The Governor having arrived, I presented to him my adopted father, & said to him that as it was the chief who commanded the nation that inhabited in the place where they built the fort, I had made him some little presents by Captain Gazer, & that it was also desirable that he make some to him, because I had promissed some the preceeding year that I had not given; which the Governor found very bad, & he became irritated even against this chief without any cause for it; except that it might be because he was my adopted father, & I have learned since that he was angry that when I had arrived I had not given any present to a simple savage who served as a spy, who was the son of that chief called "the bearded." That was a horrible extravagence; for this Governor was inferior to me, & I was not under any obligation to recognize his favor; besides, I had never made any presents but to the chiefs of the nations. Moreover, it was not for our Governor to censure my conduct. I had received some independent orders, which had been given me on account of the outrage that he had committed; but acting for the service of my King and for those of the Company, I passed it over in silence. I saw that it would be imprudent if I should speak my sentiments openly to a man who after my departure should command all those who remained in the country.[Footnote: "That would have perhaps drawn upon him some contempt." Note by Radisson. ] I contented myself then with letting him know the inconveniences which would happen from the indifference that he affected to have for the chief of the savage nations, & I exhorted him also to change at once his policy in regard to my adopted father; not by that consideration, but because that he was, as I said to him, the chief of the nations which inhabited the place where they built the fort, which he promissed me of undoing. After that I went on board our ship.
My nephew, who remained in the fort with the Governor, having learned that the ships were ready to leave, kept himself near me with the French whom I had resolved to leave in Canada, to say adieu to me, & it was in the company of this Governor that they made the journey, during which, as I have since learned from my nephew, he showed to them more good will than he had yet done, assuring them that they should never want anything, & in consideration of me they would receive the same treatment as himself. The behaviour that my nephew & the other Frenchmen had shown gave no reason for doubting the sincerity of their protestations. They no longer believed that any one could have any mistrust of them. My nephew & his interpreter had been solicited to remain in the country to serve the company, & they had consented to it without a murmur because I had charged myself with the care of their interests in England. All that passed in the presence and by the persuasions of the Governor. Nevertheless, behold a surprising change which came to pass by the inconstancy, the caprice, & the wicked behaviour of this same Governor.
I disposed myself to part with the other Frenchmen, when the Governor, having come aboard of the little frigate, caused a signal to be made to hold a council of war. Upon this the Captains of the ships & myself rendered ourselves on board, where my nephew followed us, remaining upon the poop, whilst the officers & myself were in the room where this Governor demanded of us, at first, if we had any valid reasons why he should not send back in the ships all the Frenchmen who were in the country; to all which the others having said nothing, I was obliged to speak in these terms: "At my departure from England I received a verbal order from the company, in particular from Sir James Hayes, to leave in the country where we are as many of the Frenchmen as I should find desirable for the good & advantage of the company. I have upon that resolved to engage my nephew & his interpreter to remain in it, & I have come for that end, by my attendance, for the consent of the Governor, who demands to-day that they may be sent back as people who apparently are known to him as suspected. I have always believed, & I believe it still, that their presence is useful in this Country and also necessary to the Company, and it was difficult to be able to overlook two, because they are known to all the nations. It is also upon them that I have relied for the Security of the merchandises which are left behind at the houses of the French, because without their assistance or their presence they would be exposed to pillage. Nevertheless I do not pretend to oppose my self to the design that the Governor has put in execution & the proposition that he proposes making. He is free to undo what he pleases, but he cannot make me subscribe to his resolutions, because I see that they are directly opposed to those of the Company, to my instructions, and to my experience. On the contrary, I will protest before God and before men against all that he does, because, after what he has said to you, he is incapable of doing what is advantageous for his masters. It is in vain that one should give him good councels, for he has not the spirit to understand them, that he may again deal a blow to which he would wish I opposed nothing."
This declaration had without doubt made some impression upon a spirit not anticipated in an imaginary capacity of governor; but this one here, on the contrary, fortified himself in his resolution, & begged me to tell the French to embark themselves, without considering that my nephew had not time enough to go seek his clothes, nor several bonds that were due to him in Canada, which remained in the house of the French, and that I had abandoned to him, to yield whatever I was in a condition of giving satisfaction to him, & that in the hope that the Company would set up for him the way exclusively.
