out of
print, thanks are due Mr. L. P. Sylvain of the Parliamentary Library,
Ottawa, the officials of the Archives Department, Ottawa, Mr. F. C.
Wurtele of Quebec, Professor Andrew Baird of Winnipeg, Mr. Alfred
Matthews of the Prince Society, Boston, the Hon. Jacob V. Brower and
Mr. Warren Upham of St. Paul. Mr. Lawrence J. Burpee of Ottawa was so
good as to give me a reading of his exhaustive notes on La Verendrye
and of data found on the Radisson family. To Mrs. Fred Paget of
Ottawa, the daughter of a Hudson's Bay Company officer, and to Mr. and
Mrs. C. C. Farr of the Northern Ottawa, I am indebted for interesting
facts on life in the fur posts. Miss Talbot of Winnipeg obtained from
retired officers of the Hudson's Bay Company a most complete set of
photographs relating to the fur trade. To her and to those officers
who loaned old heirlooms to be photographed, I beg to express my
cordial appreciation. And the thanks of all who write on the North are
permanently due Mr. C. C. Chipman, Chief Commissioner of the Hudson's
Bay Company, for unfailing courtesy in extending information.

WILDWOOD PLACE,

WASSAIC, N.Y.

[1] I of course refer to the West as beyond the Great Lakes; for
Nicotet, in 1634, and two nameless Frenchmen--servants of Jean de
Lauzon--in 1654, had been beyond the Sault.

Just as this volume was going to the printer, I received a copy of the
very valuable Minnesota _Memoir_, Vol. VI, compiled by the Hon. J. V.
Brower of St. Paul, to whom my thanks are due for this excellent
contribution to Western annals. It may be said that the authors of
this volume have done more than any other writers to vindicate Radisson
and Groseillers as explorers of the West. The very differences of
opinion over the regions visited establish the fact that Radisson _did_
explore parts of Minnesota. I have purposely avoided trying to say
_what_ parts of Minnesota he exploited, because, it seems to me, the
controversy is futile. Radisson's memory has been the subject of
controversy from the time of his life. The controversy--first between
the governments of France and England, subsequently between the French
and English historians--has eclipsed the real achievements of Radisson.
To me it seems non-essential as to whether Radisson camped on an island
in the Mississippi, or only visited the region of that island. The
fact remains that he discovered the Great Northwest, meaning by that
the region west of the M