courage and enthusiasm which had
carried the La Verendryes through so many difficulties, Niverville made
no effort to cross the mountains. This attempt to reach the Western
Sea ended, so far as French {109} explorers were concerned, at Fort La
Jonquiere. All the toils and hardships of the French explorers ended
in failure to achieve the great end at which they aimed. Members of
another race reaped the coveted reward. Many years later a
Scottish-Canadian explorer, Alexander Mackenzie, realized La
Verendrye's dream by successfully crossing the Rocky Mountains and
forcing his way through the difficult country that lay beyond, until at
last he stood upon the shores of the Pacific ocean.

Meanwhile Saint-Pierre had remained at Fort La Reine, leaving the work
of exploration to his young lieutenant, Niverville. One incident of
his life there remains to be described before we close this story of
the search for the Western Sea. It cannot be better told than in
Saint-Pierre's own narrative:

On February 22, 1752 [he says], about nine o'clock in the morning, I
was at this post with five Frenchmen. I had sent the rest of my
people, consisting of fourteen persons, to look for provisions, of
which I had been in need for several days. I was sitting quietly in my
room, when two hundred Assiniboines entered the fort, all of them
armed. These Indians scattered immediately all through the place;
several {110} of them even entered my room, but unarmed; others
remained in adjacent parts of the fort. My people came to warn me of
the behaviour of these Indians. I ran to them and told them sharply
that they were very impudent to come in a crowd to my house, and armed.
One of them answered in the Cree language that they came to smoke. I
told them that they were not behaving properly, and that they must
leave the fort at once. I believe that the firmness with which I spoke
somewhat frightened them, especially as I put four of the most resolute
out of the door, without their saying a word.

I went at once to my room. At that very moment, however, a soldier
came to tell me that the guard-house was full of Indians, who had taken
possession of the arms. I ran to the guard-house and demanded, through
a Cree interpreter, what they meant by such behaviour. During all this
time I was preparing to fight them with my weak force. My interpreter,
who proved a traitor, said that these Indians had no bad intentions.
Yet, a moment before,