Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/96

78 task of maintaining the forts they had established in this savage fastness. Before their departure, other more remote posts, not long occupied, and now doubtful of location were built,—Fort Dauphin probably on Lake Manitoba, and another on the Saskatchewan.

At last, early in the summer of 1742, two of Verendrye's sons, accompanied by two Canadians only, set out to accomplish the long anticipated and hazardous journey to the sea. Their first objective was the Mandan village they had already visited in 1738, where they expected to obtain guides. The expedition left Fort La Reine and followed Mouse River past the present town of Verendrye to the Missouri.

The Mandans, it appeared, knew nothing of the sea, but they supplied the Frenchmen with two men who were to conduct them westward to a tribe obscurely referred to as the Horse Indians, a people who, it was believed, had knowledge of the western ocean. The small party traveled for twenty-one days through a country untenanted, except for the endless variety of game that pastured on the rich herbage of the plain and excepting also for the innumerable water fowl that rose on whirring wings from lake and stream.

Then they met the human occupants of this primeval land, and it was fortunate for the small and defenseless band of Frenchmen that these Indians had not yet come to know the ways of white men. How significant it is to compare the experience of the Verendryes with that of later expeditions! Without exception the numerous tribes they encountered received them with courtesy, kindness and often with rejoicing. They passed from tribe to tribe seeking the information they required; but none could give it. At last, they joined a vast horde of Bow Indians who were marching westward to make