d to
truth. It would, in fact, take a large volume to contradict and
disprove half the lies written of these two men. Instead of consulting
contemporaneous documents,--which would have entailed both cost and
labor,--modern writers have, unfortunately, been satisfied to serve up
a rehash of the detractions written by the old historians. In 1885
came a discovery that punished such slovenly methods by practically
wiping out the work of the pseudo-historians. There was found in the
British Museum, the Bodleian Library, and Hudson's Bay House, London,
unmistakably authentic record of Radisson's voyages, written by
himself. The Prince Society of Boston printed two hundred and fifty
copies of the collected Journals. The Canadian Archives published the
journals of the two last voyages. Francis Parkman was too
conscientious to ignore the importance of the find; but his history of
the West was already written. He made what reparation he could to
Radisson's memory by appending a footnote to subsequent editions of two
of his books, stating that Radisson and Groseillers' travels took them
to the "Forked River" before 1660. Some ten other lines are all that
Mr. Parkman relates of Radisson; and the data for these brief
references have evidently been drawn from Radisson's enemies, for the
explorer is called "a renegade." It is necessary to state this,
because some writers, whose zeal for criticism was much greater than
their qualifications, wanted to know why any one should attempt to
write Radisson's life when Parkman had already done so.

Radisson's life reads more like a second Robinson Crusoe than sober
history. For that reason I have put the corroborative evidence in
footnotes, rather than cumber the movement of the main theme. I am
sorry to have loaded the opening parts with so many notes; but
Radisson's voyages change the relative positions of the other explorers
so radically that proofs must be given. The footnotes are for the
student and may be omitted by the general reader. The study of
Radisson arose from, using his later exploits on Hudson Bay as the
subject of the novel, _Heralds of Empire_. On the publication of that
book, several letters came from the Western states asking how far I
thought Radisson had gone beyond Lake Superior before he went to Hudson
Bay. Having in mind--I am sorry to say--mainly the early records of
Radisson's enemies, I at first answered that I thought it very
difficult to identify