In defiance of the rival companies and independent of those with which
he was connected, he offered to furnish ships and share profits with
Radisson and Groseillers for a voyage to Hudson Bay.
M. Colbert did not give his patronage to the scheme; but he wished
Radisson a God-speed. The Jesuits advanced Radisson money to pay his
passage; and in the fall of 1681, he arrived in Quebec. La Chesnaye
met him, and Groseillers was summoned. The three then went to the
Chateau Saint-Louis to lay their plans before the governor. Though the
privileges of the West Indies Company had been curtailed, the fur trade
was again regulated by license.[1] Frontenac had granted a license to
the Company of the North for the fur trade of Hudson Bay. He could not
openly favor Radisson; but he winked at the expedition by granting
passports to the explorers, and the three men who were to accompany
him, Jean Baptiste, son of Groseillers, Pierre Allemand, the pilot who
was afterward given a commission to explore the Eskimo country, and
Jean Godefroy, an interpreter.[2] Jean Baptiste, Radisson's nephew,
invested 500 pounds in goods for barter. Others of Three Rivers and
Quebec advanced money, to provision the ship.[3] Ten days after
Radisson's arrival in Quebec, the explorers had left the high fortress
of the St. Lawrence to winter in Acadia. When spring came, they went
with the fishing fleets to Isle Percee, where La Chesnaye was to send
the ships.
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