the Assiniboine Indians from Lake
Assiniboine (Lake Winnipeg) that led Radisson to seek for the Bay of
the North overland. These Assiniboines did not go to the bay by way of
Lake Superior, but by way of Lake Winnipeg. (2) A memoire written by
De la Chesnaye in 1696--see _Documents Nouvelle France_,
1492-1712--distinctly refers to a _coureur's_ trail from Lake Superior
to Lake Assiniboine or Lake Winnipeg. There is no record of any
Frenchmen but Radisson and Groseillers having followed such a trail to
the land of the Assiniboines--the Manitoba of to-day--before 1676.

[5] One can guess that a man who wrote in that spirit two centuries
before the French Revolution would not be a sycophant in
courts,--which, perhaps, helps to explain the conspiracy of silence
that obscured Radisson's fame.

[6] My reason for thinking that this region was farther north than
Minnesota is the size of the Cree winter camp; but I have refrained
from trying to localize this part of the trip, except to say it was
west and north of Duluth. Some writers recognize in the description
parts of Minnesota, others the hinterland between Lake Superior and
James Bay. In the light of the _memoire_ of 1696 sent to the French
government, I am unable to regard this itinerary as any other than the
famous fur traders' trail between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg by
way of Sturgeon River and the Lake of the Woods.

[7] _Radisson Relations_, p. 207.

[8] We are now on safe ground. There was a well-known trail from what
is now known as the Rat Portage region to the great Sioux camps west of
the Mississippi and Red River valleys. But again I refuse to lay
myself open to controversy by trying definitely to give either the
dates or exact places of this trip.

[9] If any proof is wanted that Radisson's journeyings took him far
west of the Mississippi, these details afford it.

[10] _Radisson's Journal_, pp. 224, 225, 226.

[11] Mr. A. P. Low, who has made the most thorough exploration of
Labrador and Hudson Bay of any man living, says, "Rupert River forms
the discharge of the Mistassini lakes . . . and empties into Rupert Bay
close to the mouth of the Nottoway River, and rises in a number of
lakes close to the height of land dividing it from the St. Maurice
River, which joins the St. Lawrence at Three Rivers."

[12] _Les Compagnies de Colonisation sous l'ancien regime_, by
Chailly-Bert.

[13] Oldmixon says: "Radisson and Groseillers met with some sav