On the 8th of June, exactly a year from the day that he had left
Montreal, M. de la Verendrye pushed forward with all his people for
Fort St. Pierre. Five weeks later he was welcomed inside the
stockades. Uniformed soldiers were a wonder to the awe-struck Crees,
who hung round the gateway with hands over their hushed lips. Gifts of
ammunition won the loyalty of the chiefs. Not to be lacking in
generosity, the Indians collected fifty of their gaudiest canoes and
offered to escort the explorer west to the Lake of the Woods. De la
Verendrye could not miss such an offer. Though his _voyageurs_ were
fatigued, he set out at once. He had reached Fort St. Pierre on July
14. In August his entire fleet glided over the Lake of the Woods. The
threescore canoes manned by the Cree boatmen threaded the shadowy
defiles and labyrinthine channels of the Lake of the Woods--or Lake of
the Isles--coasting island after island along the south or Minnesota
shore westward to the opening of the river at the northwest angle.
This was the border of the Sioux territory. Before the boatmen opened
the channel of an unknown river. Around them were sheltered harbors,
good hunting, and good fishing. The Crees favored this region for
winter camping ground because they could hide their families from the
Sioux on the sheltered islands of the wooded lake. Night frosts had
painted the forests red. The flacker of wild-fowl overhead, the skim
of ice forming on the lake, the poignant sting of the north wind--all
fore-warned winter's approach.
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