1659-1666.
Groseilliers and Radisson -- Their Peregrinations in the
North-West -- They Return to Quebec and lay their Scheme before
the Governor -- Repulsed by him they Proceed to New England --
And thence Sail for France, where they Endeavour to Interest M.
Colbert.
The year 1659, notable in England as the last of the Puritan
ascendancy and the herald of a stirring era of activity, may be
reckoned as the first with which the annals of the Great Company are
concerned. It is in this year that we first catch a glimpse of two
figures who played an important part in shaping its destinies. Little
as they suspected it, the two intrepid fur-traders, Groseilliers and
Radisson, who in the spring of that year pushed their way westward
from Quebec to the unknown shores of Lake Superior, animated in this,
as in all their subsequent exploits, by a spirit of adventure as well
as a love of gain, were to prove the ancestors of the Great Company.
[Sidenote: Groseilliers' first marriage.]
Medard Chouart, the first of this dauntless pair, was born in France,
near Meaux, and had emigrated to Quebec when he was a little over
sixteen years old. His father had been a pilot, and it was designed
that the son should succeed him in the same calling. But long before
this intention could be realized he fell in with a Jesuit, returned
from Canada, who was full of thrilling tales about the New France
beyond the seas; and so strongly did these anecdotes, with their
suggestion of a rough and joyous career in the wilderness, appeal to
his nature, that he determined to take his own part in the glowing
life which the priest depicted. In 1641 he was one of the fifty-two
_emigrés_ who sailed with the heroic Maissoneuve from Rochelle. Five
years later we find him trading amongst the Hurons, the tribe whose
doom was already sealed by reason of the enmity and superior might of
the Iroquois; and at the close of another year comes the record of his
first marriage. The bride is Etienne, the daughter of a pilot, Abraham
Martin of Quebec, the "eponymous hero" of that plateau adjoining
Quebec where, a century later, was to take place the mortal struggle
between Wolfe and Montcalm.
It was probably soon after this marriage that Chouart adopted the
title "des Groseilliers," derived from a petty estate which his father
had in part bequeathed to him.
Not long did his wife survive the marriage; and she died without
leaving any legacy of children to alleviate his loss. But the young
adventurer was not destined to remain for any length of time
disconsolate. Within a year of his wife's death, there arrived in the
colony a brother and sister named Pierre and Marguerite Radisson,
Huguenots of good family, who had been so persistently hounded in
France by the persecution which sought to exterminate their community,
that the one key to happiness had seemed to them to lie beyond the
seas. No sooner had their father died than they bade farewell to
France and sailed for Canada, there to start a new life amidst new and
more tranquil surroundings.
With this couple young Groseilliers soon struck up an acquaintance;
and so rapidly did the intimacy ripen that before long he was united,
to the sister in matrimony, and to the brother in a partnership for
the pursuit of commercial adventure. The double union proved doubly
fortunate; for Marguerite seems to have made a well-suited wife, and
Pierre, though in birth and education superior to Groseilliers, was no
whit less hardy and adventurous, nor in any respect less fitted for
the arduous tasks which their rough life imposed upon them. The two
speedily became fast friends and associates in enterprise, and thus
united they soon took their place as the leading spirits of the
settlement at Three Rivers. Here, in 1656, Radisson married for the
first time, his bride being a Mlle. Elizabeth Herault, one of the few
Protestant young women in the whole of Canada. Groseilliers, who had
been long disgusted at the priestly tyranny of which he had seen so
much in Canada, probably needed but little inducement to embrace the
Protestant religion, if indeed this had not been stipulated upon at
the time of his marriage. At all events, we now find him reputed to be
among the Protestants of the Colony; some of whom were, in spite of
the bitter prejudice against them, the boldest and most successful
spirits the fur-trading community of that period had to show.
[Illustration: RADISSON.
(_After an old print._)]
[Sidenote: Radisson weds Miss Kirke.]
