make matters
worse, the French voyageurs brought letters to Groseillers and Radisson
from their relatives in Quebec. Bayly, no doubt, wished the Jesuit
guest far enough. Albanel left in a few weeks. Then Bayly's
suspicions blazed out in open accusations that the two French explorers
had been playing a double game and acting against English interests.
In September came the company ship to the fort with Captain Gillam, who
had never agreed with Radisson from the time that they had quarrelled
about going from Port Royal to the straits of Hudson Bay. It has been
said that, at this stage, Radisson and Groseillers, feeling the
prejudice too strong against them, deserted and passed overland through
the forests to Quebec. The records of the Hudson's Bay Company do not
corroborate this report. Bayly in the heat of his wrath sent home
accusations with the returning ship. The ship that came out in 1674
requested Radisson to go to England and report. This he did, and so
completely refuted the charges of disloyalty that in 1675 the company
voted him 100 pounds a year; but Radisson would not sit quietly in
England on a pension. Owing to hostility toward him among the English
employees of the company, he could not go back to the bay. Meantime he
had wife and family and servants to maintain on 100 pounds a year. If
England had no more need of him, France realized the fact that she had.
Debts were accumulating. Restless as a caged tiger, Radisson found
himself baffled until a message came from the great Colbert of France,
offering to pay all his debts and give him a position in the French
navy. His pardon was signed and proclaimed. In 1676, France granted
him fishing privileges on the island of Anticosti; but the lodestar of
the fur trade still drew him, for that year he was called to Quebec to
meet a company of traders conferring on the price of beaver.[15] In
that meeting assembled, among others, Jolliet, La Salle, Groseillers,
and Radisson--men whose names were to become immortal.

It was plain that the two adventurers could not long rest.[16]

[1] Chailly-Bert.

[2] The Jesuit expeditions of Dablon and Dreuillettes in 1661 had
failed to reach the bay overland. Cabot had coasted Labrador in 1497;
Captain Davis had gone north of Hudson Bay in 1585-1587; Hudson had
lost his life there in 1610. Sir Thomas Button had explored Baffin's
Land, Nelson River, and the Button Islands in 1612; Munck, the Dane,
had found the