Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson / Being an Account of His Travels and Experiences Among the North American Indians, from 1652 to 1684

by Pierre Esprit Radisson

"Some days after your departure, in the year 1683, the 27th of July, the number of reports of cannon-shots that we heard fired on the side of the great river made us believe that they came from some English ship that had arrived. In fact, having sent 3 of my men to know, & endeavour to understand their design, I learned from them on their return that it was 2 English ships, & that they had encountered 3 men of that nation a league from these vessels, but that they had not spoken to them, having contented themselves with saluting both. As my principal design was to discover the English ones, & that my men had done nothing in it, I sent back 3 others of them to inform themselves of all that passed. These 3 last, having arrived at the point which is between the 2 Rivers of Nelson & Hayes, they met 14 or 15 savages loaded with merchandise, to whom, having demanded from whence they were & from whence they had come, they had replied that their nation lived along the river called Nenosavern, which was at the South of that of Hayes, & that they came to trade with their brothers, who were established at the bottom of the Bay; after which my men told them who they were and where they lived, in begging them to come smoke with them some tobacco the most esteemed in the country; to which they freely consented, in making it appear to them that they were much chagrined in not having known sooner that we were established near them, giving evidence that they would have been well pleased to have made their trade with us.

"In continueing to converse upon several things touching trade, they arrived together in our house, reserving each time that but one of them should enter at once; which under a pretext of having forgotten something, one had returned upon his steps, saying to his comrades that they had leave to wait for him at the house of the French, where he arrived 2 days after, to be the witness of the good reception that I made to his brothers, whom I made also participants in giving to him some tobacco; but I discovered that this savage had had quite another design than of going to seek that which he had lost, having learned that he had been heard telling the other savages that he had been to find the English, & that he was charged by them of making some enterprise against us. In fact, this villain, having seen me alone & without any defence, must set himself to execute his wicked design. He seized me by the hand, & in telling me that I was of no value since I loved not the English, & that I had not paid him by a present for the possession of the country that I lived in to him who was the chief of all the nations, & the friend of the English at the bottom of the Bay, he let fall the robe which covered him, & standing all naked he struck me a blow with his poniard, which I luckily parried with the hand, where I received a light wound, which did not hinder me from seizing him by a necklace that he had around his neck, & of throwing him to the ground; which having given me the leisure of taking my sword & looking about, I perceived that the other savages had also poniards in their hands, with the exception of one, who cried out, 'Do not kill the French; for their death will be avenged, by all the nations from above, upon all our families.'

"The movement that I had made to take my sword did not prevent me from holding my foot upon the throat of my enemy, & knew that that posture on my sword had frightened the other conspirators. There was none of them there who dared approach; on the contrary, they all went out of the house armed with their poniards. But some Frenchmen who were near to us, having perceived things thus, they ran in a fury right to the house, where having entered, the savages threw their poniards upon the ground in saying to us that the English had promissed to their chief a barrel of powder & other merchandise to kill all the French; but that their chief being dead, for they believed in fact that he was so, we had nothing more to fear, because that they were men of courage, abhorring wicked actions. My people, having seen that I was wounded, put themselves into a state to lay violent hands on the savages; but I prevented any disturbance, wishing by that generousity, & in sparing his life to the chief, to give some proofs of my courage, & that I did not fear neither the English there nor themselves. After which they left us, & we resolved to put ourselves better upon our guard in the future, & of making come to our relief the savages our allies.

"Some days after, these savages, by the smoke of our fires, which were our ordinary signals, arrived at our house. According to their custom, they having been apprised of my adventure, without saying anything to us, marched upon the track of the other savages, & having overtaken them, they invited them to a feast, in order to know from them the truth of the things; of which having been informed, the one among them who was my adopted brother-in-law spoke to the chief who had wished to assassinate me thus, as has been reported to me by him: 'Thou art not a man, because that, having about thee 15 of thy people thou hast tried to accomplish the end of killing a single man.' To which the other replied haughtily, & with impudence, 'It is true; but if I have missed him this autumn with the fifteen men, he shall not escape in the Spring by my own hand alone.' 'It is necessary,' then replied my adopted brother-in-law, 'that thou makest me die first; for without that I shall hinder thy wicked design.' Upon which, having come within reach, the chief whose life I had spared received a blow of a bayonet in the stomach, & another of a hatchet upon the head, upon which he fell dead upon the spot. In respect to the others, they did not retaliate with any kind of bad treatment, & they allowed them to retire with all liberty, in saying to them that if they were in the design of revenging the death of their chief, they had only to speak, & they would declare war upon them.

