we did, and succeeded but not without much labor and danger, for not knowing the right way to thwart* the other side of the lake, we weare in danger to perish a thousand times because of the crums194 of ice. We thwarted a place of fifteen leaugues; we arrived on the other side att night.195 When we came there, we knewed not where to goe on the right or left hand, for we saw no body. Att last as we with full sayle came from a deepe bay we perceived smoake and tents. Then many boats from thence came to meete us. We weare received with much joy by those poore Christinos. They suffered not that we trod on ground, they leade us into the midle of their cottages in our own boats like a couple of cocks in a basquett.196 There weare some wild men that followed us, but late. We went away with all hast possible to arrive the sooner at the great river.197 We came to the sea side, where we finde an old howse all demollished and battered with boulletts.198 We weare told that those that came there, weare of two 193 Disguise what we planned. 194 Floating particles smaller than ice-floes. 195 If Radisson’s league is approximately 2.9 English miles (4.7 kilometres), this would be about forty-three miles (69.2 kilometres), the distance across Lake Superior from the Chequamegon peninsula to somewhere between present-day Little Marais and Schroeder, on the north shore. Radisson was aware of the need to avoid traversing open water, and later voyageurs on Lake Superior always hugged the shore, but the circumstantial evidence (the “crums” of ice, the failure to indicate a land route) suggests that in this case he and Des Groseilliers did make such a crossing. 196 Carrying prestigious newcomers into camp is a known Aboriginal welcoming practice or ceremonial (Hall, An Archaeology of the Soul, 81–2). Father Simon Le Moyne reported being carried into an Iroquois village as a sign of honour (JR 41: 97). 197 The narrative that follows describing a side trip to James Bay has puzzled historians, who find it hard to believe that the journey could have been made in the approximately twelve weeks available. However, experienced canoeists state that the time frame is realistic. It is likely that Des Groseilliers made the trip alone in a fast canoe, with experienced Ojibwe but without Radisson, who after all had been ill. James Bay can be reached from Lake Superior via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River (possibly Radisson’s “great river”) and its tributaries. For a fuller discussion, see Introduction. 198 The explorer Henry Hudson wintered at Rupert River (see below) in 1610–11; he forced his carpenter, Philip Staffe, to build a house there which is probably the one

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nations, one of the wolf, the other of the long horned beast;199 all those nations are distinguished by the representation of the beasts or animals. They tell us particularities of the Europians we know our selves and what Europ is, therfore in vaine they tell us as for that. We went from isle to isle all that summer.200 We pluckt abundance of ducks as of all other sort of fowles; we wanted nor fish nor fresh meate. We weare well beloved, and [they] weare overjoyed that we promissed them to come with such shipps as we invented*. This place hath a great store of cows.201 The wild men kill them not except for necessary use. We went further in the bay to see the place that they weare to passe that summer. That river comes from the lake and empties it self in the River of Sagnes, called Tadousack which is a hundred leaugues in the great river of Canada, as where we weare in the Bay of the North.202 We left in this place our marks and rendezvous. The wild men that brought us defended us above all things, if we would come directly to them that we should by no means land, and to goe to the river to the other sid, that is to the north towards the sea, telling us that those people weare very treacherous. Now whether they tould us this out of pollicy,203 least we should not come to them first, and to be deprived of what they thought to gett from us. In that you may see that envy raigns every where amongst poore barbarus wild people as att courts.204 They made us a mapp of what we could not see, because the time was nigh to reape among the

199

200

201 202

203 204

referred to by Radisson (Neatby, DCB 1: 376–7); if Des Groseilliers made the trip alone, Radisson is repeating what he found there. The Cree did not have totems, so Radisson may be referring to Ojibwe he met in the Albany watershed; the Wolf is an Ojibwe totem. The long-horned beast is possibly the lynx; pictographs show the lynx figure with what looks like horns – the conspicuous tufts on the tops of its ears. (Jennifer Brown, personal communication 19 August 2010.) There is one large island north of the mouth of the Albany (Akimiski) and many smaller islands along the east coast of James Bay, which would have put them near the mouth of the Rupert River. Radisson uses the term “cow” rather loosely; these are almost certainly Woodland Caribou (R. tarandus caribou). No river leads directly from James Bay to Tadoussac, but, as Father Charles Albanel showed in 1671, it is possible to travel by water from the Saguenay to Lake Mistassini, and then via river and portage to the Rupert River and James Bay; see JR 44: 235–45 and Rousseau, “Les Voyages du Père Albanel au lac Mistassini et à la baie James,” 556–86. pollicy: deliberate planning or strategy. The prevalence of envy is a recurrent preoccupation of medieval and early modern literature about courts and courtly behaviour.

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bustards and ducks.205 As we came to the place where these oats growes (they grow in many places) you would think it strang to see the great number of fowles, that are so fatt by eating of this graine, that heardly they will move from it. I have seene a wildman killing three ducks at once with one arrow. It is an ordinary thing to see five six hundred swans together. I must professe I wondered that the winter there was so cold, when the sand /110/ boyles att the watter side for the extreame heate of the sun.206 I putt some eggs in that sand, and less then halfe an howre the eggs weare as hard as stones. We passed that summer quietly, coasting the sea side, and as the cold began we prevented207 the ice. We have the commoditie of the river to carry our things in our boats, to the best place, where weare most be[a]sts. This is a wandring nation, and containeth a vast countrey.208 In winter they live in the land for the hunting sake, and in summer by the watter for fishing. They never are many together, for fear of wronging one another. They are of a good nature, and not great whoremasters, having but one wife, and are [more] satisfied then any others that I knewed. They cloath themselves all over with castors skins in winter, in summer of staggs skins. They are the best huntsmen of all America, and scorns to catch a castor in a trappe. The circumjacent nations goe all naked, when the season permitts it. But this have more modestie for they putt a peece of copper made like a finger of a glove which they use before their nature.209 They have the same tenents as the nation of the beefe, and their apparell from topp to toe.210 The women are tender and delicat and takes as much paines as slaves.211 They are of more acute wits then the men for the men are fools, but diligent about their worke. They kill not the yong castors but leave them in the water, being that they are sure that they will take him againe, which no other nation doth. They burne not their prisoners, but knock 205 It was now time to hunt for winter provisions. 206 The unusual heat of the brief Arctic summer is well known; temperatures can sometimes rise as high as 25 degrees Celsius. 207 prevent: to anticipate or get ahead of. 208 The West Main Cree (Muskego or Swampy Cree) whom Radisson would meet again when he served the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Bay in 1670–73, then during the conflict of 1682–84, and finally when he acted as superintendent of trade there from 1684 to 1686. 209 To cover their genitals; Honigman (HNAI 6: 220) observes that the West Main Cree customarily wore a breech-cloth. 210 That these Cree had the same beliefs (tenents, obsolete) and wore the same apparel as the Sioux is improbable. 211 That is, they worked very hard.

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them in the head, or slain them with arrows, saying it’s not decent for men to be so cruell. They have a store of turquois from the nation of the buff* and beefe with whome they had warrs. They pollish them and give them the forme of pearle long flatt round, and [hang?] them att their nose. They [find?] grene stones very fine att the side of the same bay of the sea to the norwest.212 There is a nation called among themselves Neuter, they speake the Beefe and Christinos speech being friends to both. Those poore people could not tell what to give us.213 They weare overjoyed when we sayd, we should bring them commodities. We went up upon another river to the upper lake.214 The Nation of the Beefe sent us guifts, and we to them by ambassadors. In the midle of winter we joyned with a company of the fort,215 who gladly received us. They were resolved to goe to the French the next spring, because they weare quite out of stock. The feast of the dead consumed a great deale of it. They blamed us, saying we should not trust any that we did not know. They upon this asked if [we] weare where the trumpetts are blowne.216 We sayd yea, and [were] tould that they weare a nation not to be trusted, and if we came to that sea we should warre against them, because they weare [a] bad nation, and did their indeavor to tak us, to make us their slaves.217 In the begining of spring there came a company of men that came to see us from the elders and brought us furrs to intice us to see them againe. I cannot omitt pleasant encounters that happened to my brother. As we weare both in a cottage, two of the Nation of the Beefe came to see us. In that time my brother 212 The east shore of James Bay is part of the large Abitibi Greenstone Belt. Greenstone or Greenschist is a metamorphic rock containing chlorite or actinolite; it was valued by early peoples for implements and decorative objects. 213 The Neutral (Chonnonton) had already been almost exterminated in the HuronIroquois wars of the 1640s. If Radisson met a group of them this far north they must have been refugees. Alternatively, he may simply have meant that there is a people who are allies to both the Cree and the Sioux, not that there were Iroquoian-speaking people in this area. (Heidi Bohaker, personal communication, 11 January 2011.) 214 They returned to Lake Superior by another route; if true, this would have been by a river such as the Kenogami trending towards Lake Superior. Somewhat confusingly, at this point Radisson’s narrative returns to events of the winter before the trip to James Bay; there is no possibility that this refers to the oncoming winter because their return to the St Lawrence in the summer of 1660 is documented. 215 Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lxiv) thinks these people arrived from the fort at Chequamegon. They were likely Saulteaux and Odawa. 216 Probably Montreal or Quebec. 217 Presumably the Iroquois are meant.

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had some trade [goods] in his hands. The wild men satt neere us, my brother shews unto them the image which /111/ presented the flight of Joseph and holy Mary with the Child Jesus to avoid the anger of Herod, and the virgin and child weare riding the asse, and Joseph carrying a long cloake. My brother shewing that animal naming it tatanga which is a buffe*. The wild men seeing the representation of a woman weare astonished, and weeps, pulls their haire, and tumbles up and downe to the fire, so continued half an howre till he was in a sweat, and weatted with his tears the rest of the wild men that weare there. One of them went out of the cottage. My brother and I weare surprized, thought they might have seene a vision, for instantly the man putt his hands on his face, as if he should make the signe of the crosse. Now as he came to himselfe, he made us understand, (for I began to know much of their speech218) that first we weare devills,219 knowing all what is and what was done. Moreover that he had his desire, that was his wif and child, whome weare taken by the nation of the beefe fowre years agoe, so he tooke the asse for the nation of the beefe, the Virgin Mary for the picture of his wife, and Jesus for his son and Joseph for himselfe, saying there am I with my long robe seeking for my wife and child. By our ambassador I came to know another lake which is northerly of their countrey. They say, that it’s bigger then all the rest.220 The upper end is allways frozen. Their fish comes from those parts. There are people that lives there, and dare not trade in it towards the south. There is a river so deepe and blacke that there is no bottome. They say that fish goes neither out nor in to that river. It is very warme, and if they durst navigate in it, they should not come to the end in forty dayes. That river comes from the lake, and the inhabitants makes warrs against the birds, that defends and offends with theire bills that are as sharpe as sword.221 This I cannot tell for truth, but [it was] told me. All the circumjacent neighbors do incourage us, saying that they would venter their lives with us, for which we weare much overjoyed to see them so freely disposed, to goe along with us. Here nothing but courage; “Brother doe not lye for the French 218 Another indication of how quickly Radisson learned languages. See Introduction. 219 At first he thought they were devils. 220 These rumours are too vague to identify the lake; given its size, it is possibly Lake Winnipeg, which, however, is not frozen all year at the north end, nor would it have been even in the Little Ice Age. 221 Possibly a reference to the immensely powerful Nelson River system, which flows out of the north end of Lake Winnipeg. The birds must be the famous ravens of the Canadian north. The Nelson had been known where it flows into Hudson Bay since 1612; for Radisson’s later adventures there, see volume 2.

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will not believe thee, all men of courage and valor lett them fetch commodities, and not stand lasing and be a beggar in the cabbans, it is the way to be beloved of women to goe and bring them wherewithall to be joyfull.” We presents guifts to one and to another for to warme them,222 to that end that we should make the earth quake, and give terror to the Iroquoits if they weare so bold as to shew themselves. The Christinos made guifts that they might come with us. This was graunted unto them, to send two boats, to testifie that they weare retained slaves among the other nations although they furnish them with castors.223 The boats ready we embarque our selves. We weare seaven hundred; there was not seen such a company to goe down to the French. There weare above four hundred Christinos boats that brought us their castors, in hopes that the people should give some marchandises for /112/ them at their retourne. The biggest boats could carry onely the man and his wife and could scarce carry with them three castors so little weare their boats. In summer time I have seen three hundred men goe to warrs, and each man his boat, for they are that makes the least boats.224 The company that we had filled above three hundred and sixty boats. There were boats that caryed seaven men, and the least two. It was a pleasur to see that imbarquing, for all the yong women went in stark naked their hairs hanging down, yett is it not their coustoms to do soe? I thought it their shame, but contrary they think it excellent, and old custome good. They sing aloud and sweetly. They stood in their boats, and remained in that posture halfe a day to encourage us to come and lodge with them againe. Therefore they are not alltogether ashamed to shew us all, to intice us, and animate the men to defend themselves valliantly and come and injoy them. In two dayes we arrived att the river of the Sturgeon225 so called because of the great quantity of sturgeons that we tooke there. Here we weare to make our provissions to passe the lake [in] some fourteen dayes. In the said tearme we dryed up above a million226 of sturgeons. The women followed us close. After our abode there two dayes they overtook us. We had severall fals allarums which putt us in severall troubles. They woundred to have found an oryanek* dead uppon 222 To encourage them, heat their spirits for battle. 223 The Christinos brought 400 (little) boats with furs, which were then transshipped to two boats which they were allowed to send to New France, despite what Radisson for whatever reason seems to indicate is their lesser rank among the nations. 224 They are the people who make the smallest boats. 225 Possibly the Sturgeon River on the east (not west, as Adams, The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, xlv, says) of the Keweenaw peninsula. 226 Adams (The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, lxv) is probably correct in saying that Radisson was thinking of Fr. mille here (a thousand).

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the place with a boullet in his body. There thousand lyes weare [scryed?]227 therefore we goe from thence. But before we came to the long point wherof we spoak before, the wild men call it Okiuotoname,228 we perceive smoak. We goe to discover what it was, and by ill looke* we found it was a Iroquoit’s boat of seaven men, who doubtlesse stayed that winter in the lake of the Hurrons, and came there to discover somewhat. I cannot say that they weare the first that came there, God graunt that they may be the last. As they saw us, away they [went] as swift as their heels could drive, they left their boat and all. They [fled] to the woods, and weare pursued, but in vaine, for they weare gone before three howres. The pursuers came backe, the one brings a gun, the one a hattchet the other a kettle and so forth. The councell was called where it was decreed to go backe, and shoke229 off to go downe to the French till the next yeare. This vexed us sore to see such a fleete and such an opportunity come to nothing, foreseeing that such an other may be not in tenne years. We weare to perswade them to the contrary, but [were] checked soundly, saying we weare worse then ennemys by perswading them to goe and be slain’d. In this, we must lett their feare passe over, and we [went] backe to the river of the sturgeons, where we found our wives very buissie in killing those creatures, that comes there to multiplie. We dayly heare some new reporte, all every where, ennemy by fancy.230 We in the meane time buissi ourselves in the good of our country which will recompence us badly for such toyle and labor. Twelve dayes are passed, in which time we gained some hopes of faire words. We called a councell before the company was disbanded, where we represented, if they weare /113/ discover[er?]s they had not vallued the losse of their kettle, knowing well they weare to gett an other where their army layed. And if there should be an army it should appeare and we in such an number, they could be well afraid and turne backe. Our reasons weare heard and put in execution.

227 A problematic passage. If read as “lyes ... were forged” (Scull, Adams), the question arises, by or for whom? However, possibly a scribal error for “lyes ... were scryed,” that is, problems or deceptions were detected by Radisson and the group he was travelling with, so they departed. “Scryed” was almost obsolete by Radisson’s time, but there are a number of such usages in his English writing, for example, “shoke” just below. 228 Either Keweenaw or the neighbouring smaller point. 229 Shoke: to flee, depart. A variant of “shake,” obsolete already in the seventeenth century. 230 We daily heard new reports of imagined enemies everywhere.

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The next day we embarqued saving the Christinos that wear [so] afraid of a sight of a boat made of an other stuff then theirs231 that they went back. As we came where the Iroquoit’s boat was, our words proved true, and so proceeded in our way. Being come nigh the Sault,232 we found a place where two of these men sweated,233 and for want of covers* buried themselves in the sand by the watter side to keepe their bodyes from the flyes called maringoines* which otherwise had killed them with their stings. We thwarted* those two great lakes234 with great pleasur, having the wind faire with us. It was a great satisfaction to see so many boats, and so many men that never had before commerce with the French. So my brother and I thought wee should be wellcomed. But O Covetousnesse, thou art the cause of many evils! We made a small sayle to every boate, every one strived to be not the last. The wind was double wayes favorable to us, the one gave us rest, the other advanced us very much, which wee wanted much, because of the abovesaid delay. We now are comed to the cariages* and swift streames to gett [to] the lake of the castors.235 We made them with a courage promptitud and hungar which made [us] goe with hast as well as the wind. We goe downe all the great river without any encounter* till we came to the Long Sault where my brother some years before made a shippwrake.236 Being in that place we had work enough. The first thing we saw was several boats that the ennemy had left att the river side. This putts great feare in the hearts of our people. Nor they nor we could tell what to doe, and seeing no body appeared we sent to discover what they weare. The discover[er]s calls us, and bid us come, that those who weare there could doe us no harme. You must know that seventeen French made a plott with four Algontins to make a leaugue with threescore Hurons for to goe and wait for the Iroquoits in the passage, att their returne with their castors on their ground hopeing to beat and destroy them with ease, being destitut of necessary things. If one hath his gun he wants his powder, and the rest att the other side without doubt had notice that the travelers were abroad, and would not faile to come downe with 231 Cree boats were made of birchbark. After their land journey Radisson and Des Groseilliers, travelling with Huron, would now have been using Iroquois boats; they were made of elmbark, which gave them a different shape. (Ken Lister, personal communication, 4 January 2011.) 232 Sault Sainte-Marie. 233 A sweat lodge. 234 Lake Superior and Lake Huron. 235 Lake Nipissing. 236 Again, Radisson makes short work of describing the journey home. The rapids are those at the Long Sault on the Ottawa River, near today’s Carillon, Quebec.

