Pburpek] lake of the WOODS TRAGEDY 17 



this nation, nor to incite any Indians of his post to take part; that his 

 orders were to maintain the Indians in peace, union and tranquility. . . 

 " I made enquiries with regard to what took place, and learned 

 that the Indians at the post of the Sieur de la Veranderie had fired 

 upon the so-called Maskoutins Poiianes, who had demanded: "Who 

 fired at us?'^ They answered: "The French." They immediately 

 resolved to be revenged, and had recourse to all the usual means to 

 carry out their intentions, notwithstanding the fact that the Sieur de 

 la Veranderie had not been concerned in the affair. This act produced 

 in fact the same effect as if he had been there himself. 



" At the beginning of the month of June last (1736), a party of 

 Sioux of the Prairies, to the number of one hundred and thirty men, 

 found the canoe of Father Auneau, in which was one Bourassa. They 

 captured all the French, and tied the leader (Bourassa) to a stake to 

 burn him. Fortunately for him he had a slave belonging to this; 

 nation, whom he had taken from the Monsonés. She said to her 

 people : ' My kinsmen, what are you about to do ! I owe my life to- 

 this Frenchman. He did nothing else but good to me. If you desire 

 to be avenged for the attack which was made upon you, all you have 

 to do is, to go a little further on and you will find twenty-four French- 

 men, amongst whom is the son of the chief who killed your people.^ 

 They released Bourassa and his men, and went and totally exterminated 

 the other party. 



"This is, monseigneur, an unfortunate affair, which may perhaps be 

 the cause of the abandonment of all the posts in this (western) country.'" 

 This letter of Beauharnois', dated 14th October, 1736, was, as 

 already stated, based partly upon a report from the elder Lavérendrye, 

 Unfortunately, however, the report (mentioned in Beauharnois" letter 

 as of date the 8th June, 1736), is not in the Archives at Ottawa, 

 nor, indeed, does it appear to be extant elsewhere. Although I have 

 made a most minute search through the calendars of French Colonial 

 documents published in the Canadian Archives Reports, no reference 

 can be found to it there. Parkman, in a footnote on page 33 of 

 A Half Century of Conflict, Vol. IL, gives the following original 

 documents as bearing on the Lake of the Woods incident : — 

 "Beauharnois au Ministre, 14 Octobre, 1736; Relation du Massacre 

 au Lac des Bois, en Juin, 1736; Journal de la Vérandrye, joint à laj 

 lettre de M. de Beauharnois du Octobre, 1737." He, however, makes 

 no mention of Lavérendrye's letter to Beauharnois of Sth June, 1736, 

 which would appear to have conveyed the first intimation of the mas- 

 sacre, or rather Lavérendrye's fear that such a massacre must have 

 taken place, for as yet he had no direct proof of it. It is most. 



Sec. II., 1903. 2. 