"After that expedition these same savages our allies divided into two parties, & without telling us their design descended to the place where the English made their establishment; they attacked them & killed some of them, of which they then came to inform me, in telling me that they had killed a great number of my enemies to avenge me of the conspiracy that they had done me & my brother, and that they were ready to sacrifice their lives for my service; in recognition of which I thanked them & made them a feast, begging them not to kill any more of them, & to await the return of my father & my uncle, who would revenge upon the English the insult which they had made me, without their tarnishing the glory that they had merited in chastising the English & the savages, their friends, of their perfidy. We were nevertheless always upon the defensive, & we apprehended being surprised at the place where we were as much on the part of the English, as of those of the savages, their friends; that is why we resolved of coming to establish ourselves in the place where we are at present, & which is, as you see, difficult enough of access for all those who have not been enslaved as we are amongst the savages. We built there this house in a few days with the assistance of the savages, & for still greater security we obliged several among them to pass the winter with us on the condition of our feeding them, which was the reason that our young men parted in the summer, having almost consumed all our provisions. During the winter nothing worthy of mention passed, except that some savages made several juggles to know from our Manitou, who is their familiar spirit among them, if my father and my uncle would return in the spring; who answered them that they would not be missing there, and that they would bring with them all kinds of merchandise and of that which would avenge them on their enemies.

"At the beginning of April, 1684, some savages from the South coast arrived at our new house to trade for guns; but as we had none of them they went to the English, who had, as I afterwards learned, made them Some presents & promissed them many other things if they would undertake to kill me with the one of my men whom you saw still wounded, who spoke plainly the language of the country. These savages, encouraged by the hope of gain, accepted the proposition and promissed to execute it. For that means they found an opportunity of gaining over one of the savages who was among us, who served them as a spy, and informed them of all that we did. Nevertheless they dared not attack us with open force, because they feared us, & that was the reason why they proceeded otherwise in it; and this is how it was to be done.

"The Frenchman that you saw wounded, having gone by my orders with one of his comrades to the place where these savages, our friends, made some smoked stag meat that they had killed, to tell them to bring me some of it, fell, in chasing a stag, upon the barrel of his gun, and bent it in such a manner that he could not kill anything with it without before having straightened it; which having done, after having arrived at the place where the savages were, he wished to make a test of it, firing blank at some distance from their cabin; but whilst he disposed himself to that, one of the savages who had promissed to the English his death & mine, who was unknown to several of his comrades amongst the others, fired a shot at him with his gun, which pierced his shoulder with a ball. He cried out directly that they had killed him, & that it was for the men who loved the French to avenge his death; which the Savages who were our friends having heard, went out of their cabins & followed the culprit without his adherents daring to declare themselves. But the pursuit was useless, for he saved himself in the wood after having thrown away his gun & taken in its place his bow & his quiver. This behaviour surprised our allies, the savages, exceedingly, & obliged them to swear, in their manner, vengeance for it, as much against that savage nation as against the English; but not having enough guns for that enterprise, they resolved to wait until my father and uncle had arrived. In the mean time they sent to entreat all the nations who had sworn friendship to my father & my uncle to come to make war upon the English & the savages on the southern coast, representing to them that they were obliged to take our side because that they had at other times accepted our presents in token of peace & of goodwill; that as to the rest, we were always men of courage, & their brothers.

