with the slender means now at his
command seemed almost impossible. Should he turn back? His men were
more than willing. Every step eastward would bring them nearer their
{32} homes, their families, and the pleasures and dissipations of the
Canadian towns on the far-off St Lawrence. To turn back was the
easiest thing for them. But it was not easy for a man like La
Verendrye. To return meant failure; and for him there was no such
thing as failure while health and strength endured. At whatever cost,
he must push on towards the Western Sea.

The situation was nevertheless most critical. His own means had long
since been exhausted. True, he possessed a monopoly of the fur trade,
but what did it profit him? He had not touched, and never would be
able to touch, a franc of the proceeds: the shrewd merchants of
Montreal had made sure of this. To La Verendrye the monopoly was
simply a millstone added to the burdens he was already forced to bear.
It did not increase his resources; it delayed his great enterprise; and
it put an effective weapon in the hands of his enemies. Little cause
had he to be grateful for the royal monopoly. He would have infinitely
preferred the direct grant of even a score of capable, well-equipped
men. These, maintained at the king's expense, he might lead by the
quickest route to the Western Sea.

As it was, the merchants in Montreal refused {33} to send up further
supplies; his men remained unpaid; he even lacked a sufficient supply
of food. There was nothing for it but to turn back, make the long
journey to Montreal and Quebec, and there do his utmost to arrange
matters. He had already sunk from 40,000 to 50,000 livres in the
enterprise. In all justice, the king should assume the expense of
further explorations in quest of the Great Sea. The governor, the
Marquis de Beauharnois, shared this view, and had already pressed the
court to grant La Verendrye the assistance he so urgently needed. 'The
outlay,' he wrote to the king's minister, Maurepas, 'will not be great;
the cost of the _engages_ [hired men] for three years, taking into
account what can be furnished from the king's stores, would not exceed
30,000 livres at most.' The king, however, refused to undertake the
expense of the expedition. Those who had assumed the task should, he
thought, be in a position to continue it by means of the profits
derived from their monopoly of the fur trade. The facts did not
justify the royal