At the end of seven days not a white man
had come from the fort. At first the Mohawks had thought the "black
robes" were at prayers; but now suspicions of trickery flashed on the
Iroquois. Warriors climbed the palisades and found the fort empty.
Two hundred Mohawks set out in pursuit; but the bad weather held them
back. And that was the way Radisson saved Onondaga.[9]
[1] The uncle, Pierre Esprit Radisson, is the one with whom careless
writers have confused the young hero, owing to identity of name.
Madeline Henault has been described as the explorer's first wife,
notwithstanding genealogical impossibilities which make the explorer's
daughter thirty-six years old before he was seventeen. Even the
infallible Tanguay trips on Radisson's genealogy. I have before me the
complete record of the family taken from the parish registers of Three
Rivers and Quebec, by the indefatigable Mr. Sulte, whose explanation of
the case is this: that Radisson's mother, Madeline Henault, first
married Sebastien Hayet, of St. Malo, to whom was born Marguerite about
1630; that her second husband was Pierre Esprit Radisson of Paris, to
whom were born our hero and the sisters Francoise and Elizabeth.
[2] I have throughout referred to Medard Chouart, Sieur des
Groseillers, as simply "Groseillers," because that is the name
referring to him most commonly used in the _State Papers_ and old
histories. He was from Charly-Saint-Cyr, near Meaux, and is supposed
to have been born about 1621.
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