winter's approach. Jean de la Verendrye had not come up
with the supplies from Michilimackinac. The explorer did not tempt
mutiny by going farther. He ordered a halt and began building a fort
that was to be the centre of operations between Montreal and the
unfound Western Sea. The fort was named St. Charles in honor of
Beauharnois. It was defended by four rows of thick palisades fifteen
feet high. In the middle of the enclosure stood the living quarters,
log cabins with thatched roofs.

[Illustration: A Group of Cree Indians.]

By October the Indians had scattered to their hunting-grounds like
leaves to the wind. The ice thickened. By November the islands were
ice-locked and snow had drifted waist-high through the forests. The
_voyageurs_ could still fish through ice holes for food; but where was
young Jean who was to bring up provisions from Michilimackinac? The
commander did not voice his fears; and his men were too deep in the
wilds for desertion. One afternoon, a shout sounded from the silent
woods, and out from the white-edged evergreens stepped a figure on
snowshoes--Jean de la Verendrye, leading his boatmen, with the
provisions packed on their backs, from a point fifty miles away where
the ice had caught the canoes. If the supplies had not come, the
explorer could neither have advanced nor retreated in spring. It was a
risk that De la Verendrye did not intend to have repeated. Suspecting
that his merchant partners were dissatisfied, he sent Jemmeraie down to
Montreal in 1733 to report and urge the necessity for prompt forwarding
of all supplies. With Jemmeraie went the Jesuit Messaiger; but their
combined explanations failed to satisfy the merchants of Montreal. De
la Verendrye had now been away three years. True, he had constructed
two fur posts and sent East two cargoes of furs. His partners were
looking for enormous wealth. Disappointed and caring nothing for the
Western Sea; perhaps, too, secretly accusing De la Verendrye of making
profits privately, as many a gentleman of fortune did,--the merchants
decided to advance provisions only in proportion to earnings. What
would become of the fifty men in the Northern wilderness the partners
neither asked nor cared.

Young Jean had meanwhile pushed on and built Fort Maurepas on Lake
Winnipeg; but his father dared not leave Fort St. Charles without
supplies. De la Verendrye's position was now desperate. He was
hopelessly in debt to his men f