patronage of royalty,
had gone bankrupt in New France.[12] Therefore, it became a loyal
governor to protect his Majesty's interests. Besides, the revenue
collectors could claim one-fourth of all returns in beaver except from
posts farmed expressly for the king. No sooner had Radisson and
Groseillers come home than D'Argenson ordered Groseillers imprisoned.
He then fined the explorers $20,000, to build a fort at Three Rivers,
giving them leave to put their coats-of-arms on the gate; a $30,000
fine was to go to the public treasury of New France; $70,000 worth of
beaver was seized as the tax due the revenue. Of a cargo worth
$300,000 in modern money, Radisson and Groseillers had less than
$20,000 left.[13]

Had D'Argenson and his successors encouraged instead of persecuted the
discoverers, France could have claimed all North America but the narrow
strip of New England on the east and the Spanish settlements on the
south. Having repudiated Radisson and Groseillers, France could not
claim the fruits of deeds which she punished.[14]

[1] The childish dispute whether Bourdon sailed into the bay and up to
its head, or only to 50 degrees N. latitude, does not concern
Radisson's life, and, therefore, is ignored. One thing I can state
with absolute certainty from having been up the coast of Labrador in a
most inclement season, that Bourdon could not possibly have gone to and
back from the inner waters of Hudson Bay between May 2 and August 11.
J. Edmond Roy and Mr. Sulte both pronounce Bourdon a myth, and his trip
a fabrication.

[2] "Shame put upon them," says Radisson. Menard did _not_ go out with
Radisson and Groseillers, as is erroneously recorded.

[3] I have purposely avoided stating whether Radisson went by way of
Lake Ontario or the Ottawa. Dr. Dionne thinks that he went by Ontario
and Niagara because Radisson refers to vast waterfalls under which a
man could walk. Radisson gives the height of these falls as forty
feet. Niagara are nearer three hundred; and the Chaudiere of the
Ottawa would answer Radisson's description better, were it not that he
says a man could go under the falls for a quarter of a mile. "The Lake
of the Castors" plainly points to Lake Nipissing.

[4] The two main reasons why I think that Radisson and Groseillers were
now moving up that chain of lakes and rivers between Minnesota and
Canada, connecting Lake of the Woods with Lake Winnipeg, are: (1)
Oldmixon says it was the report of