8 Mackenzie’s Voyages

be the base for further explorations westward, but the post
was abandoned and no further attempt made in this enterprise
until the Vérendryes appeared upon the scene.

With the Indian Ochagach’s tale of a salt sea that rose
and fell, as an incentive, Pierre Gaultier de la Vérendrye
set out upon a journey which for perennial interest ranks
with those of Anthony Hendry, the founders of La Jonquiére,
Alexander Mackenzie, Samuel Hearne, Lewis and Clarke,
Coronado, de Soto, and La Salle. ©

Fort St. Pierre was established by the Vérendryes on
Rainy Lake, Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods; and
Fort Maurepas at the mouth of the Winnipeg River.
Ochagach’s salt sea was no other than Lake Winnipeg which
does occasionally rise and fall. From this point the French
pathfinders explored along two routes to the west, by way
of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers in the south, and the
Saskatchewan River in the north. At the junction of the Red
and Assiniboine rivers they erected a temporary post known
as Fort Rouge, and on the Assiniboine near Portage La
Prairie, the important post of Fort La Reine. From this
centre La Vérendrye and his sons crossed over to the Mandan
villages on the upper Missouri by a well-known portage.
The father’s illness forced the party to return to Fort La
Reine. The sons, Frangois and Pierre, continued the explora~
tion up the Missouri, and on New Year’s Day, 1743, they
were rewarded with a view of the Rocky Mountains, whose
snow-capped summits towered against the western sky. It
is supposed that they had reached a point near Helena,
Montana.

Vérendrye the elder was born at ‘Three Rivers in 1685,
and he and his sons were consequently the first Canadians
to reach Lake Winnipeg and the country to the west. ‘The
sons also discovered Lakes Manitoba, Winnipegosis and