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a company, and to make a valiant deede and heroick action was to destroy them all and consequently make the French tremble as well as the wild men. For the one could not fight without the other, the one for his commodities the other for his castors so that the Iroquoits pretending to wait for us at that passage came thither flocking. The French and wild company to putt the Iroquoit in some feare and hinder his coming there so often with such confidence weare resolved to lay a snare against him. That company of souldiers being come to the further place of that Long Sault without being discovered, thought [themselves] allready to be /114/ conquerors making cariage,* having abroad fifteen men to make discoveries, but mett as many ennemys. They assaulted one another, and the Iroquoits found themselves weake. [They] left them their lives and bodyes saveing two that made the escape, went to give notice to two hundred of theirs that made ready as they heard the gunns, to help their foreguard. The French seeing such great odds made a retreat, and warned by fowre Algonquins that a fort was built not afar off by his nation the last yeare, they fled into it in an ill houre. In the meane while the Iroquoits consulted what they should doe. They sent to five hundred and fiftie Iroquoits of the lower nation and fifty Onjonos that weare not afar off. Now they would assault the French in their fort. The fort not holding but 20 men, the Hurrons could not come in, and could not avoid the shott of the ennemy. Then the French pulled downe the fort and closed together. They stoutly began to worke. Those that the French had killed, [they] cutt their heads off and putt them upon long poles of their fort.237 This skermish [en]dured two dayes and two nights. The Iroquoits finds themselves plagued, for the French had a kind of bucklers and shelters. Now arrives six hundred men, that they did not think of in the least.238 Here is nothing but cryes, fire, and flame day and night. Here is not to be doubted the one to take the other, the one to defend himselfe till death. The Hurrons seeing such a company submitted to the ennemyes, but are like to pay for their cowardish. Being in their hands, weare tyed, abused, smitten and burned as if they weare taken by force. For those barberous weare reveng’d on their boanes as any [of them?] was wounded or killed in the bataile. In this great extremity our small company of one and twenty did resist five dayes against eight hundred men, and the two formost* dayes against two hundred which weare seaven dayes together 237 An interesting reference to European barbarism at the time; it is doubtful if anything he encountered among the Native peoples would have surprised Radisson. See, for example, the Letter to Claude Bernou (volume 2) for his response to the explosion at Sterreschans fortress on Tobago in 1677. 238 Whose arrival they had not anticipated.

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without intermission, and the worst was they had no watter as we saw. For they made a hole in the ground out of which they gott but litle because they weare on a hill. It was to be pitied there was not a tree but was shot with buletts. The Iroquoit come with bucklers to make a breach. The French putt fire to a barill of powder thinking to shoake the Iroquoit, or make him goe back, but did to their great prejudice for it fell againe in their fort which made an end of their combat. Upon this the ennemy enters, kills and slains all he finds, so one did not make an escape saveing one that was found alive, but he stayed not long for in a short time after his fortune was as the rest.239 For as he was brought to one of the forts of the Irokoits, as he was bid to sit down he finds a pistolet by him and takes it at adventure not knowing whether it was charged or no. He puts the end to the breast of him that tyed him and killd him in the presence of all his camerades, but without any more adoe he was burnt very cruelly. All the French though dead weare tyed to posts along the river side, and the four Algonquins. As for the Hurons they weare burnt at their discretion.240 Some neverthelesse escaped to bring the certain news how all perished. It was a terrible spectacle to us, for wee came there 8 dayes after that defeat which saved us without doubt.241 I beleeve for certain that the Irokoits lost many men having /115/ to do with such brave and valiant souldiers as that company was. Wee visited that place and there was a fine fort. Three weare about the other two.242

239 The work of the second scribe, R. Beane (see Introduction), begins here and continues until the end of the manuscript. Two pages later, at the phrase “and to make it depart” (297), the name “Beane” appears in the margin. See Textual Introduction. 240 When the enemy chose to burn them. 241 Radisson has been relating the battle of the Long Sault, where Adam Dollard Des Ormeaux, his sixteen companions, and a small band of Huron and Algonquin allies fought a large contingent of Iroquois from the 2nd to the 12th of May 1660. The group was vanquished, but the Iroquois, who were said to be planning to wipe out the colony, retreated. In the nineteenth century Dollard was considered a national hero in French Canada, but modern historians of Quebec have been more critical in their examination of the evidence. Radisson’s account is deliberately or accidentally misdated; the massacre at the Long Sault occured in May, whereas his party passed by in early August. Nevertheless, it remains one of the primary sources for the event. For a review of the evidence and the historical debate up to 1966, see André Vachon’s judicious biography of Dollard (DCB 1: 266–75) and John Dickinson’s review of the literature stressing the Aboriginal perspective, “Annaotaha et Dollard vus de l’autre côté de palissade” (1981). 242 Meaning unclear.

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Wee went downe the river without making any carriage*, and were adventured very much.243 As soon as wee were at the lower end many of our wild men had a mind to goe back and not to goe any further, thinking really that all the French were killd. As for my brother and I wee did fear very much that after such a thing the pride of the enemy would make them attempt anything upon the habitations of Mount Royall, which is but 30 leaugues from thence.244 Wee did advise them to make a fort, or to put us in one of the enemies, and to send immediately two very light boats that could not be overtaken if the enemy should discover them, and that being arrived at the habitation, they should make them shoot the peeces* of ordnance and that as soon as they might [they] should come. Wee would embarke our selves and should hear the noise, or else wee should take councell of what wee should doe and stay for them at the height of the Isle of Mont Royall which was done accordingly without any hazard. For all the enemies were gone dispairing of our coming down, and for what they had done and for what they had lost, which by the report of some Hurons was more then four score men and if the French had had a fort [on the?] flanke and some water they had resisted the enemy miraculously and forced them to leave them for want of powder and shott and also of other provisions they weare furnished for the whole summer. Our two boats did goe but the rest were soe impatient that they resolved to follow them being willing to run the same hazard, and were arrived the next morning and were in sight when the peeces* were shott off with a great deale of joy to see so great a number of boats that did almost cover the whole river. Wee stayd three dayes at Mont Royall and then wee went down to the Three Rivers.245 The wild men did aske our advice whether it was best for them, to goe down further. We told them no, because of the dangers that they may meet with at their returne for the Irokoits could have notice of their coming down and so come and lay in ambush for them, and it was in the latter season, being about the end of August. Well, as soon as their businesse was done, they went backe again very well satisfyed and wee very ill satisfied for our reception, which was very bad considering the service wee had done to the country, which 243 Had many adventures, ran many risks. 244 About 160 kilometres from Montreal. 245 According to the Journal des jesuites, Des Groseilliers (Radisson is not named) and the Odawa arrived at Montreal on 19 August, left for Trois-Riviéres on the 24th, and departed for Quebec on the 27th. There were 300 of them; they had started from Lake Superior in 100 canoes but 40 had turned back. The 60 canoes that arrived were laden with furs worth 200,000 livres; 25,000 livres worth were left at Montreal and the remainder taken to Trois-Riviéres (JR 45: 161–3).

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will at another time discourage those that by our example would be willing to venture their lives for the benefit of the country, seeing a Governor that would grow rich by the labours and hazards of others. ¶Before I go further I have a mind to let /116/ you know the fabulous beleefe of those poor people, that you may see their ignorance concerning the souls immortality being separated from the body.246 The kindred and the friends of the deceased give notice to the others who gather together and cry for the dead, which gives warning to the young men to take the armes to give some assistance and consolation to the deceased. Presently the corps is covered with white skins very well tyed; afterwards all the kindred come to the cottage of the deceased, and begin to mourn and lament. After they are weary of making such musick the husbands or friends of the deceased send their wives for gifts to pacifie a little the widdow and to dry her tears. Those guifts are of skins and of what they can get, for at such a ceremony they are very liberall. As soon as that is done and the night come all the young men are desired to come and doe, what they will to have done to them,247 so that when darknesse has covered the whole face of the earth, they come all singing with staves in their hands for their armes. And after they are set round the cabbin, begin to knock and make such a noise that one would think they have a mind to tear all in peeces and that they are possessd of some devills. All this is done to expell and frighten the soule out of that poor and miserable body that she might not trouble his carcase nor his bones248 and to make it to depart the sooner to goe and see their ancestors and to take possession of their immortall glory, which cannot be obtained but a fortnight towards the setting of the sun.249 The first stop that she makes is of seven dayes to begin her course, but there are many difficulties, for it is through a very thick wood full of thornes, of stones and flints which give all trouble to that poor soule. At last having overcome all those dangers and toyles, she comes to a river of about a quarter of a mile broad where there is a bridge made onely of one planke being supported by a beame pointed at one end which is the reason that planke rises and falls perpetually haveing not any rest nor stay. And when the soule comes near the side of that river, she meets with a man of extraordinary stature, who is very 246 This remarkable passage appears to be a synthesis of Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) narratives about the afterlife. See Introduction. 247 Possibly: to come and perform the ceremonies they would wish to have at their own deaths. 248 The soul is she, the corpse he; both are French usages: “l’âme” (f.) and “le corps” (m.), with she and he accordingly used thereafter. 249 Only by a journey of a fortnight.

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leane and holds a dagger of very hard wood and very keen in his hand, and speakes these words when he sees the petitioning soule come near, pale pale, which signifies goe goe250 and at every word the bridge ballances and rises his knife, and the traveller offering himselfe receives a blow by which he is cut in two, and each halfe is found upon that moving [bridge] and according as he had lived they stay upon it. That is if his body was valiant the passage was soon made free to him for the two halfes come together and joyn themselves again, so passe to the other side where she finds a bladder of beare grease to grease herselfe and refresh herselfe for that which she is to do. /117/ Which being done she finds a wood somewhat cleerer and a straight road that she must goe, and for 5 dayes neither goe to the right nor to the left hand, where at last being arrived she finds a very great and clear fire, through which she must resolve to passe. That fire is kindled by the young men that dyed since the beginning of the world to know whether those that come, haved loved the women or have been good huntsmen and if that soule has not had any of those rare vertues she burnes and broiles the sole of her feet by going through the fire, but quite contrary if she has them qualityes she passes through without burning her selfe in the least. And from that so hot place she finds grease and paint of all sorts of colour with which she daubs and makes her selfe beautifull to come to that place so wishd for. But she has not yet all done nor made an end of her voyage. Being so dressd she continues her course still towards the same pole for the space of two dayes in a very clear wood and where there is very high and tall trees of which most be oakes, which is the reason that there is great store of bears. All along that way they do nothing else but see their enemies layd all along upon the ground, that sing their fatall song for having been vanquished in this world, and also in the other, not daring to be so bolde as to kill one of those animalls and feed onely upon the down of those beasts.251 Being arrived (if I may say) at the doore of that imagined paradice they find a company of their ancestors long since deceased by whom they are received with a great deale of ceremony and are brought by so venerable a company within halfe a dayes journy of the place of the meeting and all along the rest of the way they discource of the things of this world that are pass’d, for you must know they travell halfe a day without speaking one word but keep a very deep silence for said they it is like the goslings to confound one another with words.252

250 Word not found in either Ojibwe or Cree sources. 251 Not bold enough to kill the bears, and thus feeding only on the fur caught on bushes. 252 Talking too much, making too much noise, like little geese.

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As soon as they are arrived they must have a time to come to themselves to think well upon what they are to speak without any precipitation but with judgement so that they are come where [there is] all manner of company with drumms and dry’d bumpkins* full of stones and other such instruments. The elders that have brought her there cover her with a very large white skin and colour her leggs with vermillion and her feet likewise, and so she is received amongst the predestinated. There is a deep silence made as soon as she is come in and then one of the elders makes a long speech to encourage the young people to go a hunting to kill some /118/ meat to make a feast for entertainment of the soul of their countryman which is put in execution with a great deal of diligence and hast, and while the meat is boyling or roasting and that there is great preparations made for the feast, the young maidens set out themselves with the richest jewells and present the boosome to the new comer.253 A little while after the kettles are filld, there is feasting every where, comedies acted, and whatsoever is rare is there to be seen, there is dancing every where. Now remaines nothing but to provide that poor soule of a companion, which she does presently for she has the choice of very beautifull women and may take as many as she pleases, which makes her felicity immortall. ¶By this you may see the silly beleefe of these poor people. I have seen right minded Jesuites weep bitterly hearing me speake of so many nations that perish, for want of instruction but most of them are like the wild men that thinke they offend if they reserve any thing for the next day. I have seen also some of the same Company say alas what pity tis to loose so many castors, is there no way to goe there? The fish and the sauce invite us to it, is there no meanes to catch it, oh how happy should I be to go in those countreys as an envoye being it is so good a country. That is the relation that was made me severall times by those wild men, for I thought they would never have done.254 But let us come to our arrivall againe. ¶The Governor seeing us come back with a considerable summe for our own particuler,255 and seeing that his time was expired, and that he was to goe

253 The customary sexual hospitality. 254 Presumably this refers to the long account of Native funeral customs, not to the Jesuits’ supposed interest in the fur trade: yet another indication of the extent to which Radisson draws on Native oral history. 255 The portion that belonged to us. However, Radisson and Des Groseilliers had directly contravened the governor’s original orders not to go west. Even if their journey had been legal, they would have owed “un quart” (a quarter of the proceeds) as tax on the furs they brought to Quebec (see below, 300–1).

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away,256 made use of that excuse to doe us wrong, and to enrich himselfe with the goods that wee had so dearly bought, and by our meanes was made the country to subsist, that without us had been I beleeve oftentimes quite undone and ruined.257 And the better to say at his last bidding no castors no ship, and what [were we?] to doe without necessary commodities.258 He made also my brother prisoner for not having observed his orders and to be gone without his leave although one of his letters259 made him blush for shame not knowing what to say. But that he would have some of them at what price soever, that he might the better maintain his coach and horses at Paris.260 He fined us four thousand pounds261 to make a fort at the Three Rivers, telling us for all manner of satisfaction /119/ that he would give us leave to put our coat of armes upon it, and [fined us] moreover six thousand pounds 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 dayes in the same country with our relations and freinds.262 But the bougre263 did grease his chopps with it, and more made us pay 256 The term of Governor d’Argenson expired in 1661 and he left New France in September. 257 For the economic importance of the furs that Radisson and Des Groseilliers brought, see Marie de l’Incarnation, who wrote that with the arrival of the Odawa, God had sent the merchants of New France more than 140,000 livres in beaver skins precisely when they were contemplating leaving the country in the belief that no commerce was possible there (Guyart, Correspondance, lettre clxxxvi, 23 September 1660). Accounts differ as to the actual value of the trove of furs; Mère Marie’s 140,000 becomes 500,000 livres tournois in Radisson’s version (see below). 258 An obscure sentence, but possibly: “better to say, when he bade us not to leave, if no furs were collected for the trade, no ships would arrive from France with goods for either traders or colonists.” 259 A letter of protest from Des Groseilliers made the governor blush for shame. Des Groseilliers’ one extant letter (volume 2) shows he was not one for mincing words. 260 Yet the governor wanted some of the skins, at whatever price. It was an important sign of status in the seventeenth century to own a coach bearing one’s personal arms (see next sentence), thus Radisson’s sarcasm. Samuel Pepys spent much of 1667–68 searching for the coach that would at last demonstrate to the world his rise in status (see Pepys, Diary for 1667–68, passim). 261 By “pound” Radisson means “livre tournois,” as is shown by “pound tournois,” below. 262 D’Argenson is dismissing Radisson and Des Groseilliers as mere provincials. Groseilliers did in fact return to New France in 1684, but Radisson spent his later life, from 1687 until his death in 1710, in England asserting his rights. His sarcasm here is bitter even at the early date (1668) when the Voyages were written. 263 bougre: bugger, blackguard.

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a custome264 which was the 4th part which came to fourteen thousand pounds, so that wee had left but 46 thousand pounds and took away 24000 livres. Was not he a tyrant to deal so with us after wee had so hazarded our lives and having brought in lesse than 2 years by that voyage as the factors of the said country said, between 40 & 50 thousand pistolls.265 For they spoke to me in this manner, “in which country have you been? From whence doe you come? For wee never saw the like, from whence did come such excellent castors, since your arrivall is come into our magazin266 very near six hundred thousand pounds tournois of that filthy267 merchandize which will be prized like gold in France.”268 And them were the very words that they said to me. Seeing our selves so wronged my brother did resolve to goe and demand justice in France. It had been better for him to have been contented with his losses without going and spend the rest in halfe a years time in France, having 264 D’Argenson was enforcing a regulation imposed by Governor Jean de Lauson in 1654, backed by a degree of the king in 1657, that prohibited anyone from going into the interior without the governor’s permission. Lauson was partly attempting to regulate the new and burgeoning fur trade, and partly, as was his practice, lining his own pockets. Radisson sees d’Argenson in the setting of this complex interweaving of economic, governmental, and patronage issues. For background, see Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, vol. 3, La seigneurie des Cent-Associés 1627–1663, pt. 1, Les événements, 221–4, and the biographies of Lauson (Jacques Monet, DCB 1: 429–31) and d’Argenson (Jacques Mathieu, DCB 2: 656–8). 265 A pistole was worth 10 livres, so Radisson is describing a trove of furs worth 500,000 livres; see, however, below. 266 magazin: warehouse. 267 Radisson uses filthy earlier, in the obsolete sense of foggy or murky. Here (in another obsolete usage) it probably means contemptible, in contrast with the gold for which the furs will be prized in France. 268 It is not easy to calculate the real value of the furs in question. Radisson states that the partners brought down to New France between forty and fifty thousand pistoles worth of furs (that is, approximately 500,000 livres tournois), which conflicts with Mère Marie’s 140,000 livres and his own 600,000 “pounds [i.e., livres] tournois” above. Whatever the case, they had to pay the quart, which cost them 14,000 pounds on what must therefor have been furs of a total value of 56,000 pounds. Then they were fined a total of 10,000 pounds, which after the quart left them, as Radisson states, 24,000 pounds. This was no small sum; it was the equivalent of roughly 38,500 pounds sterling (see McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America 1600–1775, 87 and Table 2.2, 88–91). Radisson claims, however, that they were empty-handed, which they may well have been by the time they reached England four years later.

