Two centuries before Confederation a pair of adventurous young men from France named Pierre Esprit Radisson, (born 1636) and his brother-in-law Médard Chouart des Groseilliers, (born 1618) came separately to New France. The three main settlements in Canada at the time, Québec, (today Québec City) Montreal, and Trois Rivière were sparsely populated and surrounded by forested wilderness. One day, on a short excursion into the forest Radisson was captured by Iroquois. He was adopted by a family and learned the ways of the tribe. He escaped, was captured and escaped again. A few years later, in the 1650’s he joined Groseilliers, and both having experience in wilderness survival, set out in memorable voyages. They found a wealth of furs —especially beaver in the interior of the continent — north and west of the Great Lakes — accessible via the great inland sea that is Hudson Bay.
The Governor stationed at the Québec settlement had asked them to try to reach Sault Ste. Marie and Lake Michigan. They were not heard of for 2 years until one day the people of the Québec settlement saw a fleet of 50 canoes on the St. Lawrence River, manned by voyageurs Radisson and Groseilliers, and men of different tribes, bearing a huge cargo of furs worth 130,000 crowns (worth approximately $50,000 today, and worth an impressive amount in the mid 1600s.) What a special sight this must have been! The guns of Fort St. Louis (Upper Québec City today) roared a thunderous salute! The fur trade had just experienced a sensational boom. Â
There will be a few more History Corners about these two adventurers whose extraordinary business savvy went unrecognized by leaders of the colony of Canada.
However, when England’s King and friends heard the story from the adventurers themselves, they saw potential and they founded a company — the Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay, commonly referred to as the Hudson’s Bay Company.
 Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
[email protected]
