e making no money out of the fur trade,
but, as we have seen, he was heavily in debt because of the enormous
cost of carrying on his explorations. For a time, however, the truth
did not help him. The tales told by his enemies were believed, and he
was ordered to return to Montreal with his sons. He and they withdrew
from their work in the West, left behind their promising beginnings,
and returned to the East. Never again, as it happened, was the father
to resume his work. Another officer, M. de Noyelle, was sent to the
West to continue the work of exploration. Noyelle spent two years in
the West without {95} adding anything to the information La Verendrye
had gained. By that time a natural reaction had come in favour of La
Verendrye, and the acting governor of Canada, the Marquis de La
Galissoniere, decided to put the work of exploration again in charge of
La Verendrye and his sons. In recognition of his services he was given
the rank of captain and was decorated with the Cross of St Louis.

While these events were ripening, the years passed, and not until 1749
was La Verendrye restored to his leadership in the West. Though now
sixty-four years old, he was overjoyed at the prospect. Not only was
he permitted to continue his search for the Western Sea; the quality of
his work was recognized, for the governor and the king had at last
understood that, instead of seeking his own profit in his explorations,
as his enemies had said, he had the one object of adding to the honour
and glory of his country. He made preparations to start from Montreal
in the spring of 1750, and intended to push forward as rapidly as
possible to Fort Bourbon, or Fort Paskoyac, where he would spend the
winter. In the spring of the following year he would ascend the
Saskatchewan river and make his way over the mountains to the shores of
the Western {96} Sea, the Pacific ocean as we know it to-day. But the
greatest of all enemies now blocked his way. La Verendrye was taken
ill while making his preparations for the expedition, and before the
close of the year 1749 he had set out on the journey from which no man
returns.

[Illustration: The Marquis de la Galissoniere. From an engraving in
the Chateau de Ramezay.]

After the death of La Verendrye, his sons made preparations to carry
out his plan for reaching the Western Sea by way of the Saskatchewan
river. They had the same unselfish desire to bring honour to their
king and to add new