Verendrye studied the map and questioned all the Indians he knew. They could tell him little more, except that to reach this strange place one must go through a nat, almost treeless country, where there were great herds of big wild animals like cattle.
This was the buffalo's prairie playground of which Verendrye was hearing. Three times he dreamed he had found the Northwest Passage and the Western Sea. No wonder he could not stay at the quiet little fort. He made up his mind he would go through the flat country and search for the Western Sea. Taking the old chief's map, he hurried down to Quebec, hoping the Governor could induce the French King to give him the needed supplies. The King would give nothing, but fortunately the Governor did the best he could for Verendrye by allowing him to have all the fur trade in the country he was going to explore.
Verendrye soon found merchants who were willing to advance all the supplies he needed, and who promised to await their pay until he sent back the furs. Then he prepared for the journey. On the 8th of June, , he started away. Besides his Canadian voyageurs to manage the canoes, and his Indian interpreters to talk to the strange red men they were going to visit, he took with him his nephew, De la Jemmeraie, and his three sons, young men of sixteen, seventeen and eighteen years of age.
But with all their gaiety they were not careless. They read the streaks of foam as you would read a book, and learned from them where were the rapids and the rocks. Many a time a single dip of the paddle saved a canoe. When the rough places were passed what a rest it must have been to them to hoist a blanket and sail before the wind. Still better was the rest at night when sleeping on the shore under a starry sky. But on Lake Superior they were delayed by stormy weather, and it was late in August before they reached Kaministiquia, the most distant post.
Thoughts of a lonely winter in a lonely land made the men homesick, and they urged Verendrye to turn back. However, half of them were persuaded to go on with his nephew and his son Jean, while the others remained at Lake Superior with Verendrye. Jean and his cousin went on to Rainy Lake and built a fort there, which they named Fort St. On the 8th of June, , just one year from the day he had left home, Verendrye made his way from the old fort to the new fort which his son had built and named for him.
The bright uniforms of some of his men won the admiration of the Indians gathered about the gateway. Verendrye gave ammunition to the chiefs, who in return presented him with fifty of their brightest-colored canoes, and offered to guide him on to the Lake of the Woods.
When at last they reached the Lake of the Woods, they stopped to build a fort, which they named Fort St. Here they waited for Jean and his cousin, who had gone to Michilimackinac for supplies. Days and weeks went by. October came, and the Indians went off to their hunting-grounds. November came. The lake was covered with ice, and the snow was deep in the forest. They were out of provisions. The fish which they caught through holes in the ice were their only food. They feared some accident must have happened their friends, on whose return everything depended.
One day when all were feeling gloomy, discouraged, and hungry, they were aroused by the shouts of their long-looked-for friends, coming on snowshoes, and carrying goods in packs on their backs. After a short rest Jean went on to build a fort on Lake Winnipeg, which the explorers had heard of from the Indians, and which Verendrye thought might be near the Western Sea. To his cousin was given a journey in the opposite direction. He must go down to Montreal and see the merchants about sending more goods.
On his return he reported that the merchants were annoyed because more furs had not come to them, and declared that, instead of sending furs to those he owed, Verendrye was keeping them and secretly enriching himself. They refused to send him more goods until they received more furs. Upon reaching there he found that the traders near home were jealous, and had been trying to injure him by telling falsehoods about him.
By the time he was able to convince the merchants that he was doing his best, and had, persuaded them to send more goods, it was too late to return that season. He set out as early as possible the next year Regretting that during four years he had accomplished so little, he hurried on ahead of the supplies.
I am abroad on a Thomas Cook holiday. What happens if the company collapses?
Travelling so rapidly, with very little rest, must have been wearying to Father Aulneau, the chaplain of the expedition, who was taking his first journey into that country. But they all had a good rest at Fort Charles, on the Lake of the Woods, where they waited for the arrival of the supplies. Meanwhile two of Verendrye's sons and their cousin started from Fort Maurepas, on Lake Winnipeg, to come down to him. On the way occurred one of the saddest incidents that can happen on those lonely journeys. There in the wilds, hundreds of miles from home, the cousin died.
