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.
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