I Said To Them That Since They Had Confidence In Me, I Wished
Also On My Part To Make Use
Of it generously with them and remit everything
to the success of my voyage, and on my return, in the
Hope that I had that
they would satisfy my honesty of purpose, and that after having given to
them some marks of my sincerity in executing the things to perform which I
had engaged myself for their service, they would render me all the justice
that I had cause for hoping from gentlemen of honour and probity. The ships
destined for Hudson's Bay and the execution of my design were ready to make
sail, & myself being all prepared for embarking, I took leave of the
gentlemen of the Company in giving them fresh assurances of the good
success of my voyage if God did me the favour of preserving me from the
dangers to which I went to expose myself; of which they appeared so well
satisfied that the Chevalier Hayes dared not flatter himself of the
advantage that I promissed to him, that they should get from 15 to 20,000
Beavers that I hoped to find in the hands of the French, said, in embracing
me, that the company would be satisfied if I had only 5,000 of them there.
The event has justified that which I predicted, and these gentlemen have
not been deceived in the hopes that I have given to them. I departed from
the port of Gravesend the 17th of the same month of May, in the ship called
"The Happy Return," in the company of 2 others that these gentlemen sent
also to Port Nelson for the same reason. The winds having been favourable
for us, we arrived in a few days upon the western side of Buttons Bay
without anything happening to us worth mentioning, but the winds and the
currents. We having been made to drift to the South of Port Nelson about 40
leagues, and the ice having separated the ship in which I was from the 2
others in Hudson's Straits, I began to doubt of succeeding in my enterprise
by the apprehension that I had that the 2 ships having arrived sooner than
ours the men who were inside would not hazard themselves to take any step
which could at all do them any damage. Under this anxiety, knowing the
necessity that there was that I should arrive the first, I resolved to
embark myself in a shallop that we had brought to be employed in any
service that might be necessary. I ordered the captain to equip it, and
although but little more than 20 leagues from Port Nelson, I put myself on
board with 7 men, and after 48 hours of fatigue, without having been able
to take any rest because of the danger that there was to us, we found by
the breadth of Hayes river, which having recognized, at last we touched
land at a point north of the river, where we landed with an Englishman who
spoke good french, whom I wished to make accompany me in order that he
might be the witness of all that I did.
After having come to land I recognized by certain marks that my nephew,
having heard the noise of the cannon of the English ships, had come to the
place where we landed to know if his father or myself were arrived, and
that he had himself returned after having recognized that they were English
shipps. These same marks gave me also to know that he had left me further
away from those that I had given him since I had established him for
Governor in my absence. The which should inform me of his condition and the
place where he was with his men; but I did not find it to the purpose of
going as far as that place, that I had not learned truly the condition of
the English who had arrived in the country since I had departed from it. I
resolved then to embark myself afresh in the shallop to go and learn some
news. I encouraged for that purpose the 7 men who were with me, who were so
diligent that in spite of a contrary wind and tide we arrived in a very
little time at the mouth of that great and frightful river of Port Nelson,
where I had wished to see myself with such impatience that I had not
dreamed a moment of the danger to which we had exposed ourselves. That
pleasure was soon followed by another; for I saw at anchor in this same
place 2 ships, of which one had the glorious flag of His Majesty hoisted
upon his main mast, that I recognized to be the one that was commanded by
Captain Outlaw when the one in which I was passed had been separated from
the 2 others. At the same time I made the shallop approach & I perceived
the new Governor with all his men under arms upon the deck, who demanded of
us where our shallop came from, and who we were. Upon that I made myself
known, & I went on board the ship, where I learned that the one which was
alongside was an English frigate that had wintered in the Port of Nelson
with the Governor, which port they had abandoned to retire themselves for
fear of being insulted by the French & the savages; but that having been
met with by Capt Outlaw going out of the bay, he had returned, having
learned that I had thrown myself into the service of England, and that I
came into the country to re-establish there everything to the advantage of
the nation.
My first care after that was of making myself informed of what had passed
between the English & the French since my departure & their arrival. By
what the English told me I judged that it was proper to risque everything
to try to join my nephew as soon as possible, & the men that I had left
with him; in fine, of endeavouring to reach them by kindness, or to
intercept them by cunning, before they received the shock upon what design
I came, for that was of extreme consequence.
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