s dead.

But, though Ben Gillam secured his release from the governor of New
France, he did not escape the long hand of the Hudson's Bay Company, who
had written from London to Mr Randolph of the American Plantations to
effect the arrest of Ben Gillam at any cost. At the same time they sent
Randolph a L10 present of silver plate. On reaching Boston, Ben Gillam
was duly arrested. He afterwards became a pirate, and his ultimate fate
was involved with that of the famous Captain Kidd. Both were sent to
England to be tried for crimes on the high seas; and it is supposed
that, like Kidd, Ben suffered execution. Bridgar, suddenly freed from
all danger, as suddenly regained a sense of his own importance. He made
drafts on the Company and set out from Quebec in such state as befitted
his dignity, with secretary and interpreter and valet. He rode hurriedly
along the old post-road between Boston and New York, filling the
countryside with the story of his adventures. Then he took ship to
England; but there his valour suffered a sudden chill. The Company had
refused to honour his bills. They repudiated his drafts, reprimanded him
severely, and suspended him from service for several years. Mike
Grimmington and Outlaw and the others, who had been shipped down from
Nelson to Moose and Rupert, promptly took passage home to England on the
Company's yearly ship. By the time Radisson and Groseilliers reached
Paris, Europe was ringing with the outrage involved in their exploits.

Radisson found small comfort in Paris. Possibly Colbert's death had
deprived him of a sympathetic protector, and the French court was as
reluctant now to interfere with the actions of the colonial authorities
at Quebec as it had been twenty years before. After petitioning vainly
for consideration, Groseilliers seems to have given up the contest and
retired for the remainder of his life to a small patrimony near Three
Rivers. Not so Radisson! He was bound to the Old World by marriage; and
now international complications came to bind him yet more completely.
'It is impossible,' wrote Louis XIV to Governor La Barre, 'to imagine
what you mean by releasing Gillam's boat and relinquishing claim to the
North Sea,' At the same time Louis was in a quandary. He would not
relinquish the French claim to the North Sea; but he dared not risk a
rupture of his secret treaty with England by openly countenancing
Radisson's exploit on the Nelson river. Radisson was secretly ordered t