he withering fire from the musketoon, so they
constructed a movable palisade of trees, behind which marched the
entire band of warriors. In vain Dollard's marksmen aimed their
bullets at the front carriers. Where one fell another stepped in his
place. Desperate, Dollard resolved on a last expedient. Some accounts
say he took a barrel of powder; others, that he wrapped powder in a
huge bole of birch bark. Putting a light to this, he threw it with all
his might; but his strength had failed; the dangerous projectile fell
back inside the barricade, exploding; marksmen were driven from their
places. A moment later the Iroquois were inside the barricade
screeching like demons. They found only three Frenchmen alive; and so
great was the Mohawk rage to be foiled of victims that they fell on the
Huron renegades in their own ranks and put them to death on the spot.

Such was the Battle of the Long Sault of which Radisson saw the scars
on his way down the Ottawa. It saved New France. If seventeen boys
could fight in this fashion, how--the Iroquois asked--would a fort full
of men fight? A few days later Radisson was conducted in triumph
through the streets of Quebec and personally welcomed by the new
governor, d'Argenson.

It can well be imagined that Radisson's account of the vast new lands
discovered by him aroused enthusiasm at Quebec. Among the Crees,
Radisson and Groseillers had heard of that Sea of the North--Hudson
Bay--to which Champlain had {111} tried to go by way of the Ottawa.
The Indians had promised to conduct the two Frenchmen overland to the
North Sea; but Radisson deemed it wise not to reveal this fact lest
other voyageurs should forestall them. Somehow the secret leaked out.
Either Groseillers told it or his wife dropped some hint of it to her
father confessor; but the two explorers were amazed to receive official
orders to conduct the Jesuits to the North Sea by way of the Saguenay.
They refused point-blank to go as subordinates on any expedition. The
fur trade was at this time regulated by license. Any one who proceeded
to the woods without license was liable to imprisonment, the galleys
for life, death if the offense were repeated. Radisson and Groseillers
asked for a license to go north in 1661. D'Avaugour, a bluff soldier
who had become governor, would grant it only on condition of receiving
half the profits. Groseillers and Radisson set off by night without a
license.

[Illustration: TITL