The life of the
coureur des bois was one of adventure, danger and travel. Radisson, one of the most daring, envisioned transporting furs in large sailing ships from the shores of the Hudson Bay to Quebec or France, rather than carrying them in small canoes down rough rivers through hostile territories.
He twice escaped from the Iroquois, established fur posts for the French and English, translated for the Dutch and served as a winter partner for the Hudson’s Bay Company.
In 1661, with his brother-in-law Des Groseilliers,
Radisson discovered “the bay to the North.”
Though he suffered reverses and often switched allegiances, he persuaded Charles II to grant
a charter to “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson Bay,” and changed the course of history of the Northwest.
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Heroes of Lore and Yore
