n a letter. I would
have left this kingdom, but they hold back my pay, and orders have been
given to arrest me if I try to leave. Assure Mr. Duluth of my humble
services. I shall see him as soon as I can. Pray tell my good friend,
Jan Pere.

Pere, it will be remembered, was a bushranger of Duluth's band, who had
been with Jolliet on Lake Superior.

As for Radisson, the English kept faith with him as long as the Stuarts
and his personal friends ruled the English court. He spent the summers
on Hudson Bay as superintendent of trade, the winters in England
supervising cargoes and sales. His home was on Seething Lane near the
great Tower, where one of his friends was commander. Near him dwelt
the merchant princes of London like the Kirkes and the Robinsons and
the Youngs. His next-door neighbor was the man of fashion, {153}
Samuel Pepys, in whose hands Radisson's Journals of his voyages finally
fell. His income at this time was 100 pounds in dividends, 100 pounds
in salary, equal to about five times that amount in modern money.

Then came a change in Radisson's fortunes. The Stuarts were dethroned
and their friends dispersed. The shareholders of the fur company bore
names of men who knew naught of Radisson's services. War destroyed the
fur company's dividends. Radisson's income fell off to 50 pounds a
year. His family had increased; so had his debts; and he had long
since been compelled to move from fashionable quarters. A petition
filed in a lawsuit avers that he was in great mental anxiety lest his
children should come to want; but he won his lawsuits against the
company for arrears of salary. Peace brought about a resumption of
dividends, and the old pathfinder seems to have passed his last years
in comparative comfort. Some time between March and July, 1710,
Radisson set out on the Last Long Voyage of all men, dying near London.
His burial place is unknown. As far as Canada is concerned, Radisson
stands foremost as pathfinder of the Great Northwest.

But to return to "good friend, Jan Pere," whom the Frenchmen, forced
into English service, were to meet somewhere on Hudson Bay. It is like
a story from borderland forays.

Seven large ships set sail from England for Hudson Bay in 1685,
carrying Radisson and young Chouart and the five unwilling Frenchmen.
The company's forts on the bay now numbered four: Nelson, highest up on
the west; Albany, southward on an island at the mouth of Albany River;