mewhat akin to
Europeans, and La Verendrye was a little disappointed to find them
only Amerindians in race and colour.

The six hundred Assiniboins who had gathered about La Verendrye's
expedition proved to be a great trouble to him, as they were
constantly picking quarrels with the Mandans, who were very dishonest.
Accordingly, La Verendrye arranged with the Mandans to frighten them
away by pretending that the Siou Indians were on the warpath. The six
hundred Assiniboins bolted, but took with them La Verendrye's
interpreter, so that he was henceforth obliged to communicate with the
Mandans by means of signs and gestures. This and other reasons decided
him to return--even though it was the depth of winter, to Fort La
Reine, but not before he had given the head chief of the Mandans a
flag and a leaden plate which (unknown to the Mandans) meant taking
possession of their country in the name of the French king.

The journey back to Fort La Reine, over the plains of the Assiniboin,
was a terrible experience. The party had to travel in the teeth of an
almost unceasing north-east wind which was freezingly cold. Night
after night they were obliged to dig deep holes in the snow for their
sleeping places. La Verendrye nearly died of agonizing pain and
fatigue during this journey, and was a long time recovering from its
effects.

As they continued to receive friendly messages from the Mandans,
inviting them to make further discoveries, LA VERENDRYE'S sons, PIERRE
and FRANCOIS, set out in the spring of 1742, and, after some checks
and disappointments, managed with a single Mandan guide to reach Broad
Lands on the Little Missouri River, where they noticed the earths of
different colours, blue, green, red, black, white, and yellow, which
are so characteristic of this region. They reached the village of the
Crow Indians, passed through a portion of the friendly tribe, the
Cheyennes (the name was probably pronounced Shian) and got into the
country which was constantly being ravaged by the Snake Indians, or
Shoshones. Here, on the 1st of January, 1743, when the mists of
morning cleared away, they saw upon the horizon the outline of huge
mountains. As they travelled westwards or south-westwards, day after
day, the jagged blue wall resolved itself into towering snow-capped
peaks, glittering in the sun and provoking the appellation of "the
Mountains of Bright Stones", a name probably given to the Rocky
Mountains by the Amerindians, bu