soldier; but
he knew very little of the hardships of western exploration, or of the
patience needed in dealing with Indians. He grumbled bitterly about
the difficulties and hardships of the portages, which La Verendrye
{107} had taken as a matter of course; and, instead of treating the
Indians with patience and forbearance, he lost no opportunity to
harangue and scold them. We need not wonder, therefore, that the
natives, who had looked up to La Verendrye as a superior being, soon
learned to dislike the overbearing Saint-Pierre, and would do nothing
to help him in his attempts at exploration.

Saint-Pierre visited Fort St Charles; he spent the winter at Fort
Maurepas; in the spring of 1751 he went on to Fort La Reine. Meanwhile
he had sent Niverville, a young officer of his party, to the
Saskatchewan river, with instructions to push his discoveries westward
beyond the farthest point reached by La Verendrye. Winter had set in
before Niverville set out on his long journey, and he travelled over
the snow and ice with snowshoes, dragging his provisions on toboggans.
He knew nothing of the Indian method of harnessing dogs to their
toboggans, and he and his men dragged the toboggans themselves. He
travelled slowly across Lake Winnipeg, over rough ice and through deep
snowdrifts, with no protection from the bitter winds. So great were
the hardships that, in the end, he was compelled to abandon some of the
heavier {108} supplies and provisions. Before he and his men reached
Fort Paskoyac they were at the point of starvation. During the last
few days they had nothing to eat but a few small fish caught through
holes in the ice.

Niverville was taken seriously ill, and had to remain at Fort Paskoyac,
while some of his men in the spring of 1751 ascended the Saskatchewan
in canoes. These men, we are told, paddled up the river to the foot of
the Rocky Mountains, where they built a fort, named Fort La Jonquiere,
in honour of the governor. Later in the year Niverville followed his
men up the river. At Fort La Jonquiere he met a party of Western
Indians, who told him that in the course of a war expedition they had
encountered a number of Indians of a strange tribe carrying loads of
beaver skins. These strange Indians told the Frenchmen that they were
on their way over the Rocky Mountains to trade their furs with white
men on the sea-coast. For some reason, either through lack of supplies
or because he did not possess the