but the intriguing courtiers proved too strong for him. Though he
spent 10,000 pounds, nothing was done. D'Avaugour had come back to
France, and stockholders of the jealous fur company were all-powerful
at court. Groseillers then relinquished all idea of restitution, and
tried to interest merchants in another expedition to Hudson Bay by way
of the sea.[2] He might have spared himself the trouble. His
enthusiasm only aroused the quiet smile of supercilious indifference.
His plans were regarded as chimerical. Finally a merchant of Rochelle
half promised to send a boat to Isle Percée at the mouth of the St.
Lawrence in 1664. Groseillers had already wasted six months. Eager
for action, he hurried back to Three Rivers, where Radisson awaited
him. The two secretly took passage in a fishing schooner to Anticosti,
and from Anticosti went south to Isle Percée. Here a Jesuit just out
from France bore the message to them that no ship would come. The
promise had been a put-off to rid France of the enthusiast. New France
had treated them with injustice. Old France with mockery. Which way
should they turn? They could not go back to Three Rivers. This
attempt to go to Hudson Bay without a license laid them open to a
second fine. Baffled, but not beaten, the explorers did what
ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have done in similar
circumstances--they left the country. Some rumor of their intention to
abandon New France must have gone abroad; for when they reached Cape
Breton, their servants grumbled so loudly that a mob of Frenchmen
threatened to burn the explorers. Dismissing their servants, Radisson
and Groseillers escaped to Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

[Illustration: Martello Tower of Refuge in Time of Indian Wars--Three
Rivers.]

In Port Royal they met a sea-captain from Boston, Zechariah Gillam, who