During the third voyage Radisson and his brother-in-law went to the
Mississippi River in 1658/9. He says, "Wee mett with severall sorts of
people. Wee conversed with them, being long time in alliance with them. By
the persuasion of som of them wee went into the great river that divides
itself in two where the hurrons with some Ottanake and the wild men that
had warrs with them had retired.... The river is called the forked, because
it has two branches: the one towards the West, the other towards the South,
which we believe runs towards Mexico, by the tokens they gave." They also
made diligent inquiry concerning Hudson's Bay, and of the best means to
reach that fur-producing country, evidently with a view to future
exploration and trade. They must have returned to the Three Rivers about
June 1, 1660. Radisson says: "Wee stayed att home att rest the yeare. My
brother and I considered whether we should discover what we have seen or
no, and because we had not a full and whole discovery which was that we
have not ben in the bay of the north (Hudson's Bay), not knowing anything
but by report of the wild Christinos, we would make no mention of it for
feare that those wild men should tell us a fibbe. We would have made a
discovery of it ourselves and have an assurance, before we should discover
anything of it."

In the fourth narrative he says: "The Spring following we weare in hopes to
meet with some company, having ben so fortunat the yeare before. Now during
the winter, whether it was that my brother revealed to his wife what we had
seene in our voyage and what we further intended, or how it came to passe,
it was knowne so much that the ffather Jesuits weare desirous to find out a
way how they might gett downe the castors from the bay of the North, by the
Sacques, and so make themselves masters of that trade. They resolved to
make a tryall as soone as the ice would permitt them. So to discover our
intentions they weare very earnest with me to ingage myselfe in that
voyage, to the end that my brother would give over his, which I uterly