"As soon as these other nations had received intelligence of the condition in which we were, they resolved to assist us with all their forces, & in waiting the return of my father or my uncle to send hostages for it to give a token of their courage, in the persons of two of their young men. One of the most considerable chiefs among these nations was deputed to conduct them. I received them as I ought. This chief was the adopted father of my uncle, & one of the best friends of the French, whom I found adapted to serve me to procure an interview with the English, to the end of knowing what could possibly be their resolution. For that purpose I deputed this chief savage towards the English, to persuade them to allow that I should visit them & take their word that they would not make me any insult, neither whilst with them nor along the route there, for which this chief stood security. The English accepted the proposition. I made them a visit with one of the French who carried the present that I had seat to make them, in the manner of the savages, & who received it on their part for me according to custom. We traded nothing in that interview regarding our business, because I remembered that the English attributed directly that which had been done against them to the savages. All the advantage that I received in that step was of making a trade for the savages, my friends, of guns which I wanted; although they cost me dear by the gratuity which I was obliged to make to those who I employed there; but it was important that I had in fact hindered the savages from it who came down from the country to trade, of passing on as far as the English. The end of that invitation and that visit, was that I promissed to the solicitation of the Governor of the English of visiting there once again with my chief; after which we retired to our house, where I was informed by some discontented savages not to go any more to see the English, because that they had resolved either to arrest me prisoner or of killing me. Which my chief having also learned, he told me that he wished no more to be security with his word with a nation who had none of it; which obliged us to remain at home, keeping up a very strict guard. At the same time the river Hayes having become free, several detachments of the nations who were our allies arrived to assist us. The Asenipoetes [Footnote: Asenipoetes, Assinipoueles, Assenipoulacs, and, according to Dr. O'Callaghan, Assiniboins, or "Sioux of the Rocks.">[ alone made more than 400 men. They were the descendants of the great Christionaux of the old acquaintance of my uncle, & all ready to make war with the English; but I did not find it desirable to interest them in it directly nor indirectly, because I did not wish to be held on the defensive in awaiting the return of my father or of my uncle, & that besides I knew that several other nations who loved the French, more particularly those who would come to our relief at the least signal. In the mean time the chief of the Asenipoetes did not wish us to leave his camp around our house, resolved to await up to the last moment the return of my uncle, of whom he always spoke, making himself break forth with the joy that he would have in seeing him by a thousand postures; & he often repeated that he wished to make it appear that he had been worthy of the presents that the Governor of Canada had made to him formerly in giving tokens of his zeal to serve the French.

"The necessity for stores which should arrive in their camp partly hindered the effects of that praiseworthy resolution, & obliged the chief of the Asenipoetes to send back into his country 40 canoes in which he embarked 200 men of the most feeble & of the least resolute. He kept with him a like number of them more robust, & those who were able to endure fatigue & hunger, and determined having them to content themselves with certain small fruits, which commenced to ripen, for their subsistence, in order to await the new moon, in which the spirit of the other savages had predicted the arrival of my uncle, which they believed infallible, because their superstitious custom is of giving faith to all which their Manitou predicts. They remained in that state until the end of the first quarter of the moon, during which their oracles had assured them that my uncle would arrive; but the time having expired, they believed their Manitou had deceived them, & it was determined between them to join themselves with us & of separating in 2 bodys, so as to go attack the English & the savages at the south; resolved in case that the enterprise had the success that they expected, of passing the winter with us, to burn the English ships in order to remove the means of defending themselves in the Spring & of effecting their return. That which contributed much to that deliberation was some information which was given to them that the English had formed a design of coming to seek the French to attack them, which they wished to prevent.

"These menaces on the part of the English were capable of producing bad effects, the genius of the savages being of never awaiting their enemies, but on the contrary of going to seek them. In this design the chief of the Asenipoetes disposed himself to march against the English with a party of his people; when 10 or 12 persons were seen on the northern side of the Hayes river seeking for these same fruits on which the savages had lived for some time, he believed that they were the advance guard of the English & of the savages from the South, whom he supposed united, who came to attack us; which obliged him to make all his men take their bows and arrows, after which he ranged them in order of battle & made this address in our presence: 'My design is to pass the river with 2 of the most courageous among you to go attack the enemy, & of disposing of you in a manner that you may be in a condition of relieving me or of receiving me, whilst the French will form the corps of reserve; that our women will load in our canoes all our effects, which they are to throw over in case necessity requires it But before undertaking this expedition I wish that you make choice of a chief to command you in my absence or in case of my death.' Which having been done at the moment, this brave chief addressing us said: 'We camp ourselves upon the edge of the wood with our guns, so as to hinder the approach of the enemy; & then it would be necessary to march the men upon the edge of the water, to the end that they should be in a condition to pass to support or to receive him, according to the necessity.'