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.
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