Compendium of history and biography of North Dakota: containing a history of North Dakota . also a compendium of biography of North Dakota

• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
• Subjects: Canada; Massacre Island; Pierre River; Reine; assiniboine
• Online Access: http://cdm16921.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/ndsl-books/id/51172

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY 87 river of the west. As most of the travel and nearly all the transportation of heavy material at that time was by water, this river would solve a weighty problem, and its discovery would add to the fame as well as the purse of the discoverer, for trading with the Indians was part of these expedi-tions. Father DeGonor conversed with X'erendrye upon the subject of the river of the west and prom-ised his influence with the governor general of Xew France, as Canada was then called, for fitting out an expedition to discover and explore it. Charles de Beauharnois, the governor general, gave A'erendrye a respectful hearing and carefully examined the map of Ochagach, and was duly im-' pressed with the value of the information. Soon orders were issued for the fitting out of an expe-dition for exploration, consisting of some fifty men. It left Montreal in the early summer of 1731, under the command of two sons of the Sieur de la Verendrye, and his nephew, De la Jemeraye, he being, as yet, detained by business engage-ments. He did not join the party until 1733. In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy Lake, by way of the Nantouagan, now Pigeon river. At that time this stream was known to the French as Groseliiers river, after a noted explorer of this region. Father Messayer, who had been located at a mission at the mouth of the Pigeon river, on Lake Superior, was taken along as spiritual director. At the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and called Fort St. Pierre. In 1732 the party crossed Lake Minittie.or Lake of the Woods, and established Fort St. Charles on its southwestern shore. On the Assinaboine river, about five leagues from Lake ^^'innipeg, they established another post. A map of these regions, made by De la Jemeraye, is still in the possession of the French government. The Winnipeg river was called by them Maure-pas, after the famous minister of France, at that time in power. Their right to the possession of the river and surrounding country tliey protected by a fort of the same name. Here their further advance was stopped for want of provisions and other supplies. But an arrangement was made, April 12, 1735, for a new equipment and another son of Verendrye joined the expedition. This was the fourth. In June, 1736, while twenty-one of the little force were camped upon an island in the Lake of the Woods, they were surprised by a l.iand of Xadouessioux, or Sioux, and all killed. The island perpetuates this crime in its name of Massacre island. The bodies were found a few days after the event and buried. They were all dead and had been scalped. Father Ouneau, according to the journal of \'er-endrye, a missionary priest, who was with them, was found upon one knee, an arrow in his head, his breast bare, his left hand touching the ground and his right uplifted to the heavens, as if calling for protection upon his Maker. Among the slain, too, was one of the sons of \'erendrye, their leader, who had been tomahawked. His father was at the foot of the same lake when he heard of the murder of his son, and about the same time received the news of the death of his nephew.Dufrost de la Jemeraye. The latter was a bold and enterprising man, and was a strong support to his uncle who missed him much in his subsequent wanderings. It was under the guidance of Jeremaye that the expedition had overcome the difiiculties of the navigation of Pigeon river in the early days of their exploration. These were so great as to daunt anyone less energetic and strong-minded than he. On the 3rd of October, 1738, they built a fort on the Assiniboine, which stream they called Charles river, after Charles Beauharnois, the gov-ernor general of New France. This advance post they called Fort La Reine or Queen's fort. A short distance from this point the river was joined by another, to which they gave the name of Pierre river after their leader. The latter fort became the center of trade and point of departure for all fu-ture exploring parties. By their ascending the Assinaboine river to the mouth of the Souris or blouse river, and then up the latter, these hardy explorers crossed what is now the international boundary line just west of Turtle mountains. Although this is not certain, the reading of the account justifying the writer in thinking it was further to the east. As it was, however, it was the first time that the foot of white men are known to have been planted upon the soil of what is now North Dakota the first time civil-ized eyes had beheld its plains, its hills and its valleys. That is unless there is some truth in the story of Coronado, one of Cortez's lieutenants' visit to this far-off land when upon his long expe-dition to the north early in the sixteenth century, which is very doubtful. The first authentic ex-pedition into North Dakota was under the com-mand of ^'erendrye himself, and took place in J 74 1. It penetrated into the land of the Man-tanes or Mandans, or whitebeards. a people who Internet Archive