Captain Gillam and the ketch "Nonsuch," with Des Groseilliers, proceeded on their voyage, "passed thro Hudson's Streights, and then into Baffin's Bay to 75 deg. North, and thence Southwards into 51 deg., where, in a river afterwards called Prince Rupert river, He had a friendly correspondence with the natives, built a Fort, named it Charles Fort, and returned with Success." [Footnote: Oldmixon, British Empire, ed. 1741, Vol. I. p. 544] When Gillam and Groseilliers returned, the adventurers concerned in fitting them out "applied themselves to Charles II. for a patent, who granted one to them and their successors for the Bay called Hudson's Streights." [Footnote: Ibid., Vol. I. p. 545.] The patent bears date the 2d of May, in the twenty-second year of Charles II., 1670.
In Ellis's manuscript papers [Footnote: Ibid., Vol. V. p.319] has been
found the following original draft of an "answer of the Hudson's Bay
Company to a French paper entitled Memoriall justifieing the pretensions of
France to Fort Bourbon." 1696/7.
"The French in this paper carrying their pretended right of Discovery and settlement no higher then the year 1682, and their being dispossessed in 1684. Wee shall briefly shew what sort of possession that was, and how those two actions were managed. Mr. Radisson, mentioned in the said paper to have made this settlement for the French at Port Nelson in 1682, was many years before settled in England, and marryed an English wife, Sir John Kirke's daughter, and engaged in the interest and service of the English upon private adventure before as well as after the Incorporation of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1667, when Prince Rupert and other noblemen set out two shipps, Radisson went in the Eagle, Captain Stannard commander, and in that voyage the name of Rupert's river was given. Again in 1668 and in 1669, and in this voyage directed his course to Port Nelson, and went on shore with one Bayly (designed Governor for the English), fixed the King of England's arms there, & left some goods for trading. In 1671 three ships were set out from London by the Hudson's Bay Company, then incorporated, and Radisson went in one of them in their service, settled Moose River, & went to Port Nelson, where he left some goods, and wintered at Rupert's River. In 1673, upon some difference with the Hudson's Bay Company, Radisson returned into France and was there persuaded to go to Canada. He formed severall designs of going on private accounts for the French into Hudson's Bay, which the Governor, Monsr. Frontenac, would by no means permitt, declaring it would break the union between the two Kings."
Oldmixon says [Footnote: Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 549.] that the above-mentioned Charles Baily, with whom went Radisson and ten or twenty men, took out with him Mr. Thomas Gorst as his secretary, who at his request kept a journal, which eventually passed into the possession of Oldmixon. The following extracts give some idea of the life led by the fur-traders at the Fort: "They were apprehensive of being attacked by some Indians, whom the French Jesuits had animated against the English and all that dealt with them. The French used many artifices to hinder the natives trading with the English; they gave them great rates for their goods, and obliged Mr Baily to lower the price of his to oblige the Indians who dwelt about Moose river, with whom they drove the greatest trade. The French, to ruin their commerce with the natives, came and made a settlement not above eight days' journey up that river from the place where the English traded. 'Twas therefore debated whether the Company's Agents should not remove from Rupert's to Moose river, to prevent their traffick being interrupted by the French. On the 3d of April, 1674, a council of the principal persons in the Fort was held, where Mr Baily, the Governor, Captain Groseilliers, and Captain Cole were present and gave their several opinions. The Governor inclined to move. Captain Cole was against it, as dangerous, and Captain Groseilliers for going thither in their bark to trade. [Footnote: Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 552.] … The Governor, having got everything ready for a voyage to Moose river, sent Captain Groseilliers, Captain Cole, Mr Gorst, and other Indians to trade there. They got two hundred and fifty skins, and the Captain of the Tabittee Indians informed them the French Jesuits had bribed the Indians not to deal with the English, but to live in friendship with the Indian nations in league with the French…. The reason they got no more peltry now was because the Indians thought Groseilliers was too hard for them, and few would come down to deal with him." [Footnote: Oldmixon, Vol. I. p. 554.] After Captain Baily [Footnote: Ibid., Vol. I. p. 555.] had returned from a voyage in his sloop to trade to the fort, "on the 30th Aug a missionary Jesuit, born of English parents, arrived, bearing a letter from the Governor of Quebec to Mr Baily, dated the 8th of October, 1673.
"The Governor of Quebec desired Mr Baily to treat the Jesuit civilly, on account of the great amity between the two crowns. Mr Baily resolved to keep the priest till ships came from England. He brought a letter, also, for Capt Groseilliers, which gave jealousy to the English of his corresponding with the French. His son-in-law lived in Quebec, and had accompanied the priest part of the way, with three other Frenchmen, who, being afraid to venture among strange Indians, returned…. Provisions running short, they were agreed, on the 17th Sept, they were all to depart for Point Comfort, to stay there till the 22d, and then make the best of their way for England. In this deplorable condition were they when the Jesuit, Capt Groseilliers, & another papist, walking downwards to the seaside at their devotions, heard seven great guns fire distinctly. They came home in a transport of joy, told their companions the news, and assured them it was true. Upon which they fired three great guns from the fort to return the salute, though they could ill spare the powder upon such an uncertainty." The ship "Prince Rupert" had arrived, with Captain Gillam, bringing the new Governor, William Lyddel, Esq.
