RADISSON THE GREAT.
"Radisson! Pierre Radisson!"
At the muttered word and the blank look on the faces below I could
have laughed, but I make no doubt that my own face looked as blank as
theirs. Not a soul on board but knew that name, and in a flash it
all came over me, till I flushed with shame at my own suspicions.
Out of the world as we had been at Ayrby, even I had heard this man's
story. It was said that he was a French-Canadian by birth, and was
the greatest adventurer of our own times. He had found a great river
to the west of the Colonies, the same which Marquette and La Salle
explored, and later on had opened up the Canadas to trade. He it was
who had founded the Company of Gentlemen Adventurers into Hudson's
Bay, the fame of which was great, and by the exploits of his arms had
kept them there against the French.
But Radisson had found that the faith of princes is a weak rod to
lean upon. First, the French had betrayed and robbed him, which had
sent him over to England. Then, after the founding of the Great
Company, the very men to whom he had brought fortunes had left him to
starve, denying him all share in the huge profits they made in furs
from the Canadas. My father had often dwelt on this story as an
example of the faith of kings. Time and again Radisson had swept the
Bay of French or English, but the ending of it all was that he was
thrown upon the streets of London town. How Pierre Radisson came to
be on board the "Lass," how he had come into that little leaky sloop,
I knew not; but as I gazed on the stern face of him I felt a sudden
great thrill of hope and eagerness.
The rebels felt more than that, for they were mightily afraid of this
man, who had single-handed done such deeds in the Canadas that all
men had heard of him. I caught a quick oath from below, saw Gib o'
Clarclach break away and vanish forward, and so finished the mutiny.
With a little laugh Radisson put away his pistols.
"I will take charge of this ship," his voice thrilled along the deck.
"Have no more of this foolery. Unloose the mate yonder and go to
your places. By the help of God we will come safe to shore yet."
Very silently and in great awe the men unbound Black Michael, and in
no long time the ship was as it had been. Robin and Tam Graham and I
stood wondering at the break of the poop. Radisson turned to us with
a courtly bow.
"Gentlemen, I thank you for your support. The crew is like to be
short-handed ere we reach any port, and if need be I will call upon
you for help," said he.
Robin stared, his mouth agape, and old Tam withdrew to tell the news
in the cabins, whither we followed him presently. I looked about for
Ruth, and found her giving some broth to my father and Alec. When
this was done I took her out on deck willy-nilly, for she needed a
breath of air and we cared little for the storm that still raged.
Since men were in the bows watching for ice ahead, we sat us down in
the shelter of the cabin, and presently Radisson came thither and
joined us.
"So now the mask is off," he said, speaking in French, and smiling.
"I had not thought to tell my name, but it must needs out. We are in
a bad strait, my friends."
"Why?" questioned Ruth. "And why not tell your name in the
beginning? Surely you had no hard thoughts of us?"
Radisson looked sadly into her eyes, and smiled again. "My child, I
have fled from England to die in mine own country. They would not
let me go, they would not let me work for them nor serve them, and
France has cast me out. Yet the English feared that I would serve
France again, and so when I had provided for my wife and children I
fled in secret to the coast and embarked in that little sloop wherein
you found me.
"I had no hard thoughts, lass, but I am suspicious of all men. The
wilderness is my only home, and it is to the wilderness that I go.
If I come to the Colonies, or to New France, I shall be laid by the
heels. They seem to fear that my very presence would work them ill."
He lifted his face and looked to forget us as he gazed abroad into
the storm. "Is there some curse upon me, Lord God, that men fear me
so? Ah, to be once more on the open prairies where the air is free
of plots, with red-skinned friends behind me and the unknown world
ahead!"
Those words sank deeply into my mind, and there was to come a time
when I would remember them again; but Ruth leaned forward and took
his hand gently. A right strong hand it was, for all its age
unwrinkled and firm as mine own.
"Nay, speak not so bitterly," she reproved him softly. "There is no
curse upon any man, dear sir! Come, you shall go with us and join
our settlement, and when all is safely bestead you shall go and come
as you please, with none to hinder!"
"So?" Radisson gazed down at her unsmiling, and I felt on a sudden
that there might indeed be fear in his soul, but in no wise a selfish
fear. "And whither is this ship sailing?"
"What--" Ruth stared up at him, her wonder slowly changing to
something more. "You think--we are in danger?"
"Grave danger," he nodded confirmingly. "None know it save Wat
Herries your master, and I, but we have been driven far from our
course to the Colonies. Until I can get sight of the sun I know not
whither we have drifted, but we are likelier to be near Greenland
than the Americas."
This told us nothing, for we knew not that there was such a place as
Greenland. There was no more trouble with the crew, who were all
eager enough to do Master Radisson's bidding. But the scurvy was now
upon us sore, all having it save Ruth and me and one or two others
and Radisson himself. Two days later the storm ceased as suddenly as
it had begun, and that noon Radisson and Black Michael busied
themselves with poor Wat's instruments, until after an hour Radisson
came below and asked to see Alec Gordon.
"Sir," he said quietly, while I held up old Alec's stricken head,
"you must know that we are far off our course, and in dire need of
green food, even if it be but grass. Now I know these waters well,
and if we turn to our right course we will all be dead ere we reach
the Colonies. But, an' it please you, I can guide this ship into
Hudson's Bay and so to one of the posts established by the
Adventurers. There we can remain till Master Herries be recovered
and the sickness gone, when it will be no great matter for him to lay
a course for the Colonies from there."
For a moment there was silence. We were all taken aback by this news
and knew not what to say, until finally Alec sank back his head with
a groan, speaking in the Gaelic which I translated.