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10000 livres that he left with his wife that was as good a houswife as he.269 There he is in France, he is paid with fine words and with promise to make him goe back from whence he came, but he seeing no assurance of it did engage himself with a merchant at Rochell who was to send him a ship the next spring.270 In that hope he comes away in a fisher boat to the Pierced Island some 20 leaugues off from the isle Deluticosty,271 the place where the ship was to come. Whilst he was going in a shallop to Quebucq, where I was to goe away with him to the rendesvouz being he could not do any thing without me,272 but with a great deal of difficulty it proved. So that I thought it possible to goe tast of the pleasures of France and by a small vessell that I might not be idle during his absence. He presently told me what he had done and what wee should doe. Wee embarked being nine of us, in few days, wee came to the Pierced Island, where we found severall shipps newly arrived, and in one of them was found a father Jesuit that told us that wee should not find what wee thought to find and that he /120/ had put a good order, and that it was not well done to destroy in that manner a country and to wrong so many inhabitants. He advised me to leave my brother telling me that his designes were pernicious.273 Wee see our selves frustrated of our hopes. My brother told mee that wee had store of merchandize that would being much profit to the French habitations that are in the Cadis;274 I who was desirous of nothing but new things 269 She was as prudent a manager as he. In the 1690s Radisson was certainly not content with his losses. 270 Des Groseilliers was in La Rochelle in May and June 1661, hiring workers such as a carpenter and an arquebusier for a project which never came about; he was described in documents there as “général de la flotte des Outaouais.” As happened to him so many times in New France (see Nute, Caesars of the Wilderness), he ended up in court exchanging charges and counter-charges with one Ezechiel Dioré, who apparently had him imprisoned (see Archives de la Charente Maritime, Amirauté de La Rochelle, B 203: 1662 [13 April–4 May], Amirauté de La Rochelle [159–61], and B 206 for a brief reference to the legal case). 271 Roche Percée is about 110 kilometres from Anticosti Island. 272 A reference to Des Groseilliers’s apparent illness, or to Radisson’s increasing sense of his own capacities? See Introduction. 273 Probably Father André Richard, whom Nute says had known Des Groseilliers a decade earlier in Acadia (Caesars of the Wilderness, 83). Father Henri Nouvel, whom she also suggests, is less likely; he had only just arrived in the country; however, the priest’s advice does suggest someone who didn’t know much about New France. 274 This word remains a puzzle; however, it is possible that the scribe mistook “Cadis” for “Caribs.” Des Groseilliers may have used the name of the people, “Caribs,” for the place, “the Caribbean”; the French traded extensively with the West Indies.

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made no scruple. Wee arrived at St. Peter in the Isle of Cap Breton at the habitation of Monsieur Denier275 where wee delivered some merchandizes for some originack* skins, from thence to Camseau where every day wee were threatened to be burned by the French,276 but God be thanked wee escaped from their hands by avoiding a surprize. And in that place my brother told mee of his designe to come and see New England which our servants heard, and grumbled and laboured underhand against us for which our lives were in very great danger. Wee sent some of them away, and at last with much labour and danger wee came to Port Royall, which is inhabited by the French under the English government where some few dayes after came some English shipps, that brought about our designes.277 Where being come wee did declare our designes. Wee were entertained and we had a ship promised us and the articles drawn and wee did put to sea the next spring for our discovery and wee went to the entry of Hudsons Streight by the 61 degree. 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 yeare was far spent by the indiscretion of our master’s that onely were accustomed to see some Barbados sugers and not mountaines of sugar candy.278 Which did frighten him that he would goe no further complaining that he was furnished but for 4 months and that he had neither sailes nor corn nor pitch nor towe to stay out a winter. Being well [aware] that it was too late he would goe no further, so brought us back to the place from whence wee came where wee were welcomed although with great losse of goods and hope.279 But the last was not quite lost, wee were promised two shipps for a second voyage. They were made fit and ready, and being the season of the yeare /121/ was not yet come to be gone, one of them two shipps 275 Nicolas Denys (1598–1688), influential merchant and administrator at Sainte-Pierre and Chedabouctou (Guysborough) on Cape Breton and the author of Description géographique et historique des costes de l’Amérique septentrionale: avec l’histoire naturelle du païs (1672). 276 Canso, where it appears that the French threatened to burn their ships. Radisson and Des Groseilliers now seem to have been regarded as outlaws. 277 That enabled us to carry out our plans. In the next passage Radisson is clearly talking about Boston, so he must mean that they made their way there on one of the English ships out of Port Royal. 278 That is, a master who was used to the West Indies trade, and not the reward promised by a venture to the north, with its icebergs (mountains of sugar candy). The master was the New Englander Zachariah Gillam. For his death, ironically amidst the ice-floes at Port Nelson in 1684, see volume 2. 279 Boston in the early 1660s was a town of 3,000.

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was sent to the Isle of Sand,280 there to fish for the ba[s]se281 to make oyle of it where was come in very bad weather and the ship was lost in that island but the men were saved. The expectation of that ship made us loose our second voyage which did very much discourage the merchants with whom wee had to doe, and 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 betrayd by our own party.282 In the mean time the commissioners of the king of Great Brittain arrived in that place,283 and one of them would have us goe with him to New Yorke284 and the other advised us to come to England and offer our selves to the king, which wee did. Those of New England in generall made proffers unto us of what ship wee would if wee would goe on in our designes, but wee answered them that a scalded cat fears the water though it be cold.285 Wee are now in the passage and he that brought us which was one of the commissioners called Collonell George Carteret286 was taken by the Hollanders and wee arrived in England in a very bad time for the plague and the warrs. Being at Oxford wee

280 Sable Island. 281 Evidently the black sea bass (Centropristis striata) of the Atlantic coast; not in fact a very oily fish. 282 The suit was brought by John Saffin against Edward Ting (both of Boston). The jury found for the plaintiff, and assessed damages of £142, revised downward but confirmed on appeal. Massachusetts, Records of the Court of Assistants, 3: 168–9, item LXVII. Des Groseilliers’s deposition in the case is in Massachusetts Judicial Archives, Suffolk County Court Files, Case 754 (1666), paper 24, f.103, sworn 24 May 1665. 283 The commissioners were Colonel Richard Nicholls, Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright (Radisson’s spelling “Carteret” has caused some confusion with Sir George Carteret, below), and Samuel Maverick. Accompanied by the necessary squadrons, they had been instructed to visit the English colonies in New England and to reduce the Dutch to subjection. Manhattan was badly defended, and the populace was opposed to Peter Stuyvesant’s resolve to hold out against the English. The town was surrendered on 8 September 1664. See Brodhed, History of the State of New York, 734–44. 284 Note that Radisson now calls New York by its English name; in Voyage I and Voyage II he used “Menada,” in its several variants the French version of “Manhattan.” New York had grown rapidly since he first saw it in 1654; it now had about 2,400 inhabitants, still a bit smaller than Boston. 285 A very old proverb and, according to Heidi Bohaker (personal communication, 11 January 2011), still in use in French Canada today. 286 That is, Colonel George Cartwright.

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went to Sir George Carteret287 who spoke to His Majestie who gave us good hopes that wee should have a shipp ready for the next spring, and that the king did allow us forty shillings a week for our maintenance, and wee had chambers in the town by his order, where wee stayed 3 months. Afterwards the king came to London, and sent us to Windsor where wee stayed the rest of the winter. Wee are sent for from that place the season growing neare and put into the hands of Sir Peter Colleton.288 The ship was got ready something too late and our master was not fit for such a designe, but the Hollanders being come to the river of Thames289 /122/ had stoppd the passage so wee lost that opportunity. So wee were put off till the next yeare and a little while after that same ship was sent to Virginia and other places, to know some news of the Barbados, and to be informed if that island was not in danger which if it had been lost, had taken from the English ladyes the means or the pleasure of drinking French wine. Those of Burdeaux and of Rochell were great loosers in the expectation of that ship that was not gone to the Isle of Paus290 but to Holland. Wee lost our second voyage for the order was given to late for the fitting another ship which cost a great deale of money to noe purpose. The third yeare wee went out with a new company in two small vessells my brother in one and I in another, and wee went together 400 leaugues from the north of Ireland where a sudden great storme did rise and put us a sunder. The sea was soe furious six or seven hours after that it did almost ouerturne our ship, so that wee were forced to cut our masts rather then cutt our lives,291 but wee came back safe God be thanked. And the other I hope is gone on his voyage God be with him. I hope to embarke myselfe by the help of God this fourth yeare292 and I beseech him to grant me better successe than I have had hitherto and beseech him to give me grace and to make me partaker of that everlasting happinesse, which is the onely thing a man ought to look after. 287 Sir George Carteret; see Introduction and n.283. 288 Sir Peter Colleton (1635–94). An early investor in the HBC, and named in the charter of 1670. A member of the London Committee, 1670–72. Much interested in colonial projects. Governor of Barbados, 1673–74. Fellow of the Royal Society. 289 An episode in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1665–67; the famed Dutch admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (1607–76) blockaded the Thames in June 1666 but the blockade was broken by the English late in July, probably too late for a ship to prepare for and sail on a North Atlantic voyage. 290 Isle of Paus: unidentified. 291 They took down the masts and rigging so as to make the ship less vulnerable to the wind. 292 That is, in the fourth year after their arrival in England, 1669. See Introduction for Radisson’s unsuccessful attempt to get to Hudson’s Bay in the Wivenhoe that year.

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I have here put the names of severall nations amongst which I have been for the most part, which I think may extend to some nine hundred Leagues by the reckoning of my travells.293 [/123/] The names of the Nations that live in the South294 Avieronons Aviottronons Anontackeronons Sonontueronons [Seneca; HNAI 15: 516] Oyongoironons [Cayuga; HNAI 15: 503] Andastoueronons [Andaste, Susquehannock; HNAI 15: 367] Konkhaderichonons Andouauchronons Kionontateronons Ouendack [Wendat, Huron; HNAI 15: 405] Khionontateronons [Petun; HNAI 15: 396–7] Ohcrokouauechronons Ahondironons [Neutral, Wenro; HNAI 15: 407–10] Ougmarahronoms295 Akrahkuaeronoms Oneronoms [Wenro; HNAI 15: 411] Eressaronoms Attiouendarouks [Wenro; HNAI 15: 411] Ekriehronoms [Erie; HNAI 15: 416] 293 The words “my travells” are vague, but Radisson must mean the distance covered in Voyage IV. His league is roughly 2.9 miles (4.7 kilometres), so nine hundred leagues would be about 2,600 miles (4,184 kilometres). The total distance covered in Voyage IV, but without the alleged James Bay journey, was (very approximately) 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometres) or 862 leagues. This would support the probability that the knowledge of James Bay the partners later circulated in England was acquired by Des Groseilliers on a rapid journey there (see Introduction and 286–7). 294 In the manuscript, the names are arranged in two parallel columns, with the closing annotations below each list and the final comment in the margin. To avoid numerous footnotes, verifications of the names (where known), chiefly from vols. 6 and 15 of the HNAI, are inserted in square brackets. The names of Native groups are many and shifting in the period; furthermore, Radisson only knew them orally; even so, his list is sometimes cited as a primary source for specific names. 295 Sic, with the “m” retained in several of the following nations, but then “n” resumes at the end of the column.

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Tontataratouhronoms Ariotachronoms Oscovarahronoms Huattochronoms [Sauk, HNAI 15: 654] Skinchiohronoms [Fox; HNAI 15: 668] Attitachronons Ontarahronons [Kickapoo; HNAI 15: 667] Aoveatsiouaenhronons Atto chingochronons Attioendarakheronons [Neutral; HNAI 15: 411] Maingonis [Mahican? HNAI 15: 211] Socoquis [Souriquois? Mi’kmaq; HNAI 15: 121] Pacoiquis All these Nations are sedentaries and live upon corn and other Grain by hunting and fishing which is plentifull and by the ragousts296 of roots, there were many destroyed by the Iroquoits and I have seen most of these that are left. The names of the Nations that live in the North Chisedeck [Montagnais of the Sept-Îles area; HNAI 6: 187] Bersiamites [eastern Montagnais; HNAI 6: 186] Sagseggons [Montagnais from the Saguenay, especially around Tadoussac; HNAI 6: 186] Attikamegues [Attigamek, Tête de Boule; HNAI 6: 213–14] Ouaouehkairiny or Algonquin297 [Weskarin, lower Ottawa River people; see Heidenreich, “History of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes area to A.D. 1650,” 477] Kischeripirini [Moose River Cree; HNAI 6: 229] Minisigons [possibly the Churchill River Cree? See HNAI 6: 269 for options] Kotakoaueteny [Algonquin of the upper Ottawa valley; HNAI 15: 792] Kinoucheripirini [Pike nation or Pike River people of eastern Ontario; see Heidenreich, “History of the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes area to A.D. 1650,” 477] Matouchkarini [Matouweskarini? HNAI 15: 792] Ountchatarounongha Sagahigauirini Saguitaouigama 296 ragousts: stews. 297 Written on successive lines, bracketted together.

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Nipisiriniens [Nipissing; HNAI 15: 791] Tiviscimi Outimagami [Fox? HNAI 15: 646] Ouachegami Mitchitamou Orturbi [Outurbi; subgroup of Northern Ojibwe; HNAI 6: 241–2] Ovasouarin [southeastern Ojibwe; HNAI 15: 770] Atcheligonens [an Ojibwe band; HNAI 15: 770] Annikouay [Annikkoway, “Amikwa” or Beaver Nation, eastern shore of Georgian Bay] Otauack [Odawa; HNAI 15: 772–86, and HNAI 6: passim] Ouncisagay Abaouicktigonions Roguay [Roquai (Ojibwe Bear clan); HNAI 15: 770] Mantouech [Mantoueck, an Ojibwe band; HNAI 15: 770] Pissings [Pisierinij, a variant of Nipissing; HNAI 15: 791] Malhonniners [Menominee; HNAI 15: 723] Asinipour [Assiniboines; HNAI 15: 602] Trinivoick Nasaouakouetons [Odawa; HNAI 15: 730 and passim] Poutouatemick [Pottawatomi; HNAI 15: 741–2] Escouteck Pauoestigons [Saulteaux; HNAI 15: 769; and see Lytwyn, The Fur Trade of the Little North, 1] Nadoucenako Titascons [Kiskakon; see Kellogg, Early Narratives, 58n.4; HNAI 15: 772] Cristinos [Cree; HNAI 6 and 15: passim] Nadouceronons [Dakota Sioux; HNAI 15: passim] Ouinipigoueck [Winnebago; HNAI 15: 706] Tatanga [Tetanka, the people of the buffalo, i.e., the Sioux; but see 225n.92] The two last are sedentary and doe reap. And all the rest are wandering people that live by their hunting and fishing, and some few of rice that they doe labour for, and a great many of them have been destroyed [by] the Irokoits. Besides all the above named nations, I have seen eight or nine more since my voyages.298 298 Probably nations of the east coast where Radisson and Des Groseilliers spent much of 1661–65.

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APPENdIx: rAdISSON IN AN A b O r I G I NA L WO r L d Heidi Bohaker1 As Radisson journeyed across the northeast corner of North America, he moved through a world at once both strange and familiar. Here people spoke languages from three distinct linguistic families and had among themselves quite different cultural priorities and world views.2 And yet, as other travellers and missionaries had done, Radisson found commonalities and built new relationships with the people he met, drawing on his own background and life experiences to do so. Such shared experiences included the disruptive impact of war and resulting political and social reorganization. The brutal Thirty Years’ War had just ended in Europe in 1648, followed in France by the Fronde (a series of civil insurrections), leaving famine and devastation in their wake. By 1651, when Radisson arrived at Quebec, indigenous nations of the Great Lakes region had been struggling to deal with the twin challenges of deadly diseases and regional war for more than a decade. Beginning with an outbreak of smallpox in 1633, high mortality rates resulting from disease caused tremendous grief and social disruption. These losses set off a well-documented series of conflicts that scholars have called “mourning wars,” as these indigenous nations, looking to their own theories of disease, sought to avenge their dead by attacking enemy peoples. The escalating violence resulted ultimately in the political reconfiguration of the region. The French-allied Huron-Wendat Confederacy broke apart while its 1 I gratefully acknowledge the advice and suggestions of Germaine Warkentin, Christopher Parsons, and my colleagues at the University of Toronto who commented so helpfully on an earlier draft: Alison Smith, Paul Cohen, Barbara Todd, Melanie Newton, Bertie Mandelblatt, and Anne Keary. All errors remain my own. 2 Siouan-speaking nations were located to the south and west of the Great Lakes, while Iroquoian-speaking nations could be found in the Ontario peninsula of the eastern Great Lakes, the Finger Lakes district of New York State, and, until the mid- to late sixteenth century, the St Lawrence Lowlands. Algonquian-speaking nations controlled the largest area, stretching from the lands around the Great Lakes in the south to James and Hudson bays in the north and east to the Atlantic coast. In Radisson’s later travels (as described in the 1682–84 Port Nelson Relations, see volume 2), he also met and traded with people from Inuktitut-speaking nations on the Labrador coast and Cree peoples on the coast of James and Hudson bays.

