With a shout his motley
forces emerged from the snowy tamaracks, and with a shout from Pierre
de la Verendrye and his tawny followers the explorer was welcomed
through the gateway of little Fort Maurepas.
[Illustration: Traders' Boats running the Rapids of the Athabasca
River.]
Pierre de la Verendrye had heard of a region to the south much
frequented by the Assiniboine Indians, who had conducted Radisson to
the Sea of the North fifty years before--the Forks where the
Assiniboine River joins the Red, and the city of Winnipeg stands
to-day. It was reported that game was plentiful here. Two hundred
tepees of Assiniboines were awaiting the explorer. His forces were
worn with their marching, but in a few weeks the glaze of ice above the
fathomless drifts of snow would be too rotten for travel, and not until
June would the riverways be clear for canoes. But such a scant supply
of goods had his partners sent up that poor De la Verendrye had nothing
to trade with the waiting Assiniboines. Sending his sons forward to
reconnoitre the Forks of the Assiniboine,--the modern Winnipeg,--he set
out for Montreal as soon as navigation opened, taking with him fourteen
great canoes of precious furs.
The fourteen canoe loads proved his salvation. As long as there were
furs and prospects of furs, his partners would back the enterprise of
finding the Western Sea. The winter of 1738 was spent as the guest of
the governor at Chateau St. Louis.
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