[11] Young Jean Groseillers was left, with seven men,
to hold the French post till boats came in the following year. On the
27th of July the ships weighed anchor for the homeward voyage. Young
Gillam was given a free passage by way of Quebec. Bridgar was to have
gone with his men to the Hudson's Bay Company forts at the south of the
bay, but at the last moment a friendly Englishman warned Radisson that
the governor's design was to wait till the large ship had left, head
the bark back for Hayes River, capture the fort, and put the Frenchmen
to the sword. To prevent this Bridgar, too, was carried to Quebec.
Twenty miles out the ship was caught in ice-floes that held her for a
month, and Bridgar again conspired to cut the throats of the Frenchmen.
Henceforth young Gillam and Bridgar were out on parole during the day
and kept under lock at night.
The same jealousy as of old awaited Radisson at Quebec. The Company of
the North was furious that La Chesnaye had sent ships to Hudson Bay,
which the shareholders considered to be their territory by license.[12]
Farmers of the Revenue beset the ship to seize the cargo, because the
explorers had gone North without a permit. La Chesnaye saved some of
the furs by transshipping them for France before the vessel reached
Quebec. Then followed an interminable lawsuit, that exhausted the
profits of the voyage. La Barre had succeeded Frontenac as governor.
The best friends of La Barre would scarcely deny that his sole ambition
as governor was to amass a fortune from the fur trade of Canada.
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