The French King had said, “You may rely on me getting out of this affair,” and the bill of damages, however absurdly exaggerated, was never paid. The French raiders proved an expensive experiment. * * * * * Radisson’s other affidavit was made to prove that the French had quitted all pretensions to the bay when he was ordered back to Nelson. The French responded by denying that he had ever been ordered back to Nelson and by calling him “a liar,” “a renegade,” “a turn coat.” To this, the English answered in formal memorial: “The Mr. Radisson mentioned in this paper doth not deserve the ill names heaped upon him,” following up with the proof that the French had sent him back to England. * * * * * The real reason that the Company were so remiss to Radisson in his latter days was their own desperate straits. Besides, the old shareholders of the Stuart days had scattered like the wind. Radisson was unknown to the new men, so completely unknown that in one committee order his wife is spoken of as Madam Gwodet (Godey) instead of Mary Kirke. Now Madam Godey was the damsel whom Lord Preston offered to Radisson in marriage (with a dowry) despite the fact that he already had a wife—if he would go back from Paris to London. De la Potherie tells the story and adds that Radisson married her—another of the numerous fictions about the explorer. This mass of notes may give the impression that I am a protagonist of Radisson. My answer is that he badly needs one, when such staunch modern defenders of his as Drs. Bryce, and Dionne, and Judge Prudhomme refuse to excuse him for his last desertion of the French flag. In that case, Radisson was as much a victim of official red tape as Dreyfus in modern days. PART III 1700-1820 The Search for the North-West Passage, the Fall of France, the Inlanders, the Coming of the Colonists and the Great Struggle with the North-West Company of Montreal. CHAPTER XV 1699-1720 THE FIRST ATTEMPT OF THE ADVENTURERS TO EXPLORE—HENRY KELSEY PENETRATES AS FAR AS THE VALLEY OF THE SASKATCHEWAN—SANFORD AND ARRINGTON, KNOWN AS “RED CAP,” FOUND HENLEY HOUSE INLAND FROM ALBANY—BESET FROM WITHOUT, THE COMPANY IS ALSO BESET FROM WITHIN—PETITIONS AGAINST THE CHARTER—INCREASE OF CAPITAL—RESTORATION OF THE BAY FROM FRANCE The Peace of Ryswick in 1697, which decreed that war should cease on Hudson Bay, and that France and England should each retain what they chanced to possess at the time of the treaty—left the Adventurers of England with only one fort, Albany, under doughty old Governor Knight, and one outpost, New Severn, which refugees driven to the woods had built out of necessity.