Jean and his brother wrapped the body in a hunter's robe and made a grave beside a lonely stream, marking the spot with a wooden cross.
vueweekly may 31 – jun 6 by Vue Weekly - Issuu
Thus did one white man lose his life in exploring the home of the animals and the Indians. Other troubles followed thick and fast. The goods had not arrived, and the Indians would soon be coming in with furs and meat to trade. After thinking it all over, Jean Verendrye and Father Aulneau said they would go with some of the men to Fort Michilimackinac to hurry on the supplies that certainly must have reached there by this time. They set out on the 8th of June, but this was the year , five years since they first left home.
The little party stopped on a pretty island for the night, and all went soundly to sleep, little dreaming that sly red men were creeping about their resting-place. These were the Sioux, sometimes called "tigers of the plain," the most cruel and warlike of all the North- West Indians.
Just why they were spying about that night is a little story in itself. It seems that once when some Cree Indians had new guns and wanted to have a little fun with them, they fired at some Sioux Indians. I Who fire? Thinking it would be a good joke to try to pass for the French, now that they had French guns, the Crees laughed and shouted back: " The French.
The Sioux were angry, and said they would kill the first white man they found. So they watched this little band while they slept, and the next morning followed them on among the islands until they knew by the smoke of their camp-fire that they had stopped for breakfast. Just nine days after that ill-fated little company set out, the supplies they were going for arrived.
Three days later, friendly Indians, who had found the bodies of the Frenchmen, came to tell Verendrye what had happened. Father Aulneau was kneeling, they said, as if at morning prayer, when struck dead. This Lake of the Woods tragedy was a terrible blow to poor Verendrye, and it was with a sad heart that in February, the coldest month of the cold northern winter, he set out for the little Fort Maurepas, the last fort that poor Jean had built.
Across the cold, white, lonely land he tried to march with some pomp and order. The French flag was carried ahead, a few Frenchmen followed in bright soldiers' uniforms, and behind were some hundreds of Crees in their best fur clothes. For seventeen days they travelled in this way, and at night they slept on pine boughs round a camp- fire.
The bunnies and foxes that ventured out those cold days did not know what to make of it all. The fur- robed Indians they understood, and would be careful not to come too near to them; but the bright uniforms of the soldiers and that flag were entirely new. What had come to their land? They would scurry off, then pop up their heads to look at them again, and hurry away only to stop and look back once more.
They could not unravel the mystery. At last Verendrye came to Fort Maurepas. With a warm fire in the centre, and soft furs for blankets and rugs, it was a welcome refuge for the tired men. As Verendrye rested there he must often have thought of his unfortunate son. The Indians soon came to visit him, and learning that he was on a journey through their land, were all anxious to draw maps on birchbark and tell him about their travels. The one at whose map he looked the longest was a great hero among them.
Some told him of the motion of the water in a lake farther on. It was really caused by the wind, but Verendrye, with the Western Sea on his mind, thought it might be the ebb and flow of the tide, and wanted to hurry on and see for himself. Alas, for his hopes! The merchants in Montreal would not send him the goods he needed, and he had nothing to trade with the Indians. As soon as the ice was away in the spring he had to take the furs to Montreal himself. Then the merchants were so pleased with the fourteen canoe-loads he brought them that they gave him the supplies he wanted at once and started him off for more.
By September he was back at Fort Maurepas preparing to set out for the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, of which the Indians had told him. Instead of the city of Winnipeg and the stretches of golden grain beyond, which one sees there now, Verendrye beheld the soft brown shades of the prairie grass, the herds of buffalo strolling about their playground, and the quaint wigwams of the picturesque red men.
The Crees living there called Verendrye " Father," and told him how glad they were to have him come to them. They also gave him food, and talked about his son Jean, whom they had known. One chief in his speech said, " Our hearts are sick for thy son who came the first to build a fort on our lands. We loved him much; have once already been at war to avenge him.