"Do your best, Master Radisson, and we ask no more. The Lord hath
sent you to us, and He knows His business best."
So it came about that our prow was no longer turned to the south, but
to the west. Now, too, the winds favored us and drove us onward full
steadily, and the same day our course was determined on, one of the
men found a sack of half-rotted potatoes in the hold. We hunted
over, but found no more. These, however, served to stay the sickness
in a slight degree, and seemed to the men to be a good omen.
For many days thereafter we stood forward with the ice all around and
with the weather bitter, but without storms to hinder and harass us.
In that time Pierre Radisson drew ever closer to me and to Ruth,
sitting often with us and talking much of his travels and adventures,
one hand on Grim and the other clasping mine or Ruth's. On one of
these occasions I asked him about Gib o' Clarclach, called The Pike.
"The man is of your own country," answered Radisson, "though most of
his life has been spent among the French. It was in New France I
found him first, and he was a member of the party that went with me
from Montreal to the fur country. He was but a lad then, and of evil
ways, but a good fighter and of great resource. When we returned,
our canoes deep-laden with a rich cargo, it was he who urged the
Governor to seize the furs and betray me.
"After, I came to England. When next I came to the Great Bay whither
we are now bound, this fellow stirred up trouble more than once, for
he was dwelling among the Chippewa nation, and he had become a
powerful man among them. However, I was no less powerful among the
Crees, and the Sioux to the far south, and on one occasion we trapped
The Pike with many of his men. It was thought then that he was
killed, but evidently he escaped to do more evil in the world. Long
ago I swore vengeance against him, and that vow will some day be
kept."
"But why did you not shoot him the day he led the mutinous men?" I
queried. "If the man had done me so much harm--"
"Peace, lad," commanded the old man firmly, but kindly. "I am older
than you, and such things I have learned to leave to a higher hand
than mine own. Never fear, this man will meet his punishment as God
wills, in God's own good time. Mind you not what the Scriptures
say--"
"Aye, well enough," I broke in heatedly, thinking on my first meeting
with the man. "But if the time ever comes when I stand against him
again, I will strike with no flat blade then! And besides," I added
shrewdly, "methinks there is more to the tale than you have told."
Radisson smiled. "Aye, lad, much more, but the time is not come for
the telling, spitfire!"
"But, sir," cried out Ruth suddenly. "how is it that you are taking
our ship into the Great Bay, when you feared so much to fall into the
hands of these men? Will they not do you injury?"
"That may well be," answered Radisson quietly. "But I think God has
sent me to do my utmost for you and yours, maiden. My own fate
matters little, and it is even in His hands. I do not think He will
let me come to grief while I serve Him, child."
Ruth said nothing to this, but she gazed at Radisson's sorrow-graven
face with a great admiration, in which I shared to the full. And in
truth it was no little thing to which he had set himself. Were it
known that he was alive and in the fur country, the English and
French raiders would both be after him. Both nations had wronged him
deeply, and both feared and hated him equally; for as my father used
to say, "If ye never do a man an injury, Davie, you'll aye live in
brotherly love." Thus it was with the great Pierre Radisson.
He of all men had seen that there was an unsuspected greatness in the
country north of the Canadas. He had discovered and opened up that
country to the fur-trade, and had received little thanks for his
pains. Even his wanderings in the far west were but little known, as
he told them to us during the voyage. His brief tale of Gib had
shown me much of the man's own greatness, for Radisson had spoken
without bitterness or rancor, deeply as he had been wronged by the
traitor and spy.
So, if he took the "Lass" into Hudson's Bay as he intended, and
brought us safely to one of the Adventurers' posts, he would have
little chance or none of getting away free himself.
Of all on board, I think that only Ruth and I understood this--save,
mayhap, Gib o' Clarclach, of whom now we saw nothing at all. In the
days that followed our talk with Radisson, I had no chance for
another spare hour with Ruth. The illness had seized upon the crew
until we were were very shorthanded, and with those of our party who
were able, I took place with the sailors at the ropes. There were
but half a dozen of us all left untouched, and a few days later poor
Maisie Graham died.
Her funeral was a gloomy enough matter, for my father, looking like
some great gaunt specter, took the place of old Alec and afterwards
staggered back to his bed again. Ruth and those others of the women
who could, tended the sick. At morn and eve we gathered beside Alec
and it was a fearsome thing to hear the words of prayer come from
those blackened, disease-scarred lips. Yet those days of terror made
a man out of me who had been a boy, and but for them I had never had
the faith and courage to meet what came after.
So we drove east and south through the ice, great mountains of it all
about us, trusting everything to the old man who led us on. Then one
day there came a blue haze on the horizon, and a feeble yell of joy
went up from the men. I looked to see Radisson turn us in toward the
land, but he shook his head to my questions.
"Nay, lad, that is but a barren ice-bound coast. We must on into the
bay itself and there, please God, we shall find peace."
But the news that we were come to the New World at last was wondrous
heartening to our sick, notwithstanding that two of the men died that
same day. The leak had gained greatly upon us, and the next morning
I felt signs of the illness for the first time. Ruth had not been
touched by it, and of the men only Gib, Radisson, and one or two
others had escaped. But all the women, poor folk, were in their beds.
Then we came to the great cliffs, stern and icy. A day later a gale
came down from the north and drove us onward into the bay; and
although this increased the labor at the pumps, yet we welcomed it,
since it but sent us the faster toward safety. And at length, as I
came on deck at sunrise to take up my watch, I heard a hoarse shout
from the weary men, and looking across the floating ice at the dark
shore, saw a break of green that we had come to in the night.