82 CKUISE OB' 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 Avith 

 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 llth 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 Rela- 

 tions des Jesuites. The first Frenchman whose visit to the bay 

 is undisputed, was the missionary Albanel, who r crossed by way 

 of the Saguenay and Rupert rivers, arriving at the mouth of 

 the latter on the 28th of June, 16T2, where he found a small 

 fort and a boat belonging to the English traders. 



