ent the Jesuit missionary, Father Aulneau, on his way down to
Fort Michilimackinac. The day for departure was named, {38} and
everything was made ready the night before so that there might be no
delay in starting early in the morning. The sun had hardly risen above
the horizon and was yet filtering through the dense foliage of pine and
cedar, when Jean de La Verendrye and his men embarked and pushed off
from the shore. The paddles dipped almost noiselessly, and the three
light canoes skimmed lightly over the surface of the Lake of the Woods,
followed by shouts of farewell from the fort.

For a time the party skirted the shore. Then they struck out boldly
across the lake. The melodies of the forest followed them for a time,
and then died away in the distance. Nothing was now to be heard but
the dip of paddles and the soft swirl of eddies flying backward from
either side of the canoes. The morning sun swept across the lake; a
faint breeze stirred a ripple on the surface of the water. From far
away came faintly the laugh of a solitary loon. The men paddled
strenuously, with minds intent upon nothing more serious than the halt
for breakfast. The priest was lost in meditation. Jean de La
Verendrye sat in the foremost canoe, with eyes alert, scanning the
horizon as the little flotilla drew rapidly across the lake.

{39}

At the same time, approaching from the opposite direction, was a fleet
of canoes manned by a hundred savages, the fierce and implacable Sioux
of the prairie. They had reached the Lake of the Woods by way of a
stream that bore the significant name _The Road of War_. This was the
war-path of the Sioux from their own country, south of what is now the
province of Manitoba, to the country of the Chippewas and the Crees
farther east. Whenever the Sioux followed this route, they were upon
no peaceful errand. As the Sioux entered the lake, a mist was rising
slowly from the water; but before it completely hid their canoes a
keen-sighted savage saw the three canoes of the French, who were about
to land on the far side of an island out in the lake. Cautiously the
Sioux felt their way across to the near side of the island, and landed
unperceived. They glided noiselessly through the thick underbrush,
and, as they approached the other shore, crept from tree to tree,
finally wriggling snake-wise to the very edge of the thicket. Beneath
them lay a narrow beach, on which some of the voyageurs had built a