| 1682—Port Nelson taken with Gov. Bridgar & Zechariah Gillam & 5 men perished. | £25,000 |
| 1684—damage to trade at Nelson. | 10,000 |
| 1685—Perpetuana taken with 14 seamen. | 5,000 |
| loss of life and wages. | 1,255 |
| 1686—forts captured at the bottom of the bay | 50,000 |
| loss in trade. | 10,000 |
| 1688—loss of Churchill Captain Bond Young—Stimson | 15,000 |
| cargo to Canada. | 70,000 |
| 1692—forts lost. | 20,000 |
| _______ | |
| £206,255 | |
The French King had said, “You may rely on me getting out of this affair,” and the bill of damages, however absurdly exaggerated, was never paid. The French raiders proved an expensive experiment.
Radisson’s other affidavit was made to prove that the French had quitted all pretensions to the bay when he was ordered back to Nelson. The French responded by denying that he had ever been ordered back to Nelson and by calling him “a liar,” “a renegade,” “a turn coat.” To this, the English answered in formal memorial: “The Mr. Radisson mentioned in this paper doth not deserve the ill names heaped upon him,” following up with the proof that the French had sent him back to England.
The real reason that the Company were so remiss to Radisson in his latter days was their own desperate straits. Besides, the old shareholders of the Stuart days had scattered like the wind. Radisson was unknown to the new men, so completely unknown that in one committee order his wife is spoken of as Madam Gwodet (Godey) instead of Mary Kirke. Now Madam Godey was the damsel whom Lord Preston offered to Radisson in marriage (with a dowry) despite the fact that he already had a wife—if he would go back from Paris to London. De la Potherie tells the story and adds that Radisson married her—another of the numerous fictions about the explorer. This mass of notes may give the impression that I am a protagonist of Radisson. My answer is that he badly needs one, when such staunch modern defenders of his as Drs. Bryce, and Dionne, and Judge Prudhomme refuse to excuse him for his last desertion of the French flag. In that case, Radisson was as much a victim of official red tape as Dreyfus in modern days.
PART III
1700-1820
The Search for the North-West Passage, the Fall of France, the Inlanders, the Coming of the Colonists and the Great Struggle with the North-West Company of Montreal.