Spring had turned to summer before the brothers reached their destination.On July 2, 1743, they relieved the anxiety of their waiting father after an absence of fifteen months.Moving slowly as they did, could they have traveled from the distant Rockies from the time in January when they turned back? It seems doubtful; and in spite of the long-cherished belief that the brothers reached the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, it may be that they had not penetrated beyond the barrier which we know as the Black Hills.The chance discovery of a forgotten plate by school children may in truth prove that, as late as in 1750, the Rocky Mountains had not yet been seen by white men and that the first vision of that mighty range was obtained much farther north in Canada.
After 1743 the French seem to have made no further efforts to reach the Western Sea by way of the Missouri.If in reality the brothers had not gone beyond the Black Hills in South Dakota, then their most important work appears to have been done within what is now Canada, as discoverers of the Saskatchewan, the mighty river which carries to far-distant Hudson Bay the waters melted on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.It was by this route up the Saskatchewan that fifty years later was solved the tough and haunting problem of going over the mountains to the Pacific Ocean.La Verendrye now ascended the Saskatchewan for some three hundred miles to the forks where it divides into two great branches.He was going deeper into debt but he hoped always for help from the King.It is pathetic to see today, on the map of that part of western Canada which he and his sons explored, a town, a lake, and a county called Dauphin, in honor of the heir to the throne of France.No doubt La Verendrye had the thought that some day he might plead with the Dauphin when he had become King for help in his great task.
Before the year 1749 had ended La Verendrye, who had returned to Montreal, was in his grave.His sons, partners in his work, expected to be charged with the task--to which the King, in 1749, had anew appointed their father--of continuing the work of discovery in the West.Francois, for a time ill, wrote in 1750from Montreal to La Jonquiere, the Governor at Quebec, that he hoped to take up the plans of his father.The Governor's reply was that he had appointed another officer, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, to lead in the search for the Western Sea.Francois hurried to Quebec.The Governor met him with a bland face and seemed friendly.Francois, urged that he and his brothers claimed no preeminence and that they were ready to serve under the orders of Saint-Pierre.The Governor was hesitant; but at last told Francois, frankly that the new leader desired no help either from him or from his brothers.Francois, was dismayed.He and his brothers were in debt.Already he had sent on stores and men to the West and the men were likely to starve if not followed by provisions.His chief property was in the West in the form of goods which would be plundered without his guardianship.To tide over the immediate future he sold the one small piece of land in Montreal which he had inherited from his father and threw this slight sop to his urgent creditors.
Saint-Pierre, strong in his right of monopoly, insisted that the brothers should not even return to the West.Francois, urged that to go was a matter of life and death.In some way he secured leave to set out with one laden canoe.When Saint-Pierre found that Francois had gone, he claimed damages for the intrusion on his monopoly and secured an order to pursue Francois and bring him back.He caught him at Michilimackinac.The meeting between the two men at that place involved explanations.Face to face with an injured man, Saint-Pierre admitted that he had been in the wrong, paid to Francois many compliments, and regretted that he had not joined hands with the brothers.
The mischief done was, however, irreparable.Francois, crippled by opposition, could not carry on his trade with success and in the end he returned to Montreal a ruined man overwhelmed with debt.He wrote to the French court a noble appeal for relief:
"I remain without friends and without patrimony...a simple ensign of the second grade; my elder brother has only the same rank as myself; my younger brother is only a junior cadet.This is the result of all that my father, my brothers and myself have done....There are in the hands of your Lordship resources of compensation and of consolation.I venture to appeal to you for relief.To find ourselves excluded from the West would mean to be cruelly robbed of our heritage, to realize for ourselves all that is bitter and to see others secure all that is sweet."The appeal fell on deaf ears.The brothers sank into obscurity.
During Montcalm's campaigns from 1756 to 1759 Pierre and Francois seem to have been engaged in military service.Francois was killed in the siege of Quebec in 1759.After the final surrender of Canada the Auguste, a ship laden for the most part with refugees returning to France, was wrecked on the St.Lawrence.
Among those on board who perished was Pierre de la Verendrye.He died amid the howling of the tempest and the cries of drowning men.Tragedy, unrelenting, had pursued him to the end.
