In September the bodies of the victims were carried to Fort St.
Charles, and interred in the chapel. Eight hundred Crees besought M.
de la Verendrye to let them avenge the murder; but the veteran of
Malplaquet exhorted them not to war. Meanwhile, Fort St. Charles
awaited the coming of supplies from Lake Superior.
IV
1736-1740
A week passed, and on the 17th of June the canoe loads of ammunition
and supplies for which the murdered _voyageurs_ had been sent arrived
at Fort St. Charles. In June the Indian hunters came in with the
winter's hunt; and on the 20th thirty Sautaux hurried to Fort St.
Charles, to report that they had found the mangled bodies of the
massacred Frenchmen on an island seven leagues from the fort. Again La
Verendrye had to choose whether to abandon his cherished dreams, or
follow them at the risk of ruin and death. As before, when his men had
mutinied, he determined to advance.
Jean, the eldest son, was dead. Pierre and Francois were with their
father. Louis, the youngest, now seventeen years of age, had come up
with the supplies. Pierre at once went to Lake Winnipeg, to prepare
Fort Maurepas for the reception of all the forces. Winter set in.
Snow lay twelve feet deep in the forests now known as the Minnesota
Borderlands. On February 8, 1737, in the face of a biting north wind,
with the thermometer at forty degrees below zero, M. de la Verendrye
left Fort St. Charles, Francois carrying the French flag, with ten
soldiers, wearing snow-shoes, in line behind, and two or three hundred
Crees swathed in furs bringing up a ragged rear.
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