Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye (9 November 1717 – 15 November 1761) was a

French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

r and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

. He, his three brothers, and his father Pierre La Vérendrye pushed trade and exploration west from the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

. He, his brother, and two colleagues are thought to be the first Europeans to have crossed the northern

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

and seen the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

. Louis-Joseph Verendrye was born in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. He joined the family business in 1735, leaving

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

with his father and travelling west to Fort St. Charles on

Lake of the Woods Lake of the Woods (; ) is a lake occupying parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba and the U.S. state of Minnesota. Lake of the Woods is over long and wide, containing more than 14,552 islands and of shoreline. It is fed by t ...

. He assisted in re-establishing Fort Maurepas in 1736 and building Fort La Reine in 1738. From Fort La Reine, he and his father travelled to visit the

Mandan The Mandan () are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still ...

Native Americans along the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

later that same year. In 1739 and 1740, he went north from Fort La Reine and explored

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg () is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Its southern end is about north of the city of Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is Canada's sixth-largest freshwater lake and the third- ...

Lake Manitoba Lake Manitoba () is the 14th largest lake in Canada and the 33rd largest lake in the world with a total area of . It is located within the Canadian province of Manitoba about northwest of the province's capital, Winnipeg, at . History The la ...

, Lake Winnipegosis and the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: , "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining of the North Saskatchewan River and South Saskatchewan River just east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan ...

as far as the area of the present day

The Pas The Pas ( , ) is a town in Manitoba, Canada, at the confluence of the Pasquia River and the Saskatchewan River and surrounded by the unorganized Northern Region of the province. It is approximately northwest of the provincial capital, Winn ...

Rocky Mountains journey

In 1743–1744, he may have travelled southwest to what was probably Wyoming and came within sight of the Rocky Mountains. The documentation is poor and it may have been a different Vérendrye brother who made the journey.

Commandant posts

By late 1743, Louis-Joseph's father, Pierre La Vérendrye, was forced to resign as commandant of the poste de l’Ouest. The new commandant, Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont, retained the services of La Vérendrye's sons during his tenure, which began in 1744. Louis-Joseph was post commander at three posts, the most important one being Fort Kaministiquia. The elder La Vérendrye again became western commandant in 1747, while Louis-Joseph returned to New France with Noyelles. He provided services to both Noyelles and Governor Beauharnois while expecting and intending to rejoin his father at the western posts. Before he made that return, his father returned east and died in 1749. Louis-Joseph spent the next several years settling his father's financial affairs, and subsequently entered into partnership with Luc de la Corne in the fur trade. His brother François was an interpreter for the partnership. The claim that he reached the Saskatchewan River Forks in 1749 may be false. In 1756, Louis-Joseph obtained a three-year appointment as commandant of the poste de l'Ouest. He carried out this enterprise through agents, as he was personally involved in military matters during the Seven Years' War. He was succeeded as western commander in 1758 by Charles-René Dejordy de Villebon. After the conquest of Quebec he died while returning to France, when his ship, the '' Auguste'', sank off Cape Breton.

In popular culture

A fictionalized version of de la Vérendrye appears in the 2014 video game ''

Assassin's Creed Rogue ''Assassin's Creed Rogue'' is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Sofia and published by Ubisoft. It is the seventh major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series, and is set alongside 2012's '' Assassin's Creed III'' and af ...

'', where he is a member of the Colonial Brotherhood of Assassins. He is introduced as a supporting character with an antagonistic relationship with protagonist Shay Cormac, whom he consistently belittles and refers to as a 'cabbage farmer', and is known for his short temper and brusque and egotistical attitude. Following Shay's defection to the Templars, de la Vérendrye takes on the role of an antagonist, and in the penultimate mission of the game, is hunted down by Shay, Haytham Kenway, and

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

for his maps leading to the Precursor sites the Assassins and Templars seek. After cornering him off the coast of Newfoundland, Shay boards de la Vérendrye's ship, ''Le Gerfaut'', and mortally wounds him before throwing him overboard to his death.

References

* * * * Grace Flandrau, ''The Verendrye Overland Quest Of the Pacific'', has a translation of his journal. * has a translation of the journal with commentary.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Verendrye, Louis-Joseph Gaultier De Explorers of Canada Canadian explorers People of New France Explorers of the United States French explorers of North America French Canadian people of the French and Indian War 1717 births 1760 deaths

Rocky Mountains journey

Commandant posts

In popular culture

See also

References

Notes