G. A. Henty - "Through the Fray"

Unkown - "The Popular Science Monthly Volume LXXXVI July to September, 1915"

Unknown - "The World English Bible (WEB): 2 Samuel"

T. S. Arthur - "Ten Nights in a Bar Room"

Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson

P >> Peter Esprit Radisson >> Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson



Produced by Karl Hagen, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks,
and the online Distributed Proofing team.
This file was produced from images generously made available
by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.





The Publications of the Prince Society
Established May 25th, 1858.

RADISSON'S VOYAGES.


VOYAGES
OF
PETER ESPRIT RADISSON,

BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRAVELS AND EXPERIENCES AMONG
THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, FROM
1652 TO 1684.

TRANSCRIBED FROM ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY
AND THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
AND AN
INTRODUCTION,

BY GIDEON D. SCULL,

LONDON, ENGLAND.



PREFACE.

It may be regarded as a fortunate circumstance that we are able to add to
the Society's publications this volume of RADISSON'S VOYAGES. The
narratives contained in it are the record of events and transactions in
which the author was a principal actor. They were apparently written
without any intention of publication, and are plainly authentic and
trustworthy. They have remained in manuscript more than two hundred years,
and in the mean time appear to have escaped the notice of scholars, as not
even extracts from them have, so far as we are aware, found their way into
print. The author was a native of France, and had an imperfect knowledge of
the English language. The journals, with the exception of the last in the
volume, are, however, written in that language, and, as might be
anticipated, in orthography, in the use of words, and in the structure of
sentences, conform to no known standard of English composition. But the
meaning is in all cases clearly conveyed, and, in justice both to the
author and the reader, they have been printed _verbatim et literatim_, as
in the original manuscripts. We desire to place upon record our high
appreciation of the courtesy extended to the Editor of this volume by the
governors of the Bodleian Library and of the British Museum, in allowing
him to copy the original manuscripts in their possession. Our thanks
likewise are here tendered to Mr. Edward Denham for the gratuitous
contribution of the excellent index which accompanies the volume.

EDMUND F. SLAFTER,
_President of the Prince Society_.
BOSTON, 249 BERKELEY STREET,
November 20, 1885.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.


PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

FIRST VOYAGE OF PETER ESPRIT RADISSON

SECOND VOYAGE, MADE IN THE UPPER COUNTRY OF THE IROQUOITS

THIRD VOYAGE, MADE TO THE GREAT LAKE OF THE HURONS, UPPER SEA OF THE EAST,
AND BAY OF THE NORTH

FOURTH VOYAGE OF PETER ESPRIT RADISSON

RELATION OF A VOYAGE TO THE NORTH PARTS OF AMERICA IN THE YEARS 1682 AND
1683

RELATION OF THE VOYAGE ANNO 1684

OFFICERS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY

THE PRINCE SOCIETY

PUBLICATIONS OF THE PRINCE SOCIETY

VOLUMES IN PREPARATION BY THE PRINCE SOCIETY

INDEX




INTRODUCTION.

The author of the narratives contained in this volume was Peter Esprit
Radisson, who emigrated from France to Canada, as he himself tells us, on
the 24th day of May, 1651. He was born at St. Malo, and in 1656, at Three
Rivers, in Canada, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Madeleine Hainault.
[Footnote: Vide _History of the Ojibways_, by the Rev. E. D. Neill, ed.
1885.] Radisson says that he lived at Three Rivers, where also dwelt "my
natural parents, and country-people, and my brother, his wife and
children." [Footnote: The Abbe Cyprian Tanguay, the best genealogical
authority in Canada, gives the following account of the family: Francoise
Radisson, a daughter of Pierre Esprit, married at Quebec, in 1668, Claude
Volant de St. Claude, born in 1636, and had eight children. Pierre and
Claude, eldest sons, became priests. Francoise died in infancy: Marguerite
married Noel le Gardeur; Francoise died in infancy; Etienne, born October
29, 1664, married in 1693 at Sorel, but seems to have had no issue. Jean
Francois married Marguerite Godfrey at Montreal in 1701. Nicholas, born in
1668, married Genevieve Niel, July 30, 1696, and both died in 1703, leaving
two of their five sons surviving.

There are descendants of Noel le Gardeur who claim Radisson as their
ancestor, and also descendants of Claude Volant, apparently through
Nicholas. Among these descendants of the Volant family is the Rt. Rev.
Joseph Thomas Duhamel, who was consecrated Bishop of Ottawa, Canada,
October 28, 1874.

