xiously waiting, and he
looked forward eagerly to the spring, when they were to return to Fort
La Reine with such news as they had been able to gather.

{72}

CHAPTER V

THE DISCOVERY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

La Verendrye had expected the return in the spring of 1739 of the two
men whom he had left in the Mandan villages, but it was well into the
autumn before they reached Fort La Reine. They brought good news,
however. During the winter they had lost no opportunity of picking up
Mandan words and phrases, until at last they were able to make
themselves fairly well understood in that tongue. In the early summer
a number of strange Indians had arrived from the West at the Mandan
villages. They were on horseback, and brought with them many
additional horses to carry their provisions and supplies. They came in
order to trade embroidered buffalo hides and other skins with the
Mandans for corn and beans, which they did not grow in their own
country.

The young Frenchmen learned from the Mandans that a band of these
Indians had their home in the extreme West, towards the {73} setting
sun. The Mandans also reported that in this country there were white
men, who lived in brick and stone houses. In order to make further
inquiries the two Frenchmen visited these Indians, and were fortunate
enough to find among them a chief who spoke the language of the
Mandans. He professed to speak also the language of the white men who
dwelt in the West, but when the French heard this language they could
make nothing of it. The chief declared that the strangers in his
country wore beards and that in many other respects they resembled the
white men. He declared that they prayed to the Master of Life in great
buildings, where the Indians had seen them holding in their hands what,
from their description, must have been books, the leaves like 'husks of
Indian corn.' Their houses were described as standing near the shores
of the great lake, whose waters rise and fall, and are unfit to drink.
This would mean tides and salt water. If this Indian story was true,
and there did not seem to be any reason for doubting it, La Verendrye
at last had something definite to guide him in his search for the
Western Sea. He had but to find his way to the homes of these
mysterious white strangers on its shores; and he hoped that the Indian
{74} band who had visited the Mandans, and from whom his men had
obtained these particulars, would be ab