A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

1737, 1738.] FRUITLESS INQUIRIES. 15He had inquired on all sides for the Pacific. TheAssiniboins could tell him nothing. Nor could anyinformation be expected from them, sincetheir relativesand mortal enemies, the Sioux, barred their wayto the West. The Cristineaux were equally ignorant;but they supplied the place ofknowledge by invention,and drew maps, some of which seem to havebeen made with no other intention than that of amusingthemselves by imposing on the inquirer. Theyalso declared that some of their number had gonedown a river called White River, or River of theWest, where they found a plant that shed drops likeblood, and saw serpents of prodigious size. Theysaidfurther that on the lower part of this river werewalled towns, where dwelt white men who had knives,hatchets, and cloth,but no firearms. ^Both Assiniboins and Cristineaux declared thatthere was a distant tribe on the Missouri, calledMantannes (Mandans), who knew the way to theWestern Sea, and would guide him to it.Lured bythis assurance, and feeling that he had sufficientlysecured his position to enable him to begin his westernexploration. La Vdrendrye left Fort La Reine inOctober, 1738, with twenty men, and pushed up theriver Assiniboin till its rapids and shallows threatenedhis bark canoes with destruction. Then, witha band of Assiniboin Lidians who had joined him,he struck across the prairie for the Mandans, his^ Journal de la V&endrye joint a la. Lettre de M. de Beau/iarnoisdu— Octobre, 1737.