Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November 1685 – 5 December 1749) 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 ...

military officer,

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 ...

. In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

and established trading posts there. They were part of a process that added

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West, or Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

to the original

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

territory that was centred along the

Saint Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence (; 31 December 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the Persecution of Christians, persecution of the Christians that the Roman Empire, Rom ...

basin. He was the first known European to reach present-day

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 ...

and the upper

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 ...

in the United States. In the 1740s, two of his sons crossed the prairie as far as present-day

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 ...

, United States, and were the first Europeans to see 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 ...

north of New Mexico.

Early life

Born in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, ; ) is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

, New France, Pierre was the eldest son of René Gaultier de Varennes, who came to Canada as a soldier in 1665, and Marie, the daughter of Pierre Boucher, the first Governor of Trois-Rivières. The Gaultier family were minor nobility or landowners who came from the Anjou area of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Varennes and La Vérendrye were 2 of their estates. Pierre's father died when he was 3, and he was educated at the Jesuit seminary in Quebec. At the age of twelve he received a cadet's commission in the French Marines in Canada. In 1704 and 1705 La Vérendrye took part in the raids of Queen Anne's War, which was waged by colonists in the English and French areas of North America. He was present at the Raid on Deerfield in present-day Massachusetts. The French and their Abenaki allies took more than a hundred captives from the village, forcing them on the 300-mile journey through the wilderness to return to Montreal. During those years, both sides often took captives for ransom. The next year La Vérendrye participated in an unsuccessful attack on the English settlement of St. John's, Newfoundland. At age 22, he enlisted in the French Army, and fought in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish E ...

; he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet. After recovering from his injuries and being given paroled as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

, Gaultier returned to Canada and married Marie-Anne, daughter of Louis Dandonneau, Sieur Du Sablé, in 1712.Yves F. Zoltvany, “GAULTIER DE VARENNES ET DE LA VÉRENDRYE, PIERRE (Boumois),” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/Université Laval
/ref> For the next 15 years, he supported his family by farming and fur trading along the Saint Lawrence.

Explorations

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Verendrye

In 1726 his fortunes changed when his brother Jacques-René was appointed the commander of the ''poste du Nord''. This was the north shore of Lake Superior with three main posts: Fort Kaministiquia, which was a terminus for the main route west; a post at the mouth of the Nipigon River; and one near the future site of Wawa, Ontario, which had river connections to James Bay. La Vérendrye began trading in the area and in 1728 was appointed as commandant when his brother left to fight the Meskwaki. He became involved with the quest to find a route to the Pacific, what was known as the Northwest Passage. Under the 1713

Treaty of Utrecht The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaty, peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vac ...

, Great Britain had taken control of Hudson Bay and thereby blocked the French from using that area. At this time people thought that not far to the west was an inlet from the Pacific called the ''mer du couchant'', similar to the equally mythical Strait of Annian. They thought also that travelers could cross the height of land and find a ''River of the West'' that flowed all the way to the Pacific. (For the area to be explored see Early Canadian canoe routes, Nelson River Basin.) In 1688 Jacques de Noyon had reached Rainy Lake. In 1717 Zacharie Robutel de La Noue tried to reach Rainy Lake but succeeded only in establishing Fort Kaministiquia. The British on Hudson Bay heard reports of

coureurs des bois A coureur des bois (; ) or coureur de bois (; ) were independent entrepreneurial French Canadians, French Canadian traders who travelled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with Indigenous peoples of the Americas, ...

west of Lake Superior, but they left no records in the French archives. Morton thinks they may have gotten as far as Lake Winnipeg. In 1716 a memoir drawn up by Governor Vaudreuil showed lakes and portages as far as Lake of the Woods, from which flowed a river to the " Sea of the West". This implies that Frenchmen had explored west of Lake Superior before Vérendrye did so. La Vérendrye questioned the Natives who came to trade. He learned of the Mandan country on the upper Missouri River. These people were described as white men who lived in big houses. Auchagah, a

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

guide, made a map of the canoe routes between Lake Superior and

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- ...

based on his and other Cree experience. La Vérendrye judged correctly that

was the geographic key which had to be reached to allow further exploration. In 1730 he met Governor Beauharnois at Quebec and worked out a plan. La Vérendrye would build a post on Lake Winnipeg. The expedition would be paid for by Quebec merchants who hoped to profit from the resulting

. This financing was fragile because the merchants lacked the capital and organization to efficiently move supplies so far to the west. An additional goal was to divert furs from being traded to the British on Hudson Bay. In the absence of government funds, exploration was dependent on financing from the fur trade. It is not clear whether La Vérendrye was genuinely interested in exploration or whether exploration was a pretext for expansion of the fur trade. Maurepas, the French Minister of Marine, was very interested in exploration, but would not provide funds. According to Pehr Kalm, La Vérendrye was acting upon orders given by de Beauharnois to explore until he could reach the ocean.Kalm, Pehr (1716-1779). "Travels into North America", Forster, John Reinhold (translator), p. 278, August,1749, Wisconsin Historical Society, 2003.
/ref> In 1731 La Vérendrye, three of his sons and 50 engagés left Montreal. That autumn his son

Jean-Baptiste Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was K ...

