the influence of the priests, but it can be said for them that they made an honest effort to benefit the savages.

A quarter of a century more peopled the wilderness with a half-breed population, and these in turn became trappers and voyageurs. A singular result is related regarding the offspring of these marriages. For the most part the children were inferior in character to both the white and the red race. It seemed that they partook of all the vices of both the French and the Indians and retained none of the virtues. They were for the most part indolent, ignorant and superstitious, and yet they trapped and hunted and added to the business of the fur trader. The conditions I have related gave the French great influence over the savage tribes and resulted later in Indian depredations on the English settlements along the Canadian borders. The savages were easily persuaded to hostility and later became allies of the French in their wars against the English.

The French merchants of Montreal grew rich out of the trade in peltries. The successful methods adopted by the trappers and traders resulted after a time in the destruction of fur-bearing animals throughout Canada and the tributary streams of the Great Lakes to the west and soon everything pointed to the early collapse of the great industry. The demand for furs was at its highest point. London, Paris and all the great cities of Europe sent in large orders and the question of supply to meet this demand became an important one to the French merchants of Montreal. Far-seeing business men began to discuss measures which should ward off the evil threatened. These conditions stimulated a desire to penetrate the interior of the great West for the purpose of securing new fields for the trapper. Public attention, once turned in this direction, was followed after a time by practical action on the part of men who possessed a turn of mind for exploration, and these proposed an expedition into the interior of the conti nent. Finally a bolder class of merchants came to the front and offered capital to explore the unknown wilderness which lay between Canada and the Pacific Ocean and thus meet the

demand for new trapping grounds and supply of the fur market. In every great emergency which demands a leader suited to the requirements of the occasion, the man for the place appears at the right time. The leader in this instance was an educated Frenchman of noble birth who had interested himself in the study of the exploring expeditions which had from time to time visited the Pacific coast. He had one hobby, and that was the planting of a colony at some suitable place on the west side of the continent and the building up there of a commercial city which should monopolize all the Indian trade of the territory west of the great mountains. His theory was that commercial relations could be entered into with native tribes and through the fur industry large wealth accumulated by the colonists. His plan included a great supply point at or near the west coast and trading posts in the interior. Practical business men at first were slow to comprehend the colossal scheme, but the conditions which I have related favored the plan. The man referred to was Sieur de la Verendrye, who was earnestly supported by his eldest son, Chevalier de la Verendrye; also his two younger sons. Associated with them was Pierre Gauthier de Varennes. After discussing the subject in all its phases it was finally decided to outfit an exploring party to traverse the Great Lakes northwest, crossing to the headwaters of the Mississippi, thence west again to the headwaters of the Missouri and search for a gateway through the "Stony Mountain."

Sieur de la Verendrye and Pierre Gauthier de Varennes were dealers in furs and skins and had been located on Lake Nepigon since 1728. Four years later the latter went to Quebec to consult the governor and other officials on the subject of explorations to the west. It was no new idea with him, as he had talked it over with many persons of education and had become, so to speak, wrapped up in the subject. He was an enthusiast, it is true, but he was given to deep thought, earnest study and withal was capable of concentration of effort and singleness of purpose. These qualifications enabled him to undertake great enterprises and

to carry them through successfully. The governor of the province was the Marquis de Beauharnais. As soon as Ver. endrye spoke to him of the expedition and his plan for carrying it out, he without hesitation gave his indorsement. Montreal merchants were to furnish the funds to equip the party and goods to trade with the natives for furs. The expedition was to go west and find a river that flowed into the Pacific Ocean. In the year 1733, all things being in readiness, De la Verendrye received his instructions to take possesion, in the name of the King of France, of such countries as he should discover. His first point was Lake Superior for which place he embarked with a fleet of canoes, taking with him a missionary, Pierre Messager. He established forts as he proceeded from point to point, gradually working his way westward.

