king and the welfare of the colony." He wrote these words to Quebec on the 17th September, 1749, but in making this promise, he counted without that host, whose name is Death, and who is ever faithful to man. On the 6th of the following December he died, taking with him, so to say, the success of the enterprise. M. de la Galissonnière had just left Canada, to give place to M. de la Jonquière; and the corruptions which were to contribute to the loss of the colony by France, commenced in the painful developments which led to the condemnation of the Intendant Bigot to exile. MM. de la Verendrye were to be this Intendant's first victims. Assuredly, after the death of their father, no one in the colony was as capable of continuing and achieving the discovery which they had so far advanced. The sons of M. de la Verendrye claimed the honour of completing this enterprise as the most precious portion of their inheritance. Furthermore, it seemed impossible to refuse this to men who had already made the greater part of the preparations, and undertaken engagements which absorbed their little fortune, and even more. But the Intendant Bigot and the Governor had formed an association for these discoveries and for the development of the Posts of the West; and the Varennes had to yield to their all-powerful rivals, who were more greedy of profit than of the honour imposed upon them by their high rank. M. Bigot never had money enough to waste, nor M. de la Jonquière to save. Neither of them recognized any principle of right, but entirely forgot their duty. Having in view the two extreme points traversed or intended to be traversed by the Verendryes, they thought to find the Western Sea by the Mississippi and Saskatchaouan. Father Coquart, a companion of M. de la Verendrye, had about this time come to the conclusion that it would be necessary in order to reach this sea to seek the sources of the Missouri and to cross the Rocky Mountains, if it were found impossible to penetrate the defiles with their canoes, and so reach the great salt water lake. He wrote that his idea had been rejected, because here, added he,* "discoveries are wanted that cost no money except the returns from the beaver, and I have been told that any project proposed to the Court, if it required funds for its execution, would not be listened to." However, his proposition was remembered, and these projects, born of the discoveries of the Chevalier de la Verendrye, were united to those that he and his companions had intended to carry out by the Saskatchaouan. The enterprise thus conceived was confided to two officers: M. Lamarguede Marin was directed to the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri, whilst the north was the destination of Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. These two officers, whose intrepidity was beyond question, do not seem to me, if I am to believe certain indications, to have been equally commendable in character. At all events, on this occasion they considered their desire for advancement and gain more than the feelings of delicacy which should have obliged them to have been careful of the interests and honour of M. de la Verendrye.

An enterprise conceived and conducted by covetous men is at all events generally advantageous to those interested; and so it proved here. If it was said without reason concerning M. de la Verendrye, that the hunting of the beaver delayed the discovery, it could be said with truth in this case. The colony seemed to gain no advantage from this expedition, excepting the establishment of a fort near the Rocky Mountains by a detachment of men, who, in accordance with the plans of the Chevalier de la Verendrye, followed the Saskat chaouan.+ Still the officers themselves who commanded the establishment of this post, were only honoured indirectly by it, neither of them being present. M. de Saint Pierre, who from the first steps he took on the road prepared by his predecessors, recognized all the difficulties of their enterprise, must in meeting the unexpected obstacles which victoriously refuted all those calumnies through which doubtlessly he had supplanted them, have felt the injustice of his conduct towards them. He traversed a road which had already been opened by them, yet he owned that at each step there was risk of losing not only provisions and effects, but even life itself. He realized the covetousness of the populations through which he had to pass, although he attributed it to the lenity which he pretended had been shown them. "No matter what presents are made them, they would exhaust," said he, " the king's storehouses." These facts, of which M. de Saint Pierre only spoke to magnify the difficulties of his enterprise, proved a great set off to the acts of M. de la Verendrye, whose merits had been hidden

Lettre du Père Coquart, 1730.

+ Mémoire ou Journail (sic), sommaire du voyage de Jacques le Gardeur de Saint Pierre . de la découverte de la mer de l'ouest.

desty of his recital; as did also the conduct by which the new chief of the explora ienating the Christinaux, compromised all the work of the first explorers, and proved is wrong in accusing them of lenity; the truth being that they were much more nd skilful than he in dealing with these nations. The Christinaux burned Fort la 1 nearly killed M. de Saint Pierre himself. The illness, also, of his lieutenant, the Boucher de Niverville, showed how much he had not only prejudiced his own it also the success of the enterprise, in refusing the earnest request of MM. de la to be allowed to accompany him. The Chevalier de Niverville having been sent found a post at the source of the Saskatchaouan or Poskoyac, had been obliged to e way, exhausted by the fatigues and miseries to which MM. de la Verendrye had customed, and only some of his men could reach the Rocky Mountains, where ished Fort La Jonquière, in 1752. The expedition does not seem to have passed ains when M. de Saint Pierre, who had been recalled by the Marquis Duchesne de , who succeeded M. de la Jonquière, saw M. de la Corne arrive, in 1753, to replace Posts of the West. The Seven Years' War, which was about breaking out, prevented of this enterprise, of which the English colonies, victorious over ours, were at a to reap the benefit.