Of Medard Chouart's descendants, no account of any of the progeny of his
son Jean Baptiste, born July 25, 1654, can be found.] This brother, often
alluded to in Radisson's narratives as his companion on his journeys, was
Medard Chouart, "who was the son of Medard and Marie Poirier, of Charly St.
Cyr, France, and in 1641, when only sixteen years old, came to Canada."
[Footnote: Chouart's daughter Marie Antoinette, born June 7, 1661, married
first Jean Jalot in 1679. He was a surgeon, born in 1648, and killed by the
Iroquois, July 2, 1690. He was called Des Groseilliers. She had nine
children by Jalot, and there are descendants from them in Canada. On the
19th December, 1695, she married, secondly, Jean Bouchard, by whom she had
six children. The Bouchard-Dorval family of Montreal descends from this
marriage. Vide _Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families_, Quebec,
1881.] He was a pilot, and married, 3rd September, 1647, Helen, the
daughter of Abraham Martin, and widow of Claude Etienne. Abraham Martin
left his name to the celebrated Plains of Abraham, near Quebec. She dying
in 1651, Chouart married, secondly, at Quebec, August 23, 1653, the sister
of Radisson, Margaret Hayet, the widow of John Veron Grandmenil. In Canada,
Chouart acted as a donne, or lay assistant, in the Jesuit mission near Lake
Huron. He left the service of the mission about 1646, and commenced trading
with the Indians for furs, in which he was very successful. With his gains
he is supposed to have purchased some land in Canada, as he assumed the
seigneurial title of "Sieur des Groseilliers."

Radisson spent more than ten years trading with the Indians of Canada and
the far West, making long and perilous journeys of from two to three years
each, in company with his brother-in-law, Des Groseilliers. He carefully
made notes during his wanderings from 1652 to 1664, which he afterwards
copied out on his voyage to England in 1665. Between these years he made
four journeys, and heads his first narrative with this title: "The
Relation of my Voyage, being in Bondage in the Lands of the Irokoits, which
was the next year after my coming into Canada, in the yeare 1651, the 24th
day of May." In 1652 a roving band of Iroquois, who had gone as far north
as the Three Rivers, carried our author as a captive into their country, on
the banks of the Mohawk River. He was adopted into the family of a "great
captayne who had killed nineteen men with his own hands, whereof he was
marked on his right thigh for as many as he had killed." In the autumn of
1653 he accompanied the tribe in his village on a warlike incursion into
the Dutch territory. They arrived "the next day in a small brough of the
Hollanders," Rensselaerswyck, and on the fourth day came to Fort Orange.
Here they remained several days, and Radisson says: "Our treaty's being
done, overladened with bootyes abundantly, we putt ourselves in the way
that we came, to see again our village."

At Fort Orange Radisson met with the Jesuit Father, Joseph Noncet, who had
also been captured in Canada by the Mohawks and taken to their country. In
September he was taken down to Fort Orange by his captors, and it is
mentioned in the Jesuit "Relations" of 1653, chapter iv., that he "found
there a young man captured near Three Rivers, who had been ransomed by the
Dutch and acted as interpreter." A few weeks after the return of the
Indians to their village, Radisson made his escape alone, and found his way
again to Fort Orange, from whence he was sent to New Amsterdam, or Menada,
as he calls it. Here he remained three weeks, and then embarked for
Holland, where he arrived after a six weeks' voyage, landing at Amsterdam
"the 4/7 of January, 1654. A few days after," he says, "I imbarqued myself
for France, and came to Rochelle well and safe." He remained until Spring,
waiting for "the transport of a shipp for New France."

The relation of the second journey is entitled, "The Second Voyage, made in
the Upper Country of the Irokoits." He landed in Canada, from his return
voyage from France, on the 17th of May, 1654, and on the 15th set off to
see his relatives at Three Rivers. He mentions that "in my absence peace
was made betweene the French and the Iroquoits, which was the reson I
stayed not long in a place. The yeare before the ffrench began a new
plantation in the upper country of the Iroquoits, which is distant from the
Low Iroquoits country some four score leagues, wher I was prisoner and been
in the warrs of that country.... At that very time the Reverend Fathers
Jesuits embarked themselves for a second time to dwell there and teach
Christian doctrine. I offered myself to them and was, as their custome is,
kindly accepted. I prepare meselfe for the journey, which was to be in
June, 1657." Charlevoix [Footnote: _Charlevoix's History of New France_,
Shea's ed., Vol. II. p. 256.] says: "In 1651 occurred the almost complete
destruction of the Huron nation. Peace was concluded in 1653. Father Le
Moyne went in 1654, to ratify the treaty of peace, to Onondaga, and told
the Indians there he wished to have his cabin in their canton. His offer
was accepted, and a site marked out of which he took possession. He left
Quebec July 2, 1654, and returned September 11. In 1655 Fathers Chaumont
and Dablon were sent to Onondaga, and arrived there November 5, and began
at once to build a chapel. [Footnote: _Charlevoix's Hist. of New France_,
Shea's ed., Vol. II. p. 263.]

