Radisson in confirmation. If Radisson
may be quoted to corroborate Parkman, Radisson may surely be accepted
as authentic. At the same time, I have compared this journal with
Father Ragueneau's of the same party, and the two tally in every detail.

[4] See _Jesuit Relations_, 1657-1658.

[5] _Letters of Marie de l'Incarnation_.

[6] See Ragueneau's account.

[7] See _Marie de l'Incarnation_ and Dr. Dionne's modern monograph.

[8] This account is drawn mainly from _Radisson's Journal_, partly from
Father Ragueneau, and in one detail from a letter of _Marie de
l'Incarnation_. Garneau says the feasters were drugged, but I cannot
find his authority for this, though from my knowledge of fur traders'
escapes, I fancy it would hardly have been human nature not to add a
sleeping potion to the kettles.

[9] The _festins a tout manger_ must not be too sweepingly condemned by
the self-righteous white man as long as drinking bouts are a part of
civilized customs; and at least one civilized nation has the gross
proverb, "Better burst than waste."

CHAPTER III

1658-1660

RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE

The Discovery of the Great Northwest--Radisson and his Brother-in-law,
Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and the
Canadian Northwest--Radisson's Prophecy on first beholding the
West--Twelve Years before Marquette and Jolliet, Radisson sees the
Mississippi--The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight seen on the Way
down the Ottawa--Why Radisson's Explorations have been ignored

While Radisson was among the Iroquois, the little world of New France
had not been asleep. Before Radisson was born, Jean Nicolet of Three
Rivers had passed westward through the straits of Mackinaw and coasted
down Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay.[1] Some years later the great
Jesuit martyr, Jogues, had preached to the Indians of Sault Ste. Marie;
but beyond the Sault was an unknown world that beckoned the young
adventurers of New France as with the hands of a siren. Of the great
beyond--known to-day as the Great Northwest--nothing had been learned
but this: from it came the priceless stores of beaver pelts yearly
brought down the Ottawa to Three Rivers by the Algonquins, and in it
dwelt strange, wild races whose territory extended northwest and north
to unknown nameless seas.

The Great Beyond held the two things most coveted by ambitious young
men of New France,--quick wealth by means of the fur trade and the
imm