e and Jolliet, twenty years before
La Salle, a hundred years before De la Verendrye, why has his name been
slurred over and left in oblivion?[12] The reasons are plain.
Radisson was a Christian, but he was not a slave to any creed. Such
liberality did not commend itself to the annalists of an age that was
still rioting in a very carnival of religious persecution. Radisson
always invoked the blessing of Heaven on his enterprises and rendered
thanks for his victories; but he was indifferent as to whether he was
acting as lay helper with the Jesuits, or allied to the Huguenots of
London and Boston. His discoveries were too important to be ignored by
the missionaries. They related his discoveries, but refrained from
mentioning his name, though twice referring to Groseillers. What hurt
Radisson's fame even more than his indifference to creeds was his
indifference to nationality. Like Columbus, he had little care what
flag floated at the prow, provided only that the prow pushed on and on
and on,--into the Unknown. He sold his services alternately to France
and England till he had offended both governments; and, in addition to
withstanding a conspiracy of silence on the part of the Church, his
fame encountered the ill-will of state historians. He is mentioned as
"the adventurer," "the hang-dog," "the renegade." Only in 1885, when
the manuscript of his travels was rescued from oblivion, did it become
evident that history must be rewritten. Here was a man whose
discoveries were second only to those of Columbus, and whose
explorations were more far-ranging and important than those of
Champlain and La Salle and De la Verendrye put together.

The spring of 1659 found the explorers still among the prairie tribes
of the Mississippi. From these people Radisson learned of four other
races occupying vast, undiscovered countries. He heard of the Sioux, a
warlike nation to the west, who had no fixed abode but lived by the
chase and were at constant war with another nomadic tribe to the
north--the Crees. The Crees spent the summer time round the shores of
salt water, and in winter came inland to hunt. Between these two was a
third,--the Assiniboines,--who used earthen pots for cooking, heated
their food by throwing hot stones in water, and dressed themselves in
buckskin. These three tribes were wandering hunters; but the people of
the fire told Radisson of yet another nation, who lived in villages
like the Iroquois, on "a