Being at Lake Superior, Radisson says they came "to a remarkable place. It's a banke of Rocks that the wild men made a Sacrifice to,… it's like a great portall by reason of the beating of the waves. The lower part of that opening is as bigg as a tower, and grows bigger in the going up. There is, I believe, six acres of land above it; a shipp of 500 tuns could passe by, soe bigg is the arch. I gave it the name of the portail of St. Peter, because my name is so called, and that I was the first Christian that ever saw it." Concerning Hudson's Bay, whilst they were among the Christinos at Lake Assiniboin, Radisson mentions in his narrative that "being resolved to know what we heard before, we waited untill the Ice should vanish."
The Governor was greatly displeased at the disobedience of Radisson and his brother-in-law in going on their last voyage without his permission. On their return, the narrative states, "he made my brother prisoner for not having obeyed his orders; he fines us L. 4,000 to make a fort at the three rivers, telling us for all manner of satisfaction that he would give us leave to put our coat of armes upon it; and moreover L. 6,000 for the country, saying that wee should not take it so strangely and so bad, being wee were inhabitants and did intend to finish our days in the same country with our relations and friends…. Seeing ourselves so wronged, my brother did resolve to go and demand justice in France." Failing to get restitution, they resolved to go over to the English. They went early in 1665 to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and from thence to New England, where they engaged an English or New England ship for a trading adventure into Hudson's Straits in 61 deg. north.
This expedition was attempted because Radisson and Des Groseilliers, on their last journey to Lake Superior, "met with some savages on the lake of Assiniboin, and from them they learned that they might go by land to the bottom of Hudson's Bay, where the English had not been yet, at James Bay; upon which they desired them to conduct them thither, and the savages accordingly did it. They returned to the upper lake the same way they came, and thence to Quebec, where they offered the principal merchants to carry ships to Hudson's Bay; but their project was rejected. Des Groseilliers then went to France in hopes of a more favorable hearing at Court; but after presenting several memorials and spending a great deal of time and money, he was answered as he had been at Quebec, and the project looked upon as chimerical." [Footnote: Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 548.] This voyage to Hudson's Straits proved unremunerative. "Wee had knowledge and conversation with the people of those parts, but wee did see and know that there was nothing to be done unlesse wee went further, and the season of the year was far spent by the indiscretion of our Master." Radisson continues: "Wee were promissed two shipps for a second voyage." One of these ships was sent to "the Isle of Sand, there to fish for Basse to make oyle of it," and was soon after lost.
In New England, in the early part of the year 1665, Radisson and Des Groseilliers met with two of the four English Commissioners who were sent over by Charles II in 1664 to settle several important questions in the provinces of New York and New England. They were engaged in the prosecution of their work in the different governments from 1664 to 1665/6. The two Frenchmen, it appears, were called upon in Boston to defend themselves in a lawsuit instituted against them in the courts there, for the annulling of the contract in the trading adventure above mentioned, whereby one of the two ships contracted for was lost. The writer states, that "the expectation of that ship made us loose our second voyage, which did very much discourage the merchants with whom wee had to do; they went to law with us to make us recant the bargaine that wee had made with them. After wee had disputed a long time, it was found that the right was on our side and wee innocent of what they did accuse us. So they endeavoured to come to an agreement, but wee were betrayed by our own party.
"In the mean time the Commissioners of the King of Great Britain arrived in that place, & one of them would have us goe with him to New York, and the other advised us to come to England and offer ourselves to the King, which wee did." The Commissioners were Colonel Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright, and Samuel Mavericke. Sir Robert Carr wished the two Frenchmen to go with him to New York, but Colonel George Cartwright, erroneously called by Radisson in his manuscript "Cartaret," prevailed upon them to embark with him from Nantucket, August 1, 1665. On this voyage Cartwright carried with him "all the original papers of the transactions of the Royal Commissioners, together with the maps of the several colonies." They had also as a fellow passenger George Carr, presumably the brother of Sir Robert, and probably the acting secretary to the Commission. Colonel Richard Nicolls, writing to Secretary Lord Arlington, July 31, 1665, Says, "He supposes Col. Geo. Cartwright is now at sea." George Carr, also writing to Lord Arlington, December 14, 1665, tells him that "he sends the transactions of the Commissioners in New England briefly set down, each colony by itself. The papers by which all this and much more might have been demonstrated were lost in obeying His Majesty's command by keeping company with Captain Pierce, who was laden with masts; for otherwise in probability we might have been in England ten days before we met the Dutch 'Caper,' who after two hours' fight stripped and landed us in Spain. Hearing also some Frenchmen discourse in New England of a passage from the West Sea to the South Sea, and of a great trade of beaver in that passage, and afterwards meeting with sufficient proof of the truth of what they had said, and knowing what great endeavours have been made for the finding out of a North Western passage, he thought them the best present he could possibly make His Majesty, and persuaded them to come to England. Begs His Lordship to procure some consideration for his loss, suffering, and service." Colonel Cartwright, upon his capture at Sea by the Dutch "Caper," threw all his despatches and papers overboard.
