e Western Sea which
fired his imagination. Incessantly he questioned the savages with whom
he traded about what lay in the unknown West. His zeal was kindled anew
by the talk of an Indian named Ochagach. This man said that he himself
had been on a great lake lying west of Lake Superior, that out of it
flowed a river westward, that he had paddled down this river until he
came to water which, as La Verendrye understood, rose and fell like
the tide. Farther, to the actual mouth of the river, the savage had not
gone, for fear of enemies, but he had been told that it emptied into a
great body of salt water upon the shores of which lived many people.
We may be sure that La Verendrye read into the words of the savage the
meaning which he himself desired and that in reality the Indian was
describing only the waters which flow into Lake Winnipeg.

La Verendrye was all eagerness. Soon we find him back at Quebec stirring
by his own enthusiasm the zeal of the Marquis de Beauharnois, the
Governor of Canada, and begging for help to pay and equip a hundred men
for the great enterprise in the West. The Governor did what he could but
was unable to move the French court to give money. The sole help offered
was a monopoly of the fur trade in the region to be explored, a doubtful
gift, since it angered all the traders excluded from the monopoly. La
Verendrye, however, was able, by promising to hand over most of the
profits, to persuade merchants in Montreal to equip him with the
necessary men and merchandise.

There followed a period of high hopes and of heartbreaking failure.
In 1731 La Verendrye set out for the West with three sons, a nephew, a
Jesuit priest, the Indian Ochagach as guide--a party numbering in all
about fifty. He intended to build trading-posts as he went westward and
to make the last post always a base from which to advance still farther.
His difficulties read like those of Columbus. His men not only disliked
the hard work which was inevitable but were haunted by superstitious
fears of malignant fiends in the unknown land who were ready to punish
the invaders of their secrets. The route lay across the rough country
beyond Lake Superior. There were many long portages over which his men
must carry the provisions and heavy stores for trade. At length
the party reached Rainy Lake, and out of Rainy Lake the waters flow
westward. The country seemed delightful. Fish and game were abundant,
and it was not hard to secure a rich