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

1746-1750.] RUINED HOPES. 37event ruined all his hopes.La Galissoniere returnedto France, and the Marquis de la Jonquiere succeededhim, with the notoriousFrancois Bigot as intendant.Both were greedy of money, — the one to hoard, andthe other to dissipate it. Clearly there was moneyto be got from the fur-ti'ade of Manitoba, for LaVdrendrye had made every preparation and incurredevery expense.to reap where he had sown.It seemed that nothing remained butHis commission to findthe Pacific, with the privileges connected with it,was refused to his sons, and conferred on a stranger.La Jonquiere wrote to the minister ": I have chargedM. de Saint-Pierre with this business. He knowsthese countries better than any officer in all thecolony."^ On the contrary, he had never seen them.It is difficult not to believe that La Jonquiere, Bigot,and Saint-Pierre were partners in a speculation ofwhich all three were to share the profits.The elder La Vdrendrye, not long before his death,had sent a large quantity of goods to his trading-forts.The brothers begged leave to return thither andsave their property from destruction. They declaredthemselves happy to serve under the orders ofPierre, and asked for the use of only a singleSaint-fort ofall those which their father had built at his own cost.The answer was a flat refusal. In short, they wereshamefully robbed. The Chevalier writes: "M. leMarquis de la Jonquiere, being pushed hard, and asI thought even touched, by my representations, told1 La Jonquiere ati Ministre, 27 Fevrier, 1750.±7a