the covetousness and envy of a few agents, who were but fitting instruments of a t that everywhere provoked its own decadence, caused France to lose the honour of I which science expected of some of her sons, at the very moment when this honour, so earnestly wished for by MM. de la Verendrye, was snatched from them. But how hope for it when even their very property was at this time delivered up to shame. The sic vos non vobis of the poet was here realized in all its severity. Nothing e pathetic than the complaints of the two brothers on this snbject. At the very te the elder,* "when they all intended to pursue their discoveries, they had not ed considerable losses in establishing the Posts of the West, but they had also been the enjoyment of a property which they had come to regard as the reward of their ving spent their youth and their fortune, and even sold what they had in Canada, e an undertaking so beneficial to the colony. After all these expenses, they had seeing strangers gather the harvest of which they had sown the seed; the influence ained lost; the merchandize they had left in the posts given away without their slightest hope of deriving any profit therefrom; their provisions eaten by strangers, engagés whom they had to pay were still made use of." The complaints of the being more poignant and better expressed, are still more heartrending." I, too," d," said he. "My returns of this year being but half gathered, after a thousand ces, my ruin is accomplished. My father's affairs and mine being settled, I remain her funds or patrimony. I am simply second ensign. My elder brother holds the as myself, and my other brother is only a cadet a l'aiguillette, and this is the actual that my father and my brothers and I have done. My brother who was assassinated ago by the Sioux, is not the most unfortunate of us." He was so reduced as to of death.

much lesser cause, in 1809, Lewis, the companion of Clark, with whom it is said can Government refused to fulfil its engagements, blew out his brains. But MM. ndrye, awaited with more christian resignation, the end of their misfortunes; they he hands of God. It soon arrived. They re-entered the army, and the Seven r, which occasioned to us, notwithstanding the heroism of Montcalm, the loss of ve them an opportunity of ending their lives nobly. In this war, several Varennes , but I have been unable to discover whether they were the sons of M. de la or of his brother. The fate of the Chevalier alone is certain. He and another named Varenne perished on the 15th of November, 1761, by drowning in the e Auguste, a vessel armé en cartel. This wreck, which was an image of the fate nch power in America, was terrible. Some Canadians, however, who in exile, Escape the yoke of the stranger, envied them their destiny. The Chevalier needed a onww his brother who was killed by the Sioux, and in dying, he could say as

Such was, given as briefly as possible, the unhappy, but not inglorious life of these brave officers, who, through the ignorance of history in regard to our ancient colonies, have not even received a memento. Doubtless when it obtains a better knowledge of their enterprise and efforts, they will obtain a fame proportionate to their labours and their sacrifices, and to the advantages which must result to America from the interior routes of communication between the Atlantic and the Great Ocean,-which will enable that continent, aided by the audacity of its genius, to dispute with Europe the commerce of Asia. Whatever the result, even if the explorers did not entirely succeed in the execution of their plans, their names, after that of Cavalier de la Salle, and before those of McKenzie, Lewis, and Clark, should, to the honour of France, be respected as those of the first discoverers of the West. The courage and constancy which they displayed; the privations which they endured; their life. so laboriously sad, entirely devoted to their work, and their pitiful end, will form one of the most interesting episodes as well in the memorial of that enterprise, as in the mournful history of the discoveries in which European civilization advanced against barbarism only by the sacrifice of its noblest children: and this posthumuous glory will be but a just and tardily granted compensation to men, whose only reward for patriotic devotion, was misery.

PIERRE MARGRY.

BOUGAINVILLE ON THE FRENCH POSTS, 1757.

