God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal, and the Dream of Discovery

From acclaimed author Douglas Hunter, a searing historical work about death, deceit and dishonour, and the rivalry between Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson-two of the greatest explorers of the seventeenth century.

Samuel de Champlain of France and Englishman Henry Hudson were rival explorers in a race to describe and exploit the northern half of North America and, not least, to find a profitable passage to the Orient. The English had been trying to find a way through the Arctic since the 1570s. For Hudson, the dream of discovery proved fatal. A mutiny in the summer of 1611 saw Hudson, his teenage son John, and seven other crew members cast adrift in James Bay in an open boat. They were never heard from again.

In May 1613, Samuel de Champlain left the site of present-day Montreal on a journey up the Ottawa River into uncharted territory. Champlain had undertaken the expedition because of extraordinary testimony from a young informant, Nicolas de Vignau, who had spent 1611-12 with the Algonquin and returned to France with an incredible story: He had visited the Northern Sea. What’s more, he had seen an English youth, the sole survivor of a shipwreck, held captive by the Nebicerini people as a gift for Champlain. To rescue both the English youth and his own career, Champlain set out to collect him.

God’s Mercies has all the elements of a great adventure mystery: a mutiny, a massacre, a murder trial, signed confessions, and intrigue at the highest levels of state. Truths would be revealed as lies, and lies would turn out to be half-truths.