Economic Beginnings of the Far West: How We Won the Land beyond the Mississippi - Vol. 1

THE fur traders of Montreal were no less zealous than the Jesuit missionaries for the exploration of the region drained by the St. Lawrence and the conciliation of the aborigines. While the Jesuits were establishing mission stations at Sault Ste. Marie, Michillimackinac and St. Xaviers, the traders were driving a brisk traffic with the friendly Hurons and Algonquins who brought canoes full of furs down the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence every spring. But they were not long satisfied merely to purchase the peltry brought to Montreal. It was evident that there were more numerous tribes and richer beaver grounds in the unknown regions beyond the Great Lakes, whence the trading Indians got their furs. Indeed, the Algonquins had learned from the Sioux of a "forked river" to the west, in a country barren of trees, which led the way to limitless hunting grounds, and their tales of this remoter source of wealth lured to new adventure. Two young men of Three Rivers, Pierre Radisson and Jean Groseiller, determined ( 1659) to return with the Algonquins to their winter quarters and learn for them

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