Radisson, like Groseilliers,[6] had the misfortune to lose his wife
soon after their marriage; but, like his comrade, he too sought
consolation in a fresh marriage. This time he allied himself with the
daughter of a zealous English Protestant, who afterwards became Sir
John Kirke. It was to the brothers of this Kirke that the great
Champlain, thirty years before, had surrendered Quebec.
With this introduction to the characters of the two remarkable men
whose fortunes were to become so closely entwined with that of the
Hudson's Bay Company, we may pass to their early efforts to extend the
fur-trade beyond those limits which the distracted and narrow-minded
officers of the Compagnie des Cent Assocés, thought it necessary to
observe.
Reaching the shore of Lake Superior in the early summer of 1659,
Radisson and Groseilliers travelled for six days in a south-westerly
direction, and then came upon a tribe of Indians incorporated with the
Hurons, known as the Tionnontates, or the Tobacco Nation. These people
dwelt in the territory between the sources of the Black and Chippeway
rivers, in what is now the State of Wisconsin, whence, in terror of
the bloody enmity of the Iroquois, they afterwards migrated to the
small islands in Lake Michigan at the entrance of Green Bay.
During their temporary sojourn with this branch of the unhappy Hurons
the two pioneering traders heard constant mention of a deep, wide, and
beautiful river--comparable to the St. Lawrence--to the westward, and
for a time they were half tempted by their ever-present thirst for
novelty to proceed in that direction. Other counsels, however, seem to
have prevailed; for instead of striking out for the unknown river of
the west they journeyed northward, and wintered with the
Nadouechiouecs or Sioux, who hunted and fished among the innumerable
lakes of Minnesota. Soon afterwards they came upon a separate band of
war-like Sioux, known as the Assiniboines, a prosperous and
intelligent tribe, who lived in skin and clay lodges and were
"familiar with the use of charcoal."
[Sidenote: A Route to the Bay.]
From these Assiniboines, Radisson and Groseilliers first heard of the
character and extent of that great bay to the north, named by the
English marine explorers "Hudson's Bay," which was to be the scene of
their later labours; and not only did they glean news of its nature,
but they also succeeded in obtaining information as to the means of
reaching it.
In August, 1660, the two adventurers found their way back to Montreal,
after over a year's absence. They were accompanied by three hundred
Indians, and in possession of sixty canoes laden with furs, which they
undertook to dispose of to the advantage of the savages and
themselves. As they had anticipated, they found the little colony and
its leaders deeply interested in their reports of the extent and
richness of the fur-producing countries to the westward, as well as
in their description of the unfamiliar tribes inhabiting that region.
The sale of the furs having resulted in a handsome profit,
Groseilliers announced to his brother-in-law his intention of making
the journey on his own account. There was no dearth of volunteers
eager to embark in the enterprise, and from those who offered their
services he chose six Frenchmen--_coureurs des bois_ or bushrangers;
and having provided himself with an ample outfit, turned his footsteps
once more to the prairies of the west, while Radisson went to rejoin
his wife and sister at Three Rivers.
On the eve of his departure the Jesuit Fathers, distrusting
Groseilliers' religious proclivities and suspecting that he might
attempt to influence the Assiniboines, insisted upon one of their
number accompanying him. The priest chosen for this arduous mission
was the aged missionary Réné Ménard, who, in spite of his physical
frailty was still undaunted by any prospect of peril; though he was,
on this occasion, prevailed upon to allow his servant Guérin to
accompany him. It was the priest's last journey. When Groseilliers
again reached Montreal, after a season in the wilderness as prosperous
as its forerunner, he bore the mournful news that Ménard had been
massacred and his body, beyond question, devoured by a fierce band of
Indians.
