The going was
laborious and the distances seemed long, for on their return they
reported that they had gone a hundred and fifty leagues, though
in truth the distance was only a hundred and fifty miles. Then at
last they stood on the shores of a vast body of water, ice-bound
and forbidding as it lay in the grip of winter. It opened out
illimitably westward. But it was not the Western Sea, for its
waters were fresh. The shallow waters of Lake Winnipeg empty not
into the Western Sea but into the Atlantic by way of Hudson Bay.
Its shores then were deserted and desolate, and even to this day
they are but scantily peopled. In that wild land there was no
hint of the populous East of which La Verendrye had dreamed.
At the mouth of the Winnipeg River, where it enters Lake
Winnipeg, La Verendrye built Fort Maurepas, named after the
French minister who was in charge of the colonies and who was
influential at court. The name no doubt expresses some clinging
hope which La Verendrye still cherished of obtaining help from
the King. Already he was hard pressed for resources.
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