Pathfinders of the West Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Ragged Sky-line of the Mountains.]

The a.s.siniboine was winding and low, with many sand bars. On the wooded banks deer and buffalo grazed in such countless mult.i.tudes that the boatmen took them for great herds of cattle. Flocks of wild geese darkened the sky overhead. As the boats wound up the shallows of the river, ducks rose in myriad flocks. Prairie wolves skulked away from the river bank, and the sand-hill cranes were so unused to human presence that they scarcely rose as the voyageurs poled past. While the boatmen poled, the soldiers marched in military order across country, so avoiding the bends of the river. Daily, Crees and a.s.siniboines of the plains joined the white men. A week after leaving the Forks or Fort Rouge, De la Verendrye came to the Portage of the Prairie, leading north to Lake Manitoba and from the lake to Hudson Bay. Clearly, northward was not the way to the Western Sea; but the a.s.siniboines told of a people to the southwest--the Mandans--who knew a people who lived on the Western Sea. As soon as his baggage came up, De la Verendrye ordered the construction of a fort--called De la Reine--on the banks of the a.s.siniboine. This was to be the forwarding post for the Western Sea. To the Mandans living on the Missouri, who knew a people living on salt water, De la Verendrye now directed his course.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hungry Hall, 1870; near the site of the Verendrye Fort in Rainy River Region.]

On the morning of October 18 drums beat to arms. Additional men had come up from the other forts. Fifty-two soldiers and _voyageurs_ now stood in line. Arms were inspected. To each man were given powder, b.a.l.l.s, axe, and kettle. Pierre and Francois de la Verendrye hoisted the French flag. For the first time a bugle call sounded over the prairie. At the word, out stepped the little band of white men, marking time for the Western Sea. The course lay west-southwest, up the Souris River, through wooded ravines now stripped of foliage, past alkali sloughs ice-edged by frost, over rolling cliffs russet and bare, where gopher and badger and owl and roving buffalo were the only signs of life. On the 21st of October two hundred a.s.siniboine warriors joined the marching white men. In the sheltered ravines buffalo grazed by the hundreds of thousands, and the march was delayed by frequent buffalo hunts to gather pemmican--pounded marrow and fat of the buffalo--which was much esteemed by the Mandans. Within a month so many a.s.siniboines had joined the French that the company numbered more than six hundred warriors, who were ample protection against the Sioux; and the Sioux were the deadly terror of all tribes of the plains. But M. de la Verendrye was expected to present ammunition to his a.s.siniboine friends.

Four outrunners went speeding to the Missouri to notify the Mandans of the advancing warriors. The _coureurs_ carried presents of pemmican.

To prevent surprise, the a.s.siniboines marched under the sheltered slopes of the hills and observed military order. In front rode the warriors, dressed in garnished buckskin and armed with spears and arrows. Behind, on foot, came the old and the lame. To the rear was another guard of warriors. Lagging in ragged lines far back came a ragam.u.f.fin brigade, the women, children, and dogs--squaws astride cayuses lean as barrel hoops, children in moss bags on their mothers'

backs, and horses and dogs alike harnessed with the _travaille_--two sticks tied into a triangle, with the shafts fastened to a cinch on horse or dog. The joined end of the shafts dragged on the ground, and between them hung the baggage, surmounted by papoose, or pet owl, or the half-tamed pup of a prairie-wolf, or even a wild-eyed young squaw with hair flying to the wind. At night camp was made in a circle formed of the hobbled horses. Outside, the dogs scoured in pursuit of coyotes. The women and children took refuge in the centre, and the warriors slept near their picketed horses. By the middle of November the motley cavalcade had crossed the height of land between the a.s.siniboine River and the Missouri, and was heading for the Mandan villages. Mandan _coureurs_ came out to welcome the visitors, pompously presenting De la Verendrye with corn in the ear and tobacco.

At this stage, the explorer discovered that his bag of presents for his hosts had been stolen by the a.s.siniboines; but he presented the Mandans with what ammunition he could spare, and gave them plenty of pemmican which his hunters had cured. The two tribes drove a brisk trade in furs, which the northern Indians offered, and painted plumes, which the Mandans displayed to the envy of a.s.siniboine warriors.

On the 3d of December, De la Verendrye's sons stepped before the ragged host of six hundred savages with the French flag hoisted. The explorer himself was lifted to the shoulders of the Mandan _coureurs_. A gun was fired and the strange procession set out for the Mandan villages.

In this fas.h.i.+on white men first took possession of the Upper Missouri.

Some miles from the lodges a band of old chiefs met De la Verendrye and gravely handed him a grand calumet of pipestone ornamented with eagle feathers. This typified peace. De la Verendrye ordered his fifty French followers to draw up in line. The sons placed the French flag four paces to the fore. The a.s.siniboine warriors took possession in stately Indian silence to the right and left of the whites. At a signal three thundering volleys of musketry were fired. The Mandans fell back, prostrated with fear and wonder. The command "forward" was given, and the Mandan village was entered in state at four in the afternoon of December 3, 1738.

