INTRODUCTION.

The author of the narratives contained in this volume was Peter Esprit
Radisson, who emigrated from France to Canada, as he himself tells us, on
the 24th day of May, 1651. He was born at St. Malo, and in 1656, at Three
Rivers, in Canada, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Madeleine Hainault.
[Footnote: Vide _History of the Ojibways_, by the Rev. E. D. Neill, ed.
1885.] Radisson says that he lived at Three Rivers, where also dwelt "my
natural parents, and country-people, and my brother, his wife and
children." [Footnote: The Abbe Cyprian Tanguay, the best genealogical
authority in Canada, gives the following account of the family: Francoise
Radisson, a daughter of Pierre Esprit, married at Quebec, in 1668, Claude
Volant de St. Claude, born in 1636, and had eight children. Pierre and
Claude, eldest sons, became priests. Francoise died in infancy: Marguerite
married Noel le Gardeur; Francoise died in infancy; Etienne, born October
29, 1664, married in 1693 at Sorel, but seems to have had no issue. Jean
Francois married Marguerite Godfrey at Montreal in 1701. Nicholas, born in
1668, married Genevieve Niel, July 30, 1696, and both died in 1703, leaving
two of their five sons surviving.

There are descendants of Noel le Gardeur who claim Radisson as their
ancestor, and also descendants of Claude Volant, apparently through
Nicholas. Among these descendants of the Volant family is the Rt. Rev.
Joseph Thomas Duhamel, who was consecrated Bishop of Ottawa, Canada,
October 28, 1874.

Of Medard Chouart's descendants, no account of any of the progeny of his