n furs, their
hostility melted away. The prospect of profit at the rate of a hundred
per cent once more filled {36} them with enthusiasm. They agreed to
equip the expedition anew. It thus happened that when the intrepid
explorer again turned his face towards the West, fortune seemed to
smile once more. His canoes were loaded with a second equipment for
the posts of the Western Sea. Perhaps at that moment it seemed to him
hardly to matter that he was in debt deeper than ever.

While in the East completing these arrangements, La Verendrye took
steps to ensure that his youngest son, Louis, now eighteen years of
age, should join the other members of the family engaged in the work.
The boy was to be taught how to prepare maps and plans, so that, when
he came west in the following year, he might be of material assistance
to the expedition. The explorer would then have his four sons and his
nephew in the enterprise.

The hopeful outlook did not long endure. It was soon clear that La
Verendrye had again to meet trials which should try his mettle still
more severely. Shortly after his return to Fort St Charles on the Lake
of the Woods, his son Jean arrived from Fort Maurepas, with evil news
indeed. La Jemeraye, his nephew and chief lieutenant, whose knowledge
of the western tribes was invaluable, whose {37} enthusiasm for the
great project was only second to his own, whose patience and
resourcefulness had helped the expedition out of many a tight
corner--La Jemeraye was dead. He had remained in harness to the last,
and had laboured day and night, in season and out of season, pushing
explorations in every direction, meeting and conciliating the Indian
tribes, building up the fur trade at the western posts. Though sorely
needing rest, he had toiled on uncomplainingly, with no thought that he
was showing heroism, till at last his overtaxed body collapsed and he
died almost on his feet--the first victim of the search for the Western
Sea.

Meanwhile the little garrison at Fort St Charles was almost at the
point of starvation. La Verendrye had travelled ahead at such rapid
speed that his supplies were still a long way in the rear when he
reached the fort. In face of the pressing need, it was decided to send
a party down to meet the boats at Kaministikwia and to fetch back at
once the supplies which were most urgently required. Jean, now
twenty-three years of age, was placed in charge of the expedition, and
with him w