dson Strait in August of the year before,
and the captain, guided by Groseilliers, had steered south for 'the
rendezvous' at the lower end of the Bay, where the two French explorers
had set up their marks six years before. There, at the mouth of the
river named Rupert in honour of their patron prince, the traders cast
anchor on September 25. At high tide they beached the ship and piled
logs round her to protect her timbers from ice jams. Then they built a
fort, consisting of two or three log huts for winter quarters, enclosed
in a log palisade. This they named Fort Charles. The winter that
followed must have been full of hardship for the Englishmen, but a
winter on the Bay had no terrors for Groseilliers. While Gillam and the
Englishmen kept house at the fort, he coursed the woods on snow-shoes,
found the Indian camps, and persuaded the hunters to bring down their
furs to trade with him in the spring. Then, when the wild geese darkened
the sky and the ice went out with a rush, preparations were made for
the homeward voyage. In June the ship sailed out of the Bay and, as we
have seen, had docked at Gravesend on the Thames while the _Wavero_ with
Radisson was coming back.

The adventurers lost no time. That winter they applied for a charter,
and in May 1670 the charter was granted by King Charles to '_The
Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's
Bay_.' The ostensible object was to find the North-West Passage; and to
defray the cost of that finding a monopoly in trade for all time was
given.

Whereas, declares the old charter, these have at their own great cost
and charge undertaken an expedition to Hudson Bay for the discovery of a
new passage to the South Sea and for trade, and have humbly besought the
king to grant them and their successors the whole trade and commerce of
all those seas, straits, bays, rivers, creeks, and sounds in whatever
latitude that lie within the entrance of the straits, together with all
the lands, countries, and territories upon the coasts and confines of
the seas, straits, bays, lakes, rivers, creeks, and sounds not now
actually possessed by any other Christian state, be it known by these
presents that the king has given, granted, ratified, and confirmed the
said grant. The adventurers are free to build forts, employ a navy, use
firearms, pass and enforce laws, hold power of life and death over their
subjects. They are granted, not only the whole, entire, and only l