ers during that year.

As soon as it was safe to return to London--some time in the winter of
1667-68--a group of courtiers became interested in the two Frenchmen,
and forgathered with them frequently at the Goldsmiths' hall, or at
Whitehall, or over a sumptuous feast at the Tun tavern or the Sun
coffee-house. John Portman, a goldsmith and alderman, is ordered to pay
Radisson and Groseilliers L2 to L4 a month for maintenance from December
1667. When Portman is absent the money is paid by Sir John Robinson,
governor of the Tower, or Sir John Kirke--with whose family young
Radisson seems to have resided and whose daughter Mary he married a few
years later--or Sir Robert Viner, the lord mayor, or Mr Young, a
fashionable man about town. No formal organization or charter yet
exists, but it is evident that the gentlemen are bent on some
enterprise, for Peter Romulus is engaged as surgeon and Thomas Gorst as
secretary. Gillam of Boston is hired as captain, along with a Captain
Stannard. At a merry dinner of the gay gentlemen at the Exchange,
Captain Gillam presents a bill of five shillings for 'a rat-catcher'
for the ships. Wages of seamen are set down at L20 per voyage; and His
Most Gracious Majesty, King Charles, gives a gold chain and medal to the
two Frenchmen and recommends them to 'the Gentlemen Adventurers of
Hudson's Bay.' Moreover, there is a stock-book dated this year showing
amounts paid in by or credited to sundry persons, among whom are: Prince
Rupert, James, Duke of York, the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Craven,
the Earl of Arlington, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Sir John Robinson, Sir
Robert Viner, Sir Peter Colleton, Sir James Hayes, Sir John Kirke, and
Lady Margaret Drax. Who was the fair and adventurous Lady Margaret Drax?
Did she sip wines with the gay adventurers over 'the roasted pullets' of
the Tun tavern, or at the banquet table at Whitehall?

Then His Majesty the King writes to his 'trusty and Well Beloved
Brother,' James, Duke of York, recommending the loan of the Admiralty
ship, the _Eaglet_, to the two Frenchmen to search for a North-West
Passage by way of Hudson Bay, the ship 'to be rigged and victualled' at
the charge of 'Dear Cousin Rupert' and his friends Carteret and
Albemarle and Craven _et al_. The 'Well Beloved Brother' passes the
order on to Prince Rupert, 'our Dear Cousin'; and the 'Dear Cousin'
transmits instructions to Sir James Hayes, his secretary. Sir James
badgers the Admiralty Board,