(EXTRACTS FROM BOUGAINVILLE'S* MEMOIR ON THE STATE OF NEW FRance at the TIME OF THE SEVEN YEARS WAR (1757).†)

DETROIT.-Detroit is an important post; it is the entrepôt of the southern forts, which communicate with the Illinois. The lands there are fertile and of easy cultivation; the sky beautiful and serene; the climate magnificent. There is almost no winter; very little snow; animals winter in the fields, where they find their feed; there are already two hundred habitations, or about that number, full of food and cattle, and which furnish supplies for the different posts of the upper countries. This fort is situated on the shore of the river which separates Lake Erie from Lake Huron. The post of Detroit, entrepôt of the southern posts is a large town, situated between Lake Erie and Lake Saint Claire. From the entrance of Lake Erie to Detroit, there is a distance of six leagues; from Detroit to Lake Saint Claire, two leagues; from the outlet of this lake, which extends seven leagues, to Lake Huron, there is a distance of eleven leagues. The site of the post is a very beautiful one, the climate is pleasant, the atmosphere very healthy, the soil excellent and good for any productions; the game is abundant.. On the north there are three leagues of land, inhabited by Frenchmen, and on the south two leagues and a half. This post has a commandant, a major, etc.; the garrison comprises men belonging to the companies detached from the marine. This post is worked by means of licenses (congès), whose price is generally five hundred francs, payable in cash, and whose number is not determined.

MICHILLIMAKINAC.-Michillimakinac is distant from Montreal, travelling by the Grande Rivière, some three hundred leagues, and some one hundred leagues and more from Detroit. This post is situate between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The GovernorGeneral receives generally from the voyageurs five hundred francs upon each canoe laden with merchandizes, and the proceeds thereof are distributed among the officers and the poor families. In ordinary times, six or seven hundred bundles (paquets) of furs are forwarded from the fort per annum.................. Michilimackinac is the entrepôt of all the northern posts, as Detroit

is of the southern ones.

*Louis Antoine de Bougainville, author of this Memoir on Canada, was one of the most distinguished French officers in the war which resulted in the conquest of Canada. His "Memoir" was submitted to General Montcalm at the time it was written, and that officer testified to the correctness of the information it contained. Bougainville attained, on his return to France, a high rank in the navy, of which he became Vice-Admiral. The French original is given in "Relations et Mémoires Inédits," etc., par Pierre Margry, Paris, 1867. P. 41.

MIAMIS POST.-The post of the Miamis (Bellestre, Lieutenant), is situated on the right shore of the river of that name, and has a fort built with palisades. This fort is farmed to the commandant for three years, in consideration of a sum of twelve hundred francs per annum. He has the control of the fur trade; the King delivers neither certificates nor presents to the Indians; the farmer must bear these expenses, and, moreover, pay the salary of the interpreter; he receives no gratuity. This post produces gen

erally from two hundred and fifty to three hundred bundles of furs.

OUYATANONS. The post of Ouyatanons (Camet Bayeul, Ensign), is situated on the right shore of the River Ouabache, or St. Jerome; the fort is built with palisades. This post is on the same footing with that of the Miamis; the commandant is its farmer, and pays on that account twelve hundred francs annually. This post, and those that

are dependent upon it, produce generally from four hundred to four hundred and fifty bundles of furs per annum.

VINCENNES.-The post of Vincennes is a pretty village, subject to New Orleans, which sends there a commandant. It has three horse-mills, and contains seventy-five inhabitants, who labour and reap corn.

ILLINOIS POST.-The principal entrepost of the post of the Illinois is Fort Chartres, situated upon the Mississippi. There are, for all these posts, a garrison of six companies furnished, as is also the commandant, by New Orleans. The divisions of the Illinois are the Cahoo [Cahokias] . . . the Metchi .. the Kas [Kaskaskias] three nations are now comprised under the name of the Illinois. This post is worked by means of licenses, whose price is six hundred francs per canoe. There is another post

These

on the River of the Illinois, where resides a commandant in a fort called Pimiteoui. The tribes which trade there are the Peorias. Seven hundred men produce two hundred bundles of furs.

KANSES. In ascending this stream [the Missouri River] we meet the village of the Kanses. We have there a garrison with a commandant, appointed, as is the case with Pimiteoui and Fort Chartres, by New Orleans. This post produces one hundred bundles

of furs.

FORT DUQUESNE.-Fort Duquesne is situated on the left bank of Belle-Rivière [Ohio], at the confluence of the Malangueule [Monongahela]. This post is worked by means of licenses, which are distributed free in order to encourage the traders to forward furs there. It produces generally, per annum, from two hundred to two hundred and fifty bundles of furs.

FORT OF LA PRESQU' ISLE.-La Presqu' Isle is a square fort, built with squared timbers, situated on Lake Erie, at a distance of seven leagues from Rivière au Boeuf and Niagara, almost at the entrance of a large bay, about one league and a half long, with a width of half a league. There are at the post a commandant, who receives a salary of 1,000 francs, and a garrison of from fifty to sixty men. This post is for the fur trade in the same position With the two preceding ones; it is important as a necessary entrepost, and the first between Niagara and the Belle-Rivière.

