they said, 'we
promise you not to go elsewhere with our furs.' One of the chiefs then
asked him where he was now going. La Verendrye replied that it was his
purpose to ascend the Assiniboine river in order to see the country.
'You will find yourself among the Assiniboines,' said the chief; 'and
they are a useless people, without intelligence, who do not hunt the
beaver, and clothe themselves only in the skins of buffalo. They are a
good-for-nothing lot of rascals and might do you harm.' But La
Verendrye had heard such tales before and was not to be frightened from
his purpose. He took leave of the Crees, turned his canoes up the
shallow waters of the Assiniboine river, and ascended {49} it to where
now stands the city of Portage la Prairie. Here he built a fort, which
he named Fort La Reine, in honour of the queen of France.

[Illustration: An Indian encampment. From a painting by Paul Kane.]

While this was being done, a party of Assiniboines arrived. La
Verendrye soon found, as he had expected, that the Crees through
jealousy had given the Assiniboines a character which they did not
deserve. With all friendliness they welcomed the strangers and were
overjoyed at the presents which the French gave them. The most valued
presents consisted of knives, chisels, awls, and other small tools. Up
to this time these people had been dependent upon implements made of
stone and of bone roughly fashioned to serve their purposes, and these
implements were very crude and inferior compared with the sharp steel
tools of the white men.

While La Verendrye had been occupied in building Fort La Reine, one of
his men, Louviere, had been sent to the mouth of the Assiniboine to put
up a small post for the Crees. He found a suitable place on the south
bank of the Assiniboine, near the point where it enters the Red, and
here he built his trading post and named it Fort Rouge. This fort was
abandoned in a year or two, as it was {50} soon found more convenient
to trade with the Indians either at Fort Maurepas near the mouth of the
Winnipeg, or at Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine. The memory of the
fort is, however, preserved to this day. The quarter of Winnipeg in
the vicinity of the old fort is still known as Fort Rouge. The memory
of La Verendrye is also preserved, for a large school built near the
site of the old fort bears the name of the great explorer.

The completion of Fort La Reine freed La Verendrye to make preparati