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enemies, the Iroquois Confederacy, stabilized its population through the incorporation of some Huron-Wendat and other people, especially the Iroquoianspeaking Erie, Neutral, and Wenro.3 Given the rarity of eyewitness accounts of these major mid-seventeenth-century events, Radisson’s writings assume a particular importance: his is often the only written record of the events that he describes. But, beyond the singularity of his texts and leaving his bravado and rhetorical excesses aside, Radisson is an essential source. He was an interested and accurate observer of the peoples he encountered, and his Voyages and Relations are written with such vividness and immediacy that he often conveys the sense that we are on the journey with him, peering over his shoulder as the scenes unfold before us. Radisson appears to have been a quick student of indigenous cultures and their priorities. He made frequent use of the kinship idiom, demonstrating his awareness of how kinship profoundly shaped intra- and international politics in the region. To enter into any sort of relationship required that one be made kin, either by formal adoption or metaphorically through ceremonies and gift exchange. And Radisson did become kin: he was formally adopted by a Mohawk (Iroquois Confederacy) family on his first voyage, and then on his fourth voyage, and again at Port Nelson, he initiated his own adoptions through the ritual use of gifts. Radisson also appears to have mastered the art of gift exchange for political and diplomatic purposes, applying what he knew about the power of gifts to create and strengthen reciprocal alliance relationships in these new cultural contexts. And, when such relationships did not exist or broke down, Radisson had no trouble participating in the socially sanctioned violence that was directed towards peoples deemed to be outsiders. He came to understand widely held cosmological principles, including belief in the existence of other-than-human persons and protocols concerning respectful behaviour towards those beings.4 Radisson repeatedly demonstrated that he grasped the requirement of reciprocity that served to regulate relationships between humans, and between humans and those other beings. He and his brother-in-law Médard Chouart, Sieur Des Groseilliers, skilfully manipulated that understanding for their own ends, as they did in Voyage IV, when the two men successfully invoked the protection of underwater manidoog to hide their cache of trade goods from curious neighbours (265). Radisson was also an 3 These conflicts and their effects are well studied. See Richter, “War and Culture,” for a discussion of the scholarship to 1983, and the historiographic note in Parmenter, “After the Mourning Wars,” for a discussion of the scholarship to 2007. 4 This concept of other-than-human beings is articulated in Hallowell, “Ojibwe Ontology, Behavior and Worldview,” 23.

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accurate observer of the details of daily life, from food and its preparation to  the clothing and adornment people wore and their methods and modes of transportation. But Radisson’s observations must be understood in the context of the period in which he was writing. He could hardly have picked a less auspicious time to come to the colony of New France; by 1651, its future was uncertain. The permanent colony was established in 1608 at Quebec; its founder, Samuel de Champlain, secured France’s entry into the fur trade through an alliance relationship with the Huron-Wendat. By the 1630s, the Huron-Wendat, who themselves were a political confederacy situated in the southeastern corner of Georgian Bay, were New France’s most important trading partner. They gathered furs from northern and western nations for trade with the French. The people of Huron-Wendat Confederacy were at the time also the region’s most significant targets of the Jesuits’ efforts to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity.5 The French-Huron alliance developed at the same time that the Huron-Wendat Confederacy’s principal enemies, the member nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, formed their own alliance with the Dutch trading on the Hudson River.6 Then, in the 1630s, just as the FrenchHuron alliance was maturing and strengthening, it was threatened by a terrible crisis as epidemics of smallpox, measles, and influenza spread in waves through the St Lawrence valley and eastern Great Lakes. These were particularly virulent strains with high mortality rates, especially for indigenous peoples for whom the illnesses were new. Affected villages were often devastated by localized outbreaks. The first major smallpox epidemic in 1633 decimated nations of the Iroquois Confederacy; overall, the Iroquois Confederacy nations saw their populations cut in half by the beginning of the 1640s to ten thousand. Other Great Lakes nations suffered significant losses too.7 5 The best history of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy remains Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic. 6 The member nations of the Iroquois Confederacy were (from east to west in the Finger Lakes district of what is now New York): the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. The other European colonies in the northeast included New Netherlands (established in 1615), New England (Plymouth Colony in 1620), and New Sweden in 1638. 7 For the impact on the Iroquois Confederacy, see Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 58–9. Much less is known about the demographic impact of epidemics on Algonquianspeaking populations but there are scattered references in primary sources. The Jesuits reported that the Lake Nipissing Anishinaabe nation was hard hit by an unknown disease in the winter of 1637–38. At least seventy people died. See JR 14: 37.

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The French would have seen either the hand of God or the Devil behind so many deaths; Great Lakes peoples as well looked to whom, not what, could have caused such a tragedy. Enemy nations were seen as the most likely perpetrators; this belief justified culturally sanctioned mourning wars (so-called because they were initiated at the request of those grieving) to avenge those who died. Beginning in 1634, following the first major outbreak of disease, member nations of the Iroquois Confederacy launched a series of attacks on their longtime enemy, the Huron-Wendat. While Iroquois warriors certainly acquired trade goods, this was not the purpose of their raids. Instead, they captured large numbers of people and brought them back to Iroquoia with the intention of rebuilding the population of the Confederacy. Women and children from the member nations of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy proved especially useful captives since they were culturally and linguistically close to the Iroquois and were seen as more likely to be successfully assimilated.8 The attacks continued through the 1640s. The combination of successive attacks by the Iroquois with periodic outbreaks of disease reduced the population of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy by two-thirds to nine thousand in the late 1640s. In 1649 the Huron-Wendat Confederacy could no longer sustain itself; the constituent nations broke apart and the French lost their key trading ally.9 These mourning wars of the Iroquois Confederacy continued into the 1650s. Some targeted peoples joined their former attackers. Huron-Wendat members of the Deer nation were adopted as entire villages into the Seneca while the Rock nation joined the Onondaga. Others moved away, remaining targets of the Iroquois campaigns. Those who had converted to Christianity (members of the Bear and Cord nations) moved to just outside Quebec. When Radisson returned to Iroquois country during 1657 in Voyage II, he accompanied a large party from Quebec of some Bear nation Huron-Wendat, who had accepted the Iroquois’ offer to join the Confederacy. But the logic of the mourning war was still in operation; Radisson was then witness to the massacre of this party at Cornwall Island as retribution for those Iroquois who had died on the way to Quebec. Others people, including the Wendat’s closest neighbours, the Tionontaté (also known as the Petun or Tobacco people), moved north and west along with some Bear nation of the Huron-Wendat and their Algonquianspeaking allies (Anishinaabe nations identified as Odawa and Saulteaux). It was these people with whom Radisson and Des Groseilliers overwintered in

8 See especially Richter, “War and Culture.” 9 The breakup of the Confederacy is told in chapter 11 of Trigger, Children of Aataentsic.

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Voyage IV on the south shore of Lake Superior, on Sioux territory.10 Other Iroquoian-speaking nations also came under attack in the 1650s, including the Neutral in 1651 and the Erie in 1657. As he describes in Voyage I, Radisson himself participated in the raids on the Erie and brought back captives for his adoptive mother (156). As a result of these successful assaults, by the 1650s some Iroquois villages faced a demographic challenge of their own: they had to incorporate a greater number of newcomers than their own surviving population. Despite acquiring many replacement captives, the nations of the Iroquois Confederacy did not increase their numbers beyond ten thousand, which was the number surviving at the beginning of the 1640s. Retaliatory strikes from the targeted nations and continued losses from ongoing outbreaks of disease continued to take their toll.11 For readers of Radisson, the implication of these events is that he is often describing people who were actively dealing with major social and political crises. Others, those more remote from the epicentres of disease, had to adjust to the ripple effects of demographic and political change and the relocations of  people to new areas.12 Radisson’s experiences were also interwoven with major political events in which he himself participated. These included the wars of the Iroquois against their neighbours, the demographic reconstitution of the Iroquois through adoption ceremonies of individuals and entire nations, the formation of new alliances between formerly warring nations in the Lake Superior region, and the reorganization and revitalization of the fur trade with the French. Radisson’s writings also shed light on the ways in which these events of the mid-seventeenth century, while they disrupted and in some cases dramatically changed those indigenous polities, did so for the most part on indigenous terms. By the 1660s, while Radisson was in England, Algonquianspeaking peoples emerged as France’s new trading partners in the Great Lakes. Radisson and Des Groseilliers then played another pivotal role helping the English to establish their fur trade on Hudson Bay with another Algonquianspeaking people, likely the West Main Cree. Throughout all of his writings, Radisson provides ample evidence of the central importance of kinship to indigenous politics, a lesson he first began to learn as an adoptee of the Iroquois in 1652. 10 These “Huron-Petun” later moved near Detroit and became known as the Wyandot. See Steckley, A Huron-English/English-Huron Dictionary, 6. 11 Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 66. 12 As Radisson shows in Voyage IV, the Huron-Wendat, Odawa, and others who had relocated to the southern shore of Lake Superior were living on the lands of Siouanspeaking peoples, with their permission (281n.169).

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Expressions of kinship structured both familial and political relationships among all indigenous peoples of the northeast. In order to be in any sort of relationship, familial, political, or economic, cultural practice required that outsiders be transformed into kin. This was undertaken typically through ceremonies that were intended either to integrate new peoples or to subordinate them within the new society.13 Radisson provides examples of the differing ways in which these practices worked in the Great Lakes region. In Voyage I, Radisson was formally adopted into a Mohawk family and expected to assimilate completely to his new identity. His new family appears to have had great affection for him. Radisson observed people (especially warriors) being ritually adopted to replace a deceased person, and then killed to avenge their death, or adopted in a subordinate relationship as a type of slave. In his later travels, Radisson initiated his own self-described adoptions, in which a kin relationship was constructed for the purposes of alliance or trade through the ritual exchange of gifts. He also understood how to use kinship terms in formal council deliberations to define his relationships with other people and nations. Such use conveyed information about perceived power imbalances and the ritual obligations that each party owed the other. Radisson came to understand the significance of the kinship idiom and successfully used the language of kinship to meet his own goals. Radisson’s initial acceptance by his new Iroquois family was not considered fully complete until some six weeks after his arrival in the village. The family had waited to see if Radisson’s cultural assimilation was successful, and it was clearly deemed to be so when Radisson, in reply to his new mother’s query if he was French, responded that, no, he was “of their nation”. At the same time, his new mother bestowed the name Orinha upon him, which had belonged to “her son who before was killed” (129). This was the person Radisson was intended to replace. Only then was a full adoption ceremony held. The Iroquois ritual of adoption formally conferred on Radisson a new set of parents and siblings, along with longhouse, village, clan, and national identities, as well as corresponding rights and responsibilities. The Iroquois inherit their otara, or clan identities, from their mothers. Otara literally means “the clay of which I am made.”14 From Radisson’s new mother he became a member of the Bear clan. People who shared the same clan identity were considered immediate family, even if they had never met, and marriage between people from the same 13 See Strong, “Transforming Outsiders,” 336–7 and, regarding the northeast, 343–6. 14 Doxtator, “Inclusive and Exclusive Perceptions of Difference,” 42.

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clan was forbidden. While people had a primary allegiance to the household (i.e., the longhouse) in which they lived, they also had allegiances to their village, their nation, and their clan. Since clans cut across national lines, they formed a set of lateral connections of kinship ties that helped to knit the Confederacy together. For example, members of the Beaver clan, Onondaga nation, were considered kin of the Beaver clan, Mohawk nation. The fiftymember Confederacy council itself was formed of representatives from each of the clans within each of the nations, forming two levels (national and clan) at which alliances could be made.15 Radisson understood his responsibilities towards his new kin: he hunted and fought alongside his brothers, he contributed food to the longhouse, he brought slaves and captured trade goods to his mother, and he provided gifts for his sisters. The behaviour of Radisson’s new family towards him and their ongoing concern for his welfare, even after he ran away the first time, and even when they learn of his second escape (Voyage II), underscores the degree to which families anticipated a successful adoption through the complete assimilation of the individual. As Radisson himself noted: “my mother and my parents … loved me as if I weare their owne naturall son” (163). Radisson’s adoptive mother had herself been an adoptee, born to a Huron-Wendat family some forty years before and taken captive.16 Adoption in this way did not mark an individual as somehow less valued than a “blood” relative; in every way, the successful adoptee was seen as a full member of the society. The offspring of European and indigenous parents were regarded in the same way. Radisson observed this when he attempted to entice his adopted brother into leaving with him for the Dutch at the end of Voyage I. The brother refused, “seeing that he was courting of a yonng woman who by the report of many was bastard to a Flemish … Neverthelesse shee was of a great familie” (161). Radisson’s adoptive family appeared to have high status too: Radisson reports that, at his adoption, his new father held a feast for three hundred men and that Radisson was dressed “with riches” for this ceremony (130). The Iroquois adoption ceremony in which Radisson took part and the very scale of adoption as a cultural practice in this period reflected innovations in older practices as the villages and nations of the Confederacy struggled to reconstitute themselves through the sophisticated integration of formerly separate peoples and, in many cases, former enemies. While adoption of individuals like Radisson was part of this practice, the Confederacy also adopted entire 15 Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 39. 16 “shee was not borne in my fathers country, but was taken litle in the Huronits country” (145).

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clans and nations of other Iroquoian-speaking peoples into its ranks. As a result of the incorporation of newcomers, by the 1660s the Seneca, for example, had set up villages on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and the Confederacy felt itself able to lay claim to the peninsula of southern Ontario as hunting territory, drawing on the local knowledge of adoptees and grounding this land claim in the birthright of those adoptees.17 As for Radisson, he quickly learnt the importance of kinship. As kin, he had the protection of his family; as an outsider, his very survival was at stake. Radisson also refers to slaves in his writings, especially among the Iroquois. This was not chattel slavery in the European sense. Adults taken prisoner were not often seen as capable of being fully assimilated, but if they were not killed they could be put to work as labourers in the fields or sent to work as porters. Radisson himself captured such prisoners and gave them to his adoptive mother (156). As they had not been formally adopted by a particular family, slaves did not have “citizenship” in the same sense as Radisson had been given, nor did they have the same rights. Their lives could be forfeit at any point. They could also be given as gifts themselves, especially as part of alliance-making ceremonies.18 By the 1690s, these captives were also showing up in the slave markets of Montreal and Quebec, where they sometimes did enter the system of European chattel slavery.19 In contrast with his involuntary adoption by the Iroquois, Radisson later  chose to enter into adoptive relationships first with the Malhonmines (Wild Rice people) during Voyage IV and later, at Port Nelson, with another Algonquian-speaking nation. Algonquian-speaking peoples who had clan systems (particularly those of the Great Lakes region) typically inherited their clan or doodem identities from their fathers. Related men lived together, and their wives came from other clans to lives among them. The prohibition on intra-clan marriage was similar throughout the region; claims could be made on fellow clansmen for access to rights and resources. But, unlike his first adoption among the Iroquois, there is no indication in his writings that Radisson obtained a doodem or clan identity in these later two adoptions, which would have made him truly kin. These later adoptions instead created fictive kinship ties through ritual gift exchange. Radisson seems to have taken on some family responsibility when he settled a dispute between his new

17 The claiming process is discussed in Ferris, The Archaeology of Native-lived Colonialism, especially chapter 5, “Iroquoian to Iroquois in Southwestern Ontario.” 18 See Starna and Watkins, “Northern Iroquoian Slavery,” 41–6. 19 See Rushforth, “‘A Little Flesh We Offer You,’” 780–1, 793.

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relations at Port Nelson and a neighbouring nation,‡ but beyond that event these expressions of kinship appear superficial. In reality, though, Radisson’s behaviour was just as sincere as other uses of the kinship idiom by indigenous peoples themselves. In formal councils, Algonquian-speaking peoples called themselves “children” and the French “fathers” in the expectation that the French would be generous in providing gifts to their metaphorical children, just as Algonquian fathers were supposed to do for the own children.20 Radisson deployed the same language when he told his newly “adopted” family at Port Nelson that he had brought Des Groseilliers to them “as a father,”‡ and he did so again later when he promised to become a father himself.‡ Such use of kinship terminology was standard practice to describe relationships between indigenous polities. Within the Iroquois Confederacy, for example, the Mohawk, Onondaga, and Seneca nations described themselves as the elder brothers, and the Oneida and Cayuga were called the younger brothers. In this context, the age modifier indicates that the younger should defer to the wisdom of the older, while the older should take on a role of guardianship with respect to the younger.21 Reciprocal gift exchange was the means by which these metaphorical kin relations were established and maintained. t h e l a n g ua g e o f g i f t g i v i n g

Gift giving, along with expressions of kin ties, formed the basis of the diplomatic lexicon in the northeast. Radisson understood as much when he wrote in the 1682–83 Port Nelson Relation: “Above all, one must first make gifts to them, because among them that is the great bond of friendship”‡. Radisson and Des Groseilliers used gifts to enter into metaphorical adoptive relationships and to promote their own status as leaders. At multiple points in the narratives, Radisson was quick to bestow gifts where needed to create or repair relationships. Voyage IV and the Port Nelson Relations are particularly rich in examples of how the language of gift giving operated. Words conveyed with gifts indicated the seriousness of intent of the speaker. While still in Trois-Rivières at the start of Voyage IV, Radisson gave gifts to the party of “wild men” as part of his request to join their group. Gifts were given at the start and end of journeys and in exchange for goods or labour (i.e., as acts of thanksgiving, not as monetary compensation). At the major ceremonial that Radisson calls “the Feast of the Dead” in Voyage IV, he describes how he skilfully manipulated the symbolism 20 White, Middle Ground, 84. 21 Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 38–40.

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of gift giving in order to serve his own purpose of inviting these nations into fur-trading alliances. To each constituency of attendees, Radisson gave specific presents that conveyed an important part of his overall strategic message. The young men received hatchets to make them stronger warriors; the women were given awls as an invitation to come to New France with their husbands, “when time and season should permit,” and needles “to make beaver robes” (266). Following the feast later in the spring, Radisson also gave gifts to the Sioux in an effort to create an alliance with them, and the gifts were accepted, communicating that the alliance was forged. The Sioux in return ritually gave gifts to Radisson and Des Groseilliers, each serving a specific diplomatic purpose. The first gift was of beaver skins, which accompanied the standard opening wish that the path be cleared between the parties (i.e., that there would be no obstacle to good communication). The second gift confirmed the sincerity of the alliance and expressed the willingness of allies to die for each other, the third requested protection by the French from the Cree if needed, and the fourth, gifts of buffalo robes, accompanied a request for weapons from the French, specifically guns, so that the Sioux could have “a thunder” and ensure victory against their enemies (278). The language of gift giving was also intimately connected with liberality and political power. Leaders throughout the region had responsibility for people, not authority over them. Leaders demonstrated their abilities as hunters and warriors not only through their prowess but by giving away the fruits of their labour, whether meat or spoils captured by raiding parties, thus indicating that they could look after the people in their care.22 Gifts made by Radisson and Des Groseilliers were tangible evidence of their ability to lead. In the words Radisson spoke to establish a fictive kin relationship at Port Nelson with a Cree family, he indicated that he understood this connection between the establishment of kinship ties and security. Radisson told his newly adopted father: “You will not die of hunger, neither your wife, nor your children, for I am bringing you merchandise. Take courage. I want to be your son, and I have brought you a father [Des Groseilliers]”‡. Radisson thus positioned himself as a son (one who contributes to the family sustenance) and positioned Des Groseilliers and the French by extension as gift-giving fathers. But the ties of kinship also necessitated reciprocal action, and so after Radisson presented his new family with numerous gifts, the chief “adopted me for his son by covering me with his robe”‡. Only when these ties were established could trading begin.

