dly that a mob of Frenchmen
threatened to burn the explorers. Dismissing their servants, Radisson
and Groseillers escaped to Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

[Illustration: Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars--Three
Rivers.]

In Port Royal they met a sea-captain from Boston, Zechariah Gillam, who
offered his ship for a voyage to Hudson Bay, but the season was far
spent when they set out. Captain Gillam was afraid to enter the
ice-locked bay so late in summer. The boat turned back, and the trip
was a loss. This run of ill-luck had now lasted for a year. They
still had some money from the Northern trips, and they signed a
contract with ship-owners of Boston to take two vessels to Hudson Bay
the following spring. Provisions must be laid up for the long voyage.
One of the ships was sent to the Grand Banks for fish. Rounding
eastward past the crescent reefs of Sable Island, the ship was caught
by the beach-combers and totally wrecked on the drifts of sand.
Instead of sailing for Hudson Bay in the spring of 1665, Radisson and
Groseillers were summoned to Boston to defend themselves in a lawsuit
for the value of the lost vessel. They were acquitted; but lawsuits on
the heels of misfortune exhausted the resources of the adventurers.
The exploits of the two Frenchmen had become the sensation of Boston.
Sir Robert Carr, one of the British commissioners then in the New
England colonies, urged Radisson and Groseillers to renounce allegiance
to a country that had shown only ingratitude, and to come to
England.[3] When Sir George Cartwright sailed from Nantucket on August
1, 1665, he was accompanied by Radisson and Groseillers.[4] Misfortune
continued to dog them. Within a few days' sail of England, their ship
encountered the Dutch cruiser _Caper_. For two hours the ships poured
broadsides of shot into each other's hulls. The masts were torn from
the English vessel. She was boarded and stripped, and the Frenchmen
were thoroughly questioned. Then the captives were all landed in
Spain. Accompanied by the two Frenchmen, Sir George Cartwright
hastened to England early in 1666. The plague had driven the court
from London to Oxford. Cartwright laid the plans of the explorers
before Charles II. The king ordered 40s. a week paid to Radisson and
Groseillers for the winter. They took chambers in London. Later they
followed the court to Windsor, where they were received by King Charles.

The English court favored th