He
died amid the howling of the tempest and the cries of drowning
men. Tragedy, unrelenting, had pursued him to the end.
Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, the choice of the Marquis de la
Jonquiere to take up the search for the Western Sea in succession
to the elder La Verendrye, himself went only as far as Fort La
Reine. It was a subordinate, the Chevalier de Niverville, whom he
sent farther west to find the great mountains and if possible the
sea. The winter of 1750-51 had set in before Niverville was
ready. He started apparently from Fort Maurepas, on snowshoes,
his party dragging their supplies on toboggans. Before they
reached Paskoya on the Saskatchewan (the modern Le Pas) they had
nearly perished of hunger and were able to save their lives only
by catching a few fish through the ice. Niverville was ill. He
sent forward ten men by canoe up the Saskatchewan. They traveled
with such rapidity that on May 29, 1751, they had reached the
Rockies. They built a good fort, which they named Fort La
Jonquiere, and stored it with a considerable quantity of
provisions.
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