[BURPEE] YORK FACTORY TO THE BLACKFEET COUNTRY 319 
named Fort Lajonquiére, and a considerable store of provisions, in ex- 
pectation of the arrival of M. de Niverville, who was to set out a month 
after them, but was prevented by a serious illness.” It would appear 
that de Niverville eventually reached Fort Lajonquiére, as, toward the 
close of Saint-Pierre’s journal it is said: “M. de Niverville... gave 
me an account of what he had learned at the settlement he had made 
near the Rocky Mountains.” 
In face of these circumstantial statements it does not seem possible 
to deny the fact that one of the branches of the Saskatchewan was as- 
cended for some distance in 1751, and that Fort La Jonquiére was built 
there. The questions in doubt are: which branch was ascended; and 
where was Fort La Jonquiére built? As to the former, the evidence is 
somewhat conflicting. On the one hand, it has been objected that Saint- 
Pierre’s men could not have gone up the South Branch as that would 
have brought them into the country of the Blackfeet, by whom they in- 
evitably would have been murdered. This opinion is based upon later 
experiences with the Blackfeet, but as has been seen, the Blackfeet 
were exceedingly friendly to white men at the time of Hendry’s visit, 
and if this was the case in 1754, it is altogether likely to have been the 
case in 1751. This argument, therefore, falls to the ground. On the 
other hand we have the direct statement that the ruins of Fort La Jon- 
quiére were found by Captain E. Brisebois, of the North West Mounted 
Police, at the place where the town of Calgary now stands. “ En 1875,” 
says Judge Prud’homme, in his paper already alluded to (I, 72), “le 
capitaine E. Brisebois, de la police à cheval, fut chargé de bâtir un fort 
au pied des Montagnes Rocheuses. Il l’érigea sur les bords de la rivière 
des Arcs, à l’endroit même qu’occupait jadis le fort La Jonquière, dont 
il retrouva les ruines et lui donna le nom de ‘ Fort Brisebois,’ auquel 
a succédé depuis celui de Calgary.” Judge Prud’homme presumably 
obtained this information from Brisebois himself. In any case, M. 
Benjamin Sulte says that some years ago Captain Brisebois told him 
positively that he had discovered the ruins of an old fort, at the place 
mentioned, which he believed to be those of Fort La Jonquiére. A good 
deal of weight naturally attaches to this direct statement. Yet it can 
scarcely be regarded as conclusive. Unless Captain Brisebois found 
among the ruins something that positively identified the building as a 
French fort—and of this there is no evidence—one would be rather in- 
clined to think it the remains of an old North West Company fort. 
Remembering the temporary nature of the building erected by Saint- 
Pierre’s men, it is highly improbable that any vestige of it would remain 
one hundred and twenty-four years afterward. Again, it is to say the 
least singular that, if a party of French explorers did actually ascend 
