Pierre-Esprit Radisson

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Pierre-Esprit Radisson

Pierre-Esprit Radisson (* around 1636, according to other sources probably 1640 in Avignon , France , † between June 17 and July 2, 1710 in England) was a French explorer , ranger and fur trader .

Life

youth

In 1645, Pierre-Esprit Radisson's parents from Saint-Malo emigrated with their children to New France . They acquired a small "seigneurie", a farm near Trois-Rivières run by tenants . After just a few years, the parents fell victim to an epidemic. Pierre Radisson's half-sister Marguerite Hayet, who was nine years his senior and married in Trois-Rivières, and her family took him in.

At the age of 15, Pierre Radisson was ambushed and captured by Mohawks on a hunting trip . A Mohawk family adopted him and gave him the name "Orimha" ("stone"). From them he learned their language and became familiar with their way of life. After a two-year stay with the Iroquois , he fled to Nieuw Nederland , to the Dutch colony of Fort Orange in the upper Hudson Valley . He returned to New France via Nieuw Amsterdam (today: New York City), Amsterdam and Saint-Malo.

Trade and discovery trips to the west and Hudson Bay

In 1657 Radisson accompanied a missionary trip of the French Jesuit and missionary Paul Ragueneau to Sainte-Marie-de-Gannentaa (= Onondaga ) not far from today's Syracuse (in the US state of New York ), where European settlers lived in the Iroquois region after a peace agreement. When they wanted to get rid of the intruders and the Europeans feared they would be attacked while they were fleeing, Radisson, who was familiar with the way of thinking of the Iroquois, resorted to a ruse: On the basis of an alleged dream, the Europeans invited their Iroquois neighbors to an extensive feast, where the hosts presumably stunned their guests and could escape unnoticed while they were sleeping.

Together with his brother-in-law Médard Chouart Sieur des Groseilliers , Radisson later traveled to the fur - trading regions on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior in order to find a navigable connection between the North American Great Lakes and Hudson Bay . Before they left, the governor had insisted that one of his men accompany them, but the two managed to leave Trois-Rivières unnoticed. You spent a severe winter with heavy snowfall with Huron and Ottawa refugees and were probably the first whites to come into contact with Sioux Indians. In 1659/1660 they took part in the great death festival together with 18 indigenous nations, about which Radisson later submitted an impressive report in which it reproduced the customs and traditions. The two French are likely to have learned about the beaver area on Hudson Bay for the first time . On their return, they discovered the bodies of Adam Dollard's group, who were believed to have been murdered by the Iroquois. However, since Radisson and des Groseilliers did not have a license to trade in fur and all western expeditions required the governor's approval, Governor Pierre Voyer d'Argenson confiscated their skins when they returned to New France in 1660 and fined them heavily.

However, this trip enabled Radisson and des Groseilliers to discover the "salt lake" (Hudson Bay) that the locals spoke of. They tried in vain to set up a trading company, but received no support in New France. So they traveled to Boston via Nieuw Amsterdam to interest the New England authorities in their project. For two years they tried in vain to get a boat trip to Hudson Bay. Finally, in 1664 they met George Cartwright, an English officer who represented the British Crown in Boston as a "Commissioner". This convinced the two of the plans of how the Hudson Bay area could be opened up for the fur trade. He took them to England to introduce them to the court of King Charles II . The two French got involved in the Second Anglo-Dutch War . Her ship was looted and her records were lost. The Dutch took the passengers and crew to Spain to be sold into slavery. The British envoy in Madrid obtained the release of Radisson and des Groseilliers with a ransom. They arrived in London in May 1666 and witnessed the Great Plague of London and the devastating Great Fire of London .

Serving the Hudson's Bay Company

Radisson and des Groseilliers found an influential and energetic sponsor of their plans in Prince Ruprecht of the Palatinate, Duke of Cumberland . He chartered the two merchant ships Eaglet and Nonsuch in June 1668 and commissioned Radisson and des Groseilliers to use them to explore Hudson Bay from the north. This new, shorter route bypassed the French-controlled passage of the Saint Lawrence River , which - albeit later in the year - was as icy as Hudson Bay. Only the Nonsuch with des Groseilliers on board made it into the bay, while the Eaglet , which had been damaged by a storm, returned to England with Radisson. At the mouth of the Rupert River was Fort Rupert founded. Ultimately, the mission was overall successful and you returned with numerous beaver and other pelts. On May 2, 1670, the English King Charles II granted his cousin Prince Rupert, together with 17 investors, the privilege of founding the Honorable Company of Adventurers of England Trading in Hudson's Bay , better known as the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). The HBC actually only had the privilege to trade fur in all waters that flow into Hudson Bay and adjacent territories. This huge North American territory, called Rupert's Land , was soon systematically administered by the HBC as if by a government: The HBC controlled whoever came to the region as a trapper for them , provided it with inexpensive equipment, clothing, horses and weapons the exclusive sale of furs to the English HBC, effectively prevented settlement in their area of ​​influence and - unlike the Spanish and French colonization - showed no interest in proselytizing the indigenous population.