This voyage, besides showing lucrative results, also proved a
memorable one for Groseilliers, inasmuch as it was during his winter's
sojourn with the distant Assiniboines that he acquired information
which affected his whole subsequent career. There can be no question
that it was the knowledge he obtained from this tribe of a convenient
route to Hudson's Bay, by way of Lake Superior, and of a system of
trade with the tribes dwelling on or in proximity to that unknown sea,
that caused him to set out once again in May, 1662, for the west. He
was accompanied by ten men, all of whom were disaffected towards the
powers which then controlled the fur-trade in New France, and the
combination of good fortune and _esprit de corps_ among his followers
proved so successful that when, after a year's absence, he returned
to the eastern colonies, the number of furs he brought back was
sufficiently great to render a simultaneous disposal of all the packs
inadvisable. He adopted the wise course of dividing them into three
consignments, and these were sold respectively at Montreal, Three
Rivers, and Quebec. Henceforward, but one idea possessed
Groseilliers--a journey to the great fur-lands of the north. It should
be his life's work to exploit the fur-trade of Hudson's Bay. Already
he saw himself rich--richer even than the merchant-princes of old
Rochelle.
[Sidenote: A new fur Company.]
But alas for his plans, the official laxity and dissensions which had
made it possible for himself and others thus to infringe with
impunity, the general monopoly granted by the King came to a sudden
end. A fresh patent for a new Company was issued by the Crown; a new
Governor, M. d'Avagour, entered upon the scene, and the rigorous
measures enacted against private traders drove many of these over to
the English and the Dutch.
A commission from M. d'Avagour, dated the 10th of May, 1663, conveyed
permission to one M. Couture to remove with five men to the bottom of
the Great Bay to the North of Canada, consequent upon the requisition
of some Indians, who had returned to Quebec to ask for aid to conduct
and assist them in their affairs. This same Couture afterwards
certified, or the French Government certified in his stead, that he
really undertook this voyage, and "erected anew upon the lands at the
bottom of the said Bay a cross and the arms of the King engraved on
copper, and placed between two plates of lead at the foot of a large
tree." Much justifiable doubt has been cast upon this story, and at a
much later period, when French and English interests were contesting
hotly for the sovereignty of the territory surrounding Hudson's Bay,
an expedition was sent in search of the boasted memorials, but no
trace of the cross or the copper escutcheon could be found. There
seems every probability that the allegation, or the subsequent
statement of an allegation of this description, was false.
Groseilliers had thus to reckon with the new fur-trading proprietors
of Quebec, who were to prove themselves less complaisant than the old.
They instantly interdicted traders from going in search of peltries;
reasoning that the produce would ultimately find its way into their
hands, without the need of any such solicitation. And though
Groseilliers persistently explained to them that their policy of
interdiction was really a short-sighted one; that the Indians could
not be always depended upon to bring their own furs to the Company's
mart; and that no great time would elapse before the English or Dutch
would push their way westward to Lake Superior, and so acquire an
unequalled opportunity of developing the resources of the northern
regions; neither his criticism and advice (founded on personal
knowledge of the unstable Indian character) nor the apprehensions of
rivalry, which he showed good grounds for entertaining, had any power
to move the officials of the Hundred Associates. Neither argument,
entreaty, nor prognostications of danger would induce them to look
with any favour upon Groseilliers' project, or even entertain his
proposals.
[Sidenote: Groseilliers in Boston.]
Groseilliers afterwards hinted that it was prejudice against his
adopted religion which really lay at the bottom of this complete
rejection of his scheme, and also accounted for the Company's refusal
to avail themselves of his services, otherwise than as a mere salaried
servant. It was at this juncture that he sought the advice of
Radisson, and it is not unlikely that it was the counsels of his
brother-in-law which induced him to resolve upon a bold step in the
furtherance of his cherished project. It was well-known that the
English colonists settled in New England were putting forth the
strongest efforts to secure a share of the fur-trade of the North.
Their allies, the redoubtable Iroquois, had upon several occasions
way-laid and plundered the Huron tribes, who were conveying their
cargoes to Quebec and Montreal, and had delivered these into the hands
of the English. Farther westward, the Dutch were indefatigable in
their endeavours to divert the fur-traffic of the North from the St.
