hunters assemble in October for the winter.  Radisson had come to this region by way of Lake Superior with the Cree hunters twenty years before, and his visit had become a tradition among the tribes.  Beaver are busy in October gnawing down young saplings for winter food.  Radisson observed chips floating past the canoe.  Where there are beaver, there should be Indians; so the voyageurs paddled on.  One night, as they lay round the camp-fire, with canoes overturned, a deer, startled from its evening drinking-place, bounded from the thicket.  A sharp whistle—­and an Indian ran from the brush of an island opposite the camp, signalling the white men to head the deer back; but when Radisson called from the waterside, the savage took fright and dashed for the woods.

All that night the voyageurs kept sleepless guard.  In the morning they moved to the island and kindled a signal-fire to call the Indians.  In a little while canoes cautiously skirted the island, and the chief of the band stood up, bow and arrow in hand.  Pointing his arrows to the deities of north, south, east, and west, he broke the shaft to splinters, as a signal of peace, and chanted his welcome:—­

  “Ho, young men, be not afraid! 
  The sun is favorable to us! 
  Our enemies shall fear us! 
  This is the man we have wished
  Since the days of our fathers!”

With a leap, the chief sprang into the water and swam ashore, followed by all the canoes.  Radisson called out to know who was commander.  The chief, with a sign as old and universal as humanity, bowed his head in servility.  Radisson took the Indian by the hand, and, seating him by the fire, chanted an answer in Cree:—­

  “I know all the earth! 
  Your friends shall be my friends! 
  I come to bring you arms to destroy your enemies! 
  Nor wife nor child shall die of hunger! 
  For I have brought you merchandise! 
  Be of good cheer! 
  I will be thy son! 
  I have brought thee a father! 
  He is yonder below building a fort
  Where I have two great ships!” [6]

The chief kept pace with the profuse compliments by vowing the life of his tribe in service of the white man.  Radisson presented pipes and tobacco to the Indians.  For the chief he reserved a fowling-piece with powder and shot.  White man and Indian then exchanged blankets.  Presents were sent for the absent wives.  The savages were so grateful that they cast all their furs at Radisson’s feet, and promised to bring their hunt to the fort in spring.  In Paris and London Radisson had been harassed by jealousy.  In the wilderness he was master of circumstance; but a surprise awaited him at Groseillers’ fort.