We know now that the northern
regions of the American continent east of the Rocky Mountains are
tilted towards the east and the north and that in all its vast
spaces there is no great river which flows to the west. La
Verendrye, however, ignorant of this dictate of nature, longed to
paddle with the stream towards the west. The Red River flows
from the south into Lake Winnipeg at a point near the mouth of
the Winnipeg River. Up the Red River went La Verendrye and found
a tributary, the Assiniboine, flowing into it from the west. At
the point of junction, where has grown up the city of Winnipeg,
he built a tiny fort, called Fort Rouge, a name still preserved
in a suburb of the modern Winnipeg. The explorers went southward
on the Red River, and then went westward on the Assiniboine River
only to find the waters persistently flowing against them and no
definite news of other waters leading to the Western Sea. On the
Assiniboine, near the site of the present town of Portage la
Prairie in Manitoba, La Verendrye built Fort La Reine. Its name
is evidence still perhaps of hopes for aid through the Queen if
not through the King of France.
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