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The Nonsuch Audio Clips
Audio clip 1 of 3
After Europeans came to Canada they began to trade metal objects like knives,
guns, pots and pans with aboriginal groups for beaver furs. Beaver furs were
used to make felt hats that many rich people in Europe wanted. At first, the
French were fur trading in what is now called the province of Quebec. The French
had a colony around the Saint Laurence River and called this area New France.
If you lived in New France and wanted to do fur trading you had to sell your furs
to the colony. That meant you had to pay taxes and pay for a license fee, those
that paid for a license were called “Coureurs de bois”. In English “Coureur de bois”
means: runner of the woods. Two of these “Coureurs de bois”, named Radisson
and des Grosseilliers thought it might be a good idea if they could take a boat
into the Hudson Bay to meet the aboriginal people who lived there without having
to pay for a license or be forced to deal with the French colony.
Audio clip 2 of 3
Since the French colony did not like their idea, Radisson and des Grosseillers
tried to find someone else who might want to help them buy a ship that could
cross the ocean and make it into the Hudson Bay. Like the colony, the king of
France was not interested in helping them out either, but a Prince that lived in
England at the time thought it was a great idea! The prince’s name was Prince
Rupert and he was cousin to the King of England. Prince Rupert helped Radisson and des Grosseilers by getting investors to buy two ships, one ship was
called the Eaglet and the other was called the Nonsuch. Both the ships left England in June hoping to get to Hudson Bay before winter. Radisson was on the
Eaglet and des Grosseiller was on the Nonsuch.
Call it Home
Audio clip 3 of 3
Not long after leaving England, both the Nonsuch and the Eaglet sailed into an
ice storm. The storm was so bad that the Eaglet’s mast broke and they had to turn
back, but the Nonsuch kept going. After about 2 months des Grosseiller and the
crew of sailors saw the land that we now call Labrador, a territory north of Quebec.
Another 2 months or so brought them into James Bay, which is what we call the
southern part of the Hudson Bay. The English sailors and French fur trader stayed
for the whole winter with the Cree who were the aboriginal people living beside
James Bay. The Nonsuch left the following spring filled with beaver furs and went
all the way back to England where it was decided that they should continue trading into the Hudson Bay. In 1670 a new company was created. Its name at the time
was: “Governor and Company of Adventurers from England trading into the Hudson’s Bay”. This company still exists and is now called: “The Bay”.