No doubt the captain of the Dutch vessel carefully scrutinized the papers of Radisson and his brother-in-law, and, it may be, carried off some of them; for there is evidence in one part at least of the former's narration of his travels, of some confusion, as the writer has transposed the date of one important and well-known event in Canadian history. It is evident that the writer was busy on his voyage preparing his narrative of travels for presentation to the King. Towards the conclusion of his manuscript he says: "We are now in the passage, and he that brought us, which was one of the Commissioners called Collonell George Cartaret, was taken by the Hollanders, and wee arrived in England in a very bad time for the plague and the warrs. Being at Oxford, wee went to Sir George Cartaret, who spoke to His Majesty, who gave good hopes that wee should have a shipp ready for the next Spring, and that the King did allow us forty shillings a week for our maintenance, and wee had chambers in the town by his order, where wee stayed three months. Afterwards the King came to London and sent us to Windsor, where wee stayed the rest of the winter."
Charles II., with his Court, came to open Parliament and the Courts of Law at Oxford, September 25, 1665, and left for Hampton Court to reside, January 27, 1666. Radisson and Des Groseilliers must have arrived there about the 25th of October. DeWitt, the Dutch statesman, and Grand Pensionary of the States of Holland from 1652, becoming informed by the captain of the Dutch "Caper" of the errand of Radisson and his companion into England, despatched an emissary to that country in 1666 to endeavor to entice them out of the English into the service of the Dutch. Sir John Colleton first brought the matter before the notice of Lord Arlington in a letter of November 12th. The agent of DeWitt was one Elie Godefroy Touret, a native of Picardy, France, and an acquaintance of Groseilliers. Touret had lived over ten years in the service of the Rhinegrave at Maestricht. Thinking it might possibly aid him in his design, he endeavored to pass himself off in London as Groseilliers' nephew. One Monsieur Delheure deposed that Groseilliers "always held Touret in suspicion for calling himself his nephew, and for being in England without employment, not being a person who could live on his income, and had therefore avoided his company as dangerous to the State. Has heard Touret say that if his uncle Groseilliers were in service of the States of Holland, he would be more considered than here, where his merits are not recognised, and that if his discovery were under the protection of Holland, all would go better with him."
On the 21st of November a warrant was issued to the Keeper of the Gate House, London, "to take into custody the person of Touret for corresponding with the King's enemies." On the 23d of December Touret sent in a petition to Lord Arlington, bitterly complaining of the severity of his treatment, and endeavored to turn the tables upon his accuser by representing that Groseilliers, Radisson, and a certain priest in London tried to persuade him to join them in making counterfeit coin, and for his refusal had persecuted and entered the accusation against him.
To Des Groseilliers and Radisson must be given the credit of originating the idea of forming a settlement at Hudson's Bay, out of which grew the profitable organization of the Hudson's Bay Company. They obtained through the English Ambassador to France an interview with Prince Rupert, and laid before him their plans, which had been before presented to the leading merchants of Canada and the French Court. Prince Rupert at once foresaw the value of such an enterprise, and aided them in procuring the required assistance from several noblemen and gentlemen, to fit out in 1667 two ships from London, the "Eagle," Captain Stannard, and the "Nonsuch," ketch, Captain Zechariah Gillam. This Gillam is called by Oldmixon a New Englander, and was probably the same one who went in 1664/5 with Radisson and Groseilliers to Hudson's Strait on the unsuccessful voyage from Boston.
Radisson thus alludes to the two ships that were fitted out in London by the help of Prince Rupert and his associates. The third year after their arrival in England "wee went out with a new Company in two small vessels, my brother in one and I in another, and wee went together four hundred leagues from the North of Ireland, where a sudden greate storme did rise and put us asunder. The sea was soe furious six or seven hours after, that it did almost overturne our ship. So that wee were forced to cut our masts rather then cutt our lives; but wee came back safe, God be thanked; and the other, I hope, is gone on his voyage, God be with him."