"Father Dablon, having spent some months in the service of the mission at
Onondaga, was sent back to Montreal, 30 March, 1656, for reinforcements. He
returned with Father Francis le Mercier and other help. They set out from
Quebec 7 May, 1656, with a force composed of four nations: French,
Onondagas, Senecas, and a few Hurons. About fifty men composed the party.
Sieur Dupuys, an officer of the garrison, was appointed commandant of the
proposed settlement at Onondaga. On their arrival they at once proceeded to
erect a fort, or block-house, for their defence.

"While these things were passing at Onondaga, the Hurons on the Isle
Orleans, where they had taken refuge from the Iroquois, no longer deeming
themselves secure, sought an asylum in Quebec, and in a moment of
resentment at having been abandoned by the French, they sent secretly to
propose to the Mohawks to receive them into their canton so as to form only
one people with them. They had no sooner taken this step than they
repented; but the Mohawks took them at their word, and seeing that they
endeavored to withdraw their proposition, resorted to secret measures to
compel them to adhere to it." [Footnote: _Ibid._, Vol. II. p.278.] The
different families of the Hurons held a council, and "the Attignenonhac or
Cord family resolved to stay with the French; the Arendarrhonon, or Rock,
to go to Onondaga; and the Attignaonanton, or Bear, to join the Mohawks."
[Footnote: _Relation Nouvelle France_, 1657 and _Charlevoix_, Shea's ed.,
Vol. II. p 280.] "In 1657 Onondagas had arrived at Montreal to receive the
Hurons and take them to their canton, as agreed upon the year previous."
[Footnote: _Charlevoix_, Shea's ed., Vol. III. p. 13.] Some Frenchmen and
two Jesuits were to accompany them. One of the former was Radisson, who had
volunteered; and the two Jesuits were Fathers Paul Ragueneau and Joseph
Inbert Duperon. The party started on their journey in July, 1657.

The relation of this, the writer's second voyage, is taken up entirely with
the narrative of their journey to Onondaga, his residence at the mission,
and its abandonment on the night of the 20th of March, 1658. On his way
thither he was present at the massacre of the Hurons by the Iroquois, in
August, 1657. His account of the events of 1657 and 1658, concerning the
mission, will be found to give fuller details than those of Charlevoix,
[Footnote: _Ibid_., Vol. III. p. 13.] and the Jesuit relations written for
those years by Father Ragueneau. Radisson, in concluding his second
narrative, says: "About the last of March we ended our great and incredible
dangers. About fourteen nights after we went downe to the Three Rivers,
where most of us stayed. A month after, my brother and I resolves to
travell and see countreys. Wee find a good opportunity in our voyage. We
proceeded three years; during that time we had the happiness to see very
faire countreys." He says of the third voyage: "Now followeth the
Auxoticiat, or Auxotacicae, voyage into the great and filthy lake of the
hurrons upper sea of the East and bay of the North." He mentions that
"about the middle of June, 1658, we began to take leave of our company and
venter our lives for the common good."

Concerning the third voyage, Radisson states above, "wee proceeded three
years." The memory of the writer had evidently been thrown into some
confusion when recording one of the historical incidents in his relation,
as he was finishing his narrative of the fourth journey. At the close of
his fourth narrative, on his return from the Lake Superior country, where
he had been over three years, instead of over two, as he mentions, he says:
"You must know that seventeen ffrenchmen made a plott with four Algonquins
to make a league with three score Hurrons for to goe and wait for the
Iroquoits in the passage." This passage was the Long Sault, on the Ottawa
river, where the above seventeen Frenchmen were commanded by a young
officer of twenty-five, Adam Dollard, Sieur des Ormeaux. The massacre of
the party took place on May 21, 1660, and is duly recorded by several
authorities; namely, Dollier de Casson [Footnote: _Histoire de Montreal,
Relation de la Nouvelle France_, 1660, p. 14.], M. Marie [Footnote: _De
l'Incarnation_, p. 261.], and Father Lalemont [Footnote: _Journal_, June 8,
1660.]. As Radisson has placed the incident in his manuscript, he would
make it appear as having occurred in May, 1664. He writes: "It was a
terrible spectacle to us, for wee came there eight dayes after that defeat,
which saved us without doubt." He started on this third journey about the
middle of June, 1658, and it would therefore seem he was only absent on it
two years, instead of over three, as he says. Charlevoix gives the above
incident in detail. [Footnote: Shea's edition, Vol. III. p. 33, n.]

