The masts were torn from
the English vessel. She was boarded and stripped, and the Frenchmen
were thoroughly questioned. Then the captives were all landed in
Spain. Accompanied by the two Frenchmen, Sir George Cartwright
hastened to England early in 1666. The plague had driven the court
from London to Oxford. Cartwright laid the plans of the explorers
before Charles II. The king ordered 40s. a week paid to Radisson and
Groseillers for the winter. They took chambers in London. Later they
followed the court to Windsor, where they were received by King Charles.
The English court favored the project of trade in Hudson Bay, but
during the Dutch war nothing could be done. The captain of the Dutch
ship _Caper_ had sent word of the French explorers to De Witt, the
great statesman. De Witt despatched a spy from Picardy, France, one
Eli Godefroy Touret, who chanced to know Groseillers, to meet the
explorers in London. Masking as Groseillers' nephew, Touret tried to
bribe both men to join the Dutch. Failing this, he attempted to
undermine their credit with the English by accusing Radisson and
Groseillers of counterfeiting money; but the English court refused to
be deceived, and Touret was imprisoned. Owing to the plague and the
war, two years passed without the vague promises of the English court
taking shape. Montague, the English ambassador to France, heard of the
explorers' feats, and wrote to Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert was a
soldier of fortune, who could enter into the spirit of the explorers.
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