a good place to get
furs, for down its broad tide came the canoes of the Assiniboines, the
'Stone Boilers' whom Radisson had met near Lake Superior long ago, and
of the Crees, who had first told him of the Sea of the North.

Radisson returned to England with Gillam on the _Prince Rupert_, while
Groseilliers wintered on the Bay; and it appears that, during the next
three years, Radisson spent the winters in London advising the Company,
and the summers on the Bay, cruising and trading on the west coast. In
1672 he married Mary Kirke. Sir James Hayes said afterwards that he
'misled her into marrying him,' but there is nothing to show that the
wife herself ever thought so. Perhaps Radisson hoped that his marriage
to the daughter of one of the leading directors of the Company would
strengthen his position. He received L100 a year for his services, but,
although his efforts had turned a visionary search for the North-West
Passage into a prosperous trading enterprise, he was not a shareholder
in the Company.

CHAPTER V

FRENCH AND ENGLISH ON THE BAY

Every year three ships were sailing to the Bay and returning to England
laden with peltry; but in 1672 it was observed by the traders at the
fort that fewer Indians than usual came down the river with furs. In the
next year there were still fewer. For some reason the trade was falling
off. Radisson urged Bayly to establish new forts on the west coast, and
at length the governor consented to go with him on his regular summer
cruise to Nelson. When they came back to Rupert in August they were
surprised to find the fort tenanted by a Jesuit from Quebec, Father
Albanel, who handed letters to Radisson and Groseilliers, and passports
from the governor of New France to Bayly. The sudden decrease of trade
was explained. French traders coming overland from the St Lawrence had
been intercepting the Indians. But France and England were at peace and
bound in closest amity by secret treaty, and Bayly was compelled to
receive the passports and to welcome the Jesuit, as the representative
of a friendly nation, to the hospitality of Fort Charles. What the
letters to Radisson and Groseilliers contained we can only guess, but we
do know that their contents, made the French explorers thoroughly
dissatisfied with their position in the Hudson's Bay Company. Bayly
accused the two Frenchmen of being in collusion with the Company's
rivals. A quarrel followed and at this juncture Captain Gill