During the third voyage Radisson and his brother-in-law went to the
Mississippi River in 1658/9. He says, "Wee mett with severall sorts of
people. Wee conversed with them, being long time in alliance with them. By
the persuasion of som of them wee went into the great river that divides
itself in two where the hurrons with some Ottanake and the wild men that
had warrs with them had retired.... The river is called the forked, because
it has two branches: the one towards the West, the other towards the South,
which we believe runs towards Mexico, by the tokens they gave." They also
made diligent inquiry concerning Hudson's Bay, and of the best means to
reach that fur-producing country, evidently with a view to future
exploration and trade. They must have returned to the Three Rivers about
June 1, 1660. Radisson says: "Wee stayed att home att rest the yeare. My
brother and I considered whether we should discover what we have seen or
no, and because we had not a full and whole discovery which was that we
have not ben in the bay of the north (Hudson's Bay), not knowing anything
but by report of the wild Christinos, we would make no mention of it for
feare that those wild men should tell us a fibbe. We would have made a
discovery of it ourselves and have an assurance, before we should discover
anything of it."

In the fourth narrative he says: "The Spring following we weare in hopes to
meet with some company, having ben so fortunat the yeare before. Now during
the winter, whether it was that my brother revealed to his wife what we had
seene in our voyage and what we further intended, or how it came to passe,
it was knowne so much that the ffather Jesuits weare desirous to find out a
way how they might gett downe the castors from the bay of the North, by the
Sacques, and so make themselves masters of that trade. They resolved to
make a tryall as soone as the ice would permitt them. So to discover our
intentions they weare very earnest with me to ingage myselfe in that
voyage, to the end that my brother would give over his, which I uterly
denied them, knowing that they could never bring it about." They made an
application to the Governor of Quebec for permission to start upon this
their fourth voyage; but he refused, unless they agreed to certain hard
conditions which they found it impossible to accept. In August they
departed without the Governor's leave, secretly at midnight, on their
journey, having made an agreement to join a company of the nation of the
Sault who were about returning to their country, and who agreed to wait for
them two days in the Lake of St. Peter, some six leagues from Three Rivers.
Their journey was made to the country about Lake Superior, where they
passed much of their time among the nations of the Sault, Fire, Christinos
(Knisteneux), Beef, and other tribes.

Being at Lake Superior, Radisson says they came "to a remarkable place.
It's a banke of Rocks that the wild men made a Sacrifice to,... it's like a
great portall by reason of the beating of the waves. The lower part of that
opening is as bigg as a tower, and grows bigger in the going up. There is,
I believe, six acres of land above it; a shipp of 500 tuns could passe by,
soe bigg is the arch. I gave it the name of the portail of St. Peter,
because my name is so called, and that I was the first Christian that ever
saw it." Concerning Hudson's Bay, whilst they were among the Christinos at
Lake Assiniboin, Radisson mentions in his narrative that "being resolved to
know what we heard before, we waited untill the Ice should vanish."

The Governor was greatly displeased at the disobedience of Radisson and his
brother-in-law in going on their last voyage without his permission. On
their return, the narrative states, "he made my brother prisoner for not
having obeyed his orders; he fines us L. 4,000 to make a fort at the three
rivers, telling us for all manner of satisfaction that he would give us
leave to put our coat of armes upon it; and moreover L. 6,000 for the
country, saying that wee should not take it so strangely and so bad, being
wee were inhabitants and did intend to finish our days in the same country
with our relations and friends.... Seeing ourselves so wronged, my brother
did resolve to go and demand justice in France." Failing to get
restitution, they resolved to go over to the English. They went early in
1665 to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and from thence to New England, where they
engaged an English or New England ship for a trading adventure into
Hudson's Straits in 61 deg. north.

