Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1904 — THE BOYHOOD OF RADISSON. [ARTICLE]

THE BOYHOOD OF RADISSON.

Never had a hoy more stirring adventures than had young Pierre d’Esprit Radisson, a French lad, who, when be became a man, explored the region about the head of Lake Superior, and Is believed by .some historians tq have been the first to discover the Mississippi, Radisson was but 17 years old, Says Leslie’s Monthly, and bad been but a year in America when, in 1652, he was captured near Three Rivers by a war party of Iroquois Indians. The lad waa out hunting ducks along the St Lawrence with two comrades when they discovered signs of Indians. It was more ignorance and foolhardiness than courage which made him refuse to go back to the fort with them, but to the Indians who, hidden In ambush, heard the conversation, it Beemed like the type of bravery they most admired. When they shot at him and he returned their fire before fleeing, their admiration increased, and they did not kill him, as they did his companions, but took him up Lake Champlain and Lake George to their vibage, where he was adopted. His conduct as a prisoner increased their admiration, for he slept so soundly between his guards that he had to be wakened in the morning, and he waa ever one of the most eager on the march. To test his prowess, he was sent on a hunting trip with an Algonkin captive and three young Iroquois. The Algonkin killed the Iroquois against Radlsson’s protest, and the two fled, but before they could reach Three Rivers they were overtaken. The Algonkin was killed, but Radisson, as a traitor to the tribe, was brought back for torture. This time his sufferinge were terrible. There were many other prisonera some of whom were tortured in most horrible fashion while the boy was compelled to look on; but he displayed no emotion, although he was trembling Inwardly. He was left bound among the rest for the children to amuse themselves with. One gnawed his fingers. Another cut them with a stone. Others burned the soles of his feet and shot darts Into his body. He bore it all without flinching, however, and made neither protest nor outcry when a warrior thrust his thumb Into the bowl of a lighted pipe and held it there. The result of this was 'tremendous admiration among the Indians, and when the chief who had formerly adopted him made a plea for his life, his petition was granted. For a year Radisson remained a member of the tribe during the horrible war of extermination carried on by the Iroquois against the Hurons. With .a war party he made a' long Journey up the Mohawk and into the country beyond Lake Ontario, where a village of Hurons was exterminated. Radisson managed to save one woman from the village and lead her back to the Iroquois settlement, where she became his foster-mother’s slave. The boy soon sickened of the horror of the savage life, but the forest had a never-ending fascination for him. He learned it as the Indians knew It He was taught how to make and use bark canoes, how to follow a trail, how to read signs by which the presence of enemies or friends might be known, how to tell Indians of the different tribes apart and how to speak their tongues. Indeed, he learned the very things that, when he finally escaped to the Dutch settlements on the Hudson, gave him the best possible equipment for his life work of exploration In the unknown Northwest