The Council after that broke up; but the Governor, apprehending that the Frenchmen would not obey, wished to give an order to the Captains to seize upon them and put them on board. He had even the insolence of putting me first on the lists, as if I was suspected or guilty of something, for which Captain Bond having perceived, said to him that he should not make a charge of that kind, as I must be excepted from it, because he remembered nothing in me but much of attachment for the service of his masters, & that they should take care of the establishment that we had made, & of the advantages that would accrue to the Company. They obliged the Governor to make another list, and thus finished a council of war held against the interests of those who had given power to assemble them. The persons who had any knowledge of these savages of the north would be able to judge of the prejudice which the conduct of this imprudent Governor would without contradiction have caused the Company. Many would attribute his proceeding to his little experience, or to some particular hatred that he had conceived against the French. Be it as it may, I was not of his way of thinking; and I believed that his timidity & want of courage had prompted him to do all that he had done, by the apprehension that he had of the French undertaking something against him; & what confirmed me in that thought was the precaution that he had taken for preventing the French from speaking to any person since the day of council, for he put them away from the moment that we went away from them. I made out also that he had wanted but the occasion of putting to the sword my nephew if he had had the least pretext; but knowing his wicked designs, I made him understand, as well as the other Frenchmen, that we were to go to England, & that he must not leave the ship, because we were at any moment ready to depart.
Although this change surprised my nephew & his interpreter, nevertheless they appeared not discontented with it, especially when I had assured them, as well as the other Frenchmen, that they would receive all kinds of good treatment in England, and that it would do them no harm in their persons nor in their pretensions. I left them then in the ship, and having embarked myself in the frigate, we were put ashore two leagues from the place where they were at anchor, to take on board some goods that remained on the shore, with more diligence than we had been able to make with the ships; which having succeeded in happily doing, we went to rejoin the ships at the place where they were at anchor, in one of which my nephew and the other Frenchmen were staying during this time without having taken the least step, although they were in a condition for any enterprise, because they could easily render themselves masters of the two ships and burn them, having there for both but two men and one boy in each; after which they could also, without danger, go on shore on the south side with the canoes of the savages, who were from the north, and then make themselves masters of their houses and their merchandise, which were guarded but by two men; but to go there to them, he made doubts of all that I had told him, and that it would be ill intentioned to the service of the company, as it was to the Governor. That is why they were not capable, neither those nor the others, after having submitted themselves & having taken the oath of fidelity as they had done.
At length, after having suffered in my honour and in my probity many things on the part of the Governor, [Footnote: "Before Radisson's arrival, Capt. John Abraham had been to Port Nelson with supplies of stores, & finding Mr Bridgar was gone, he staid himself, & was continued Governor by the Company in 1684." Oldmixon.] and much fatigue and indisposition of trouble and of care in my person, to come to the end of my design, having happily succeeded, and all that was to be embarked in the ships being on board, we made sail the 4th day of September, 1684, and we arrived at the Downs, without anything passing worth mentioning, the 23rd of October of the same year.
The impatience that I had of informing the Gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company of the happy success of my voyage, and our return, and that I had acquitted myself for the service of the King and their own interest in all the engagements into which I had entered, obliged me to mount a horse the same day, to present myself in London, where I arrived at midnight. All which did not hinder me, so the Sieur Ecuyer Young was informed, who was one of those interested, who having come to me on the morrow morning to take me, did me the honour to present me to His Majesty and to His Royal Highness, to whom I rendered an account of all which had been done; and I had the consolation of receiving some marks of the satisfaction of these great princes, who in token gave order to the Sieur Ecuyer Young to tell the company to have care of my interests, & to remember my services.
Some days after, I went before the Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, to render to it an account of my conduct, hoping to receive their approbation of my proceeding as the first fruits of the just satisfaction & recompence which was my due; but in place of that I found the members of the Committee for the most part offended because I had had the honour of making my reverence to the King and to his Royal Highness, & these same persons continued even their bad intention to injure me, and, under pretext of refusing me the justice which is due to me, they oppose themselves also to the solid and useful resolutions that are necessary for the glory of his Majesty and the advantage of the Nation and their own Interest.