Fillmore County, Minnesota - Chapter 9: Verendrye, the Explorer of Northern Minnesota, and Discoverer of the Rocky, 1882

Chapter 9: Verendrye, the Explorer of Northern Minnesota, and Discoverer of the Rocky

Convcnation of Verendrye with Father De (Jonor. - Parcntaffe and Early Lifr - Old Indian Map Prworved. - Vtrrndryc's Son and Nrphrw Explore Pitr<H>n River and Reach Rainy Ijike.- Fathor Messaynr a Companion.- Fort St. Pierre Esta».li«hcd. - Lake of Ihc Woo.ls R<'achod and Port St. Charles Built. - Dc la Jeniemyo'H Map. - Fort on the AssinalMtinp River. - Verendrye's Son, Father Ouneau and Aiwociatc« Killed hy Sioux, on Miissacre Isle, in Lake of the WiwhIs - Fort Ia Reinc. - Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Rearhes the Missouri River. - Discovers the Rocky Mountains. - Returns to Lake of the Woods. - Exploration of Saskatchewan River. - Sieur do la Verendrye Jr. - Verendrye the Father, made Capt.iin nf the Order of St. Louis. - His IV.ith - Tlie Swe<lish Traveler, Kalni, Notires Vermdrye. - Hougainville Desrril>es Veremiryo's Explorations. - Legnnleur de St. Pierre at Fort Iji Reine - Fort Jonrjuicre F^st.ihli»he<L - De la Come Sueeee<ls St. Pierre - St. Pierre Meets W,v,hiii;;l.m at French Cre«k, in Pennftylv&nia. - Killed in Battle, near Lake (feorgc.

Early in the year 1728, two travelers met at the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named De Gonor, a Jesuit Father, who with Guignas, had' gone with the expedition, that the September before had built Fort Beauhamois on the shores of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Varennes, the Sieur de la Verendrye the commander of the post on Lake Nepigon of the north shore of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin.

Verendrye was the son of Rene Gualtier Varennes who for twenty-two yeai-s was the chief magistrate at Three Rivei-s, wliose wife was Marie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor whom he had married when she was twelve years of age. He became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704 accompanied an expedition to New England. The next year he was in Newfoundland and the year following he went to France, joined a regiment of Brittany and was in the conflict at Malplaquet when the French troops were defeated by the Duke of Marlborough. When he returned to Canada he was obliged to accept the position of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in which he had behaved. In time he became identified with the Lake Superior region. ANHiile at Lake Nepigon the Indians assured him that there was a communication largely by water to the Pacific Ocean. One, named Ocliagachs, drew a rude map of the country, which is still preserved among the French arcliives. Pigeon River is marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and the Indians appear to have passed from its headwatei-s to Rainy Lake. Upon the western extremity is marked the River of the West.

De Gonor conversed much upon the route to the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use his influence with the Canadian authorities to advance the project of exploration.

Charles De Beauhamois, the Governor of Canada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and carefully examined the map of the region west of the great lakes, which had l^e^n drawn by Ochar gachs (Otchaga), the Indian guide. Orders were soon given to fit out an expedition of fifty men. It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining the party till 1733, in consequence of the detentions of business.

In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers rivcr^ now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had been sUitioned on Lake Superior, at the Groselliers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they established Fort St. Charles on its southwestern bank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they estiiblished a post on the Assinaboine. An unpublished map of these discoveries by De la Jemeraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg, called by them Maurepas, in honor of the minister of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of the siirae name.

About this time their advance was stopped by the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a second equipment, and a fourth son joined the expedition.

Discovery Of The Rocky Mountains

tion were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the AV'oocls, they were sun^rised by a band of Sioux hostile to the French allies, the Cristinaux, and all killed. The island, upon this account, is called Massacre Island. A few days after, a party of five Canadian voyageurs discovered their dead bodies and scalped heads. Father Ouneau, 11 le missionary, was found upon one knee, an ar- :«nv in liis head, his brea^st bare, his left hand touching the ground, and the right hand raised.

Among the slaughtered was also a son of Verondrye, who had a tomahawk in his back, and his Ixxly adorned with garters and bracelets of porcul iiie. The father w^as at the foot of the Lake of the Woods when he received the news of his son's murder, and about the same time heard of th(^ death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la Jemeraye, the son of his sister Marie Heine de Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the foundress of the Hospitaliers at Montreal.

On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an advanced p;>st, Fort La Reine, on the river Assiniboel.;, no w Assinaboine, which they called St Charles, and beyond was a branch called St. Pi (-! !-: . These two rivers received the baptismal name of Verendrye, which was Pierre, and Governor Ile.uihaniois, which was Charles. The post became the centre of trade and point of departiire for explorations, either north or south.

