Who were the Coureurs de bois.--Radisson's Experiences as a Prisoner
among the Iroquois.--He plays the Indian Warrior.--Escapes to the
Dutch.--Makes his Way back to Canada.--He and his Brother-in-law set
out for the Upper Lakes.--Fight with Iroquois.--Storm an Indian
Fort.--Reach Lake Superior.--"The Pictured Rocks."--Keweenaw
Point.--Long Overland Journey.--Summer and Feasting.--Winter and
Famine.--Feasting again.--Fine Ducking.--Start for Home.--Reach
Montreal with Great Fleet of Canoes.

The early history of New France owes its romantic interest to the
activity of four classes of men. Daring explorers, such as Cartier,
Champlain, Joliet, Marquette, La Salle, plunged into the wilderness,
penetrated remote regions, made great discoveries, and extended French
influence and French trade as far to the west as the Mississippi and to
the northeast as far as Hudson Bay. French Catholic missionaries said
mass and preached their {188} faith in the heart of the forest primeval
and at lonely posts on the shores of the Great Lakes. Able and
brilliant Governors, such as Champlain and Frontenac, built forts at
commanding points on the inland waters, and ruled, in a fashion, an
area vastly greater than that of France itself.

Of these three classes of men and their achievements we have had
examples. We come now to speak of a fourth class who exercised a
powerful influence on the destinies of New France. If we remember that
the material object of French activity in America was _furs_, we shall
easily understand that the men who were busied in the fur-trade were a
very important part of the scanty population. They were of two kinds.
There were merchants who "kept store" at Quebec, Montreal, Three
Rivers, and other trading-posts, bartering their goods to the Indians
for peltries. These were brought to them in large quantities in the
early summer, when the ice had broken up, and fleets of canoes
descended the St. Lawrence laden with skins. Then there was amazing
stir at the sleepy little posts on the great river. Painted savages,
howling and screeching, mostly half-drunk, swarmed about the stations,
and at night the sky was red with the glare of their {189} fires.
There was an enormous profit in the traffic, for the Indians had no
idea of the cheapness of the goods which they took in exchange for
their furs, nor of the high prices which these brought in Europe. It
is no wonder that governors and other high officials were