22 For an excellent short discussion of traditional Anishinaabe leadership roles, see Chute, The Legacy of Shingwaukonse, 13–16.

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The connection between gift giving and trading varied slightly among member nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, who, prior to the arrival of Europeans, had tended to trade among themselves and did not have the large-scale trading networks of other nations. Nevertheless, gift giving figures prominently in Iroquois origin narratives and reciprocal trading relationships. As historian Daniel Richter has noted, the nations with whom the Iroquois were at peace during the first half of the seventeenth century (i.e., the Neutral, Wenro, Mahican, and River peoples) were all those with whom the Confederacy traded for exotic goods. “A lack of reciprocity,” Richter writes, “as epitomized by the absence of trading relationships, could easily lead to a presumption of hostility.”23 The language of gift giving also played a central role in the establishment of the Confederacy itself: the Confederacy united five nations – which previously had been at continual war with one another – through the use of gifts, specifically quahog shell wampum, given to condole people for the loss of their loved ones. Through reciprocal gift giving the cycle of the mourning wars that had plagued the five nations was broken. Gift giving was thus intimately connected with the end of violence and the creation of peace.24 t h e c u lt u r a l l o g i c o f v i o l e n c e

Understanding the significance of the kinship idiom and the importance of gift giving for maintaining alliance relationships puts war and violence in their cultural contexts. Radisson comments frequently on the violence that he not only saw in indigenous societies but also participated in. The descriptions are graphic and at times deeply disturbing, certainly according to present-day values. While seventeenth-century Europeans were familiar with violence, the cultural logic of socially sanctioned violence was different in North America since it was most frequently directed at those deemed to be outsiders. As an insider, the trading partner or ally would not be subjected to violence (or theft or other assault), the exception being the kind of fight between boys or young men in which Radisson participated during the first two Voyages. In these nonstate societies, there was therefore no state-sanctioned violence directed towards individuals in the form of punishment for a crime. Violence instead was ritually channelled into raids on enemies, primarily as a way for young men to demonstrate martial prowess, to retaliate for attacks against their communities, or to do both. As Huron-Wendat historian Georges 23 Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 28–9. 24 See especially chapter 2, “The Great League of Peace and Power,” in Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 30–49.

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Sioui notes, “Amerindians considered it normal for young men to show their courage by going into combat to defend their own people.”25 In this respect, war was a “game,” as Sioui calls it, for young men to develop and demonstrate skills they would need later in life. In a practice that was fairly widespread throughout the region, warriors taken as captives could be expected to be tortured to death. In this way the captive could redeem the shame he had taken on by being captured and restore himself as a man and a warrior by enduring torture and dying bravely, ideally while singing his death song. Another purpose of these raids was to acquire captives who were intended to replace those who had died. In the cultural logic of the period, Iroquoianspeaking peoples viewed the loss of any member of their community as a great tragedy that required the “replacement” of the individual in order to keep the society healthy. The obvious source of such captives was an “enemy” society. Adult males could be captured, symbolically adopted, and then killed, so that the loss was balanced. Women and children could be captured and adopted as actual replacements for those who died, assuming the name and social role of the deceased. Prior to the outbreak of epidemics in the 1630s, such practices were only minimally disruptive to societies that were the targets of these “mourning” raids. But, with deaths mounting, the raids took on a new necessity. By the 1640s, the death toll had launched a cycle of violence that was far more intense than it had been previously. Radisson’s description of raids in the 1650s provides some of the most valuable information available to historians for this period; especially vivid are his accounts of raids in which he took part as a combatant. The first two of Radisson’s Voyages furnish gripping descriptions of the martial traditions of Iroquoian-speaking peoples, and similar material relating to Algonquian-speaking peoples is found in Voyage III and Voyage IV. Radisson appears to have been an enthusiastic soldier, regardless of on which side he fought; he collected his own marks of victory in the scalps of those he killed and in the prisoners he captured and helped torture.26 In doing so, he demonstrated that he was a quick student of indigenous cultural practices of warfare. w o r l d v i e w s a n d s y s t e m s o f k n ow l e d g e

Radisson’s writings reveal much about mid- to late-seventeenth-century indigenous conceptions of personhood, expressions of spirituality, and the important 25 Sioui, Huron-Wendat: The Heritage of the Circle, 169. 26 See especially Voyage I, II, and IV: “we had ten heads and fowre prisoners … we plagued those infortunates, we plucked out their nails one after an other” (253).

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role of ceremony and protocol in managing relationships between multiple categories of beings. Although Radisson hints at indigenous spirituality in Voyage I and Voyage II, there is more evidence of practices and beliefs in the subsequent voyages. In his descriptions, it becomes clear how both land and water were viewed by indigenous peoples as home to a tremendous population of soul-endowed beings, only some of whom were in the physical form of a human. Beyond flora and fauna, Aboriginal peoples recognized the presence of many different spirits as well. In this spiritually charged world, Radisson describes people using tobacco as a medium to facilitate communication between humans and other-than-human beings. He makes reference in the first two Voyages to the practice of tobacco smoking, especially during council deliberations, and in all Voyages to the presence of pipes and smoking. Tobacco smoke then and today has multiple purposes; it is used to clear and calm people’s minds, to cement agreements, and to convey messages. Although the stereotype is that of the peace pipe (i.e., a pipe smoked during peace negotiations), people in fact used a variety of pipes for different purposes. There is an extensive literature showing that ceramic and stone pipes are one of the most common items on Great Lakes archaeological sites. Tobacco was also given as an offering at  important places on voyages; for example, on one occasion in Voyage IV, Radisson describes how his travelling companions, on passing a rock “they called Nanitouck sinagoit[,] fling much tobacco and other things in its veneration.”27 Radisson also manipulated the symbolic importance of tobacco by substituting gunpowder for it during the alliance ceremony with the Sioux in Voyage IV, which gave the impression that he and Des Groseilliers possessed a particularly powerful form of tobacco that granted them the ability to communicate and propitiate other-than-human beings (274). Rituals, ceremonies, and protocols formed a significant part of daily life and reflected the desire of indigenous peoples to maintain their reciprocal relationships between themselves and other-than-human beings. Radisson was witness to a ceremony of thanksgiving in Voyage IV. Prior to their departure from what is now Sault Ste Marie, Radisson noted that “one gives thanks to the woods, the other to the river, the third to the earth, the other to the rocks that stayes the fish ... the encens of our encens is not spared” (257). This ceremony was necessary, in the world view of his hosts, to thank the manidoog responsible for ensuring their good hunting and fishing. Through the ceremonial burning of tobacco and other spiritually important plants (which to Radisson would have smelt like the incense used in Catholic worship services), reciprocity between humans and other-than-humans was ensured and so increased the 27 “which signifies the likness of the devill” (259).

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likelihood that future hunts and fisheries would be successful.28 Tobacco smoke in this context was used as a gift. Other ceremonies described by Radisson in Voyage IV, such as the Feast of the Dead and the alliance ceremony with the Sioux, also served to establish and maintain relationships between human beings. The Feast of the Dead was a complex set of ceremonies that involved not only the ritual repatriation and veneration of the bones of deceased relatives but also the recognition of new chiefs, games for young people, dances, and opportunities for potential marriage partners to meet. What Radisson describes is remarkably similar to such a ceremonial gathering held in 1641 by Algonquian-speaking peoples on Georgian Bay; it also bears comparison with later eighteenth-century ceremonials and even twenty-first-century powwows. As Radisson recounts, scouts were sent on ahead to let people know that the guests had arrived; typically, these guests reached the site of the gathering by daylight, dressed in their finest ceremonial clothing. Radisson’s account of the entry by canoe flotilla is also similar to the description of such grand entries at the 1641 gathering and at treaty negotiations at Trois-Rivières in 1645.29 Radisson provides evidence that contributes to our understanding of the cultural continuity of these important indigenous cultural practices. Such ceremonies derived from the world view and systems of knowledge of indigenous peoples. These concepts were transmitted orally through narratives which combined elements that Western readers would describe as mythic with practical information that explained both the rationale for past actions and the expectations for future behaviour. Winter was the customary season for extended teaching of oral knowledge. As someone who overwintered in the region, Radisson would have been privy to such instruction. He reports versions of various oral traditions that he recalls hearing, including one that explains historical events, the narrative of the Huron-Wendat migration in Voyage II. While this account of a one-year circumnavigation from Lake Ontario north through Hudson Bay, down the Labrador coast, and up the St Lawrence seems hardly plausible when read literally, the story contains many important details that are worth serious consideration. The migration story may refer to the incorporation of some St Lawrence Iroquois people into the Huron-Wendat Confederacy. On his first voyages to the region, Champlain found that the people of Stadacona (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal), who had lived along 28 For the concept of animal “owners,” see Vecsey, Traditional Ojibwe Religion and Its Historic Changes, 113–14. 29 For the 1641 Feast of the Dead, see JR 23: 209–23. For the 1645 Treaty at TroisRivières, see JR 27: 247–53.

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the St Lawrence when Jacques Cartier made his mid-sixteenth-century voyages, were gone. In their place were Algonquian-speaking peoples who summered at  the mouths of major rivers emptying in to the St Lawrence including the Montagnais at Tadoussac. This disappearance has been a historical mystery.30 Wendat linguist John Steckley suggests that there is now linguistic evidence supporting the hypothesis that some of the St Lawrence Iroquoians were adopted by the Wendat Confederacy.31 The migration story told to Radisson provides an additional piece of evidence in support of that movement and explains why the Huron would be justified in chasing “the Iroquois out of their country, which they lost some winters before” (172). The story also reveals information about the decisions people made to relocate. In this case the Huron explained that they had grown too numerous; those who set out for a new country looked for a place that was unoccupied. At least some of the events in this oral tradition refer to the time before the formation of the Huron-Wendat Confederacy on the Penetanguishene peninsula, and to the long-standing alliance between the Huron and Algonquian-speaking peoples on the St Lawrence River. Radisson’s narrative also provides a wealth of information about daily life and material culture, with particular attention paid to food. For Radisson and other newcomers, the most obvious culinary difference between indigenous and European diets would have been the lack of familiar salt and spices. Radisson’s Mohawk captors knew this and kindly gave him salt that they may have acquired through trade, but, as Radisson notes, they did not take any themselves (122). Some Native food, like blueberries, delighted the Europeans; other dishes, like the Iroquois delicacy of rotted corn, they found repulsive. On the whole, though, the local diet was nutritious and varied seasonally. Food was also an important trade good, and there was local specialization in some types of production. The Huron-Wendat, for example, traded their surplus corn, beans, squash, and other produce for furs, fish, and meat with their neighbouring allies, the Algonquian-speaking Anishinaabe of the Georgian Bay region. Radisson provides important evidence about the ways in which indigenous peoples ensured their food security, through references to corn storage, dried meats, and fish, and the use of makak (birchbark) containers for storing food, including the “grease of bears and oriniacke [moose]” (259). This attention to food security must be weighed against Radisson’s description of the famine he endured during Voyage IV. Winter, especially late winter when stored 30 See Trigger, Natives and Newcomers, 144–8, for a summary of the debate. 31 Steckley, Sagard’s Dictionary of Huron, 6–30.

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provisions ran low, was always a more challenging time, and certainly snow conditions could make hunting and gathering all but impossible, as Radisson describes. But the widespread death by famine that Radisson also describes would have been more the exception than the rule. The anthropologist Mary Black-Rogers found that Algonquian-speaking peoples often referred to themselves as “starving” when they were simply low on meat, even if other food supplies were available.32 Radisson also entered a new world with respect to the determination of rank or social status. While no Great Lakes society functioned on the accumulation of wealth as the primary goal, wealth was accumulated and there was a relationship between material wealth and social status – the person or family who could give away wealth acquired status in proportion to the amount they were able to disperse. Generosity bestowed status on the giver, and obligation on the recipient to act in a reciprocal manner. And leaders demonstrated their competence, and their status, through displays of generosity which required the accumulation of some wealth before it could be dispersed. Outside material wealth, other types of status could be accumulated by individuals and could play an important role in daily life. In all of these societies, men were valued for their achievements as hunters and warriors. Artfully and elaborately decorated weapons recorded the martial achievements of their wielders. In Siouan societies, marital prowess was typically recorded on painted and tanned buffalo robes. Men also received social recognition for their skill as orators. Women achieved respect for their skills in providing both food and clothing and for their artistic ability with textiles and hides. Both sexes could acquire recognition as healers and/or shamans, respected for the ability they demonstrated to manage complex metaphysical forces. The highly gendered nature of indigenous societies was different from European patriarchy. Women had specific powers within their own spheres of responsibilities, as men did in theirs. The prevailing ideology appears to have been one of complementarity. While these societies gave special value to the accomplishments of warriors, women and the work they did was respected. Within the Iroquois Confederacy, matriarchs of longhouses nominated the chiefs to council and had the right of recall. However, in diplomatic and political contexts, orators used gender metaphors to explain relationships between people or nations, and in these contexts “woman” was used to imply weakness or subordination.33 Warriors were, in the words of Radisson’s adopted father, “of a courage not of a woman” (145). 32 See Black-Rogers, “‘Starving’ and Survival in the Subartic Fur Trade.” 33 Shoemaker, “An Alliance between Men,” 239–64.

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As a source for indigenous histories, Radisson rewards close reading. He is an important witness to significant events, and in many cases he is our only eyewitness. He assumes, therefore, an importance that is perhaps larger than might otherwise be appropriate had other texts survived. His observations do give credence to arguments supporting the seventeenth-century cultural continuity of indigenous cultures even in the face of significant political change. He speaks of his many new relations, his sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers, and manages to humanize the complexities of indigenous-newcomer relations. He provides us with rich insights into both daily and ceremonial life. Because Radisson was motivated by his interest in the fur trade, we learn from him about the importance of kinship, the language of gift giving, and the cultural logic of violence directed towards outsiders. In the Jesuit Relations, the Iroquois too often are painted as inhuman foes and the Huron-Wendat as passive victims. With Radisson, we see this situation from a different side. Likewise, Radisson provides a window into the complex world of war, ceremony, and alliance making in the western Great Lakes. Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouanspeaking peoples possessed dynamic societies, with rich traditions and cultural practices. Radisson and this important new edition of his writing help us to appreciate these peoples, their cultures, and their histories, on their own terms.

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G L O S S A ry O f u N u S uA L E N G L I S h W O r d S

Some of Radisson’s English words are no longer in current use. In addition, he often employs words in both their modern and seventeenth-century meanings (e.g., “discover,” meaning “to reveal,” and “use,” meaning “to customarily do”). The words listed here are starred (once per page) in the text when they have an earlier or an idiosyncratic meaning and appear more than once. Unusual words employed only once are explained in a footnote. One frequently occurring word that is not starred is “cottages,” which is Radisson’s invariable usage for Native dwellings of whatever sort. Glosses are based on the Oxford English Dictionary, the current edition consulted online. In Radisson’s French writings (volume 2) there are fewer special meanings, so there is no glossary; when necessary annotations based on dictionaries of the period appear in the footnotes. admire, admiration: wonder brayer or braier (Fr.): male undergarment covering the seat and legs buff: buffalo carriages: portages citrulls, citrouilles: pumpkins cottages: (see headnote above) cover: a blanket, to cover with a blanket (Fr. couvert) deal or deale: pine trees or boards discover: to reveal, learn, find out exspecting: awaiting filthy (obsolete): of air or clouds: murky, thick formost, foremost: former horiniack: see oriniak incounter: (also encounter, renconter) a meeting of hostile parties interest: influence; also a stake or share in an enterprise invent: in the early modern sense of “find” looke: usual spelling for “luck” maringoines: mosquitoes oriniak, horiniac: orignal, moose (Alces alces) pearches: poles or stakes peece or piece: gun porcelaine (Fr.): wampum or wampum beads posture: the stances or positions taken by fighting men

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328

glossary

proper: (1) mature, or dressed according to their station; (2) their own, belonging to raquetts, racketts: snowshoes rind: tree bark, usually birch but sometimes elm sad, sadly: deplorable, unfortunate sagamité: a stew of corn, vegetables, and, if available, meat or fish stranger: foreigner; someone not a member of a community suddenly, sudainly: quickly thwart: to cross, cross over trainage: to haul with a rope; see 188n.121 and 260n.79 use: to do something habitually or customarily

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T E x T uA L E M E N dAT I O N S

Listed here by page and line number are words where the scribe[s] produced obvious misreadings of the original, or may have been unable to read Radisson’s hand. The text has been conjecturally emended as indicated by >. For the silent change of archaic ç to s see page 108. 118:13. stirped > stripped 125:21. nor > and 126:12. made I signe > made a signe 128:28. habling > babling 130:10. Orimha > Orinha 131:21. stee [?] > will 133:28. fearning > fearing 134:13. an a displeasure > a displeasure 139:24. dues > uses 145:20. Oringa > Orinha 145:29–30. gett it of > put it off 146:17. tale > tall 146:19. a people > of people 149:27. threes > trees 151:4. ruine > raine 158:23. forth > fort [sic throughout this passage; correct elsewhere] 161:22. 1663 > 1653 164:3. 1664 > 1654 167:2. May > March 173:3. French as > French and 173:17. the an abundance > the abundance 180:32. all dabbed … all pinted > all p[a]inted 190:26. shoors > shooes 191:17. aJade [?] > aside 197:6. the selfe > Himselfe 199:1–2. consecut > execute

