climb the mountains that barred the way to the sea.
The retreat was made in the teeth of a howling mountain blizzard, and
the warriors reached the rendezvous more dead than alive. No Snake
Indians were seen at all. The Bows marched homeward along the valley
of the Upper Missouri through the country of the Sioux, with whom they
were allied. On the banks of the river the brothers buried a leaden
plate with the royal arms of France imprinted. At the end of July,
1743, they were once more back on the Assiniboine River. For thirteen
years they had followed a hopeless quest. Instead of a Western Sea,
they had found a sea of prairie, a sea of mountains, and two great
rivers, the Saskatchewan and the Missouri.

VI

1743-1750

But the explorer, who had done so much to extend French domain in the
West, was a ruined man. To the accusations of his creditors were added
the jealous calumnies of fur traders eager to exploit the new country.
The eldest son, with tireless energy, had gone up the Saskatchewan to
Fort Poskoyac when he was recalled to take a position in the army at
Montreal. In 1746 De la Verendrye himself was summoned to Quebec and
his command given to M. de Noyelles. The game being played by jealous
rivals was plain. De la Verendrye was to be kept out of the West while
tools of the Quebec traders spied out the fur trade of the Assiniboine
and the Missouri. Immediately on receiving freedom from military duty,
young Chevalier de la Verendrye set out for Manitoba. On the way he
met his father's successor, M. de Noyelles, coming home crestfallen.
The supplanter had failed to control the Indians. In one year half the
forts of the chain leading to the Western Sea had been destroyed.
These Chevalier de la Verendrye restored as he passed westward.

Governor Beauharnois had always refused to believe the charges of
private peculation against M. de la Verendrye. Governor de la
Galissonniere was equally favorable to the explorer; and De la
Verendrye was decorated with the Order of the Cross of St. Louis, and
given permission to continue his explorations. The winter of 1749 was
passed preparing supplies for the posts of the West; but a life of
hardship and disappointment had undermined the constitution of the
dauntless pathfinder. On the 6th of December, while busy with plans
for his hazardous and thankless quest, he died suddenly at Montreal.

Rival fur traders scrambled for the spoils of the Manitoba and Miss