16 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Beauharnois reports Lavérendrye's arrivai at Fort St. Charles/ 

 after an enforced wintering at Kamanistiquoya; the illness of 

 Lavérendrye's nephew, La Jemeraye; and Lavérendrye's suggestion 

 that a new post should be established to the south of Lac des Prairies, 

 which was thought to be a very advantageous situation for the fur 

 trade; and then he goes on to say: — 



"He (Lavérendrye) wrote me from the same place (Fort St. 

 Charles) on the 8th of the same month (June, 1736), and he informs 

 me that the canoes had just arrived from Kamanistiquoya, and that 

 they had not met the party which had left on the 5th for Ms- 

 silimakinac, led by his eldest son, and amongst whom were Father 

 Auneau and twenty-two hired men. He . . . conveys to me his fear 

 that this party was exterminated by the Sioux of the Prairie. 



"I have since learned, monseigneur, that the party had been 

 totally destroyed by these Indians, and here are the particulars of the 

 occurrence. You must remember, monseigneur, that during the year 

 1734, Sieur de la Veranderie gave me a memorandum to be sent to you, 

 which memorandum you approved last year, and in wliich he speaks 

 to the Indians in the following terms : — " I am not opposed to your 

 waging war against the Maskoutins Poiianes, your enemies." In the 

 same memorandum it is stated that he gave them his son to lead them." 



Lavérendrye's son did accompany the Indians, in their expedition 

 against the Maskoutins Poiianes, but only for a short distance, when 

 he returned to the fort. The Maskoutins Poiianes, however, dis- 

 covered his trail, and attributed to him the leadership of the hostile 

 party. This, in the opinion of Beauharnois, was the immediate cause 

 of the subsequent massacre. 



"After having carefully read," continues the Grovemor, "the 

 memorandum of the Sieur de la Veranderie, I enquired from some 

 old voyageurs who the Maskoutins Poiianes were. They told me that 

 they were the Sioux of the Prairie. I immediately understood the 

 misfortune which had taken place, and gave him (Veranderie) strict 

 instructions not to send in the future any more French to war against 



^ In a letter from Father Autoeau to Father Boivin (Aulneau Collection, 

 p. 72), he gives this description of Fort St. Charles: 



" It is merely an enclosure made with four rows of posts, from twelve 

 to fifteen feet in height, in the form of an oblong square, within which are 

 a few rough cabins constructed of logs and clay and covered with bark." 



Father Jones, who edits these letters, adds the following footnote: — 



" The probable site of Fort St. Charles was a few miles up the bay now 

 known as " North-West Angle Inlet." At the entrance of this bay, which 

 begins at Aimerican Point, lies Guokete Island. The latitude of the fort would 

 be about 49° 6', and its longitude west of Grreenwich 95° 4", or perhaps a few 

 minutes further west." 



