Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 26/Journal of the Voyage Made by Chavalier de la Verendrye, with One of His Brothers, in Search of the Western Sea Addressed to the Marquis de Beauharnois
JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE MADE BY CHEVALHSR DE LA VERENDRYE, WITH ONE OF HIS BROTHERS, IN SEARCH OF THE WESTERN SEA ADDRESSED TO THE MARQUIS DE BEAUHARNOIS
[Translated from the French, (Margry papers) by Anne H. Blegen, Minnesota Historical Society]
Sir:
I take the liberty of giving you an account of the voyage which I have made with one of my brothers and two Frenchmen sent by my father, honored by your orders to proceed to discover the Western Sea by way of the country the Mantanes [Mandans] according to the accounts of the Indians.
We departed from Fort La Reine on April 29th[1] and reached the Mantanes on May 19th. We remained there until July 23rd, awaiting the Gens des Chevaux,[2] whom we were led to expect from day to day. Since the season was advancing and I absolutely refused to give up the expedition, I sought from among the Mantanes two men to guide us to the country of the Gens des Chevaux, in the hope of finding some village near the mountain or along our route; two offered their services willingly. We left without a moment's delay. We marched for twenty days west southwest, which did not augur well as to our route; we encountered no human being, but many wild beasts. I noticed in several places soils of different colors, such as blue, a vermillion shade, meadow green, shining black, chalk white, and others the color of ochre. If I had foreseen at that time that I should not return through these regions, I would have taken some of each kind. I could not burden myself, knowing that I had a long journey to make. We arrived on August 11th at the mountain of the Gens des Chevaux. Since our guides did not wish to go further, we set to work to construct a little house where we could await the first Indians who might happen to discover us; we lighted fires on all sides for signals, to attract attention, being thoroughly resolved to trust ourselves to the first tribes that might appear.
On September 10th only one Mantane remained with us; his comrade had departed ten days before to return to his people. I went or sent someone every day to explore the hills. On September 14th our scouts perceived a column of smoke south southwest of us.
I sent the Frenchman with our Mantane, and they found a village of the Beaux Hommes[3] who welcomed them. They (the Frenchman and the Mantane) made them (the Beaux Hommes) understand by signs that there were three more Frenchmen established nearby. The next day the chiefs sent some of their young men with our two men to fetch us. We went there on the 18th and we were welcomed with great demonstrations of joy.
Our Mantane asked my permission to depart, fearing a tribe which was an enemy of his own; I paid him liberally and gave him whatever was useful and necessary for him to return to his people, just as I had done before to his comrade.
We remained with the Beaux Hommes twenty-one days. I made them understand as best I could that we wished to be conducted to a village of the Gens des Chevaux. They replied that some of their youths would guide us as far as the first village which we might encounter. I made them several presents, with which they appeared to be very well satisfied.
We left them on November 9th. We were beginning to understand them well enough for our needs. Our guides led us south southwest. On the second day we came upon a village of the tribe of the Petits Renards (Little Foxes),[4] who showed great joy upon seeing us. After making them a number of presents I had our guides tell them that I was seeking the Gens des Chevaux who, we hoped, would conduct us to the sea. The result of this was that the entire village marched with us, still following the same route. I felt, indeed, at the time that we could hope to find nothing but a known sea. On the second day of the march we encountered a populous village of the same tribe. They showed us great friendliness. I gave them a number of presents, which they looked upon as great novelties, and they seemed to me very grateful for them. They guided us to a village of the Pioya[5] which we reached on the fifteenth. We were very well received there. After proffering them some presents I proposed to them that they conduct us to some tribe on the route to the sea. We continued on our way to the southwest. On the 17th we encountered a populous village of the same nation. I presented them with some gifts. We all marched on together, keeping to the south, until the 19th, when we reached a village of the Gens des Chevaux. They were in a state of great desolation. There was nothing but weeping and howling, all their village having been destroyed by the Gens du Serpent (Snake Indians) and only a few members of their tribe having escaped. These Snake Indians are considered very brave. They are not satisfied in a campaign merely to destroy a village, according to the custom of all other Indians. They continue their warfare from spring to autumn, they are very numerous, and woe to those whom they meet on their way!
