de la Jonquiere, all my father's toils
and ours fail to serve us, and we must abandon what has cost us so
much. We certainly should not have been and should not be useless to
Monsieur de Saint-Pierre. I explained to him fully how I believed I
could serve him; clever as he {105} may be, and inspired with the best
intentions, I venture to say that by keeping us away he is in danger of
making many mistakes and of getting often on the wrong track. It is
something gained to have gone astray, but to have found out your error;
we think that now we should be sure of the right road to reach the
goal, whatever it may be. It is our greatest cause of distress to find
ourselves thus snatched away from a sphere of action in which we were
proposing to use every effort to reach a definite result.

Deign therefore, Monseigneur, to judge the cause of three orphans. Our
misfortune is great, but is it without remedy? There are in the hands
of your Lordship resources of compensation and of consolation, and I
venture to hope for some benefit from them. To find ourselves thus
excluded from the West would be to find ourselves robbed in the most
cruel manner of our heritage. We should have had all that was bitter
and others all that was sweet.

This eloquent appeal of Francois fell upon unheeding ears; the
appointment of his rival was confirmed. The only grace he could obtain
was leave to take to the West a small portion of the supplies for which
he and his {106} brothers had already paid, and to return with the furs
his men had collected and brought down to Michilimackinac. Thus ended,
sadly enough, the devoted efforts of this remarkable family of
explorers to complete the long search for a route overland to the
Pacific ocean. The brothers La Verendrye, ruined in purse and denied
opportunity, fell into obscurity and were forgotten.

It remains only to tell briefly of the attempts of Saint-Pierre and his
men to carry out the same great project. In obedience to the
governor's instructions, Saint-Pierre left Montreal in the spring of
1750. He paddled up the Ottawa, and then through Lake Nipissing, and
down the French river to Georgian Bay. He crossed Lake Huron to
Michilimackinac, where he remained for a short time to give his men a
rest. Then he pushed on to Grand Portage, where he spent some time in
talking to the Indians. In spite of his ungenerous treatment of the
sons of La Verendrye, Saint-Pierre was a brave and capable