Such was the discovery of the Canadian Northwest.

Doubtless the weary gaze of the tired _voyageurs_ turned longingly
westward. Where was the Western Sea? Did it lie just beyond the
horizon where skyline and prairie met, or did the trail of their quest
run on--on--on--endlessly? The Assiniboine flows into the Red, the Red
into Lake Winnipeg, the Lake into Hudson Bay. Plainly, Assiniboine
Valley was not the way to the Western Sea. But what lay just beyond
this Assiniboine Valley? An old Cree chief warned the boatmen that the
Assiniboine River was very low and would wreck the canoes; but he also
told vague yarns of "great waters beyond the mountains of the setting
sun," where white men dwelt, and the waves came in a tide, and the
waters were salt. The Western Sea where the Spaniards dwelt had long
been known. It was a Western Sea to the north, that would connect
Louisiana and Canada, that De la Verendrye sought. The Indian fables,
without doubt, referred to a sea beyond the Assiniboine River, and
thither would De la Verendrye go at any cost. Some sort of barracks or
shelter was knocked up on the south side of the Assiniboine opposite
the flats. It was subsequently known as Fort Rouge, after the color of
the adjacent river, and was the foundation of Winnipeg. Leaving men to
trade at Fort Rouge, De la Verendrye set out on September 26, 1738, for
the height of land that must lie beyond the sources of the Assiniboine.
De la Verendrye was now like a man hounded by his own Frankenstein. A
thousand leagues--every one marked by disaster and failure and sinking
hopes--lay behind him. A thousand leagues of wilderness lay before
him. He had only a handful of men. The Assiniboine Indians were of
dubious friendliness. The white men were scarce of food. In a few
weeks they would be exposed to the terrible rigors of Northern winter.
Yet they set their faces toward the west, types of the pioneers who
have carved empire out of wilderness.

[Illustration: The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains.]

The Assiniboine was winding and low, with many sand bars. On the
wooded banks deer and buffalo grazed in such countless multitudes that
the boatmen took them for great herds of cattle. Flocks of wild geese
darkened the sky overhead. As the boats wound up the shallows of the
river, ducks rose in myriad flocks. Prairie wolves skulked away from
the river bank, and the sand-hill cranes were so unused to human
presence that they