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199.10. andvice > advice 204:11. alleyed > alleyes 204:17. full liberty > for liberty 204:37. missing the buisinesse the affaire > missing the affaire 209:14. and take > to take 211:1. grilliards > gailliards 212:27. save > give 213:14. the day > today 216:10. kittle > kettle 217:20. infit > infinite 218:16. round > found 223:20. of stay > to stay 224:11–12. thersors > treasures 229:28. weld > well 233:20. take to to be > take me to be 236:10. make out cryes > make our cryes 236:14. goe one > goe on 240:6. calumest > calumets 242:16. had brought made that > had brought made 245:4. in intended > intended 246:3. proportion > proposition 250:3. gone to the great river and gone by the great river > gone by the great river 251:16. imaging > imagining 251:21. brothers > brother 253:30. looked > cooked

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330

textual emendations

254:14. to gather to gather > to gather together 254:27. shooting > shutting [and see note] 256:17. lost > loss 256:18. fastning > fasting 256:21. swace > sauce 257:3. out hoast > our hoast 259:12. Nauitouck > Nanitouck 261:19. hallow > shallow 265:4. treapted > treated 267:15. not prodigalitie not in esteeme > but prodigalitie [is] not in esteeme 267:32. chastes > chastens 269:26–7. spectable > spectacle 271:7. staggs are if if > staggs are as if 271:17. loved as well > lived as well 274:2–3. in bredth and of > in bredth of the thicknesse

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276:11. places > paces 276:14. threes > trees 279:8. candles > calumets 280:9. them > you [ms: you struck out; them incorrectly inserted above line] 287:14. should be [?] no means > should by no means 287:18. the envy and envy > that envy 289:7–8. tell us what to give us > tell what to give us 291:18. start > stark 291:23–4. in animate > animate 293:9. so many French > so many men 293:24. seventern > seventeen 295:16–17. perassed > perished 297:27. gival [?] > give all 298:19. beatitifull > beautifull 299:5. eders > elders 300:4. breading [?] > bidding

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W O r k S C O N S u LT E d

The secondary sources in both French and English that treat the Aboriginal world and the French in North America are very rich. Consequently, only works directly cited, or from which essential background information has been drawn, are listed. With a few exceptions, standard dictionaries, biographical collections, and atlases are not listed. manuscripts

Aix-en-Provence: Archives nationales de l’outre-mer: ANFr Col.: C11A, C11B Boston: Massachusetts Archives: Collections on France Massachusetts Historical Society: Prince Society Papers Massachusetts Judicial Archives: Suffolk Country Court Files New-England Historic Genealogical Society: John Ward Dean Correspondence Chicago: Newberry Library, Ayer Collection Duluth: University of Minnesota Duluth, Special Collections: Papers (personal) of Grace Lee Nute Haverford, Penn.: Haverford College Archives: Biographical records (Gideon Scull) La Rochelle: Archives de la Charente-Maritime: 3E: selected notarial records 1651–84 London: British Library: Preston Papers; Sloane 3527; Add. 11626 City of Westminster Archives Centre: Parish records of St Anne Soho, St James, St Martin in the Fields Lambeth Palace Library: Archbishop of Canterbury’s Faculty Office Muniment Book 1660–09 London Metropolitan Archives: Former Guildhall Library Mss. The National Archives of the United Kingdom: PROB: Probate records; C: Court of Chancery; CO: Colonial Office Records; SP: State Papers Domestic The Royal Society: Register Book 1668–75 Los Angeles: Huntington Library: Mss. E 9612, EL 9611, EL 9824 New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Osborn Collection Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada: microfilm resources Oxford: Bodleian Library: Rawlinson Mss. All Souls College, Codrington Library: Ms. 160 Paris: Archives nationales de France: O: Maison du roi (and see Aix-en-Provence)

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332

works consulted

Bibliothèque nationale de France: Mss. Clairambault, Français, Nouvelle acquisitions françaises Quebec: Archives nationales de Québec: Greffe Audouart; Greffe Duquet St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society: Papers (academic) of Grace Lee Nute Washington: Georgetown University Library; Papers of John Gilmary Shea Windsor: Library of HM the Queen: Ms. I.I.B.6a Winnipeg: Archives of Manitoba: Hudson’s Bay Company Archives: A: Governor and Committee (London Office) Records; E: Private Records complete editions

[Adams] The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson, from the Original Manuscript in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum. Ed. Arthur T. Adams, modernized by Loren Kallsen. Minneapolis: Ross and Haines 1961. [Scull] Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson. Ed. Gideon Scull. Boston: Prince Society 1885. s e c o n da ry s o u r c e s

Audisio, Gabriel, et Isabelle Rambaud. Lire le français d’hier: Manuel de paléographie moderne XVe–XVIIIe siècle. 4th ed. Paris: Armand Colin 2008. Baraga, Frederic. A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language Explained in English. Cincinnati, 1853. Bély, Lucien. La France au XVIIe siècle: Puissance de l’État, contrôle de la société. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 2009. Bérubé, Jean-Sébastien. “Fils d’Iroquois” (2009) and “Mission à Onondaga” (2010). http://www.yozone.fr/spip.php?article9252. Black-Rogers, Mary. “‘Starving’ and Survival in the Subartic Fur Trade: A Case for Contextual Semantics.” In Bruce G. Trigger, Toby Morantz, and Louise Dechêne, eds., “Le Castor Fait Tout”: Selected Papers of the North American Fur Trade Conference, 1985. Montreal: Lake St. Louis Historical Society 1987. 618–49. Boisvert. See Radisson Borins, Edward H. La Compagnie du nord, 1682–1700. MA thesis, Department of History, McGill University, 1968. Bosher, John F. “The Imperial Environment of French Trade with Canada, 1660–1685.” English Historical Review, 108, no. 426 (1993): 51–81. – “The Franco-Catholic Danger, 1660-1715.” History, 79 (1994): 5–30. Boucher, Pierre. Histoire Veritable et naturelle des moeurs & productions du pays de la Nouvelle France, vulgairement dit Le Canada. Paris, 1664. Bourgoin, J. La Defence du Grand Chastelet Contre ceux qui proposent de l’abatre. [Paris?], 1636. [The only extant copy is part of BNFr: Fr.18599, f.145ff.]

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Bowen, H.V. Elites, Enterprise, and the Making of the British Overseas Empire 1688– 1775. London: Macmillan 1996. [Boyle]. Correspondence of Robert Boyle. Ed. by Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzio, and Lawrence M. Principe. 6 vols. London: Pickering and Chatto 2001. Bradley, James. Evolution of the Onondaga Iroquois: Accommodating Change 1500– 1655. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press 1987. – Before Albany: An Archaeology of Native-Dutch Relations in the Capital Region, 1600–1664. Albany, NY: University of the State of New York, State Education Department 2007. Brandão, José Antonio. “Your fyre shall burn no more”: Iroquois Policy towards New France and Its Native Allies to 1701. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1997. Brebner, J.B. The Explorers of North America 1492–1806. London: A. and C. Black 1933. Brodhead, John Romeyn. History of the State of New York. (First Period 1609–1664). New York, 1853. Bruyas, Jacques, SJ Radical Words of the Mohawk Language, with Their Derivatives. Albany, N.Y., 1863. [Brymner] See Radisson. Calloway, Colin G. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 2003. Campbell, Henry C. Exploration of Lake Superior: The Voyages of Radisson and Groseilliers. In Parkman Club Publications, no. 2. Milwaukee, Wis., 14 January 1896. – “Père René Ménard.” Parkman Club Publications, no. 11. Milwaukee, Wis., 10 February 1897. Campeau, Lucien SJ ed. Monumenta novae Franciae, vol. 9, Pour la salut des Hurons (1657–1661). Rome: Institutum Historicum Soc. Iesu and Montreal: Les Éditions Bellarmin 2003. – Gannentaha: First Jesuit Mission to the Iroquois 1653–1665. Trans. William Lonc, SJ, and George Topp, SJ. Early Jesuit Missions in Canada, vol. 4 (2001). Cantwell, Anne-Marie, and Diana di Zerega Wall. “Landscapes and Other Objects: Creating Dutch New Netherland.” New York History, 89, no. 4 (2008): 315–45. Carruthers, Bruce. City of Capital: Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1996. Champlain, Samuel de. The Works of Samuel de Champlain. Ed. H.P. Biggar. 6 vols. Toronto: Champlain Society 1922–36. – Samuel de Champlain before 1604: Des Sauvages and Other Documents related to the Period. Edited by Conrad E. Heidenreich and K. Janet Ritch. Toronto: Champlain Society 2010. Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier de. History and General Description of New France (1744). Trans. John Gilmary Shea (1866). New York, 1900.

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Child, Philip, “Pierre Esprit Radisson and the Race of Coureurs de bois.” University of Toronto Quarterly, 9.4 (1940): 407–27. Chute, Janet. The Legacy of Shingwaukonse: A Century of Native Leadership. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1998. Clapinson, Mary. “Rawlinson, Richard (1690–1755).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004. Clark, Joshua. Onondaga, or, Reminiscences of Earlier and Later Times. 2 vols. 1849. Codignola, Luca. “Laurens Van Heemskerk’s Pretended Expeditions to the Arctic 1668– 1672.” International History Review, 12, no. 3 (1990): 514–27. Cohen, Thomas V., and Germaine Warkentin, eds. “Things Not Easily Believed: Introducing the Early Modern Relation.” A special issue of Renaissance and Reformation, 34.1-2. (2011). Colbert, Jean-Baptiste. Lettres, instructions et mémoires. Ed. Pierre Clement. 10 vols. Paris, 1861–82. Coté, Jean. Donnés in Huronia. Trans. William Lonc, SJ, and George Topp, SJ Vol. 5, Early Jesuit Missions in Canada. Halifax, 2001. Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Gift in Sixteenth Century France. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 2000. Debien, Gabriel. “Engagés pour le Canada au XVIIe siècle vus de La Rochelle.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 6, no. 2 (1952): 177–233; and 6, no. 4: 374–407. Dechêne, Louise. Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth Century Montreal. Trans. Liana Vardi. Montreal and Kingston, Ont.: McGill-Queen’s University Press 1992. Defoe, Daniel. A Review of the Affairs of France. In Defoe’s Review, ed. John McVeagh. Vol. 2, 1705, Pt. One: February–July 1705. London: Pickering and Chatto 2004. Delafosse, M. “La Rochelle et le Canada au XVIIe siècle.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 4, no. 4 (1950–51): 469–511. Delâge, Denys. Le pays renversé: amérindiens et européens en Amérique du nord-est 1600–1664. [Montreal]: Boréal 1985. Delanglez, Jean. Life and Voyages of Louis Jolliet (1645–1700). Chicago: Institute of Jesuit History 1948. Dent, Julian. “The Roles of Clientèles in the Financial Elite of France under Cardinal Mazarin.” In John F. Bosher, ed., French Government and Society 1500–1850: Essays in Memory of Alfred Cobban. London: Athlone Press 1973. 41–69. Dickason, Olive P. Canada’s First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times. 3rd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press 2002. Dickinson, John A. “Annaotaha et Dollard vus de l’autre côté de palisade.” Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, 35, no. 2 (1981): 163–78. Dionne, N-E. “Chouart et Radisson.” Royal Society of Canada, Proceedings and Transactions, 11 (1893): 115–35; and 12 (1894): 29–48.

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– Chouart et Radisson: odysée de deux canadiens-français au XVIIe siècle. Quebec: Laflamme and Proulx 1910. Doxtator, Deborah. “Inclusive and Exclusive Perceptions of Difference: Native and EuroBased Concepts of Time, History, Change.” In Germaine Warkentin and Carolyn Podruchny, eds., Decentring the Renaissance: Canada and Europe in Multidisciplinary Perspective, 1500–1700. Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2001. 33–47. Du Creux, François. The History of Canada or New France. Trans. and intro. by Percy J. Robinson, notes by James B. Conacher. Toronto: Champlain Society 1952. Dupâquier, Jacques. Histoire de la population française. Vol. 2, De la Renaissance à 1789. 2nd ed. corr. Quadrige/ PUF 1995. Earle, Peter. The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London, 1660–1730. London, 1989. – A City Full of People: Men and Women of London 1650–1750. London: Methuen 1994. Eccles, W.J. Frontenac: The Courtier Governor. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1959. – Canada under Louis XIV, 1603–1701. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1964. – France in America. Rev. ed. Markham, Ont.: Fitzhenry and Whiteside 1990. Elias, Norbert. The Court Society. Trans. Edmund Jephcott. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1983. Ellis, Christopher J., and Neal Ferris, eds. The Archaeology of Southern Ontario to A.D. 1650. Occasional publications of the London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society. London, Ont., 1990. Fenton, William N. The Great Law and the Longhouse: A Political History of the Iroquois Confederacy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1998. Ferris, Neal. The Archaeology of Native-lived Colonialism: Challenging History in the Great Lakes. Phoenix: University of Arizona Press 2009. Fournier, Martin. Pierre-Esprit Radisson, aventurier et commerçant. Sillery, Que.: Septentrion 2001. Furetière, Antoine. Dictionnaire Universel. Rotterdam, 1690. Gale, Edward C. “The Radisson Manuscript.” Minnesota History, 7 (1926): 340–42. Gauci, Perry. The Politics of Trade: The Overseas Merchant in State and Society 1660– 1720. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001. George, M. Dorothy. London Life in the Eighteenth Century (1930). New York: Harper Torchbooks 1964. Given, Brian J. A Most Pernicious Thing: Gun Trading and Native Warfare in the Early Contact Period. Ottawa: Carleton University Press 1994. Goubert, Pierre. The Ancien Régime: French Society 1600–1750 (1969). Trans. Steve Cox. New York: Harper Torchbooks 1973. Griffin, James, ed.. Lake Superior Copper and the Indians: Miscellaneous Studies of Great Lakes Prehistory. Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press 1961.

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INdEx

Aboriginal cultural practices: adoption ritual, 129–30, 314–16, 317; calumet, 142, 273–4, 321; cannibalism, 214, 220, 253; ceremonial rituals, 52–3, 273–4, 321–2; Condolence Ceremony, 123n.46; cradleboard (foot wrapping), 217n.46; dancing of the heads, 123, 158, 259, 267; death and burial, 253, 297; death song, 282; gauntlet, 30–1, 127–9, 137; gift exchange rituals, 266– 7, 277–82, 310, 314, 317–19; leadership skills, 318; sexual hospitality, 266, 299n.253; signs inscribed on bark, 186; slave, 127, 146, 148, 155–7, 197– 8, 229, 314, 316; smudging ceremony, 257, 321; staged combat, 282; sweat bath, 125; and tobacco, 142–3, 240, 259, 320n.26, 321; weeping ritual, 273. See also death song (acconsoga; nouroyall); fur trade; trade routes Aboriginal peoples: agriculture/cultivation, 308; conversion of, 233, 233n.135; epidemics, 28, 309, 311, 312, 313, 320; historical context, 308– 13; honour culture, 5–6, 52–3, 138, 146, 157, 278, 320, 324; hunting and gathering, 216–17; kinship, 30–1, 73, 314–17, 318; medicine bags, 142, 277; medicine wheel, 226–7n.104; names of nations, Radisson’s list of, 306–8; oral tradition, 36, 37, 167, 225n.91, 299n.254, 322, 323; social status and wealth, 324; spirituality, 321; violence, cultural logic of, 319–20. See also Feast of the Dead; specific nations

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Abraham, John, 81–2, 102 Adams, Arthur T., 13, 32n.80, 55n.124, 106, 125n.53, 209n.1, 226n.102, 232n.32, 254n.48, 261nn.87–8, 262nn.89–90, 266n.102, 275n.141, 289n.215, 291nn.225–6, 292n.227 Ahondironons. See Neutral; Wenro Albanel, Charles, J.S., 61, 67, 247n.16, 287n.202 Albany River, 286n.197, 287n.200 Algonquin: companion, in Radisson’s escape, 129n.76, 131–4; Long Sault, battle of the, 48, 293–5, 296; and trade, 245n.4; various names of groups, 307–8 Allegheny River, 32, 148n.148, 151n.163 Amikwa (Amickkoick), 236n.144 Andasostoüeronon (Andaste/ Susquehannock), 169n.22, 173–4, 185n.108, 306–7 Anglo-Dutch War, 304–5 animals and wildlife, 226, 229–30, 268, 304 Anishinaabe. See Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) Anne, Queen, 91 Appalachians, 156n.183 Arlington, Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of. See Bennet Assiniboine (Asinipour), 225n.93, 308 Attikamek (Attigamègues), 172, 307, 308 Attiouendarouks. See Wenro Audisio, Gabriel, 25 Avignon, 4n.8, 23, 25, 224n.89 Awatanik, 19n.47

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Baudrand, Michel-Antoine, 70n.170 Bayley, Philip, 83n.199 Bayly, Charles, 7n.17, 61, 83, 86 Beane, Richard, 110, 110n.5, 295n.239 Bear clan (Iroquois), 314–15 Bear nation (Huron-Wendat), 312 Beaver clan (Iroquois), 315 Bellier, Jean-François-Marie, 3n.2, 104 Bellinzani, Francesco, 76 Bembridge, Robert, 91 Bennet, Henry, 1st Earl of Arlington, 60 Bernou, Claude (Abbé): background of, 5n.12, 69n.167; and Eusèbe Renaudot, 6n.15, 21n.55, 80, 87, 101; geographical thinking of, 37n.87, 72; interest in fur trade, 48, 56n.128; and La Salle, 21n.53; Radisson’s letter to, 12–13, 66, 72–3, 108, 110, 160n.210, 222n.76, 294n.237; in service to D’Estrées family, 71, 72–3; and the Société des Bons Enfans, 69–71; supporter of Radisson, 20 Beverwijck, 30, 158n.198, 159n.204 Binkes, Jacob, 71–2 Black-Rogers, Mary, 324 Bodleian manuscript, 3n.2, 12n.32, 13, 26, 64, 105–6, 108–11, 209n.1 Boisseau, Josias, 76–7 Boisvert, Aurélien, 167nn.1–2, 168n.13, 179n.90, 183n.103, 185nn.108–9, 199n.177, 203n.189, 205n.194 Boston, 19, 59, 78, 303 Bottom of the Bay, 66, 70–1, 77, 86. See also James Bay Boucher, Pierre, 13, 213n.24, 226n.101 Bourbon, Louis-Armand de, Prince Conti, 21n.54 Boyle, Robert, 56, 60 Brébeuf, Jean de, SJ, 52n121, 174–5n.58, 266n.105, 272n.128

