La Verendrye pressed on eagerly in advance of the heavy-laden
canoes. Grim news met him soon after he reached Fort St. Charles
on the Lake of the Woods. His nephew La Jemeraye, a born leader
of men, who was at the most advanced station, Fort Maurepas on
Lake Winnipeg, had broken down from exposure, anxiety, and
overwork, and had been laid in a lonely grave in the wilderness.
Nearly all pioneer work is a record of tragedy and its gloom lies
heavy on the career of La Verendrye. A little later came another
sorrow-laden disaster. La Verendrye sent his eldest son Jean back
to Rainy Lake to hurry the canoes from Montreal which were
bringing needed food. The party landed on a peninsula at the
discharge of Rainy Lake into Rainy River, fell into an ambush of
Sioux Indians, and were butchered to a man. This incident reveals
the chief cause of the slow progress in discovery in the Great
West: the temper of the savages was always uncertain.
There is no sign that La Verendrye wavered in his great hope even
when he realized that the Winnipeg River was not the river
flowing westward which he sought.
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