Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/72

 42 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY account, largely fictitious, of his adventures, for the purpose of interesting English parties to join in forming what later became the Hudson Bay Company, for the exploitation of America. This manuscript, long forgotten, was rescued in part (some of it hav- ing been sold for wrapping paper) and published by the Prince Society in 1885. In this narrative Radisson claims to have visited nearly every portion of America and to have discovered a pas- sage way to the Pacific ocean. If the remainder of the manu- script could have been procured I have no doubt that it would be learned that Radisson built an air ship and ascended to Mars, and even reached the North Pole, thereby robbing those two distin- guished Americans. Cook and Peary, of the honor of being the first to actually discover the Great Nail. Mr. Upham himself acknowledges that the manuscript is largely fictitious, but picks out tin 1 part which he claims to refer to Prairie Island and stamps that with the approval of truth while the other parts are charac- terized by the same authority as apparent fiction, vaguely and blunderingly told. The part of the manuscript which is alleged to refer to Minnesota, and the contention that Radisson and Gro- seilliers were the first white men in Minnesota, is best described in Mr. Upham 's own words. He says: "When we come to his (Radisson 's) account of that next year (1855), following the apparent fiction so vaguely and blunderingly told, he resumes his accustomed definiteness of details, telling us that in the early spring, before the snow and ice were gone, which forbade the use of canoes, these two French- men, with about one hundred and fifty men and women of the native tribes, traveled almost fifty leagues on snow shoes, coming to a river side where they spent three weeks in making boats. This journey was. if I rightly identify it, from the vicinity of Green bay, in eastern Wisconsin, across that state to the Missis- sippi, reaching this river near the southeast corner of Minnesota, or somewhat further south, perhaps coming by a route not far from the canoe route of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. Thence they voyaged eight days up the river on which their boats had been made, to villages of two tribes, probably in the vicinity of Winona, where they obtained meal and corn, which supplied this large company until they 'came to the first landing isle.' "The description indicates that the voyagers passed along Lake Pepin and upward to the large Isle Pelee (or Bald Island), now called Prairie Island, on the Minnesota side of the main river channel above Red Wing. On this island, which derived its names, both in French and English, from its being mostly a prairie, a large number of Huron s and Ottawas, fleeing from their enemies, the Iroquois, had recently taken refuge, and had begun the cultivation of corn. Their harvest the preceding year, in