The San Francisco call., 1905-01-29


n pleasant task, especially when
Il the heroes so honored have been
unfortunately maligned or over
looked by the all-wise histo-
riars. 1t is to this end that
agnes {. Laut set herself when she
wrote "pathfnders of the West" The
Two deserving ones whom she chose to
set in their just reward are Sieur
Pierre Esprit Radisson and Sieur Med
ard Chouart Groseillers, long since
passed from this vale of tears into a
haven where It is to be hoped that no
maggoty writer of annals can poster
them with traducement of their name
and fame. For be it known that here
.eofore those historians who deigned to
give notice to the labors of these two
French courriers- de- bois and discov
erers of the Northwest made mention
OF their names only to heap oboquy
. upon tham. calling them renegades and
liars. Miss Laut comes to their tardy
defense with vehement rebuttal
After Parkman had written his his
tories of Canada and the discoveries in
the Northwest, in which no mention
vas made of the two men, Radisson
and Groseillers, there came to light. in
1855. an authentic journal of voya ges
written n the script of Radisson him.
self. This chronicle of exploration was
so at variance with accepted opinion
and the state papers of the days of
New France that modern commenta-
tcrt followed in the path of the old
writer's and proclaimed that even If
Radisson's journal was genuine its
author must have been as great a liar
as his contemporaries believed him to
be. for he is mixed on his dates and
vague in his assertions. But Mr.. Ben
temin Suite. president of the Royal So
ciety of Ottawa, rallied to the defense
of the two maligned explorers with an
exhaustive historical brochure. Draw
Ing from this her inspiration, Miss
Laut has written "Pathfinders of the
West to popularize the true story of
the discovery of the Mississippi and the
opening up of the Hudson Bay country
two works upon which these obscure
heroes base their claim TO Immortality.
That Radisson cast eyes upon the
great Mississippi ten years before Pere
Marquette and twenty years before La
Sale is the claim that his journal puts
forth and which Miss Laut seconds en-
son and his companion crossed the
Wisconsin country under the guidance
of some friendly Crees and found them
selves upon the bank OF "a mighty
river, great, rushing, profound and
comparable to the st. Lawrence" to
quote from Radisson's journal This
the Indians called the Forked River
because of the two great branches
which united where ST. Louis now
stands. Beyond this river, they told
the two Frenchmen, there lived nomad
Indians in country Of little wood and
beyond them were mountains where
precious stones and copper were to be
had. And the intrepid Frenchmen,
nothing daunted, made a bold incur
sion into this unknown land. circling
through what must be now the States
OF Iowa and Nebraska and coming back
by a wide northern circuit through
Minnesota to the north shore of Lake
Superior. This before ever a canoe of
the good Father Marquette had touched
the waves of Mississippi and when the
great interior valley and the plains be-
yond were as unknown to civilization
as the frozen moon fields.
Miss Laut has made a book of alb
sorbng interest out OF the records of
this Radisson and Groseillers. Vividly
she makes the reader appreciate what
the call of the wilderness and the spell
OF the unknown waters of the North
west meant to those hardy and adven-
turous men Of a growing nation, whose
new land was trimmed with the veil of
the mystery. Then, too, she portrays
the strife that was waged between the
English and the French for control of
the great beaver trade in the North.
RadiEson and Groseillers were the first
to penetrate by land to the shores of
the great salt sea (Hudson Bay and
there In the wilderness of the far North
they established the first of that long
line of trading posts which was later
to stretch from Winnipeg to the mouth
OF the Mackenzie and to pour gold into
the Golfers of one OF the worlds richest
trading companies. In this struggle
for supremacy between English and
French fur traders Radisson evidently
followed the line of least resistance and
was found fighting and scheming first
with one beliigerent and then with the
other; hence the infaniy attributed to
his name by the old chroniclers and the
name of renegade. Miss Laut explains
this away, however. by showing how
the treatment received by the explorer
at the hands of both patron nations
justified his free-lancine.
Miss Laut's book would have been
made more attractive by the omission
of the illustrations which the publishers
have seen fit to give ii. They vary
from wood cuts to half tone photo
graphs and do everything but illus
trate the text.
(Thc Macmillan Company, New
York; price S2.)