This expedition was attempted because Radisson and Des Groseilliers, on
their last journey to Lake Superior, "met with some savages on the lake of
Assiniboin, and from them they learned that they might go by land to the
bottom of Hudson's Bay, where the English had not been yet, at James Bay;
upon which they desired them to conduct them thither, and the savages
accordingly did it. They returned to the upper lake the same way they
came, and thence to Quebec, where they offered the principal merchants to
carry ships to Hudson's Bay; but their project was rejected. Des
Groseilliers then went to France in hopes of a more favorable hearing at
Court; but after presenting several memorials and spending a great deal of
time and money, he was answered as he had been at Quebec, and the project
looked upon as chimerical." [Footnote: Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 548.] This
voyage to Hudson's Straits proved unremunerative. "Wee had knowledge and
conversation with the people of those parts, but wee did see and know that
there was nothing to be done unlesse wee went further, and the season of
the year was far spent by the indiscretion of our Master." Radisson
continues: "Wee were promissed two shipps for a second voyage." One of
these ships was sent to "the Isle of Sand, there to fish for Basse to make
oyle of it," and was soon after lost.

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

"In the mean time the Commissioners of the King of Great Britain arrived in
that place, & one of them would have us goe with him to New York, and the
other advised us to come to England and offer ourselves to the King, which
wee did." The Commissioners were Colonel Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr,
Colonel George Cartwright, and Samuel Mavericke. Sir Robert Carr wished the
two Frenchmen to go with him to New York, but Colonel George Cartwright,
erroneously called by Radisson in his manuscript "Cartaret," prevailed upon
them to embark with him from Nantucket, August 1, 1665. On this voyage
Cartwright carried with him "all the original papers of the transactions of
the Royal Commissioners, together with the maps of the several colonies."
They had also as a fellow passenger George Carr, presumably the brother of
Sir Robert, and probably the acting secretary to the Commission. Colonel
Richard Nicolls, writing to Secretary Lord Arlington, July 31, 1665, Says,
"He supposes Col. Geo. Cartwright is now at sea." George Carr, also writing
to Lord Arlington, December 14, 1665, tells him that "he sends the
transactions of the Commissioners in New England briefly set down, each
colony by itself. The papers by which all this and much more might have
been demonstrated were lost in obeying His Majesty's command by keeping
company with Captain Pierce, who was laden with masts; for otherwise in
probability we might have been in England ten days before we met the Dutch
'Caper,' who after two hours' fight stripped and landed us in Spain.
Hearing also some Frenchmen discourse in New England of a passage from the
West Sea to the South Sea, and of a great trade of beaver in that passage,
and afterwards meeting with sufficient proof of the truth of what they had
said, and knowing what great endeavours have been made for the finding out
of a North Western passage, he thought them the best present he could
possibly make His Majesty, and persuaded them to come to England. Begs His
Lordship to procure some consideration for his loss, suffering, and
service." Colonel Cartwright, upon his capture at Sea by the Dutch "Caper,"
threw all his despatches and papers overboard.

No doubt the captain of the Dutch vessel carefully scrutinized the papers
of Radisson and his brother-in-law, and, it may be, carried off some of
them; for there is evidence in one part at least of the former's narration
of his travels, of some confusion, as the writer has transposed the date of
one important and well-known event in Canadian history. It is evident that
the writer was busy on his voyage preparing his narrative of travels for
presentation to the King. Towards the conclusion of his manuscript he says:
"We are now in the passage, and he that brought us, which was one of the
Commissioners called Collonell George Cartaret, 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 went to Sir George Cartaret, who spoke
to His Majesty, who gave 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 three months. Afterwards the King came to London and sent us to
Windsor, where wee stayed the rest of the winter."

Charles II., with his Court, came to open Parliament and the Courts of Law
at Oxford, September 25, 1665, and left for Hampton Court to reside,
January 27, 1666. Radisson and Des Groseilliers must have arrived there
about the 25th of October. DeWitt, the Dutch statesman, and Grand
Pensionary of the States of Holland from 1652, becoming informed by the
captain of the Dutch "Caper" of the errand of Radisson and his companion
into England, despatched an emissary to that country in 1666 to endeavor to
entice them out of the English into the service of the Dutch. Sir John
Colleton first brought the matter before the notice of Lord Arlington in a
letter of November 12th. The agent of DeWitt was one Elie Godefroy Touret,
a native of Picardy, France, and an acquaintance of Groseilliers. Touret
had lived over ten years in the service of the Rhinegrave at Maestricht.
Thinking it might possibly aid him in his design, he endeavored to pass
himself off in London as Groseilliers' nephew. One Monsieur Delheure
deposed that Groseilliers "always held Touret in suspicion for calling
himself his nephew, and for being in England without employment, not being
a person who could live on his income, and had therefore avoided his
company as dangerous to the State. Has heard Touret say that if his uncle
Groseilliers were in service of the States of Holland, he would be more
considered than here, where his merits are not recognised, and that if his
discovery were under the protection of Holland, all would go better with
him."

Copyright (c) 2007. topbookz.net. All rights reserved.