on Rupert’s River.  It looked as if the contraband might be a venture of the father as well as the son.[9] Radisson and young Gillam recognized each other with a show of friendliness, Gillam inviting Radisson to inspect the ship with much the same motive that the fabled spider invited the fly.  Radisson took tactful precaution for his own liberty by graciously asking that two of the New England servants go down to the canoe with the three Frenchmen.  No sooner had Radisson gone on the New England ship than young Gillam ordered cannon fired and English flags run up.  Having made that brave show of strength, the young man proposed that the French and the New Englanders should divide the traffic between them for the winter.  Radisson diplomatically suggested that such an important proposal be laid before his colleagues.  In leaving, he advised Gillam to keep his men from wandering beyond the island, lest they suffer wrong at the hands of the French soldiers.  Incidentally, that advice would also keep the New Englanders from learning how desperately weak the French really were.  Neither leader was in the slightest deceived by the other; each played for time to take the other unawares, and each knew the game that was being played.

[Illustration:  Hudson’s Bay Company Coins, made of Lead melted from Tea Chests at York Factory, each Coin representing so many Beaver Skins.]

Instead of returning by the creek that cut athwart the neck of land between the two rivers, Radisson decided to go down Nelson River to the bay, round the point, and ascend Hayes River to the French quarters.  Cogitating how to frighten young Gillam out of the country or else to seize him, Radisson glided down the swift current of Nelson River toward salt water.  He had not gone nine miles from the New Englanders when he was astounded by the spectacle of a ship breasting with full-blown sails up the tide of the Nelson directly in front of the French canoe.  The French dashed for the hiding of the brushwood on shore.  From their concealment they saw that the ship was a Hudson’s Bay Company vessel, armed with cannon and commission for lawful trade.  If once the Hudson’s Bay Company ship and the New Englanders united, the English would be strong enough to overpower the French.

The majority of leaders would have escaped the impending disaster by taking ingloriously to their heels.  Radisson, with that adroit presence of mind which characterized his entire life, had provided for his followers’ safety by landing them on the south shore, where the French could flee across the marsh to the ships if pursued.  Then his only thought was how to keep the rivals apart.  Instantly he had an enormous bonfire kindled.  Then he posted his followers in ambush.  The ship mistook the fire for an Indian signal, reefed its sails, and anchored.  Usually natives paddled out to the traders’ ships to barter.  These Indians kept in hiding.  The ship waited for them to come; and Radisson waited