Groseilliers and Radisson, after remaining for several years under the Hudson's Bay Company, at last in 1674 felt obliged to sever the connection, and went over again to France. Radisson told his nephew in 1684 that the cause was "the refusal, that showed the bad intention of the Hudson's Bay Company to satisfy us." Several influential members of the committee of direction for the Company were desirous of retaining them in their employ; among them the Duke of York, Prince Rupert their first Governor, Sir James Hayes, Sir William Young, Sir John Kirke, and others; but it is evident there was a hostile feeling towards Radisson and his brother-in-law on the part of several members of the committee, for even after his successful expedition in 1684 they found "some members of the committee offended because I had had the honour of making my reverence to the King and to his Royal Highness."
From 1674 to 1683, Radisson seems to have remained stanch in his allegiance to Louis XIV. In his narrative of the years 1682 and 1683 he shews that Colbert endeavored to induce him to bring his wife over into France, it would appear to remain there during his absence in Hudson's Bay, as some sort of security for her husband's fidelity to the interests of the French monarch. After his return from this voyage in 1683 he felt himself again unfairly treated by the French Court, and in 1684, as he relates in his narrative, he "passed over to England for good, and of engaging myself so strongly to the service of his Majesty, and to the interests of the Nation, that any other consideration was never able to detach me from it."
We again hear of Radisson in Hudson's Bay in 1685; and this is his last appearance in public records or documents as far as is known. A Canadian, Captain Berger, states that in the beginning of June, 1685, "he and his crew ascended four leagues above the English in Hudson's Bay, where they made a Small Settlement. On the 15th of July they set out to return to Quebec. On the 17th they met with a vessel of ten or twelve guns, commanded by Captain Oslar, on board of which was the man named Bridgar, the Governor, who was going to relieve the Governor at the head of the Bay. He is the same that Radisson brought to Quebec three years ago in the ship Monsieur de la Barre restored to him. Berger also says he asked a parley with the captain of Mr Bridgar's bark, who told him that Radisson had gone with Mr Chouart, his nephew, fifteen days ago, to winter in the River Santa Theresa, where they wintered a year." [Footnote: New York Colonial Documents, Vol. IX.]
After this date the English and the French frequently came into hostile collision in Hudson's Bay. In 1686 King James demanded satisfaction from France for losses inflicted upon the Company. Then the Jesuits procured neutrality for America, and knew by that time they were in possession of Fort Albany. In 1687 the French took the "Hayes" sloop, an infraction of the treaty. In 1688 they took three ships, valued, in all, at L. 15,000; L. 113,000 damage in time of peace. In 1692 the Company set out four ships to recover Fort Albany, taken in 1686. In 1694 the French took York, alias Fort Bourbon. In 1696 the English retook it from them. On the 4th September, 1697, the French retook it and kept it. The peace was made September 20, 1697. [Footnote: Minutes Relating to Hudson's Bay Company.] In 1680 the stock rose from L. 100 to near L. 1,000. Notwithstanding the losses sustained by the Company, amounting to L. 118,014 between 1682 and 1688, they were able to pay in 1684 the shareholders a dividend of fifty per cent. Radisson brought home in 1684 a cargo of 20,000 beaver skins. Oldmixon says, "10,000 Beavers, in all their factories, was one of the best years of Trade they ever had, besides other peltry." Again in 1688 a dividend of fifty per cent was made, and in 1689 one of twenty-five per cent. In 1690, without any call being made, the stock was trebled, while at the same time a dividend of twenty-five per cent was paid on the increased or newly created stock. At the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, the forts captured by the French in 1697 were restored to the Company, who by 1720 had again trebled their capital, with a call of only ten per cent. After a long and fierce rivalry with the Northwest Fur Company, the two companies were amalgamated in 1821. [Footnote: Encyclopaedia Britannica.]
Radisson commences his narrative of 1652 in a reverent spirit, by inscribing it "a la plus grande gloire de Dieu." All his manuscripts have been handed down in perfect preservation. They are written out in a clear and excellent handwriting, showing the writer to have been a person of good education, who had also travelled in Turkey and Italy, and who had been in London, and perhaps learned his English there in his early life. The narrative of travels between the years 1652 and 1664 was for some time the property of Samuel Pepys, the well-known diarist, and Secretary of the Admiralty to Charles II. and James II. He probably received it from Sir George Cartaret, the Vice-Chamberlain of the King and Treasurer of the Navy, for whom it was no doubt carefully copied out from his rough notes by the author, So that it might, through him, be brought under the notice of Charles II. Some years after the death of Pepys, in 1703, his collection of manuscripts was dispersed and fell into the hands of various London tradesmen, who bought parcels of it to use in their shops as waste-paper. The most valuable portions were carefully reclaimed by the celebrated collector, Richard Rawlinson, who in writing to his friend T. Rawlins, from. "London house, January 25th, 1749/50," says: "I have purchased the best part of the fine collection of Mr Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty during the reigns of Charles 2d and James 2d. Some are as old as King Henry VIII. They were collected with a design for a Lord High Admiral such as he should approve; but those times are not yet come, and so little care was taken of them that they were redeemed from thus et adores vendentibus."