There is no sign that La Verendrye wavered in his great hope even when he realized that the Winnipeg River was not the river flowing westward which he sought.We know now that the northern regions of the American continent east of the Rocky Mountains are tilted towards the east and the north and that in all its vast spaces there is no great river which flows to the west.La Verendrye, however, ignorant of this dictate of nature, longed to paddle with the stream towards the west.The Red River flows from the south into Lake Winnipeg at a point near the mouth of the Winnipeg River.Up the Red River went La Verendrye and found a tributary, the Assiniboine, flowing into it from the west.At the point of junction, where has grown up the city of Winnipeg, he built a tiny fort, called Fort Rouge, a name still preserved in a suburb of the modern Winnipeg.The explorers went southward on the Red River, and then went westward on the Assiniboine River only to find the waters persistently flowing against them and no definite news of other waters leading to the Western Sea.On the Assiniboine, near the site of the present town of Portage la Prairie in Manitoba, La Verendrye built Fort La Reine.Its name is evidence still perhaps of hopes for aid through the Queen if not through the King of France.
In 1737 La Verendrye made once more the long journey to Montreal.
His fourteen canoes laden with furs were an earnest of the riches of the wonderful West and so pleased his Montreal partners that again they fitted him out with adequate supplies.In the summer of 1738 we find him at Fort La Reine, rich for the moment in goods with which to trade, keen and competent as a trader, and having great influence with the natives.All through the West he found Indians who went to trade with the English on Hudson Bay, and he constantly urged them not to take the long journey but to depend upon the French who came into their own country.It was a policy well fitted to cause searching of heart among the English traders who seemed so secure in their snug quarters on the seashore waiting for the Indians to come to them.
La Verendrye had now a fresh plan for penetrating farther on his alluring quest.He had heard of a river to the south to be reached by a journey overland.It was a new thing for him to abandon canoes and march on foot but this he now did and with winter approaching.On October 16, 1738, when the autumn winds were already chill, there was a striking little parade at Fort La Reine.The drummer beat the garrison to arms.What with soldiers brought from Canada, the voyageurs who had paddled the great canoes, and the Indians who dogged always the steps of the French traders, there was a muster at the fort of some scores of men.La Verendrye reviewed the whole company and from them chose for his expedition twenty soldiers and voyageurs and about twenty Assiniboine Indians.As companions for himself he took Francois and Pierre, two of his three surviving sons, and two traders who were at the fort.
We can picture the little company setting out on the 18th of October on foot, with some semblance of military order, by a well-beaten trail leading across the high land which separates the Red River country from the regions to the southwest.La Verendrye had heard much of a people, the Mandans, dwelling in well-ordered villages on the banks of a great river and cultivating the soil instead of living the wandering life of hunters.Such wonders of Mandan culture had been reported to La Verendrye that he half expected to find them white men with a civilization equal to that of Europe.The river was in reality not an unknown stream, as La Verendrye hoped, but the Missouri, a river already frequented by the French in its lower stretches where its waters join those of the Mississippi.
It was a long march over the prairie.La Verendrye found that he could not hurry his Indian guides.They insisted on delays during days of glorious autumn weather when it would have been wise to press on and avoid the winter cold on the wind-swept prairie.
They went out of their way to visit a village of their own Assiniboine tribe; and, when they resumed their journey, this whole village followed them.The prairie Indians had a more developed sense of order and discipline than the tribes of the forest.La Verendrye admired the military regularity of the savages on the march.They divided the company of more than six hundred into three columns: in front, scouts to look out for an enemy and also for herds of buffalo; in the center, well protected, the old and the lame, all those incapable of fighting;and, for a rear-guard, strong fighting men.When buffalo were seen, the most active of the fighters rushed to the front to aid in hemming in the game.Women and dogs carried the baggage, the men condescending to bear only their weapons.
Not until cold December had come did the party reach the chief Mandan village.It was in some sense imposing, for the Indian lodges were arranged neatly in streets and squares and the surrounding palisade was strong and well built.Around the fort was a ditch fifteen feet deep and of equal width, which made the village impregnable in Indian warfare.After saluting the village with three volleys of musket fire, La Verendrye marched in with great ceremony, under the French flag, only to discover that the Mandans were not greatly unlike the Assiniboines and other Indians of the West whom he already knew.The men went about naked and the women nearly so.They were skilled in dressing leather.They were also cunning traders, for they duped La Verendrye's friends, the Assiniboines, and cheated them out of their muskets, ammunition, kettles, and knives.Great eaters were the Mandans.They cultivated abundant crops and stored them in cave cellars.Every day they brought their visitors more than twenty dishes cooked in earthen pottery of their own handicraft.