The village was in much the same condition as a hundred years later when visited by Prince Maximilian and by the artist Catlin. It consisted of circular huts, with thatched roofs, on which perched the gaping women and children. Around the village of huts ran a moat or ditch, which was guarded in time of war with the Sioux. Flags flew from the centre poles of each hut; but the flags were the scalps of enemies slain. In the centre of the village was a larger hut. This was the "medicine lodge," or council hall, of the chiefs, used only for ceremonies of religion and war and treaties of peace. Thither De la Verendrye was conducted. Here the Mandan chiefs sat on buffalo robes in a circle round the fire, smoking the calumet, which was handed to the white man. The explorer then told the Indians of his search for the Western Sea. Of a Western Sea they could tell him nothing definite. They knew a people far west who grew corn and tobacco and who lived on the sh.o.r.es of water that was bitter for drinking. The people were white. They dressed in armor and lived in houses of stone.

Their country was full of mountains. More of the Western Sea, De la Verendrye could not learn.

Meanwhile, six hundred a.s.siniboine visitors were a tax on the hospitality of the Mandans, who at once spread a rumor of a Sioux raid.

This gave speed to the a.s.siniboines' departure. Among the a.s.siniboines who ran off in precipitate fright was De la Verendrye's interpreter.

It was useless to wait longer. The French were short of provisions, and the Missouri Indians could not be expected to support fifty white men. Though it was the bitter cold of midwinter, De la Verendrye departed for Fort de la Reine. Two Frenchmen were left to learn the Missouri dialects. A French flag in a leaden box with the arms of France inscribed was presented to the Mandan chief; and De la Verendrye marched from the village on the 8th of December. Scarcely had he left, when he fell terribly ill; but for the pathfinder of the wilderness there is neither halt nor retreat. M. de la Verendrye's ragged army tramped wearily on, half blinded by snow glare and buffeted by prairie blizzards, huddling in snowdrifts from the wind at night and uncertain of their compa.s.s over the white wastes by day. There is nothing so deadly silent and utterly dest.i.tute of life as the prairie in midwinter. Moose and buffalo had sought the shelter of wooded ravines.

Here a fox track ran over the snow. There a coyote skulked from cover, to lope away the next instant for brushwood or hollow, and snow-buntings or whiskey-jacks might have followed the marchers for pickings of waste; but east, west, north, and south was nothing but the wide, white wastes of drifted snow. On Christmas Eve of 1738 low curling smoke above the prairie told the wanderers that they were nearing the Indian camps of the a.s.siniboines; and by nightfall of February 10, 1739, they were under the shelter of Fort de la Reine. "I have never been so wretched from illness and fatigue in all my life as on that journey," reported De la Verendrye. As usual, provisions were scarce at the fort. Fifty people had to be fed. Buffalo and deer meat saved the French from starvation till spring.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Monarch of the Plains.]

All that De la Verendrye had accomplished on this trip was to learn that salt water existed west-southwest. Anxious to know more of the Northwest, he sent his sons to the banks of a great northern river.

This was the Saskatchewan. In their search of the Northwest, they constructed two more trading posts, Fort Dauphin near Lake Manitoba, and Bourbon on the Saskatchewan. Winter quarters were built at the forks of the river, which afterwards became the site of Fort Poskoyac.

This spring not a canoe load of food came up from Montreal. Papers had been served for the seizure of all De la Verendrye's forts, goods, property, and chattels to meet the claims of his creditors. Desperate, but not deterred from his quest, De la Verendrye set out to contest the lawsuits in Montreal.

V

1740-1750

Which way to turn now for the Western Sea that eluded their quest like a will-o'-the-wisp was the question confronting Pierre, Francois, and Louis de la Verendrye during the explorer's absence in Montreal. They had followed the great Saskatchewan westward to its forks. No river was found in this region flowing in the direction of the Western Sea.

They had been in the country of the Missouri; but neither did any river there flow to a Western Sea. Yet the Mandans told of salt water far to the west. Thither they would turn the baffling search.

The two men left among the Mandans to learn the language had returned to the a.s.siniboine River with more news of tribes from "the setting sun" who dwelt on salt water. Pierre de la Verendrye went down to the Missouri with the two interpreters; but the Mandans refused to supply guides that year, and the young Frenchman came back to winter on the a.s.siniboine. Here he made every preparation for another attempt to find the Western Sea by way of the Missouri. On April 29, 1742, the two brothers, Pierre and Francois, left the a.s.siniboine with the two interpreters. Their course led along the trail that for two hundred years was to be a famous highway between the Missouri and Hudson Bay.

Heading southwest, they followed the Souris River to the watershed of the Missouri, and in three weeks were once more the guests of the smoky Mandan lodges. Round the inside walls of each circular hut ran berth beds of buffalo skin with trophies of the chase,--hide-s.h.i.+elds and weapons of war, fastened to the posts that separated berth from berth.

A common fire, with a family meat pot hanging above, occupied the centre of the lodge. In one of these lodges the two brothers and their men were quartered. The summer pa.s.sed feasting with the Mandans and smoking the calumet of peace; but all was in vain. The Missouri Indians were arrant cowards in the matter of war. The terror of their existence was the Sioux. The Mandans would not venture through Sioux territory to accompany the brothers in the search for the Western Sea.

