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.
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.
Groseilliers in Boston.