FORT OF THE RIVIERE AU BOEUF.-The Fort of the Rivière au Boeuf, a square fort built with palisades, is situated at thirty leagues from Fort Machault, on the river of which it bears the name. This post is a necessary entrepost for Fort Duquesne, but it should be rebuilt in order to be protected against a coup de main. This post is not a trading one.

FORT MACHAULT.-Fort Machault is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Au Boeuf and Ohio. It is the last entrepost towards Fort Duquesne . . . It is not a trading post.

NIAGARA.-Niagara may be considered as a strong place; it is situated at the head of Lake Ontario to the south, at the confluence of Niagara River. This post is the key of the upper countries. The soil being most fertile, the climate mild, and game and fish abundant,

we should attempt to establish there a town, or at least a village. The King controls the fur trade of this post, and consequently pays the salaries of the commandant aud other employés, but the trade is badly managed. The post produces generally per annum from 250 to 300 bundles of furs.

TORONTO. Situated to the north of Lake Ontario, opposite Niagara, has been established in order to prevent the northern Indians from going to trade at Choueguen. Choueguen existing no more, this post becomes useless. The King controls its trade. It produces about 150 bundles of furs.

FRONTENAC.-Frontenac or Katarakoui, a fort in bad condition, situated at the entrance of Lake Ontario; had Choueguen not been destroyed, it would have been necessary to repair it. It has a commandant, with some officers under his orders, and a garrison of soldiers. This post is managed by the King, who consequently defrays all its charges. It can produce annually from twenty to thirty bundles of furs.

LA PRÉSENTATION.-A Mission for the Indians of the Five Nations, established by M. l'Abbe Piquet, on the right shore of the River St. Lawrence, at leagues from Montreal. There are now about one hundred Indians of the Five Nations assembled under his care. It has a fort in bad condition, built with palisades, with a commandant and a small garrison. This fort is worked for the King. It produces generally from thirty to forty bundles of furs per annum.

J

BAYE DES PUANTS. The post of Baye des Puants [Green Bay] (Monsieur de Rigaud) is farmed in consideration of nine thousand francs; every expense on account of the King has been suppressed; the King delivers neither presents nor certificates, and does not pay the salaries of the interpreters; the farmers must bear all those expenses. The commandant (Lieut.-Coutrol) is interested in the farming, and manages the trade for his own account as well as for his associates; he receives a gratuity of two thousand francs. The post produces usually from five to six hundred bundles of furs per annum.

the com

RIVER ST. JOSEPH.-The fort of River St. Joseph (Monsieur le Verrier) is situated on the right of the river of that name, at a distance of twenty leagues from the place of its discharge into Lake Michigan. This post is on the same footing with that at La Baye; mandant is its farmer in whole or in part, according to the pleasure of the Governor-General; all the expenses rest upon him; he receives a gratuity of two thousand francs. It can produce four hundred bundles of furs.

POST OF THE WESTERN SEA (LA MER DE L'OUEST).The post of the Western Sea is the most advanced towards the north; it is situated amidst many Indian tribes, with whom we trade, and who have intercourse also with the English, towards Hudson's Bay. We have there seven forts built of stockades, trusted, generally, to the care of one or two officers, seven or eight soldiers, and eighty engagés Canadiens. We can push further the discoveries we have made in that country, and communicate even with California.

The post of La Mer d' Ouest includes the forts ST. PIERRE, ST. CHARLES, BOURBON, DE LA REINE, DAUPHIN, POSKOIA [AND] DES PRAIRIES, all of which are built with palisades that can give protection only against the Indians. Fort St. Pierre is situated on the left shore of Lake Tekamamiouen, or Lac de la Pluie (Rainy Lake), at 500 leagues from Michilimakinak and 300 from Kamanistigoyia, or les Trois Rivières (Three Rivers), to the north-west of Lake Superior. Fort St. Charles is situated sixty leagues from Fort St. Pierre, on a peninsula that goes far into Lac des Bois (Lake of the Woods.) Fort Bourbon is at one hundred and fifty leagues from the preceding one, and at the entrance of Lake Ouinipeg Fort la Reine is situated on the right shore of the River of the Assiniboëls, at seventy leagues from Fort Bourbon. This country is composed of vast prairies; it is the route to go through to the upper part of the Missouri. Fort Dauphin at eighty leagues from the preceding one. on the River Minanghenachequeké, or Eau Trouble. Fort Poskoia is built on the river of that name (now Saskatchewan), at 180 leagues from the preceding one; it takes ten days from this fort to reach Nelson River. The Fort des Prairies is at eighty leagues from Fort