At last two guides were obtained, who promised to conduct the French to a neighboring tribe that might know of the Western Sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fur Traders' Boats towed down the Saskatchewan in the Summer of 1900.]

The party set out on horseback, travelling swiftly southwest and along the valley of the Little Missouri toward the Black Hills. Here their course turned sharply west toward the Powder River country, past the southern bounds of the Yellowstone. For three weeks they saw no sign of human existence. Deer and antelope bounded over the parched alkali uplands. Prairie dogs perched on top of their earth mounds, to watch the lonely riders pa.s.s; and all night the far howl of grayish forms on the offing of the starlit prairie told of prowling coyotes. On the 11th of August the brothers camped on the Powder Hills. Mounting to the crest of a cliff, they scanned far and wide for signs of the Indians whom the Mandans knew. The valleys were desolate. Kindling a signal-fire to attract any tribes that might be roaming, they built a hut and waited. A month pa.s.sed. There was no answering signal. One of the Mandan guides took himself off in fright. On the fifth week a thin line of smoke rose against the distant sky. The remaining Mandans went to reconnoitre and found a camp of Beaux Hommes, or Crows, who received the French well. Obtaining fresh guides from the Crows and dismissing the Mandans, the brothers again headed westward. The Crows guided them to the Horse Indians, who in turn took the French to their next western neighbors, the Bows. The Bows were preparing to war on the Snakes, a mountain tribe to the west. Tepees dotted the valley.

Women were pounding the buffalo meat into pemmican for the raiders.

The young braves spent the night with war-song and war-dance, to work themselves into a frenzy of bravado. The Bows were to march west; so the French joined the warriors, gradually turning northwest toward what is now Helena.

It was winter. The hills were powdered with snow that obliterated all traces of the fleeing Snakes. The way became more mountainous and dangerous. Iced sloughs gave place to swift torrents and cataracts.

On New Year's day, 1743, there rose through the gray haze to the fore the ragged sky-line of the Bighorn Mountains. Women and children were now left in a sheltered valley, the warriors advancing unimpeded.

Francois de la Verendrye remained at the camp to guard the baggage.

Pierre went on with the raiders. In two weeks they were at the foot of the main range of the northern Rockies. Against the sky the snowy heights rose--an impa.s.sable barrier between the plains and the Western Sea. What lay beyond--the Beyond that had been luring them on and on, from river to river and land to land, for more than ten years? Surely on the other side of those lofty summits one might look down on the long-sought Western Sea. Never suspecting that another thousand miles of wilderness and mountain fastness lay between him and his quest, young De la Verendrye wanted to cross the Great Divide. Destiny decreed otherwise. The raid of the Bows against the Snakes ended in a fiasco. No Snakes were to be found at their usual winter hunt. Had they decamped to ma.s.sacre the Bow women and children left in the valley to the rear? The Bows fled back to their wives in a panic; so De la Verendrye could not 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 a.s.siniboine 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 a.s.siniboine 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed preparing supplies for the posts of the West; but a life of hards.h.i.+p and disappointment had undermined the const.i.tution 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 Missouri territory like dogs for a bone. De la Jonquiere had become governor.

Allied with him was the infamous Bigot, the intendant, and those two saw in the Western fur trade an opportunity to enrich themselves. The rights of De la Verendrye's sons to succeed their father were entirely disregarded. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre was appointed commander of the Western Sea. The very goods forwarded by De la Verendrye were confiscated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Tepees dotted the valley."]

But Saint-Pierre had enough trouble from his appointment. His lieutenant, M. de Niverville, almost lost his life among hostiles on the way down the Saskatchewan after building Fort Lajonquiere at the foothills of the Rockies, where Calgary now stands. Saint-Pierre had headquarters in Manitoba on the a.s.siniboine, and one afternoon in midwinter, when his men were out hunting, he saw his fort suddenly fill with armed a.s.siniboines bent on ma.s.sacre. They jostled him aside, broke into the armory, and helped themselves to weapons. Saint-Pierre had only one recourse. Seizing a firebrand, he tore the cover off a keg of powder and threatened to blow the Indians to perdition. The marauders dashed from the fort, and Saint-Pierre shot the bolts of gate and sally-port. When the white hunters returned, they quickly gathered their possessions together and abandoned Fort de la Reine. Four days later the fort lay in ashes. So ended the dream of enthusiasts to find a way overland to the Western Sea.

[1] The authorities for La Verendrye's life are, of course, his own reports as found in the State Papers of the Canadian Archives, Pierre Margry's compilation of these reports, and the Rev. Father Jones'

collection of the _Aulneau Letters_.

[2] The _Pays d'en Haut_ or "Up-Country" was the vague name given by the fur traders to the region between the Missouri and the North Pole.

[3] Throughout this volume the word "Sioux" is used as applying to the entire confederacy, and not to the Minnesota Sioux only.

PART III

1769-1782

SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST Pa.s.sAGE LEADS SAMUEL HEARNE TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE AND ATHABASCA REGION

CHAPTER IX

1769-1782