Lawrence to the Hudson. But the Dutch had been vanquished by the
English; New Amsterdam was now New York; and it was English brains
and English money which now controlled the little colony and the
untravelled lands which lay beyond it. It was to the English,
therefore, that the indomitable adventurer now determined to apply.
Madame Radisson had relatives in Boston; her father was an intimate
friend of the Governor. Relying on such influences as these, but still
more on the soundness of his project, Groseilliers made his way to
Boston by way of Acadia.
[Illustration: A CHART OF HUDSON'S STREIGHTS AND BAY OF DAVIS
STREIGHTS, AND BAFFIN'S BAY; AS PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1668. ]
Early in 1664 we find the Mother Superior of the Ursuline Nuns at
Quebec writing thus of Groseilliers:
"As he had not been successful in making a fortune, he was seized with
a fancy to go to New England to better his condition. He excited a
hope among the English that he had found a passage to the Sea of the
North."
The good Mother Superior was deceived. It was no part of Groseilliers'
plan to seek a passage to the Sea of the North; but one can hardly
doubt that he found it highly politic that such a report should obtain
currency in Quebec. The fur-trade of the North, and the fur-trade
alone, was Groseilliers' lode-stone; but in spite of all it had cost
him to acquire the knowledge he already possessed, he was ready to
abandon the land and fresh water route, and seek the shores of
Hudson's Bay from the side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Doubtless many causes operated to alter his original plan; but there
can be little question that the most potent was the opposition of the
Canadian Company. Yet had the sea route not existed, even the
opposition of the Company would not have sufficed to baulk him of a
fulfilment of his designs. He would not have been the first French
trader, even at that early day in the history of the rival colonies,
to circumvent his countrymen, and, taking advantage of their confined
area of activity, to conduct negotiations with the Indians surrounding
the most distant outposts of their territory. The proceeding would
have been hazardous had the Company possessed the force necessary to
assert its rights to the trade of the whole northern and north-western
country; but the new company would not as yet possess the force. The
most real danger Groseilliers had to fear was that, if he persisted in
his endeavours to draw away the trade of the northern tribes, he might
be outlawed and his property, and that of his brother-in-law Radisson,
confiscated. Groseilliers had left his wife and his son in Canada, and
he therefore went to work with considerable caution.
It has been asserted, and perhaps with excellent point, that
Groseilliers may have been very powerfully influenced in the
abandonment of his land and fresh water route by obtaining an entirely
new idea of the configuration of northern North America. In the maps
which were likely at that time to have found their way to Quebec, the
northern regions are but very dimly defined; and with the knowledge of
geography gained only from these maps Groseilliers could hardly have
realized the accessibility of the approach by sea. It seems likely
therefore that the change of route was not even thought of until
Groseilliers had had his interview with Radisson; it was probably
Radisson--with his superior geographical knowledge and more thorough
comprehension (through his kinship with the Kirkes, all famous
mariners) of the discoveries made by the English in the northern
parts--who advocated the sea-route. The idea must have grown upon him
gradually. His countrymen took it for granted that the whole northern
country was theirs, apparently assuming the sole mode of access to be
by land. The sea route never seems to have occurred to them, or if
they thought of it at all, it was dismissed as dangerous and
impracticable for purposes of commerce. The configuration of the
northern country, the form and extent of the seas, certainly the
character of the straits and islands, were to them little known.
Secure in what they regarded as nominal possession, forgetful that
English mariners had penetrated and named these northern waters, the
officials of the Canada Company were content to pursue a policy of
_laissez faire_ and to deprecate all apprehensions of rivalry.
Singular coincidence! More than a century was to elapse and another
Company with ten times the wealth, the power, the sovereignty wielded
by this one: not French--for France had then been shorn of her
dominion and authority--but English, scorning the all-conquering,
all-pervading spirit of mercantile England, was to pursue the same
policy, and to suffer the loss of much blood and treasure in
consequence of such pursuit.