In the following years, Radisson and des Groseilliers alternated between Canada and England, with one of the two always staying in Canada. The trips are described as productive. The British activities in central North America, which were largely initiated by the two French, had not remained hidden from the French colonial administration. It had previously largely controlled the fur trade from Montreal , but was now exposed to growing British competition. Expeditions under the direction of Robert Cavelier de La Salle and Daumont de Saint-Lusson , later under the direction of Paul Denys de Saint-Simon and the Jesuit Charles Albanel , were sent to the vast territory claimed by the HBC. On the occasion of a trip to London in 1675, Radisson and des Groseilliers, who were dissatisfied with their treatment by the new trading company, were convinced by the French Jesuit Albanel, who had meanwhile been imprisoned in England, to return to France.

Travel in French and British services

Radisson returned to France shortly thereafter, but was sent by Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Canada for consultations with the French governor. Governor Louis de Buade was suspicious of Radisson and des Groseilliers, wanting to leave all options open to his own protégé de La Salle. He received the two icily and released des Groseilliers to his family in Trois-Rivières, while Radisson joined the French Navy . He arrived in France at a time of great unemployment and found the support of Abbé Claude Bernou , de La Salles' lawyer. His first sea voyage in 1677/1678 as a French midshipman led him under the command of Vice Admiral Jean II. D'Estrées to the Dutch colonies in Africa and the Caribbean , which, after initial successes, ended disastrously on hidden reefs in the Caribbean. Only Radisson was able to save his life and returned penniless to France, where he received compensation but not the position in the navy that had been promised to him. Colbert justified this with the fact that Radisson did not bring his wife to France.

Radisson married the daughter of Sir John Kirke from HBC, who lived in England, sometime between 1665 and 1675 , her first name is still unknown. To convince her to move to France, Radisson went to England, but her father was strictly against the move. Radisson made disheartening inquiries about the conditions under which his return to HBC would be accepted.

When in 1681 the trip of the French fur trader Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye apparently opened up a new opportunity, he seized this opportunity. La Chesnaye was to procure furs for the Compagnie du Nord with Colbert's approval in the disputed region. Because of the temporarily - officially - friendly relations between the French and British crowns, Colbert was not allowed to make his support public. However, when they arrived in New France, Governor Louis de Buade refused the two of them their license. A race for competing claims to trading forts on the Nelson River eventually led Radisson and des Groseilliers to found Fort Bourbon on the Hayes River for the Compagnie du Nord. In 1682 Radisson took part in the battle that was to conquer the Hudson Bay for France.

Repeatedly frustrated by his compatriots, who returned the ship Bachelors Delight , which he had captured, to the British without paying him the promised prize money , he returned to the service of HBC in 1684 and led expeditions against the French in the Bay. In particular, he forced his nephew, Jean-Baptiste des Groseilliers, to return Fort Bourbon to the HBC. From 1685 to 1687 he directed trading at Fort Nelson on the Nelson River.

The last few decades

Named after Radisson CCGS Pierre Radisson the Canadian Coast Guard

On March 3, 1685, Radisson married a second time, presumably because his first wife had died in the meantime. His second wife was Margaret Charlotte Godet, the daughter of the French Protestant Gédéon Godet . Godet was a lawyer at the Parlement of Paris, then an employee of the English special envoy Lord Preston, who resided at the court of Louis XIV . As a result of the Edict of Fontainebleau , Godet was forced to flee across the English Channel . His son-in-law Radisson accompanied Godet.

In 1687 Radisson acquired English citizenship and settled in England to write reports on his travels. Because HBC initially wanted to deprive him of the agreed pension of £ 100 a year, he had to bring about years of legal battle, over which his second wife died, leaving him with four children. Radisson married a third time. His wife Elizabeth bore him three daughters. He retired in exchange for a small pension and dividend from the HBC and almost died in poverty in 1710. The exact date and place of his death are unknown, but it must be between June 17 and July 2, 1710. His third wife died in extreme poverty on January 2, 1732.

reception

In addition to the Pierre Radisson class in shipbuilding, Pierre Radisson is the namesake of the cities of Radisson in Québec and Radisson in Wisconsin . The later Scandinavian hotel group Radisson SAS , founded in Minneapolis in 1909 , was named after him (now Radisson Blu of the Carlson Group ).

