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CHAPTER III
1658-1660
RADISSON'S THIRD VOYAGE
The Discovery of the Great Northwest--Radisson and his Brother-in-law,
Groseillers, visit what are now Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, and the
Canadian Northwest--Radisson's Prophecy on first beholding the
West--Twelve Years before Marquette and Jolliet, Radisson sees the
Mississippi--The Terrible Remains of Dollard's Fight seen on the Way
down the Ottawa--Why Radisson's Explorations have been ignored
While Radisson was among the Iroquois, the little world of New France
had not been asleep. Before Radisson was born, Jean Nicolet of Three
Rivers had passed westward through the straits of Mackinaw and coasted
down Lake Michigan as far as Green Bay.[1] Some years later the great
Jesuit martyr, Jogues, had preached to the Indians of Sault Ste. Marie;
but beyond the Sault was an unknown world that beckoned the young
adventurers of New France as with the hands of a siren. Of the great
beyond--known to-day as the Great Northwest--nothing had been learned
but this: from it came the priceless stores of beaver pelts yearly
brought down the Ottawa to Three Rivers by the Algonquins, and in it
dwelt strange, wild races whose territory extended northwest and north
to unknown nameless seas.
The Great Beyond held the two things most coveted by ambitious young
men of New France,--quick wealth by means of the fur trade and the
immortal fame of being a first explorer. Nicolet had gone only as far
as Green Bay and Fox River; Jogues not far beyond the Sault.
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