They are friendly to no tribe. We are told that in 1741 they had entirely destroyed seventeen villages, had killed all the old men and old women, and made slaves of the young women and had traded them at the seacoast for horses and merchandise.
It was of the Gens des Chevaux that I inquired for knowledge of the tribe which lived by the sea. They replied that no member of their tribe had ever been there, since the route was blocked by the Snake tribe; that, if we made a long detour, we might meet with some tribes along the way who traded with the white men at the sea. I persuaded the village, by means of gifts, to march with us to the country of the Gens de l'Arc (Bow Indians)[6], the only tribe who, by dint of their bravery, do not fear the Snakes. They have even made themselves dreaded by the Snakes through the wisdom and good leadership of their chief. I was also made to hope that they would be able to give me some knowledge of the country along the sea, since they are friendly to the tribes that go there to trade.
After marching steadily toward the southwest, we encountered on November 18th a very populous village of the Gens de la Belle-Riviere[6] (Belle River Indians). They gave us information about the Gens de l'Arc[6] (Bow Tribe), who were not far away. We marched on together to the southwest; on the 21st, we descried the village, which appeared very large to us. All the tribes of that country have a large number of horses, asses, and mules; these they use to carry their baggage and to take them on their hunting parties as well as on their expeditions.
When we arrived at the village, the chief led us to his lodge, treating us graciously and courteously, in a manner not at all characteristic of the Indians. He ordered that all our baggage be placed in his lodge, which was very large, and that great care be taken of our horses.
Up to that time we had been well received in all the villages through which we had passed, but all that was as nothing in comparison with the admirable behavior of the great chief of the Bow tribe, a man who was not at all covetous as the others had been, but always took very great care of all that belonged to us.
I became attached to this chief, who merited all our friendship. In a short time, due to the pains which he took to instruct me, I learned the language sufficiently well to make myself understood and to understand also what he said to me.
I asked him if his tribe knew the white men who lived by the sea and if they could guide us there. He replied: "We know them by what the prisoners of the Snake Indians, whom we are to join shortly, have told us of them. Do not be surprised if you see many villages joined with us. Messages urging them to meet us have been sent out in all directions. Every day you hear the war song chanted; that is not without purpose: we are going to march to the great mountains which are near the sea, to seek the Snakes there. Do not be afraid to come with us, you have nothing to fear, you will be able to see there the ocean for which you are searching."
He continued his speech as follows: "The French who are at the sea coast," he said, "are numerous; they have many slaves, whom they establish upon their lands by tribes; they have separate quarters, they marry among themselves, and they are not oppressed; the result is that they are happy with them (their masters) and they do not seek to run away. They raise a large number of horses and other animals, which they use to work on their lands. They have many leaders for their soldiers, and they have many also for prayer." He pronounced a few words in their language. I recognized that he was speaking Spanish, and what fully assured me of the fact was the account which he gave me of the massacre of the Spaniards who were seeking to discover the Missouri, of which I had heard before. All this dampened my ardor for the search of a known sea; nevertheless I should have liked very much to go there, if it had been feasible.
We continued to march, sometimes south southwest, sometimes northwest; our band was augmented continually by the addition of a number of villages of different tribes. On January 1st, 1743, we were in sight of the mountains. The number of the warriors exceeded two thousand; with their families it made a considerable band, advancing all the way through a magnificent prairie where animals are plentiful. At night there was singing and shouting, and they wept continually, begging us to accompany them to war. I resisted steadily saying that we were sent to pacify the land and not to stir it up. The chief of the Bow Indians repeated often that he was troubled on our account because of what all the tribes would think of us for hesitating to accompany them, and he asked us as a favor (since he was bound to the other Indians and could not go off with us until after their return from the war) to accompany him simply as spectators, not asking us to expose ourselves; the Snakes were our enemies as well as theirs and we must surely know that they had no friends.
