82 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
to them by the King, whose right was that of discovery by 
Hudson. 
The French soon felt the competition of the English trading 
posts on Hudson bay, and sought to oust them, claiming the 
territory about Hudson bay by right of discovery and posses- 
sion. They claimed that in 1656 the Sovereign Council of 
Quebec authorized Jean Bourdon to make discoveries in Hud- 
son bay, and that he proceeded there, took possession in the 
name of the King of France, and made treaties of alliance with 
the natives. This claim is disproved by the journal of the 
Jesuits for that year, which relates that Bourdon sailed on the 
2nd of May, and returned on the 11th of August, having been 
stopped by ice on the coast of Labrador, where a Huron Indian 
was killed by the Eskimos. 
The Governor of Canada, D'Argenson, in 1661, despatched 
Dablon, a Jesuit missionary, accompanied by Druillette de 
Valliere, to the country about Hudson bay. They travelled by 
way of the Saguenay, but did not reach the watershed, their 
guides refusing to proceed on account of Iroquois war parties 
being between them and Hudson bay. The ravages of 
the Iroquois were such that no travel was possible in the north 
until 1663, when Sieur de la Couture with five men, it is 
claimed, proceeded overland to the bay, took possession of the 
territory in the name of the King of France, noted the latitude, 
planted a cross, and deposited His Majesty's arms engraved 
on copper at the foot of a large tree. Sieur Duquet and jean 
L'Anglois are said to have visited the bay the same year, by 
order of D'Argenson, and to have there set up the King's arms 
No mention of these important expeditions occurs in the reld 
tions des jesuites. The first Frenchman whose visit to the ba 
is undisputed, was the missionary Albanel, who crossed by wa 
of the Saguenay and Rupert rivers, arriving at the mouth c 
the latter on the 28th of June, 1672, where he found a sma 
fort and a boat belonging to the English traders. 