[Sidenote: Groseilliers finds no patrons.]
In Boston, the main difficulty which Groseilliers encountered was a
scarcity of wealth. His scheme was approved by many of the leading
spirits there, and his assertions as to the wealth of the fur-bearing
country were not doubted. But at that period the little Puritan colony
was much put to it to carry out projects for its own security and
maintenance, not to mention plans for enrichment much nearer home. And
it was pointed out to him that so long as schemes which were regarded
as essential to safety could only be with difficulty supported, no
pecuniary assistance could be rendered for an extraneous project,
however promising its nature.[7]
[Illustration: PRINCE RUPERT.
(_After the painting by Sir P. Lely._)]
There were in Boston at this time, however, four personages whom the
King had sent as envoys, in 1664, to force the Dutch to evacuate
Manhattan, and who were also a kind of commission instructed to visit
the English colonies, and to hear and rule their complaints. They were
Richard Nichols, Robert Carr, George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick.
One of these, Colonel Carr, it is said, strongly urged Groseilliers to
proceed to England and offer his services to the King.
[Sidenote: Zachary Gillam.]
Although, therefore, he was unable to secure there the patronage he
desired, Groseilliers' visit to Boston was not quite barren of profit.
He fell in besides with an intelligent sea-faring man, Zachary Gillam,
who was then captain and part-owner of a small vessel, the _Nonsuch_,
with which he plied a trade between the colony and the mother country.
Gillam expressed himself eager to assist in the project as far as lay
in his power, and offered his services in case an equipment could be
found. A long correspondence passed between Groseilliers and his
brother-in-law in Canada, the latter very naturally urging that as the
New England project had failed, it would be advisable not to seek
further aid from the English, but that, as nothing was to be expected
from the Canada Company, or the merchants of Canada, it would be as
well to journey to France, and put the matter before the French Court.
Groseilliers seems to have agreed to this; and he wrote back begging
Radisson to join him in Boston with the object of accompanying him to
France. In June, 1665, both the adventurers set sail in the _Nonsuch_
for Plymouth, whence in all likelihood they proceeded direct to Havre.
It would be unprofitable, and at best but a repetition, to describe
the difficulties Groseilliers and his brother-in-law met with in
Paris, the petitions they presented and the many verbal
representations they made. In the midst of their ill-success Colonel
Carr came to Paris. There is extant a letter of his to Lord Arlington.
"Having heard," says he, "by the French in New England of a great
traffic in beavers" to be got in the region of Hudson's Bay, and
"having had proofs of the assertions" of the two adventurers, he
thought "the finest present" he could make to his majesty was to
despatch these men to him.
The ambassador pondered on this and at last decided to entrust
Groseilliers with a letter to a certain prince--a friend of his--and a
patron of the Arts and Sciences. Leaving Radisson despondent in Paris,
therefore, the other adventurer crossed the Channel and found himself,
with a beating heart, for the first time in the English capital.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] Each writer seems to have followed his own fancy in spelling our
hero's name, I find Groiseliez, Grozeliers, Groseliers, Groiziliers,
Grosillers, Groiseleiz, and Groseillers. Charlevoix spells it
Groseilliers. Dr. Dionne, following Radisson's Chouard, writes
Chouart. But as Dr. Brymner justly observes "he is as little known by
that name as Voltaire by his real name of Arouet, he being always
spoken of by the name of des Groseilliers, changed in one affidavit
into 'Gooseberry.'" The name literally translated is, of course,
Gooseberry-bushes.
[7] For example, the adjoining colony of Connecticut had appealed to
them for help in their laudable enterprise of despoiling the Dutch of
their possessions. Raids upon the territory and trading-posts
controlled by the Dutch were a constantly recurring feature in the
history of those times, and nearly the whole of the zeal and substance
remaining to the English colonists in Connecticut and Virginia, after
their periodical strifes with the Indians, were devoted to forcing the
unhappy Hollanders to acknowledge the sovereignty of King Charles of
England.