Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/97

Rh war upon the Snakes. Of the disinterested helpfulness of these savages the travelers speak with special enthusiasm.

Just where the party went is uncertain. Possibly they followed the Missouri as far as the Great Falls, or even to the gate of the mountains (near the present site of the station called Wolf Creek on the Great Northern Railway). The preponderance of proof, however, seems to indicate that they kept on the bench between the Little Missouri and the Yellowstone, eventually reaching a point near Custer's battle field. In any event, on January 1st, 1743, the brothers saw the snow-clad peaks of the Rockies, or of some eastern range of the Rocky Mountain system.

They desired eagerly to press on, feeling sure that just beyond the shining barrier they would at last look down upon the object of their long endeavor. But the war strategy of the Indians prevented them from proceeding. The Snakes were a dangerous foe, and the Bows, finding the camps of the enemy deserted, feared they had circled to the rear and would fall upon the women and children of the attacking party, who had been left some distance in the rear.

In spite of the protests of their chief, (whose loyal care of the Frenchmen is worthy of record) they retreated in disorder. The baffled explorers had no choice but to return; they proceeded eastward and finally reached the Missouri at what is now Fort Pierre, South Dakota. The elder son, the Chevalier, relates that he buried a leaden plate, under a rock, on a high bluff overlooking the Missouri, and it was there, in February, 1913, a school girl found the plate, after it had lain for almost 170 years at the place he left it. From this point they returned, by way of the Mandan villages and then down the Mouse River past the present town of Verendrye, to Fort La Reine, and eastward via Grand Portage.

The Verendryes, father and sons, have much claim