We conferred among ourselves as to what we should do. We resolved to accompany them, because of the impossibility of coming to any other decision, in addition to my desire to see the ocean from the summit of the mountains. I acquainted the chief of the tribe with our decision and he seemed well satisfied with it. A grand council was then called to which they invited us, as was their custom. The harangues of members of each tribe were very long. The chief of the Bows explained them to me. Everything turned upon the measures which must be taken for the safety of their women and children during their absence and the manner in which they should approach their enemies. Then they turned to us, begging us not to abandon them. I made the reply to the chief of the Bows, who then repeated it to the entire assemblage, that the great chief of the French desired that all his children should live peacefully and had ordered us to carry peace to all nations, wishing to see the whole world calm and peaceful; that, knowing their anger to be aroused with good cause, I bowed my head in submission and we would accompany them, since they desired it so urgently, to aid them merely with advice, in case they required it. They thanked us effusively and went through long ceremonies with the calumet.
We continued to march on until January 8th. On the 9th we left the village. I left my brother to guard our baggage, which was in the lodge of the Bow chief. The larger part of the men were on horseback, advancing in good order. At last, on the twelfth day, we reached the mountains. They are for the most part thickly-wooded with all kinds of wood and appear very high.
After approaching the main part of the village of the Snake tribe, the scouts returned to inform us that they (the Snakes) had all fled in great haste and had abandoned their huts and a large part of their belongings. This report brought terror to everyone, for it was feared that the enemy, having discovered them, had gone to fall upon their villages and would reach them before they, themselves, could arrive to defend them. The chief of the Bows did what he could to persuade them to the contrary and to prevail upon them to continue. No one would listen to him. "It is very annoying," he told me, "to have brought you to this point and not'be able to go further."
I was exceedingly vexed not to be able to ascend the mountains, as I had hoped to do. We determined therefore to return. We had come so far in good order, but the return was very differenet, each one going his own way. Our horses, although good, were very tired and had few opportunities to feed. I went in company with the chief of the Bows, while my two Frenchmen followed us. After having covered a considerable piece of ground I realized, without looking behind us, that they were missing. I told the Bow chief that I no longer saw my Frenchmen and he replied: "I will stop everyone who is in our band." I wheeled about at full speed and I discovered them at the tip of an island allowing their horses to feed. After joining them I perceived fifteen men approaching from the woods, covering themselves with their arrow quivers. There was one who was far ahead of the others, and we let them approach within half range of a rifle shot. Seeing that they were preparing to attack us, I though it well to fire several shots at them, and this obliged them to retreat hastily, this weapon being much respected by all those tribes which do not have the use of it and whose arrow quivers cannot save them from the bullets. We remained there until night, when we started out, following our instincts as to direction, in the hope of finding traces of our Indians. The prairie through which we passed is dry and barren, and the hoof prints of the horses cannot be detected. We continued our journey at random, not knowing whether or not we were on the right track. We were among the first to reach the village of the Bow tribe, arriving finally on February 9th, the second day of our return journey.
The Bow chief had hastened off to try to stop the band which had been marching with us, but they were too frightened to linger in a region so near the enemy. He was very uneasy all that night; the next day he had us circled to stop us from going further. He continued to have his people search, but they were without success. Finally he reached the village, five days after us, more dead than alive from grief at not knowing what had become of us. The first bit of news that he had received was that we had fortunately arrived the evening before the bad weather had set in, two feet of snow having fallen accompanied by a terrible storm the day after our arrival. His grief turned into joy and he did not know how to show his gratitude.
It was very surprising that the Bow chief, with the help of several others, had scattered his band in search of us, in order to find us. Every day groups of them arrived at the villaye, very downcast, believing us to be lost. All the tribes had separated in order to find food more easily. We continued to proceed with the Bow tribe until the first day of March, keeping constantly east southeast.
I sent one of our Frenchmen with an Indian to the tribe of the Gens de la Petite Cerise (Little Cherry Indians), having learned that they were near. They spent ten days on the journey and brought us word inviting us to join them.
