A Monarch of the Plains Fur Traders towed down the Saskatchewan in the Summer of 1900 Tepees dotted the Valley An Eskimo Belle Samuel Hearne Eskimo using Double-bladed Paddle Eskimo Family, taken by Light of Midnight Sun Fort Garry, Winnipeg, a Century Ago Plan of Fort Prince of Wales, from Robson's drawing, 1733-1747 Fort Prince of Wales Beaver Coin of the Hudson's Bay Company Alexander Mackenzie Eskimo trading his Pipe, carved from Walrus Tusk, for the Value of Three Beaver Skins Quill and Beadwork on Buckskin Fort William, Headquarters Northwest Company, Lake Superior Running a Rapid on Mackenzie River Slave Lake Indians Good Hope, Mackenzie River, Hudson's Bay Company Fort The Mouth of the Mackenzie by the Light of the Midnight Sun Captain Meriwether Lewis Captain William Clark Tracking up Stream Typical Mountain Trapper The Discovery of the Great Falls Fighting a Grizzly Packer carrying Goods across Portage Spying on Enemy's Fort Indian Camp at Foothills of Rockies On Guard Indians of the Up-country or Pays d'en Haut PART I PIERRE ESPRIT RADISSON ADVENTURES OF THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO EXPLORE THE WEST, THE NORTHWEST, AND THE NORTH [Illustration: Map of the Great Fur Company.] Pathfinders of the West CHAPTER I 1651-1653 RADISSON'S FIRST VOYAGE The Boy Radisson is captured by the Iroquois and carried to the Mohawk Valley--In League with Another Captive, he slays their Guards and escapes--He is overtaken in Sight of Home--Tortured and adopted in the Tribe, he visits Orange, where the Dutch offer to ransom him--His Escape Early one morning in the spring of 1652 three young men left the little stockaded fort of Three Rivers, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, for a day's hunting in the marshes of Lake St. Peter. On one side were the forested hills, purple with the mists of rising vapor and still streaked with white patches of snow where the dense woods shut out the sunlight. On the other lay the silver expanse of the St. Lawrence, more like a lake than a river, with mile on mile southwestward of rush-grown marshes, where plover and curlew and duck and wild geese flocked to their favorite feeding-grounds three hundred years ago just as they do to-day. Northeastward, the three mouths of the St. Maurice poured their spring flood into the St. Lawrence.