Wives, Consider That He
Gave You Hatchets & Knives With Which You Banish Hunger From Your Country;
Daughters & Children, Fear Nothing More, Since The One Who Is Your Father
Loves You Always, & That He Gave You From Time To Time All That Is
Necessary For You To Have Your Subsistance.
We all together weep no more,
on the contrary give evidence by cries of our mirth that we have
Beheld the
man of courage;" & at the same time they set themselves to cry with all
their might, weeping bitterly for the last time, in saying, "We have lost
our father; [Footnote: "But here is one that you adopt for your father."
Note by Radisson,] we have lost our children." [Footnote: "Here is the
nephew of your father, who will be your son; he remains with you & he will
have care of his mothers." Note by Radisson,]
After that piteful music they all came to be acknowledged. To be
acknowledged by our adoption with some presents, & covering us with robes
of white beaver skins, giving us quantities of beavers' tails, Some
bladders of stag's marrow, several tongues of the same animal smoked, that
which is the most exquisite to eat among them. They also presented us two
great copper boilers full of smoked & boiled flesh, of which we ate all
together, they, the English, & ourselves, & it is what is called a feast
among these nations. After that I said adieu to them, & having given charge
in the house what should be embarked in the ship, I went down to the mouth
of the River, where Captain Gazer worked to build a fort in the same place
where the preceding year Sieur Bridger had made to be constructed his
shallop. It was the most advantageous situation that he had been able to
find, & I advised that he should make all the diligence possible; but he
had some men who by their delicacy were incapable of responding to his
vigilence. I made this observation because I hold it for a maxim that one
should only employ men robust, skilful, & capable of serving, & that those
who are of a complexion feeble, or who flatter themselves of having
protection & favour, ought to be dismissed.
Then we passed to the place where the ships were, because my design was to
oblige by my presence the captains to return to their ships ready to make
sail; but I was no sooner arrived there than a savage came to inform me
that my adopted father, whom I had not seen because that he was at the
wars, waited for me at the place where Captain Gazer was building the Fort
of which I came to speak. That is why I resolved to go there, & I expressed
the same hope to the savage whom I sent back to give information to my
father that the Governor would come with me to make some friendship to him
& protect him in my absence. It was with the consent of the Governor & upon
his parole that I had told him that; nevertheless he did not wish to come,
& I was for the first time found a liar among the savages, which is of a
dangerous consequence, for these nations have in abomination this vice.
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