I communicated our plan to the Bow chief, who showed emotion on seeing us resolved to leave him. We were just as sorry to leave him because of the kind behavior which he had always shown us. To console him, I promised to come to visit him, on condition that he should settle near a small river which I pointed out to him, and build a fort and grow grain there.
He acquiesced in all that I proposed to him and begged me to leave again the following spring and join him as soon as I had seen my father at Fort La Reine. To relieve his distress, I promised all that he asked, and presented him with everything that I thought might be useful to him.
Seeing that there was no likelihood of being conducted to the Spanish territory and having no doubt that my father was very uneasy about us, we determined to depart for Fort La Reine, and left the Bow tribe, to the great regret of all.
On March 15 we reached the tribe of the Little Cherry. They were returning from their winter quarters and they were two days' march from their fort, which is on the bank of the Missouri.
We reached their fort on the 19th and were received with great demonstrations of joy. I applied myself to learning their language and found it very easy. There was one man among them who had been brought up among the Spaniards and spoke their language as his native tongue. I questioned him often, and he told me all that had been related to me concerning them, that he had been baptized and had not forgotten his prayers. I asked him if it was easy to get there, (to the Spanish country). He replied that it was very far and there were many dangers to be met on account of the Snake tribe, and that it took at least twenty days to make the trip on horseback.
I inquired about their commerce. He told me that they made articles of iron and carried on a large trade in buffalo skins and slaves, giving in exchange horses and merchandise, according as the Indians desired, but no guns or ammunition.
He informed me that three days' distance away from them there was a Frenchman who had settled there several years before. I should have gone to find him, if our horses had been in condition. I determined to write him and induce him to come to us, saying that we would wait for him until the end of March, since we were expecting to leave at the beginning of April to return to the Mantanes and thence to Fort La Reine, and that, if he should not come, he should at least send us news of himself.
I placed upon a hillock near the fort a lead plaque with the arms and inscription of the king and formed a pyramid of stones for the general. I told the Indians, who had no knowledge of the lead plaque which I had placed in the ground, that I was setting up these stones in memory of our coming to their country. I should have liked very much to take the latitude at that place; but our astrolabe had been out of order since the beginning of our journey, the *ring being broken.
Finding ourselves without news of our Frenchmen when the month of April came and being urged on by the guides whom I had engaged to conduct us to the Mantanes, and our horses being in good condition, I prepared to leave and offered several gifts to the chiefs of the tribe, who had always guarded us and treated us well while we were with them, as well as to a number of the most important of our good friends. I suggested to the chiefs that if, by chance, the Frenchman to whom I had written should come to their fort, shortly after our departure, he could find us with the Mantanes, since we expected to remain there for a time. I should have been glad to get him away from among the Indians. I assured the chief of the tribe that I would take very great care of the three young men whom he gave us as guides, and that, although the Mantanes were their enemies, they would have nothing to fear while with us.
We departed on April 2nd, much lamented by the whole tribe. They entreated us urgently to come to see them again. On the 9th, at mid-day, we came to a village of twenty-five lodges of the Gens de la Fleche collèe, otherwise called Prairie Sioux. We passed along among the women and baggage. We stopped a very short time. They showed us great friendliness and pointed out to us the place where they were going to make their camp. We settled down for the night in sight of their village, expecting that some of them would come over to us, and we remained on our guard all the time. No one came.
The next day we continued on our route, sometimes north northeast and sometimes northwest, as far as the country of the Mantanes, without meeting anyone. We arrived there on May 18th. I sent our guides back after having settled with them to their satisfaction. 
Obverse side of Lead Tablet placed by Chevalier De La Verendrye near Pierre, South Dakota.
On the 31st, our scouts perceived thirty Sioux ambushed on our route. We advanced upon them in a body. They were greatly surprised to see so many men and retreated in good order, occasionally making opposition to those who approached them too closely. They knew very well with whom they had to deal and thought the Assiniboéls to be cowards. As soon as they perceived us, all mounted on our horses, and noted that we were Frenchmen, they fled in great haste, not even stopping to look behind them. None of our men were killed but several were wounded. We do not know how many men they lost, except for one man who was found among us.
