]
La Verendrye afterwards went to Quebec, where he discussed his plans
for Western exploration with the Governor of New France, the Marquis
de Beauharnais, who was a distant connection of the Beauharnais family
from which sprang the first husband of the Empress Josephine, the
grandfather of Napoleon III.
This Governor entered into his scheme with enthusiasm, though he could
obtain little or no money from the ministers of Louis XVI. But a way
out of the difficulty was found by the Governor giving La Verendrye
the monopoly of the fur trade in the far North-West.[14] This
monopoly enabled La Verendrye to obtain the funds for his expenditure
from the merchants of Montreal, and in the summer of 1731 he started
out on his explorations, accompanied by three of his sons, his nephew,
fifty soldiers and French Canadian canoe men, and a Jesuit missionary.
For a guide they had the Indian, Oshagash, who had first told La
Verendrye of the western river and the salt water. After many delays,
necessitated by the need for trading in furs to satisfy the merchants
of Montreal, La Verendrye and his expedition skated on snowshoes down
the ice of the Winnipeg River and reached the shores of Lake Winnipeg.
They were probably the first white men to arrive there. La Verendrye
established forts and posts along his route from Lake Nipigon, but his
expedition had not been a commercial success.
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