When statesmen played him a double game, he paid them
back in their own coin with compound interest. Perhaps that is why
they hated him so heartily and blackened his memory. But amid all the
mad license of savage life, Radisson remained untainted. Other
explorers and statesmen, too, have left a trail of blood to perpetuate
their memory; Radisson never once spilled human blood needlessly, and
was beloved by the savages.
Memorial tablets commemorate other discoverers. Radisson needs none.
The Great Northwest is his monument for all time.
[1] Radisson's petition to the Hudson's Bay Company gives these amounts.
[2] See State Papers quoted in Chapter VI. I need scarcely add that
Radisson did not steal a march on his patrons by secretly shipping furs
to Europe. This is only another of the innumerable slanders against
Radisson which State Papers disprove.
[3] It seems impossible that historians with the slightest regard for
truth should have branded this part of _Radisson's Relation_ as a
fabrication, too. Yet such is the case, and of writers whose books are
supposed to be reputable. Since parts of Radisson's life appeared in
the magazines, among many letters I received one from a well-known
historian which to put it mildly was furious at the acceptance of
_Radisson's Journal_ as authentic. In reply, I asked that historian
how many documents contemporaneous with Radisson's life he had
consulted before he branded so great an explorer as Radisson as a liar.
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