We arrived at the village near the mountain on June 2nd. As our horses were tired, we wanted to proceed with the Indians of the village until the 20th. We procured a guide to conduct us to Fort La Reine, where we arrived on July 2nd, to the great satisfaction of my father, who was very uneasy about us as it had not been possible to send him any news of us since our departure, and also to our own great satisfaction, being past all difficulties, perils and dangers.
Note: Ambassador M. Jusserand, in 1913, commenting upon the lead tablet mentioned in this journal, said:
"The text of the plate so wonderfully recovered has a little story to tell. As it was not easy to print a text on the way, during such difficult expeditions, people would start with ready-prepared ones. The Chevalier seems to have provided himself with one which had been made in view of his elder brother's before mentioned expedition of 1741. It bears, in fact, the name of the eldest of the La Verendryes the text stamped under the arms of France reading:
"'Anno XXVI Regni Ludovici XV—Prorege illustrissimo Domino, Domino Marchione de Beauharnois, MDCCXXXI—Petrus Gaultier de Laverendrie Posuit.'
"That is: In the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Louis XV., the most illustrious Lord, the Lord Marquis of Beauharnois being Viceroy, 1741, Peter Gaultier de Laverendrie placed this.'
"But the obverse of the plate, shows that it was really turned to use by the Chevalier and at the exact moment mentioned by him. Instead of the beautiful regular inscriptions engraved at home in Latin for the elder brother before he started, we have but a rough one, made as best they could, with the point of a knife, and certainly not by Verendrye himself. As the placing of the plate in the earth was done secretly, and he himself was probably staying, as usual, with the chief of the tribe he apparently gave orders to one of his followers to do the necessary work. That follower must have been one of the 'two Frenchmen' which he mentions without giving their names as having accompanied him. It was not his brother who is not named in the plate, and who, as we see in the journal, would sometimes be stationed at a different place. The author of the inscription was a man of little education who writes 'chevalier' with a y and a t: 'Chevalyet,' and who apparently performed his work in some hurry. So far as it can be read on the photograph which you had the kindness of sending me, the text is: 
Reverse side of Lead Tablet placed by Chevalier De La Verendrye
near Pierre, South Dakota
'Pose par le
Chevalyet de Lave
t b St (?) Louis la Londette
A Miottee
le 30 de Marse 1743'
"Louise or St. Louis la Londette and A. Miottee who sign as witnesses were undoubtedly the 'two Frenchmen' who had accompanied the Chevalier.
"Everything about the plate tallies with everything in the journal; its authenticity cannot be doubted. As a reminder of the plucky attempt of ancestors, acting under the most trying difficulties the new-found relic has a truly sacred character, for Frenchmen and for Americans both."
Later he added the further observation:
"I can add but little to what I had written before concerning the La Verendrye family and the leaden plate so wonderfully discovered. I have, however, ascertained how the third line of the inscription in French should be interpreted. The first letters preceding the word Louis are an abbreviation for the christian name of Toussaint. The full name of the man mentioned in that line reads, therefore: Toussaint Louis la Londelle."
[South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. VII, pp. 374, 378 (1914).]
The tablet was discovered at Fort Pierre, South Dakota, February 16, 1913, and, its historical importance being at once recognized, it became the subject of much study. The chief documents concerning the La Verendrye explorers, in Pierre Margry's valuable work, entitled: "Devouvertes et Etablissements des Francais dans le Sud de FAmerique Septentrionale, 1614, 1754," (Paris, Vol. VI, 1888), were critically examined, and the whole subject became the theme of debates and historical comments that were later published in the volume of the South Dakota Historical Collections above mentioned.
- ↑ 1742.
- ↑ Horse Indians, probably Cheyennes, or possibly Aricaras. In general it may be said that there is much doubt as to the identity of the several Indian tribes mentioned in this narrative.
- ↑ Handsome Men, perhaps Crow Indians.
- ↑ These may have been a branch of the Cheyennes.
- ↑ Perhaps a wandering band of the same tribe as the Gens des Chevaux.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 These tribes have not been identified, but may have been of the Cheyenne linguistic stock.