(Courtesy of C. C. Chipman, Commissioner H. B.
Company.)]
For five years the English kept faith with Radisson, and he made annual
voyages to the bay; but war broke out with France. New France entered
on a brilliant campaign against the English of Hudson Bay. The
company's profits fell. Radisson, the Frenchman, was distrusted.
France had set a price on his head, and one Martiniere went to Port
Nelson to seize him, but was unable to cope with the English. At no
time did Radisson's salary with the company exceed 100 pounds; and now,
when war stopped dividends on the small amount of stock which had been
given to him, he fell into poverty and debt. In 1692 Sir William Young
petitioned the company in his favor; but a man with a price on his head
for treason could plainly not return to France.[8] The French were in
possession of the bay. Radisson could do no harm to the English.
Therefore the company ignored him till he sued them and received
payment in full for arrears of salary and dividends on stock which he
was not permitted to sell; but 50 pounds a year would not support a man
who paid half that amount for rent, and had a wife, four children, and
servants to support. In 1700 Radisson applied for the position of
warehouse keeper for the company at London. Even this was denied.
The dauntless pathfinder was growing old; and the old cannot fight and
lose and begin again as Radisson had done all his life. State Papers
of Paris contain records of a Radisson with Tonty at Detroit![9] Was
this his nephew, Francois Radisson's son, who took the name of the
explorer, or Radisson's own son, or the game old warrior himself, come
out to die on the frontier as he had lived?
History is silent.
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