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Before the keel gravelled on the beach, M. Radisson's foot was on the gunwale, and he leaped ashore. Godefroy followed, flourishing the French flag and yelling at the top of his voice for the King of France. Behind, wading and floundering through the water, came the rest. Godefroy planted the flag-staff. The two crews sent up a shout that startled those strange, primeval silences.
One can see old Sargeant's eyes twinkle beneath his shaggy brows. La Martinière swears softly; a price is on M. Radisson's head. The French king had sent orders to M. de Denonville, the governor of New France, to arrest Radisson and 'to pay fifty pistoles' to anyone who seized him. Has His Excellency, M. Sargeant, seen one Jean Péré, or one M. Comporte?
Their journeys were not made for scientific, but for commercial, purposes. They were simply in quest of furs, and whatever discoveries they made were accidental. Thus, little account was made of them at the time. The chief reason, however, is that the importance of Radisson's journal escaped attention. It was mistaken for a mere record of wanderings.
In it were Captain Gillam, Radisson's personal enemy, John Bridgar, the new governor of the Hudson's Bay Company for Nelson River, and six sailors. All were heavily armed, yet Radisson stood alone to receive them, with his three companions posted on the outskirts of the woods as if in command of ambushed forces.
And the rafters rang so loud with the merriment that we none of us noticed the door flung open, nor saw two figures stamping off the snow till they had thrown a third man bound at M. de Radisson's feet. The messengers sent to spy out the marsh had returned with a half-frozen prisoner. "We found him where the ice is soft. He was half dead," explained one scout. Silence fell.
He bade me say that he will be here after he meets the shareholders. He goes to present furs to the king this morning." "That will please Lady Kirke," says the young gentleman. "Some one else is back in England," exclaims Rebecca, with the air of news. "Ben Gillam is here." "O-ho! Has he seen the Company?" "He and Governor Brigdar have been among M. Radisson's enemies.
At no time did Radisson's salary with the company exceed 100 pounds; and now, when war stopped dividends on the small amount of stock which had been given to him, he fell into poverty and debt. In 1692 Sir William Young petitioned the company in his favor; but a man with a price on his head for treason could plainly not return to France. The French were in possession of the bay.
A few days after Radisson's departure in July, 1683, cannon announced the arrival of the annual English ships on Nelson River. Jean at once sent out scouts, who found a tribe of Indians on the way home from trading with the ships that had fired the cannon. The scouts brought the Indians back to the French fort.
No sooner were the winnings safe twenty thousand beaver-skins stowed away in three ships' holds than Pierre Radisson's foes unmasked. The morning of our departure Governor Phipps marched all our Frenchmen aboard like captives of war. "Sir," expostulated M. de Radisson, "before they gave up the fort I promised these men they should remain in the bay."
"Sir, mark my words, 'tis a world that grows empires also men," with an emphasis which those court dandies could not understand. But the wise gentlemen only smiled at M. Radisson's warmth. "If it grew good soldiers for our wars " begins one military gentleman. "Aye," flashes back M. Radisson ironically, "if it grows men for your wars and your butchery and your shambles!
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