In 1966, Hans-Otto Meissner described the first part of his life story (up to the beginning of his work for the Hudson's Bay Company), in particular his voyages of discovery, based on the traditional travel reports of Radissons. The Austrian writer Franz Xaver Weiser told the life of Radissons in three youth novels, Orimha, the Iroquois (1969), Orimha, the Ranger (1970) and Orimha with the Sioux (1973).

Writings (travel reports) and their editions

  • Relation du voyage fait par le Sieur Pierre Esprit Radisson au nort de Canada pour la Compagnie Royalle de la Baye de Hudson en l'année 1684 . Manuscript in the British Library , MSS Sloane 3527.
  • Voyages of Peter Esprit Radisson, being an account of his travels and experiences among the North American Indians, from 1652 to 1684. Transcribed from original manuscripts in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum , edited by Gideon Delaplaine Scull (= The publications of the Prince Society, Volume 16 ). Prince Society, Boston 1885.
  • Radisson's account of his third journey, 1658-1660 (1654-1656?). In: Louise Phelps Kellogg (ed.): Early narratives of the Northwest, 1634–1699 . C. Scribner's, New York 1917.
  • The Explorations of Pierre Esprit Radisson. From the original manuscript in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum , edited by Arthur T. Adams. Ross & Haines, Minneapolis 1961.
  • Pierre Radisson's personal account of his voyages to North America in 1682-3 and 1684 , ed. William James Noxon. Canadiana House, Toronto 1974.
  • Journal, 1682-1683. Les débuts de la Nouvelle France . Preface by Hector Grenon. Stanké, Montréal 1979, ISBN 2-7604-0032-8 .
  • Voyage chez les Onnontagués , edited by Aurélien Boisvert. Éditions 101, Montréal 1998, ISBN 2-9802726-5-5 .
  • Les aventures extraordinaires d'un coureur des bois. Récits de voyages au pays des Indiens d'Amérique , Ed. Berthe Fouchier-Axelsen. Éditions Nota bene, Québec 1999, ISBN 2-89518-029-6 .
  • The collected writings . Ed. Germaine Warkentin (= The publications of the Champlain Society , 73 and 75). McGill-Queen's University Press, Montréal
  1. The voyages . 2012, ISBN 978-0-7735-4082-8 .
  2. The Port Nelson relations, miscellaneous writings, and related documents . 2014, ISBN 978-0-7735-4438-3 .

literature

  • Barbara Buchenau: The Goods of Bad Mobility: Pierre-Esprit Radisson's "Relation of my Voyage, being in Bondage in the Lands of the Irokoits", 1669/1885. In: Swiss papers in English language and literature. (SPELL), ISSN  0940-0478 , Volume 2012, No. 27, pp. 53-68 ( online ).
  • Martin Fournier: Pierre-Esprit Radisson: coureur de bois et homme du monde (1652–1685) . Nuit Blanche Éditions, Montréal 1996, ISBN 2-921053-51-9 .
  • Hans-Otto Meissner : Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966; New edition: Klett, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-12-920022-3 .
  • Warren Upham: Grosseilliers and Radisson, the First White Men in Minnesota, 1655-56, and 1659-60, and their Discovery of the Upper Mississippi River. In: Minnesota Historical Society (Ed.): Collections. Volume 10, Part 2. Saint Paul 1905.
  • Stanley Vestal: King of the fur traders. The deeds and deviltry of Pierre Esprit Radisson . Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1940.

Biographical novels

  • Franz Weiser : Orimha, the Iroquois . Kreymayr and Scheriau, Vienna 1969.
  • Franz Weiser: Orimha, the ranger . Kreymayr and Scheriau, Vienna 1970.
  • Franz Weiser: Orimha with the Sioux . Kreymayr and Scheriau, Vienna 1973.

Web links

Commons : Pierre-Esprit Radisson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 10.
  2. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 11.
  3. ↑ a b c Pleticha, Heinrich; Schreiber, Hermann: The discovery of the world, Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna, 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3490-5 , p. 336.
  4. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 27.
  5. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 41.
  6. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 76.
  7. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 82.
  8. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 90.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Grace Lee Nute: Radisson, Pierre-Esprit. In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000, accessed November 19, 2006 .
  10. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 136.
  11. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 153.
  12. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 198-199.
  13. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 213.
  14. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 204.
  15. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 222.
  16. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 223.
  17. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 228.
  18. ↑ Hans-Otto Meissner: Single-handedly to the Mississippi . Cotta, Stuttgart 1966, p. 234.
  19. ↑ Review , by Kristine Smitke, Stéphanie Bernier, in "Cahiers de la Société bibliographique du Canada - Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada", Volume 53, 2, 2016, pp. 303-305.
personal data
SURNAME Radisson, Pierre-Esprit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French explorer, ranger and fur trader
DATE OF BIRTH around 1640
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Avignon
DATE OF DEATH between June 17, 1710 and July 2, 1710
Place of death England