But now let me cry “peccavi!” on my own account. Iberville was not with Bienville at the Bay de Verde burning, although I put him there. I have purposely ignored the fact that Serigny was blown into the Danish river on his way to Nelson; and I have no authority for bringing poor Moon there--though where he did go I have been unable to discover, as he dropped from sight between the straits and Nelson. By introducing the _Albemarle_ as Deakin’s ship, I have tried to resolve what was to me a sore problem--perhaps for lack of any authoritative English account of the bay action. After the capture of Nelson our friend Aide-major Charles Claude le Roy--otherwise Sieur de Bacqueville de la Potherie--loaded the looted furs and the prisoners aboard a ship of this name and promptly lost her on the shallows of the river-mouth. I find no other mention of such a ship; no _Albemarle_ formed a part of either Fletcher’s or Iberville’s squadron. Since all the furs and prisoners were put aboard her, she must have been a vessel of goodly size and not a mere sloop belonging to the forts. Despite the dictum of learned persons that the term “Canadian” is not found prior to the end of the eighteenth century, I have used it advisedly. In De Beaudoncourt’s “History of Canada,” based on French and American documents, occurs this note: “Ce mot de _Canada_ ou _Canata_ veut dire, en langue du pais, royaume des cabanes. Il a survécu à tous les autres, il est avec celui de Montréal le seul datant de l’époque de Jacques Cartier.” The term Canadian is constantly used by Bacqueville and by Baudouin; a statement by the latter infers that it was likewise employed by the English to differentiate the born Canadians from the French proper. The entire history of North America at this period is largely written in names of Canadian families; as though the terrific struggle of the French pioneers against man and nature had aroused in the ensuing generation all the dormant blood of knightly and heroic ancestry, so that the same names etched in the icy annals of Hudson Bay are to be found burned into the cypress of Louisiana. H. BEDFORD-JONES CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v BOOK I--THE STAR OF DREAMS CHAPTER I THE MAN AND THE STAR 3 II HE WHO ACCEPTS AN OMEN, ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY 22 III THE IMPORTANCE OF FORGOTTEN THINGS 42 IV ONE GAINS GOLD, ANOTHER A FRIEND 66 BOOK II--THE FUR PIRATE I EVEN IN A WILDERNESS, ONE CANNOT ESCAPE THE DEVIL 85 II WHEN FOG LIFTS, THE ROAD CLEARS 109 III CONFIRMING A BELIEF IN MIRACLES 129