built Fort St. Pierre on Rainy Lake. Next year they built Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods, which became his headquarters for the next several years. In 1733 Jean-Baptiste got within 20 miles of Lake Winnipeg but was blocked by ice and lack of supplies. In 1734 their party reached Lake Winnipeg. Jean-Baptiste built Fort Maurepas near the mouth of the Red River at the southern end of the lake. In 1734 La Vérendrye went to Quebec to reorganize the finances and returned to the western post the following spring. In 1734 more than half the beaver pelts reaching Quebec came from La Vérendrye's posts. But by 1736 it was clear that the supply system was not working, and Jean-Baptiste was forced to go to Lake Superior for supplies. He along with 20 other Frenchmen, 19 voyageurs including the Jesuit missionary priest

Jean-Pierre Aulneau Jean-Pierre Aulneau de la Touche (21 April 1705 Moutiers-sur-le-Lay, La Vendée, Kingdom of France – 8 June 1736 Massacre Island, Lake of the Woods, New France, now Ontario, Canada) was a Jesuit missionary priest from La Vendée and a pionee ...

who accompanied them, were killed by the Sioux on Massacre Island in Lake of the Woods. La Vérendrye restrained the local

from a war of revenge in order to protect the fur trade. In 1737 La Vérendrye returned to Quebec on business. In Paris, Maurepas was pushing for more exploration. By this time explorers had identified two candidates as the 'River of the West'. The correct one was the Saskatchewan River, which flows east into Lake Winnipeg. The other was the

in the Mandan country in what is now North Dakota, United States. The Mandan were said to live in big houses and resemble Frenchmen. La Vérendrye picked the Missouri. In September 1738 he reached Fort Maurepas on Lake Winnipeg and ascended the Assiniboine River to

Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. In 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area was . Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Highway (exactly ...

, where he built Fort La Reine just south of Lake Manitoba (October 1738). Joining a large band of Assiniboines, he pushed southwest across the prairie and reached a Mandan village probably somewhere near the modern New Town, North Dakota, about 70 miles east of the

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

border. He did not push on to the Missouri River but sent his son Louis-Joseph to do it for him. In order to get rid of their numerous Assiniboine guests, the Mandan claimed that there was a Sioux war party in the area. The Assiniboines fled, taking with them the Cree interpreter. Unable to talk to the Mandan, La Vérendrye left two Frenchmen to learn the language and returned to Fort La Reine (January 1739). In 1740 he returned to Quebec on business, and in 1741 started on his fourth and last journey west. From Fort La Reine he sent his son Louis-Joseph exploring westward as far as, probably, the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming (1742–43). (See: Verendrye brothers' journey to the Rocky Mountains) He worked to consolidate his hold on the chain of lakes that look like a single lake west of Lake Winnipeg, establishing Fort Dauphin (Manitoba), Fort Bourbon and Fort Paskoya. Back in France, Maurepas was growing increasingly irritated with La Vérendrye, who he thought was trading in furs when he should be exploring. In 1742 Maurepas suggested that he be replaced. In 1743 La Vérendrye resigned. He returned to New France and led the life of a gentleman while doing a considerable business since his sons remained as traders in the west. In 1746 he was reappointed to his old post. He was planning the fifth expedition, this time up the Saskatchewan River, when he died on December 5, 1749. Shortly before his death, he was awarded the

Order of Saint Louis The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis () is a dynastic order of chivalry founded 5 April 1693 by King Louis XIV, named after Saint Louis (King Louis IX of France). It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, notable as the fi ...

Afterwards

From 1744 to 1746 Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont held the command of ''poste du Nord'', but accomplished little. After the elder La Vérendrye's death, the new governor Jonquière forced his sons out of their father's patrimony. Control of the west was given to Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre (1750–53). He built Fort La Jonquière somewhere on the Saskatchewan, but failed in an attempt to ascend that river. He was followed by Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne (1753-1756). He built Fort de la Corne on the Saskatchewan. In 1756 the western command was given to Pierre's son Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye, but he was unable to travel to the west. During the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

(1754-1763), the North American front of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

, the French gradually abandoned the western posts. With France's defeat, the British took control of New France territory east of the Mississippi River.

Legacy and honours

* Joseph-Émile Brunette's statue of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, is located in Saint Boniface, Manitoba. Numerous places were named in his honour: * La Verendrye Provincial Park in Ontario * La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve in Quebec * Boulevard de La Vérendrye in

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 ...

* Boulevard La Vérendrye in

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, directly across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region of Quebec and is also p ...

, Quebec * The neighbourhood of Varennes in the St. Vital district of Winnipeg, rue La Vérendrye and Parc La Vérendrye in the

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB (born Wynfreth; 675 –5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

district in Winnipeg, and École LaVérendrye in the Earl Grey neighbourhood of Winnipeg * La Vérendrye Hospital in Fort Frances, Ontario * École Secondaire Catholique de LaVérendrye, Thunder Bay, Ontario * Fort la Reine Museum,

, Manitoba * La Verendrye School,

, Manitoba * Verendrye, North Dakota - unofficial ghost town * La Vérendrye Trail, Manitoba * Mount Verendrye in British Columbia

References

* * * – has a translation of the journal of his visit to the Mandans * * * – has a translation of the journal with commentary. * * * *

External links