It was by ascenduig the Assinaboine, and by the present trail from its tributary, Mouse river, they reached the coimtry of the Mantanes, and in 1741, came to the upper Missouri, passed the Yellow Stone, and at length arrived at the Rocky Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son and liis brother, the chevalier. They left the Lake of the Woods on the 29th of April, 1742, came in sight of the Rocky Mountains on the 1st of January, 1743, and on the 12th ascended them. On the route they fell in with the Beaux Hommes, Pioya, Petits Renards, and Arc tribes, and stopped among the Snake tribe, but could go no farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war between the Arcs and Snakes.

On the 19th of May, 1744, they had returned to the upper Missouri, and, in the country of the Petite Cerise tribe, they planted on an eminence a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised a monument of stones, which they called Beauharnois. They returned to the Lake of the Woods on the 2d of July.

Korth of the Asshiiboine they proceeded to Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lake, explored the river "Des Biches," and ascended even to the fork of the Saskatchewan, which they called Poskoiac. Two foils were subsequently established, one near Lake Dauphin and the other on the river des Biches," called Fort Bourbon. The northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought to have some advantage over the Missouri, because there was no danger of meeting with the Spaniards.

Governor Beauhamois having been prejudiced against Verendrye by envious persons, De Noyelles was appointed to take command of the posts. During these difficulties, we find Sieur de la Yerendrje, Jr., engaged in other duties. In August, 1747, he arrives from Mackinaw at Montreal, and in the autumn of that year he accom- PcUiies St. Pierre to Mackinaw, and brings back the convoy to Montreal. In February, 1748, with iWe Canadians, live Cristenaux, two Ottawas, and one Saiiteur, he attacked the Mohawks near Schenectady, and returned to Montreal with two scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20th, 1748, it is recorded that Chevalier de la Verendrye departed from ^Montreal for the head of Lake Superior. Margry states that he perished at sea in November, 1704, by the wreck of the " Auguste."

Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of Beauhamois, although deformed and insignificant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of science, especially botany, and anxious to push discoveries toward the Pacific. Verendrye the father was restored to favor, and made Captain of the Order of St. Louis, and ordered to resume explorations, but he died on December 6th, 1749, while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan.

The Swedish Professor, Kalm,methim in Canada, not long before his decease, and had interesting conversations with him about the furrows on the plains of the Missouri, which he erroneously conjectured indicated the foi-mer abode of an agricultural people. These ruts are familiar to modern travelers, and may be only bufiCalo trails.

Verendrye, says that they first met the Mantanes, and next the Brochets. After these were the Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the Black Feet, and Dog Feet, who were established on the Missouri, even up to the falls, and that about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow pass in the mountains.

Bougainville gives a more full account: he says: 'He who most advanced this * discovery was the Sieur de la Veranderie. He went from Fort la Reine to the Missouri. He met on the banks of this river the Mandans, or White Beards, who had seven villages with pine stockades, strengthened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinongewiniris. or the Brochets, in three villages, and toward the upper part of the river were three villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth of the Wabeik, or Shell Eiver, were situated twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the southwest of this river, on the banks of the Ouanaradeba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake tribe. They extend to the base of a chain of mountains which runs north northeast. South of this is the river Karoskiou, or Cerise Pelee, which is supposed to flow to California.

" He found in the immense region watered by the Missouri, and in the vicinity of forty leagues, the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hommes, four villages; opposite the Brochets the Black Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; opposite the Mandans are the Ospekakaerenousques, or Flat Heads, four villages; opposite th9 Panis are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaoutchatas of Assiniboel, three villages; following these the Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; tho Piwassa, or great talkers, three villages; the Kakokoschena, or Gens de la Pie, five villages; the Kiskipisounouini,, or the Garter tribe, seven villages."

Galassoniere was succeeded by Jonquiere in the governorship of Canada, who proved to be a grasping, peevish, and very miserly person. For the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and forming a clique to profit by their father's toils.

Father Coquard, one of the companions of Verendrye, was consulted as to the probability of finding a pass in the Bocky Mountains, through which they might, in canoes, reach the great lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Sound.

The enterprise was at length confided to two experienced ofScers, Lamarque de Marin and Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to the latter was given the more northern route; but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostility of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kill him, and burned Fort la Reine. His lieutenant, Boucher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan, failed on account of sickness. Some of his men, however, pushed on to the Rocky Moimtains, and in 1753 established Fort Jonquiere. " Henry says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon.

In 1753, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the command of the posts of the West, by de la Come, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylvania. He had been but a few days there when he received a visit from Washington, just entering upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, complaining of the en croaclunents of the French.

Soon the clash of arms between France and England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in September, 1755, in a battle with the English. After the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts in the Northwest, and the work begun by Verendrye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and Clarke ; and the Northern Pacific Railway is fast approaching the passes of the Rocky Mountains, through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean, Puget's Sound.