From each of these forts he sent out expeditions to examine the country. One of these, in charge of one of his younger sons, met with disaster. The entire party, including young Verendrye and twenty men, were killed by a war party of Sioux. The examination of the territory which he passed through required time, and it was not until 1738 that he reached the Mandan country, where he erected Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine, completing the work in October of that year. The following season an expedition was sent up the Missouri, but did not reach the Yellowstone until 1742. This expedition was in charge of De la Verendrye's eldest son, who found on this trip the great mountains through which he could find no practical route. I find in the first volume of the Montana Historical Society a communication written by Granville Stuart which throws some light on the trail of the explorers. He says that the expedition traveled from Fort La Reine, on the Assiniboine, up Mouse River and across to the Missouri, which he touched just below where since was built Fort Berthold, thence they. ascended the Missouri to the gates of the mountains near Helena, Montana. The first of January, 1743, found them on these mountains whence they passed up Deep or Smith River, crossed to the head of the Mussel Shell, and then

to the Yellowstone, which they crossed and ascended Pryor Fork and passed through Pryor Gap to the Stinking River, crossing which they continued south to Wind River, where the natives told them of Green River over the mountains, and of the armed bands of Sioux waiting at the pass to slay anyone who should come from the land of their hereditary foes, the Shoshones, Hence the explorers turned back and reached the mission in May, 1744.

I find nowhere any particulars in regard to this party which reached the Big Wind River. They went south from the Stinking Water and must have gone to the Wind River valley. Chevalier de la Verendrye says that the natives he met were of the Shoshone tribe. I think that Mr. Stuart makes a mistake in regard to the river the natives mentioned. The explorers were looking for a river flowing to the west. The only stream flowing in that direction was Snake River, and as the Shoshones were well acquainted with it, they must have mentioned it. Green River, the Indians well knew, flowed to the south. The Verendryes returned to Montreal in the fall of 1744, having been eleven years in the wilderness. The enterprise was a financial failure, but sound business men admitted that if it had gone forward and the Pacific coast reached it would have been a great success. Unfortunately De la Verendrye had spent his entire fortune in the enterprise, but friends came to his aid and offered additional capital, but at this point it was proposed to send out the next expedition at the expense of the government, but before anything was accomplished De la Verendrye was taken sick and on December 6, 1749, he died. His eldest son claimed the right to continue the discoveries, but an association was formed to carry out his father's plans and he was ignored. It was the old storymen who lacked the brains to originate plans for themselves stood ready to rob Verendrye's family, and they did it under sanction of the government. This is the fate of a pioneer. Columbus suffered in this way and thousands of other pioneers since his time, including not a few in Wyoming. It should be stated here that the king graciously

recognized De la Verendrye's services by conferring upon him the empty honor of the Order of St. Louis, and this was all he possessed at the time of his death. The new combination was entirely political, that is, made up of politicians -Jonquiere, the new governor; Breard, the comptroller of marine; Capt. Lamarque de Marian, Le Gardeur, De St. Pierre and others equally incompetent for a great undertaking. Here was a chance to get their hands in the public treasury and they helped themselves right royally. It is said of them that they divided large spoils among themselves, the governor receiving for his share 300,000 francs. They did attempt an expedition and reached the base of the Rocky Mountains, where they in 1752 built Fort Jonquiere; but this is all, the time being spent trading with the natives and making fortunes for themselves.

Chevalier de la Verendrye was the first white man to discover the Yellowstone, unless we concede the occupation of the country by the Spaniards a century before. Educated French Canadians believe that he named it Roche Jaune, which in English means yellow rock, and this dur ing this century has been written Yellowstone, but Capt. Chittenden in his scholarly work on the Yellowstone National Park holds a different view and says there is no doubt but that the name is of Indian origin and that it comes from the yellow rock which is conspicuous along the banks of this river. He sums up his investigations in this language: "Going back, then, to this obscure fountainhead, the original designation is found to have been Mi-tsia-da-zi, Rock Yellow River; and this in the French tongue, became Roche Jaune and Pierre Jaune; and in English, Yellow Rock and Yellow Stone. Established usage now writes it Yellowstone.”

Had it not been for the unfortunate death of De la Verendrye the French in all probability would have been the first explorers to cross the Rocky Mounains and as it was they undoubtedly gave the idea to Capt. Jonathan Carver, who, as I explain elsewhere, projected a journey across the continent somewhere between the 43rd and 46th degrees