Bush Runner The Adventures Of Pierre Esprit Radisson – Mark Bourrie (1)

Then the French, who had loaded all their muskets with gunpowder but no bullets, signalled for the Menominee or Odawa men carrying their guns to fire them. In all, a dozen guns went off. Radisson and Groseilliers pulled out their swords and waved them around, then threw a handful of gunpowder into the fire. After this show, the feasters went to work on their food. The women served a meal of wild rice gathered by canoeists from the small lakes of the region.

After this first course, the women filled, lit, and brought the pipes back to the men before the meat courses began. The next day, it was the turn of the Ojibwe, Odawa, Menominee, Huron- Petun refugees, and their French allies to give gifts to the Sioux, both to show their friendship and to acknowledge they were visitors on Sioux land.

Radisson told the Sioux he and his people had come “from the other side of the great salted lake, not to kill them but to make them live.” He said the Sioux were both the “brethren and the children” of the French, a claim that must have left the Sioux somewhat perplexed. This fantastic claim of French dominance and sovereignty was backed up with the mediocre gift of a copper cooking pot.

The second gift symbolized the empty promise of a military alliance in which the French, as “masters in peace and war,” claimed to be able to protect the Sioux. The French, Radisson claimed, had the power to subdue anyone and everyone in the world, including whatever enemies the Sioux might have. The Cree, whom the Sioux were so suspicious of (and whom some warriors among them desperately wanted to fight), were good friends of the French, the traders lied, and Radisson, on behalf of that great power, France, would make sure the peace was maintained.

This worthless promise was sealed with a gift of six hatchets. Radisson and his brother-in-law tried to set themselves up as peacemakers between the Cree and the Sioux. If, they told their hosts, the Sioux should break the peace, the French would become their enemies and “would reduce them to powder with our heavenly fire.”

The same would happen to the Cree if they attacked the Sioux. Instead, everyone should go wage war against the peoples of the west, whom Radisson and Groseilliers didn’t know, and didn’t care who they were or what happened to them. These threats and incitements were backed with the gift of six hatchets. Now came a third present, for the Sioux to lead the dance at the Feast of the Dead, and a fourth, for allowing the French safe passage through this country.

Book One: Life with the Mohawks (1639–1654) Book Two: Back to the Iroquois (1654–1658) Book Three: Pierre and Médard Go West (1658–1660) Book Four: Radisson in London and Moosonee (1660–1675) Book Five: Radisson in the Caribbean (1675–1677) Book Six: True and Absolute Lords and Proprietors (1681–1685) Book Seven: Decayed Gentleman (1688–1710) Epilogue Appendix: Maps Endnotes Select Bibliography Index Copyright 1kitap1.com/en Timeline of Pierre-Esprit Radisson’s Life 1636: Likely year Radisson was born.

1650: The balance of power among First Nations of the Great Lakes region collapses with the conquest of the Huron (Wendat) Confederacy by Five Nations of the Iroquois. Most of what’s now eastern Canada and the US Midwest is now a dangerous place of raids and counter-raids.

At this point, Europeans are not important, direct military actors but are supplying weapons to Indigenous people. 1651: On May 24, Radisson, now an adolescent, arrives in Trois-Rivières, a tiny trading post between Montreal and Quebec City. It is under siege by the Iroquois. Radisson lives with his half-sisters.

1652: Less than a year after coming to Trois-Rivières, Radisson is captured by Mohawk (Iroquois) warriors, taken to their town in what’s now northeastern New York State, and adopted by a wealthy and powerful family. In the fall, he escapes, is recaptured, and barely escapes being killed. 1653: Radisson is a member of a Mohawk party raiding into what’s now Ohio, Indiana, and possibly as far west as Illinois.

After the raid, he returns to the Iroquois country through the Ohio Valley. On October 19, he defects to the Dutch, who have a post at Fort Orange (Albany). Radisson is sent to Manhattan, then crosses the ocean to Holland. 1654: Radisson returns to Trois-Rivières, probably arriving in late spring. His half-sister, Marguérite, widowed in a Mohawk raid, has married Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, a fur trader about to leave on a trading trip to Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.

1654–1657: Radisson assists Jesuits priests with their missionary work in what is now southern Ontario. On one of these trips, he might have reached the northern end of Lake Michigan. Most, however, end badly until the Onondaga, members of the Iroquois Confederacy, allow the construction of a mission in their country (near what’s now Syracuse).

1657: At the height of summer, Radisson travels with an Iroquois canoe flotilla up the St. Lawrence River and along the south shore of Lake Ontario to the Onondaga country. 1658: In early spring, Radisson and the French become anxious about their safety in the Onondaga country and abruptly flee.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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