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Brebner, J.B., 9 Bridgar, John, 59n.132, 74, 76, 78, 79– 80, 85, 94, 97n.243 Brulé, Etienne, 217n.47 Buade, Louis, Comte de Frontenac, 22n.58, 76n.184 buffalo, 229–30, 230n.121, 230n.123 Button, Sir Thomas, 88 Calloway, Colin, 54 calumet. See Aboriginal cultural practices Calvert, John, 83 Campbell, Henry C., 173n.131, 265–6n.102 Campeau, Lucien, 178n.78 canoe routes of the voyageurs, 55–6, 286n.197 Cap de la Madeleine, 170n.25 Carillon. See Long Sault Carpentras, 23 Carr, Sir Robert, 304n.283 Carteret, Sir George, 61, 304n.283, 305 Cartier, Jacques, 323 Cartwright, George (Colonel), 304 catlinite, 274n.137 Cavelier de La Salle, René-Robert, 14n.39, 21, 75n.177, 76 Cayuga (Gayogoh:óǫ’), 32, 148n.144, 306–7, 317 Champlain, Samuel de, 11, 36n.86, 311, 322–3 Chancery, Court of, 12, 62, 95–6, 97, 102 Charles II, 59, 60–1, 77–8, 87 Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier de, SJ, 3n.2, 8n.21, 10 Chaumonot, Joseph-Marie, SJ, 168n.13 Chequamegon, 48, 49–50, 261–5, 284n.187, 289n.215

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index Chesnaye, Charles Aubert de la, 11n.27, 43n.111, 76–7, 83, 98 Chonnonton. See Neutral (Chonnonton) Chouart, Jean-Baptiste, 42n.105, 78, 80, 82–3, 84–6 Chouart, Médard, Sieur Des Groseilliers: adoptive Cree family, 318; affidavits against, 83n.199; book of “annotations” lost on Voyage III, 43, 238; court cases, 40, 59, 302, 304; geopolitical observations of, 78; in Huronia, 237n.147; illness during Voyage III, 41, 46, 232, 238n.155, 240; informer to the English, 41; journey to James Bay, 55–7, 286–8; journal mentioned by Elie Touret, 60n.136; knowledge of the interior, 42; letters, 78, 300; origins of, 39, 50; partnership with Radisson, 41, 42, 50, 86, 103, 104, 206n.201, 209, 215–16; personal demeanour of, 40, 46; religion, 40; shifting allegiances of, 60–1, 67, 86 Christinos. See Cree (Kiristino) Christy, Robert Miller, 107 Clare Court, Drury Lane, 6, 88n.214, 90n.217, 98–9, 101, 102–3 clothing/adornment: adoptive family provide to Radisson, 144; beaver skins as protection, 235, 238; ceremonial (Feast of the Dead), 52–3, 273, 276–7; dressed for “glorie,” 212–15; European (to disguise Radisson), 162, 163; face painting, 156–7; fur, 175; headbands (tournes), 155n.178; lack of, 288, 291; piercing (Dakota Sioux), 277; piercing (Odawa), 219; travel, and moccasins, 147 Codignola, Luca, 61, 66 Colbert, Jean-Baptiste: career of, as chief minister to Louis XIV, 22n.58; economic policies of, 68–9, 76; interest in

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347

Radisson’s information, 60n.134, 61n.137, 66–7; Radisson’s negotiations with, 62n.142, 68–9, 80 Colbert, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine, Marquis de Seignelay, 6n.15, 22n.58, 62n.142, 69, 76, 77–8, 84–5, 88 Colleton, Sir Peter, 60n.136, 305n.288 Compagnie du Nord, 10, 74, 75n.177, 76n.182, 77, 78, 83 Congreve, William, 93n.229 copper, 258, 261, 277, 283, 288 Cord nation, 312 Cornwall Island, 38, 176n.67, 179–81, 195, 205, 312–13 Coutu (“in the Mohawk country”), 139n.105 Craven, William, Earl of Craven, 64n.154 Cree (Kiristino): alliances, 222nn.78–9, 225n.93; ceremonial welcome, 286; and the Dakota Sioux, 228n.111, 230n.124; Feast of the Dead, 52; geographical territory of, 172n.41, 222, 309n.2; Radisson’s adoption into, 317, 318; Radisson’s comments on, 97; and the Sioux, 52, 82, 222, 228, 279–80, 318; and trade, 79, 229, 245; See also West Main Cree (Muskego, Swampy Cree) Dablon, Claude, SJ, 43n.108, 168n.13, 225n.92 Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi): alliance ceremony, 321, 322; ceremonial clothing, 276–7; and the Cree, 52, 228, 230n.124; “nation of the beef” (Santee), 272–3, 275–6, 283, 288–90; peace ceremony, 272–5; ritual courtesy of, 52, 275–8; sharing land, 313n.12; status, concept of, 324; weeping ritual, 273. See also Feast of the Dead; Sioux Daniel, Antoine, SJ, 174–5n.58

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d’Argenson, Pierre de Voyer: career of, 21n.56, 300nn.256 and 259, 260; fine on furs imposed by, 58–9, 299–301; Radisson’s defiance of, 47, 48 death song (acconsoga; nouroyall), 38, 134, 137, 140, 153–4, 202–3, 213, 253, 282, 320; torture, 29, 31, 118, 134–5, 137–41, 320n.26 de Bohesme, Brother Louis, 181n.96 de Callière, Louis-Hector, 69–70 Deer Nation (Tahontaenrat), 173–4, 312 Defoe, Daniel, 68, 77 de Lauson, Jean, 43n.111, 210n.7 Denonville, Jacques-René Brisay, 4n.8, 84, 85n.202 Denys, Nicolas, 170n.30, 303 Dering, Sir Edward, 94 D’Estrées, Jean II, Comte D’Estrées, 5n.13, 71, 73, 163n.224, 224n.88 D’Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne, 41n.101, 88n.213, 93 Digby, Everard, 189n.122 Dionne, N.E., 8n.20, 23–4n.62 Dioré, Ezechiel, 302n.270 Dolbey, William, 98n.245 Dollard des Ormeaux, Adam, 48, 57, 295n.241 doodem, 316 Door Peninsula, 219nn.54–6, 220n.61, 231 Druillettes, Gabriel, SJ, 43, 44n.113, 45, 55n.124, 209n.2, 210n.11 Du Creux, François, 45 Du Peron, François, SJ, 37, 177n.78, 195–6 Dupuy, Zacharie, 196n.162 Dutch (Flemings): alliance with Iroquois Confederacy, 311n.6; Anglo-Dutch War, 304–5; at Beverwijck, 158; in the Caribbean, 71–2, 163n.224. See

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also Fort Orange; van Heemskerk, Laurens Dyjkman, Johannis, 33, 159 Ellis, Sir John, 92 epidemics, 28, 311, 312, 313, 320 equisetum, 140n.113 Erie (Erielhonan), 35, 153n.170, 189–90, 310, 313 famine, winter of, 323–4 Feast of the Dead, 272–82; in 1641, 322; Brébeuf on, 266n.105; ceremonial attire, 52–3, 275–7; ceremonial diplomacy, 51–3, 273–5, 277–81, 317–18; ceremonial entry at, 265n.101, 278–9; food preparation, 119, 124, 130, 147, 154, 157–8, 190–1, 216n.45, 255–6, 270, 271, 273n.130, 279–80, 323–4; Huron origins of, 51–2, 272–3n.128; music, games, and food, 53, 279–80, 281–2; peace alliance between Sioux and Cree, 280–1 financial/economic issues: fine on furs, 299–301; incomes, 93n.229, 97–8, 175n.64; parish poor relief, Radisson’s assessment, 89–90, 101; Radisson’s pension, 92–6, 97n.243, 99–100, 102; value of furs. See also fur trade; Isle of Aves: value of Radisson’s losses in shipwreck at Flemings. See Dutch (Flemings) Fort Orange, 30, 36n.86, 37; Radisson at, 27, 30, 33, 34, 119n.30, 158–9, 161–4 Fournier, Martin, 40n.96, 73n.172, 99 Foxe, Luke, 15n.40 French River, 45, 48, 234n.139, 255n.55 Fronde, 24, 309 Frontenac, Louis Buade, Comte de. See Buade

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index fur trade: Aboriginal middlemen in, 47–8, 55, 210n.9, 223, 245nn.4–5; corn and the, 231; cultural mingling in, 52–4; decline in, 102; gift-giving rituals, 278n.156, 318–19; Jesuit interest in, 43–4, 47–8, 56n.28, 175, 245–6; Port Nelson potential for, 39, 42, 54, 209; posts, 101–2; Potowatomi and, 220– 21; Radisson’s expertise, 48, 58, 67, 78–9; regulation of, 21n.56, 47, 68, 299–301; value of furs, 43n.111, 58, 175, 296n.245, 299–301, 301nn.265 and 268. See also Fort Orange; trade; trade routes Geffery, Sir Robert, 96 Georgian Bay, 218, 220n.62, 255–6, 308, 322, 323 Geyer, George, 7–8, 83, 87n.211, 94, 102 giant men, 184–5, 239–40 gift exchange, ceremonial. See Aboriginal cultural practices Gillam, Benjamin, 75, 78, 79, 83n.199 Gillam, Zachariah, 59, 62, 76, 78, 79, 303n.278 Godé, Nicolas, 199n.177 Godet, Charlotte, 24n.64, 81, 81n.193, 88–9, 90, 92, 101 Godet, Gédeon, 24n.64, 81, 90, 91–2 Godet, “Widow,” 92 Gorst, Thomas, 191n.132 Graham, Richard, Viscount Preston: background of, 15n.41; correspondent of Godet, 92; as English ambassador in Paris, 15n.41, 63n.150, 81, 87, 91; letters regarding Radisson, 15, 42n.106, 63–4, 80 Grand Portal, 260n.76 Grand Sable Dunes, 258

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349

Green Bay, 219n.54, 223n.87, 267n.112, 269n.117 greenstone, 289 Grenon, Hector, 7n.16 Grimard, Elie, 84 Guyart, Marie (Mère Marie de l’Incarnation), 37n.90, 40–1nn.99–101, 58, 176n.67, 202n.186, 205n.197, 300n.257, 301n.268 Hakluyt, Richard, 7, 62 Haudenosaunee Confederacy. See Iroquois Havard, Gilles, 19 Hayes, Sir James: background of, 5n.10; and the HBC, 61n.138, 80–1; London Committee of HBC, member of, 8n.19, 75n.176, 76; relations with Radisson, 22, 62, 63, 67n.159, 74, 87, 94, 109, 160n.210 Hayes River, 7n.17, 34, 75, 77, 78, 102 Hayet, Elisabeth (Isabelle), 24–5 Hayet, Françoise, 24 Hayet, Madeleine, 23–4, 25 Hayet, Marguerite, 23, 24n.65, 25n.66, 39, 42n.105 Hayward, Nicholas, 13n.37, 64, 87, 109– 10, 111, 119n.28, 209n.1 HBC. See Hudson’s Bay Company Heanes, James, 99 Heidenreich, Conrad, 11n.31, 35, 223n.87, 226n.96, 230n.126, 260n.77, 268n.115, 276n.149, 307 hellbender. See salamander, giant Henry, George (Mauangwudaus), 217n.46 Hilliker, Robert, 64n.153, 111 Hochelaga. See Montreal Holmes, Richard, 20n.51 Hudson, Henry, 55, 286–7n.198

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index

Hudson Bay: Aboriginal nations on, 79, 309n.2, 313; interior route to, 19n.47, 44n.113, 55n.126, 56, 70, 322; Radisson and Des Groseilliers and, 60–1, 76n.182, 88n.213, 313; territorial battle over, 8n.21, 9, 15n.40, 66, 84n.201. See also Bottom of the Bay; James Bay; Port Nelson Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC): charity to Radisson’s widow, 90n.219; charter, 9, 59–61, 66, 77, 93, 305n.288; economic issues, 93–4; employment bond, 98; financing northern trade route, 56; London Committee, 5nn.10–11, 8, 10, 12, 62n.142, 64n.152, 66, 75–6, 77, 81, 83, 85n.204, 94, 95, 96, 109, 305n.288; territorial battle over Hudson Bay, 8n.21, 9, 15n.40, 66, 84n.201, 88; in twenty-first century, 102. See also York Factory (York Fort) Huguenots, 40, 64n.152, 81, 91 Hungerford, Sir Edward, 62n.144 Huron (Wendat): agriculture/cultivation, 29, 169n.21, 231, 306–7, 314–15, 316, 323; Bear nation, 312; epidemic, effect of, 198, 198n.170, 312; and French alliance, 311, 312; Iroquois encounters, 172, 174–5, 176–7, 179, 235–8, 240, 312, 325; language, 122n.38, 128n.74, 130, 138, 153, 171, 172; living among Iroquois, 175–6, 309–10, 310, 312; massacre of, by Onondaga, 179–81; migration story, 37, 169–72, 239n.156, 313n.12, 322–3; quarrel with Odawa, 269; Rock Nation, 312; as slaves, 127; Tahontaenrat (Deer Nation), 173–4, 312; Tionontaté (Petun), 153n.170, 169n.18, 306, 307, 312–13 Île du Grand Calumet, 235

24529_WARKENTIN.indb 350

Illinois (Inoka), 225n.92, 239n.157 Innu. See Montagnais Iroquois (Haudenosaunee): adoption customs, 129–30, 313, 314–16, 317; alliance with the Dutch, 311; battle of the Long Sault, 48, 293–5, 296; Beaver clan, 315; clan identity (otara), 174n.53, 314–15; Confederacy, 310– 13, 317, 319, 324; customs, 148– 9n.149; disappearance from St Lawrence area, 323; encounters with, 235–8, 241–2, 247n.15, 250–3, 292–4; and epidemics, 311; French, war with, 115; Huron Confederacy, war against, 173–6, 312; internal warfare, 35, 44; Long Sault, battle of the, 48, 293–5; mourning wars, 28–9, 118n.19, 309, 312, 319, 320; Odawa, war with, 45; population of, 311; territory, 309n.2; trading practices, 319. See also Cayuga (Oyongoironon); Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka); Oneida (Oneiochronnon); Onondaga (Ononteronon); Seneca (Sonnontouan) Isá_yathi. See Dakota Sioux Isham, James, 259n.73 Isle of Aves, 14n.38, 71n.171; value of Radisson’s losses in shipwreck at, 73 Isle d’Orléans, 232n.133 Isle of Richelieu, 121–2 Italy, 4n.8, 23n.60, 25, 224 James, Thomas, 15n.40 James II, 73–4, 75, 93, 94, 99 James Bay, 19, 43n.112, 44n.113, 54–6, 170n.28, 209n.2, 242, 286n.197, 287n.202, 309n.2. See also Bottom of the Bay Jenkins, Sir Leoline, 63, 80 Jennings, Alex, 98n.245

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index Jérémie, Noël, 41 Jesuits: and baptism of Native converts, 193, 197n.170; conversion of Aboriginals, 233, 246–7, 311; intelligence network at Onondaga, 36; interest in fur trade, 43–4, 47, 56n.128, 175, 245–6; mail route, 245–6n.6; martyrdoms of, 174–5n.58; motto, Society of Jesus, 26; non-violent stance of, 204; Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha, 35, 37, 176n.67; veneration of relics, 52n.121; and Voyage II, 165–206, passim Jolliet, Louis, 43n.108 Kallsen, Loren, 106 Kawirinaga, ou la méschante. See Nelson River Kellogg, Louise Phelps, 45, 107, 215n.36, 236n.144 Keweenaw Peninsula, 261n.81 Khionontateronons. See Petuns kinship, language of, 73, 314–17, 318 Kiristino. See Cree Kirke, Mary? Marie? 62n.142, 67, 90, 101 Kirke, Sir John, 61, 61–2n.142, 67, 69, 76 La Barre, Joseph-Antoine Le Febvre de, 75, 78, 84 Labrador, 170n.30 Lac Courte Oreilles, 18, 265n.102 Lachine rapids, 30 Lac Saint-Louis, 178 Lac Saint-Pierre, 116, 121, 123, 132, 247 Lafitau, Joseph-François, 6n.14, 31, 122n.40, 124n.52, 127n.66, 128n.69, 134nn.91–2, 148n.149 Lahontan, Louis-Armand Lom D’Arce, Baron de, 14n.39

24529_WARKENTIN.indb 351

351

Lake Champlain, 125–6 Lake Erie, 9, 18, 32–3, 146n.137, 147–9, 155–6 Lake Huron, 218, 219n.56, 226, 246, 256, 269 Lake Michigan, 9, 18, 203–6, 207–42, 222n.80, 227 Lake Nipissing (Lake of Castors), 216, 217, 255, 293, 311n.7 Lake Onondaga, 194–5 Lake Ontario, 190, 191, 204–5, 316, 322 Lake of the Staring Hairs (Lake Huron), 219, 226, 246, 269 Lake of the Stinkings (Lake Michigan), 222, 227 Lake Superior, 9, 47–8, 49, 223n.81, 227, 256, 286, 313 Lake Winnipeg, 70n.170, 290nn.220–1 Lalemant, Gabriel, SJ, 174–5n.58 Lalemant, Jérome, SJ, 19n.47 La Rochelle, 34, 40, 59, 164, 167, 302 La Salle, René-Robert Cavelier de. See Cavelier de La Salle, René-Robert Laski, Prince Albertus, 276n.146 Lauson, Jean de (Governor), 43n.111, 58, 301n.264 Le Jeune, Paul, SJ, 190n.127, 222n.80 Le Mercier, François, SJ, 35, 167n.7 literary genres, 12–14, 27–8, 57, 62, 74, 75, 99–100, 115n.1 Lom d’Arce, Louis-Armand, Baron de Lahontan. See Lahontan, LouisArmand Lom d’Arce, Baron de Long Sault, 48, 236–7, 293–4 Louis XIV, 60n.134, 77–8, 80, 85, 198n.172, 224n.88 Lytwyn, Victor, 55 Mackinac, 219n.54, 227nn.106 and 109 Mahican, 307–8, 319

