I Referr It To
Bee Judged By What Is Contain'd In This Narrative, Which I Protest Is
Faithfull & Sincere; And
If I have deserved the accusations made against me
in the Court of ffrance, I think it needlesse to say
Aught else in my
justification; which is fully to bee seen in the Relation of the voyadge I
made by his Majesty's order last year, 1684, for the Royal Company of
Hudson's Bay; the successe and profitable returns whereof has destroyed,
unto the shame of my Ennemys, all the evell impressions they would have
given of my actions.
VOYAGES OF PETER ESPRIT RADISSON.
Relation of the Voyage of Peter Esprit Radisson, Anno 1684.
(Translated from the French.)
* * * * *
I have treated at length the narrative of my voyage in the years 1682 and
1683, in Hudson's Bay, to the North of Canada. Up to my arrival in the city
of Paris, all things were prepared for the fitting out of the ships with
which I should make my return to the North of Canada, pending the
negotiations at Court for the return to me of every fourth beaver skin that
the very Christian King took for the customs duty, which had been promissed
to me in consideration of my discoveries, voyages, and Services; by which I
hoped to profit over & above my share during the first years of that
establishment. It was also at the same time that my Lord Viscount Preston,
Minister Extraordinary from the King at the Court of France, continued to
pursue me concerning the things of which I was accused by the account
against me of the gentlemen of the Royal Hudson's Bay Company; my enemies
having taken due care to publish the enormous crimes of which I was
charged, & my friends taking the pains to support me under it, & to give me
advice of all that passed. Although at last no longer able to suffer any
one to tax my conduct, I considered myself obliged to undeceive each one. I
resolved at length within myself to speak, to the effect of making it
appear as if my dissatisfaction had passed away. For that effect I made
choice of persons who did me the honor of loving me, and this was done in
the conversations that I had with them upon the subject. That my heart,
little given to dissimulation, had avowed to them, on different occasions,
the sorrow that I had felt at being obliged to abandon the service of
England because of the bad treatment that I had received from them, & that
I should not be sorry of returning to it, being more in a condition than I
had been for it, of rendering service to the king and the nation, if they
were disposed to render me justice and to remember my services. I spoke
also several times to the English Government. I had left my nephew, son of
Sieur des Groseilliers, my brother-in-law, with other Frenchmen, near Port
Nelson, who were there the sole masters of the beaver trade, which ought to
be considerable at that port, and that it depended upon me to make it
profitable for the English.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 192 of 223
Words from 99584 to 100112
of 117345
