his
brother-in-law to build the fort, Radisson launched a canoe on Hayes
River to explore inland. Young Jean Groseillers accompanied him to
look after the trade with the Indians.[5] For eight days they paddled
up a river that was destined to be the path of countless traders and
pioneers for two centuries, and that may yet be destined to become the
path of a northern commerce. By September the floodtide of Hayes River
had subsided. In a week the _voyageurs_ had travelled probably three
hundred miles, and were within the region of Lake Winnipeg, where the
Cree hunters assemble in October for the winter. Radisson had come to
this region by way of Lake Superior with the Cree hunters twenty years
before, and his visit had become a tradition among the tribes. Beaver
are busy in October gnawing down young saplings for winter food.
Radisson observed chips floating past the canoe. Where there are
beaver, there should be Indians; so the _voyageurs_ paddled on. One
night, as they lay round the camp-fire, with canoes overturned, a deer,
startled from its evening drinking-place, bounded from the thicket. A
sharp whistle--and an Indian ran from the brush of an island opposite
the camp, signalling the white men to head the deer back; but when
Radisson called from the waterside, the savage took fright and dashed
for the woods.

All that night the _voyageurs_ kept sleepless guard. In the morning
they moved to the island and kindled a signal-fire to call the Indians.
In a little while canoes cautiously skirted the island, and the chief
of the band stood up, bow and arrow in hand. Pointing his arrows to
the deities of north, south, east, and west, he broke the shaft to
splinters, as a signal of peace, and chanted his welcome:--

"Ho, young men, be not afraid!
The sun is favorable to us!
Our enemies shall fear us!
This is the man we have wished
Since the days of our fathers!"

With a leap, the chief sprang into the water and swam ashore, followed
by all the canoes. Radisson called out to know who was commander. The
chief, with a sign as old and universal as humanity, bowed his head in
servility. Radisson took the Indian by the hand, and, seating him by
the fire, chanted an answer in Cree:--

"I know all the earth!
Your friends shall be my friends!
I come to bring you arms to destroy your enemies!
Nor wife nor child shall die of hunger!
For I have brought you merchandise!
Be of good cheer!
I