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352

index

Malhomine (Menominee), 267, 308, 316 manidoog, 310, 321 Manitou Island, 261n.82 Marie de l’Incarnation (Marie Guyart). See Guyart, Marie (Mère Marie de l’Incarnation) Marlborough, John Churchill, Earl (later Duke) of, 5, 22, 91, 93, 94, 95, 99 Marquette, Jacques, SJ, 18n.43, 43n.108, 190n.127, 221n.72, 225n.92, 273n.130, 282n.178 Marsh Point, 34, 102 Martin, Dom Claude, 40n.99 Martines, Joan, 86 Mascouten (“nation of the fire”), 146n.133, 221–2, 227, 248, 258–9 Matouenocks, 231 Maungwudaus (George Henry), 217n.46 Maverick, Samuel, 304n.283 Mazarin, Cardinal Jules, 22n.58 McClelland, John, 189n.122 medicine bags, 142, 277 medicine wheel, 226–7n.104 Menada. See New York Menominee. See Malhomine (Menominee) Mercer, Paul, 77 métissage, 10, 57 Mexico Bay (La Famine), 192n.143 Minuit, Peter, 174n.54 Mississippi River, 14n.39, 18n.43, 46, 239 Missouri River, 14n.39, 46, 239 Mohawk (Kanien’kehá:ka): adoption ceremony, 129–30; Bear clan, 314; clan identity (otara), 174n.53, 314– 15; council, 142–3; courtesy to adoptees, 122–3, 126–7; face painting, 129; food preparation, 154; hairstyle, 119, 121, 122, 124, 126, 127n.68, 128,

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141; honour culture, 5–6, 138, 146, 157; language, 129nn.78–9, 130, 157, 317; matrilineal society, 30–1, 127–8, 324; oral tradition of, 174; Radisson’s captivity and adoption by, 27–9, 32–3, 97, 117–19, 323; raiding party, 32–3, 153, 154–5, 156, 158; scalping, taking of heads, 117, 123, 134, 152, 155, 199; singing, 121, 123, 130, 143; village (Tionnontoguen), 30, 127n.66, 147n.138, 156n.187; weapons, 160. See also death song (acconsoga, nouroyall): torture; Iroquois Mohawk River, 30, 33, 156n.186 Mohawk valley, 30 Montagnais (Innu): in Aboriginal trade network, 245; companion, in Radisson’s escape, 31, 131–4; and Huron collaboration, 37; language, 139n.105; around Saguenay/ Tadoussac, 171n.36, 172, 210n.10, 307, 323 Montmagny, Charles Huault de, 36n.86 Montmorency (near Quebec), 170 Montreal, 30, 35, 69n.168, 176, 178, 211, 296, 322–3 Morin, Marie-Madeleine, 98n.246 Morpin [first name unknown], 86n.208 Nadoueceronon. See Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi) nanitouck sinagoit, 321 “nation of the beef.” See Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi) “nation of the fire.” See Mascouten Nelson River, 34, 75, 77–8, 290n.221 Neutral (Chonnonton), 289, 306–7, 310, 313, 319 New York (Menada), 30, 34, 119n.30, 304nn.283–4

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index Nicholls, Richard (Colonel), 304n.283 Nicolas, Louis, SJ, 171n.31, 185n.110, 225n.92 Nipisiriniens. See Nipissing Nipissing (Sorcerers), 248–9, 308 Noel, Jacques, 199n.177 Niottga, 147n.138 Nontageya, 147 Norbert, Elias, 100 Northwest Passage, 19, 41n.100, 60 Nouvel, Henri, SJ, 302n.275 Nute, Grace Lee, 11n.27, 13, 23n.60, 32, 39, 42n.107, 43n.109, 54n.124, 66, 70, 73, 81n.194, 90n.219, 107, 109, 237n.147, 302n.275 Odawa (Ottauak): arrival in Montreal, 296n.245; Cree allies, 222n.79; familiarity with terrain, 55; Iroquois, encounters with, 235–8, 240, 241–2; middlemen in fur trade, 223; nomadic hunter/gatherers, 308; relocation of, 313n.12; shields of, 237, 242, 242n.171; slaves, 228–9; “Staring Hairs,” 184, 219, 221. See also Feast of the Dead Oigouën (Sauonteronon), 148 Ojibwe (Anishinaabe): customs (cradleboard), 217n.46; and epidemics, 311n.7; of Georgian Bay-Lake Michigan, 172n.37; Iroquois encounters, 235–8, 240; leadership roles, 318n.22; population and disease, 153n.170; river routes to James Bay, 55; smudging ceremony, 257, 321; soul’s journey after death, 18, 56–7, 297–9; totems (doodem), 287n.199; and trade, 172 Oldenburg, Henry, 56, 60 Oldmixon, John, 56n.128

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Oneida (Oneiochronnon), 32, 147n.138, 168n.11, 198–9, 311n.6, 317 Oneronoms. See Wenro Onondaga (Ononteronon): adoption language, 317; Beaver clan of the, 315; deception of, 199–202; massacre of Huron by, 176–7, 179–81; peace with the French, 167; Rock Nation (Huron) adopted into, 312; war with Erie, 35 Onondaga River, 194 Orinha, 31, 129, 130, 145, 314 Osage, 184–5, 239–40 Oswego River, 194 otara. See Iroquois: clan identity other-than-human beings, 321–2 Ottauak. See Odawa Ottawa River, 178n.83, 248, 255 Ouendack. See Huron (Wendat) Ousmasis [Little Yamachiche?] River, 116 Outlaw, John, 41n.102, 83 Oyongoironons. See Cayuga pageantry, 52, 265, 276 Paris, 23n.60, 24, 25, 29n.73, 34, 80 patronage: in England, 20–2, 76; European system of, 10, 20n.51; in France, 69, 71, 72; supporters of Radisson, 4–5 Penetanguishene, 173n.47, 323 Pepys, Samuel, 27, 64n.152, 87, 110, 111, 119n.28, 300n.260 Petty, Sir William, 29n.73 Petun. See Tionontaté Phélypeaux, Louis, Comte de Pontchartrain, 88 Pictured Rocks, 259–60 Pierced Island. See Roche Percée Poncet, Joseph, SJ, 163n.224 Poovey, Mary, 68

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354

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Porcupine nation, 245 Port Nelson: decline in, 102; Des Groseilliers at, 41; French and English conflict over, 77–8, 80–1, 83–4; Radisson, superintendent at, 8, 75–6, 84–6, 97; restored to the English by Radisson, 10, 92; West Main Cree at, 7, 316–17, 318 Port Nelson Relations, 11, 51, 64, 66, 67, 68, 73–5, 76–8, 92, 96, 107, 317. See also Windsor manuscript Potawatomi, 219n.54, 220–1, 223n.85, 231, 308 Potter, William, 8 Preston, Viscount. See Graham, Richard, Viscount Preston Purchas, Samuel, 7, 62 Quebec, 30, 34, 175, 240–1, 245, 299– 300, 311, 312, 322–3 Radison, Constance, 90n.220, 91 Radisson, Elizabeth, 89–90, 101 Radisson, James, 90–1 Radisson, Jean, 23nn.60–1, 90 Radisson, Pierre-Esprit: admiration for Natives and their world, 223–4; allegiances, problem of, 10, 22, 31, 60–1, 67, 74, 81, 87–8, 100; birth and origins, problem of, 4n.8, 22–6, 103, 224n.89; Caribbean voyage, 71–3; children of, 88–91, 99; death of, 101– 2; destiny, sense of, 33–4, 159; diplomacy, 48, 50–1, 72–3, 82, 265n.101, 266–7, 280–1, 310, 317, 318; escapes, 34, 132–3, 134–5, 161–4, 237n.147, 315; explorations, range of, 18–19, 70–1; finances, 25, 73, 77, 87, 89, 93– 100; and HBC, 58, 65–7, 73–81, 83–5, 88–100; honour and reputation, 6–7,

24529_WARKENTIN.indb 354

10–12, 52–3, 76–7, 83, 94, 246, 324; illness and near death, 48, 54–5, 284– 85; images of, 3; kinship, understanding of, 20, 31, 73, 79, 310, 314–17, 318; linguistic abilities, 11–12, 130n.83, 138, 163n.224, 273n.136, 290; marriages, 62n.142, 67, 88–90, 92, 101; métissage, problem of, 10, 57; Mohawk, life with, 27–33, 97, 115–64, 314–15, 320; naturalized as English, 93; noble rank, claim to, 20, 75, 99; Orinha (Mohawk name), 31, 129, 130, 145, 314; partnership with Des Groseilliers, 41, 42, 50, 86, 103, 104, 206n.21, 209, 215–16; pension claim, 88–100; personality of, 4–6, 7, 29, 57, 100; reading, 15, 86, 103, 174–5n.58, 258n.71; religion, 20, 58, 163n.224, 193n.147, 252n.42; service, concept of, 21–2, 41, 97, 100, 246n.12; social status, 25–6, 99–100, 324; superintendent of trade at Port Nelson, 75– 6, 84–6; torture of, 134–5, 137–9, 140–2; wandering years (1654–57), 35–6, 45; “we were Cesars, being nobody to contradict us,” 265; will of, 99–100; witness to torture at “Coutu,” 139–40; women, remarks on, 38, 90, 123, 128, 162, 193, 196, 283, 288, 291; writing the Port Nelson Relations, 78, 84; writing the Voyages, 36, 45–6, 47, 62–4, 160n.210. See also Bernou, Claude (Abbé); Godet, Gédeon Rageot, Gilles, 98n.246 Ragueneau, Paul, SJ: background of, 4n.5; mission to Onondaga, 36, 37, 168n.13, 174–5n.58, 176n.67, 177n.78, 178n.81, 179n.90, 181–2, 201n.184; opinion of Des Groseilliers, 40, 41n.101

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index Rambaud, Isabelle, 25 Rawlinson, Richard, 111 Renaudot, Eusèbe (Abbé): background of, 6n.15, 11n.30; and Claude Bernou, 21n.55, 70; English, understanding of, 11n.30; La Salle supporter, 21n.53; letters to, 69n.167, 80, 87, 101; Société des Bons Enfans, 69 Richard, André, SJ, 302n.273 Richelieu River, 123, 125 Richter, Daniel K., 86n.206, 319 Rideau Falls, 255 Rivière des Prairires (River of the Meddows), 211, 240, 248 Roche Percée, 302 Rock Island, 219–21, 231–2, 269nn.117–18 Rock Nation (of the Huron-Wendat), 312 Roe, F.G., 230n.123 Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine and 1st Earl of Cumberland: library of, 64nn.151 and 154; participation in founding of HBC, 59; “Rupert’s Land,” 9; supporter of Radisson, 5, 49; Voyages possibly written for, 22, 62–4, 160n.210 Rupert River, 66, 77, 79, 286–7n.198 Ruyter, Michiel Adriaenxzoon de, 305n.289 Ryswick, Treaty of, 88 Saffin, John, 304n.282 Saguenay River, 172, 245n.2, 247n.16, 287, 307 Sainte-Marie de Gannentaha, 35, 37, 176n.67; and Voyage II, 165–206, passim Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, 174– 5n.58, 175, 218n.51 Saint-Père, Jean de, 199n.177

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Saint-Simon, Duc de, 20n.51 salamander, giant (hellbender), 33, 151–2 Santee. See Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi) Saulteaux: allies of, 222n.79, 312; Feast of the Dead, 51–3; journey with Des Groseilliers and unknown companion, 1654–56, Voyage III, 227–8; journey with Radisson and Des Groseilliers, 1659–60, Voyage IV, 57; Radisson’s entry at village of, 51, 265–6; territory of, 223n.81, 227–8 Sault Ste Marie, 256, 293, 321 Sauonteronon. See Oigouën (Sauonteronon) Savile, Sir Henry, 91 Scull, Gideon, 13, 105–6 Seignelay. See Colbert, Jean-BaptisteAntoine, Marquis de Seignelay Seneca (Sonnontouan), 32, 148n.143, 155, 177n.78, 306–7, 312, 316, 317 Sept-Îles, 307 Sevareid, Eric, 56n.127 Shea, John Gilmary, 105 shields (bucklers), 237, 242, 250n.30 ships: Bachelor’s Delight, 41n.102, 75n.176, 78; Eaglet, 19, 58, 62, 63; Nonsuch, 19, 59n.132, 60–1n.137, 62; Prince Rupert, 59, 78, 79; Ste Anne, 41n.102, 80, 83n.199; Wivenhoe, 61n.137, 63, 65–6, 71, 305n.292 Sinclair, Stephen, 7n.17, 8, 94 Sioui, Georges, 319–20 Sioux: and the Cree, 82; culture, 54–7, 325; political diplomacy exhibited by, 52; Radisson and Des Groseilliers’ visit to, 48, 283; territory of, 309n.2; Tetanka (people of the buffalo), 225n.92, 308. See also Dakota Sioux (Isá_yathi)

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356

index

smallpox epidemics, 309, 311 snowshoes, 148, 229n.119, 268 Société des Bons Enfans, 68–9 Sonontueronons. See Seneca (Sonnontouan) Spain, Spanish exploration, 54, 225, 239n.157, 263n.96 Squirrel nation (Asanago; OttawaSingao), 245 Staffe, Philip, 286n.198 Stannard, Captain William, 62, 65–6 St Anne’s, Soho (parish of), 89 Staring Hairs. See Odawa (Ottauak) St Clement Danes (parish of), 4n.4, 89– 90, 98, 101 Steckley, John, 129n.79, 143n.120, 323 St James (parish of), 88, 88n.214 St Lawrence River, 38, 178n.83, 322–3 St Martin in the Fields (parish of), 88, 88n.215, 98 Struyvesant, Peter, 304n.283 Sturgeon River, 291 Susquehannock. See Andasostoüeronon (Andaste/Susquehannock) swimming, 189, 215n.33 Tadoussac, 34, 35n.82, 307, 323 Tadoussac River, 171–3, 287 Tahontaenrat, 173–4, 312 Tetanka (Tatanga), 225n.92, 308 Tête de Boule. See Attikamek (Attigamègues) Thévenot, Melchisédech, 70 Thirty Years’ War, 309 Thoreau, Henry David, 217n.46 Three Rivers (Trois-Rivières), 115nn.5– 6, 116–18, 240–1, 249, 296n.245, 322 Ticacon (Titascon), 236n.144

24529_WARKENTIN.indb 356

Ting, Edward, 304n.282 Tionnontoguen, 30, 127n.66, 147n.138, 156n.187 Tionontaté (Petun), 153n.170, 169n.18, 306, 307, 312–13 Tirrell, Richard, 96n.239 Tobacco people. See Tionontaté (Petun) Tobago, siege of, 12, 71–2, 163n.224, 224n.88 Toniata (the Thousand Islands), 189 torture, 180, 197, 239, 253, 320. See also Mohawk: torture Touret, Elie Godefroy, 60 trade: ceremonial diplomacy, 50–1; diplomatic negotiations, 48, 278n.156, 280n.165; gift-giving rituals, 278–81; guns, 36n.86; West Indies, 302n.274, 303n.278. See also fur trade; trade routes trade routes: alternate, to Quebec, 245– 6n.6; known to Aboriginals, 18; Mohawk valley, 30; Ottawa-MattawaFrench River, 45, 211–17, 217n.47; river, to James Bay, 54–5 Trois-Rivières. See Three Rivers Troyes, Pierre de, 41n.101, 88n.213, 93 Trudel, Marcel, 24–5n.65, 44 turquoise, 276n.149 Tyrrell, J.B., 75 unicorns, 185–6 Ursuline nuns, 40n.99 Utrecht, Peace of, 9 van der Bogaert, Harmen Meyndertz, 37 van Heemskerk, Laurens, 4n.7, 60–1, 66, 69 van Rensselaer, Jan Baptiste, 163n.223 Vellermont, Esprit Cabare de, 92n.225

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index Verwyst, Chrysostom, SJ, 265n.102 violence, cultural logic of, 319–20. See also torture Wabash River, 184n.107 water snakes, 226 Wendat. See Huron (Wendat) Wenro, 306–7, 310, 319 Werden, Sir John, 41n.104, 80 West, Edward, 98 West Main Cree (Muskego; Swampy Cree), 7, 22n.58, 78–9, 81–2, 287–9, 291, 313 Weymans, Gerrard, 85n.205 White Fish. See Attikamek (Attigamègues) Whitefish Bay, 256–7 Wilbraham, George, 87n.208 wild rice, 267, 273n.130, 279–80

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William III, 94 Willson, Beckles, 3n.2 Windsor manuscript, 13, 18, 20n.50, 99, 109 Wisconsin, 8, 18, 46, 101, 103, 227n.105, 247n.15. See also Green Bay Wolfe Island, 190n.131 Wyandot, 313n.10 Wykoff, M. William, 32, 33, 147nn.137–8, 148nn.145 and 147– 8, 149n.149, 151n.160, 153n.170, 156n.182 Yonge, William: background of, 5n.12; “biographer” of Radisson, 95; friendship with Radisson, 5, 76, 80–1, 94–5; possibly “Mr. Young,” 88n.214; will of, 97 York Factory (York Fort), 7n.17, 102

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24529_WARKENTIN.indb 358

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