e's two sons, Pierre and Francois. They knew the nature of the
task before them, its perils as well as its hopes. They took with them
no imposing company as their father had done, but only two men. The
party of four, too feeble to fight their way, had to trust to the
peaceful disposition of the natives. When they started, the prairie was
turning from brown to green and the rivers were still swollen from the
spring thaw. In three weeks they reached a Mandan village on the upper
Missouri and were well received. It was after midsummer when they set
out again and pressed on westward with a trend to the south. The country
was bare and desolate. For twenty days they saw no human being. They had
Mandan guides who promised to take them to the next tribe, the Handsome
Men--Beaux Hommes--as the brothers called them, a tribe much feared
by the Mandans. The travelers were now mounted; for the horse, brought
first to America by the Spaniards, had run wild on the western plains
where the European himself had not yet penetrated, and had become an
indispensable aid to certain of the native tribes. Deer and buffalo were
in abundance and they had no lack of food.

When they reached the tribe of Beaux Hommes, the Mandan guides fled
homeward. Summer passed into bleak autumn with chill winds and long
nights. By the end of October they were among the Horse Indians who,
they had been told, could guide them to the sea. These, however, now
said that only the Bow Indians, farther on, could do this. Winter was
near when they were among these Indians, probably a tribe of the Sioux,
whom they found excitedly preparing for a raid on their neighbors
farther west, the Snakes. They were going, they said, towards the
mountains and there the Frenchmen could look out on the great sea. So
the story goes on. The brothers advanced ever westward and the land
became more rugged, for they were now climbing upward from the prairie
country. At last, on January 1, 1743, they saw what both cheered and
discouraged them. In the distance were mountains. About them was the
prairie, with game in abundance. It was a great host with which the
brothers traveled for there were two thousand warriors with their
families who made night vocal with songs and yells. On the 12th of
January, nearly two weeks later, with an advance party of warriors,
the La Verendryes reached the foot of the mountains, "well wooded with
timber of every kind and very high."

Was it the Rocky Mountai