Tonty, the faithful friend and companion of La Salle, stayed for some years in the country of the Illinois, joined Iberville in Louisiana in 1702, and died near where Mobile now stands about 1704. Faithful, not only to the erratic La Salle, but also to the Home Government, he received no recompense in any form, but has left for us an undying picture of how true and faithful a friend can be, and under the most trying circumstances. CHAPTER V. RADISSON AND THE GREAT NORTH WEST. “If he had not had his faults, if he had not been as impulsive, as daring, as reckless, as inconstant, as improvident of the morrow as a savage or a child, he would not have accomplished the exploration of half a continent. Men who weigh consequences are not of the stuff to win empires. He went ahead and when the way did not open he went around, or crawled over, or carved his way through. “Memorial tablets commemorate other discoverers. Radisson needs none. The Great Northwest is his monument for all time.” —AGNES C. LAUT. RADISSON AND THE GREAT NORTH WEST Before Joliet, Marquette, or La Salle had made their memorable expeditions in search of the Western Sea, a man unattached to any religious order, and under the protection of no government, had traversed these unknown wilds for the sheer joy of exploration and excitement. The hair-breadth escapes of the hero of modern fiction cannot compare in thrills to the marvellous adventures of this man to whom the country from Quebec to the prairies of the great North West were alike his hunting and his playground. This was Pierre Radisson, who left his native St. Malo about a century after the great Cartier, and settled at Three Rivers, which then was a comparatively large place, having a population of about 200 souls. With the enthusiasm and recklessness of youth he disregarded the warnings of his friends and went duck shooting with a couple of equally reckless and youthful companions. They were but boys and were at the age when Indians had no terrors for them. Separated in the chase, Radisson had splendid luck, and returning to where they had agreed to meet, he found his two companions dead among the rushes. When he looked about, the heads of Indians appeared everywhere. They set upon him, and after a game struggle he was disarmed, stripped, tied around the waist with a rope and brought to the camp fire. The very recklessness of the youth compelled the admiration of the Indians, who spared his life, gave him his clothes, dressed his hair and daubed his face as of an Indian brave. Though but a boy he showed the coolness in the face of danger which was to characterize him throughout his adventurous life. We are told that he slept that night between two warriors under a common blanket and so soundly that he was with difficulty awakened at the break of day.