The next day, after two years'
absence, Radisson and Groseillers arrived at Montreal. A brief stop
was made at Three Rivers for rest till twenty citizens had fitted out
two shallops with cannon to escort the discoverers in fitting pomp to
Quebec. As the fleet of canoes glided round Cape Diamond, battery and
bastion thundered a welcome. Welcome they were, and thrice welcome;
for so ceaseless had been the Iroquois wars that the three French ships
lying at anchor would have returned to France without a single beaver
skin if the explorers had not come. Citizens shouted from the terraced
heights of Chateau St. Louis, and bells rang out the joy of all New
France over the discoverers' return. For a week Radisson and
Groseillers were feted. Viscomte d'Argenson, the new governor,
presented them with gifts and sent two brigantines to carry them home
to Three Rivers. There they rested for the remainder of the year,
Groseillers at his seigniory with his wife, Marguerite; Radisson, under
the parental roof.[23]
[1] Mr. Benjamin Sulte establishes this date as 1634.
[2] See _Jesuit Relations_, 1656-57-58. I have purposely refrained
from entering into the heated controversy as to the identity of these
two men. It is apart from the subject, as there is no proof these men
went beyond the Green Bay region.
[3] These routes were; (1) By the Saguenay, (2) by Three Rivers and the
St. Maurice, (3) by Lake Nipissing, (4) by Lake Huron, through the land
of the Sautaux, (5) by Lake Superior overland, (6) by the Ottawa.
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