A Joyful Journey to Massacre Island by James Fontana
In 1734, at the command of the Governor of New France, explorer Pierre Gaulthier de Varennes de La Verendrye, together with his three sons including his eldest, Jean-Baptiste, and a young Jesuit missionary, Father Pierre Aulneau, set out from Montreal (Ville Ste-Marie with an expedition of fifty men on a 1,500 mile trek into North America's wild uncharted interior.
His aims were to discover new lands for France and new sources of beaver pelts for Montreal, to evangelize the Native population, and to seek and find a mysterious Native nation called the Mandan. But main prize was to find a route to Cathay via the Great Western Sea, that is, the Pacific ocean.
Eventually La Verendrye discovered the Mandan and the Turtle Mountains, but not without extreme hardship and tragedy. This is his Story.
In 1734, at the command of the Governor of New France, explorer Pierre Gaulthier de Varennes de La Verendrye, together with his three sons including his eldest, Jean-Baptiste, and a young Jesuit missionary, Father Pierre Aulneau, set out from Montreal (Ville Ste-Marie with an expedition of fifty men on a 1,500 mile trek into North America's wild uncharted interior.
His aims were to discover new lands for France and new sources of beaver pelts for Montreal, to evangelize the Native population, and to seek and find a mysterious Native nation called the Mandan. But main prize was to find a route to Cathay via the Great Western Sea, that is, the Pacific ocean.
Eventually La Verendrye discovered the Mandan and the Turtle Mountains, but not without extreme hardship and tragedy. This is his Story.
In 1734, at the command of the Governor of New France, explorer Pierre Gaulthier de Varennes de La Verendrye, together with his three sons including his eldest, Jean-Baptiste, and a young Jesuit missionary, Father Pierre Aulneau, set out from Montreal (Ville Ste-Marie with an expedition of fifty men on a 1,500 mile trek into North America's wild uncharted interior.
His aims were to discover new lands for France and new sources of beaver pelts for Montreal, to evangelize the Native population, and to seek and find a mysterious Native nation called the Mandan. But main prize was to find a route to Cathay via the Great Western Sea, that is, the Pacific ocean.
Eventually La Verendrye discovered the Mandan and the Turtle Mountains, but not without extreme hardship and tragedy. This is his Story.