[BURPEE] LAKE OF THE WOODS TRAGEDY 19 



" Their bodies were discovered and identified by a party of 

 Frenchmen who passed by the same place a few days later. ^ Their 

 heads had been placed on robes of beaver skin, and most of them with 

 the scalp missing. The missionary was kneeling on one knee, an arrow 

 in his side, a gaping wound in the breast, liis left hand resting on the 

 ground and his right hand raised. The Sieur de la Véranderie was 

 stretched on the ground, face downward, his back all hacked with a 

 knife; there was a large opening in his loins, and his headless trunk 

 W'as decked out with garters and bracelets of porcupine quills. 



"It will be only this year that we shall be in possession of the 

 other particulcars of this unfortunate affair. 



" Some are of opinion that the Indians wished to wreak their 

 vengeance more particularly on young La Véranderie, the son, who 

 two years before had joined a war party of Christinaux against the 

 Sioux. It would appear that in the council he had been proclaimed 

 leader. Be that as it may, the young man had desisted and had not 

 taken part in the hostilities. 



" According to Bourassa, the bulk of the attacking party was com- 

 posed of the Prairie Sioux, of some Sioux of the Lakes and of 

 Monsieur de la Eonde's post. The latter appeared well disposed 

 towards the French; perhaps they were overruled in the affair of the 

 Sieur de la Véranderie's murder. If the Sioux; of the Lakes conspired 

 with the Sioux of the Prairies to shoot the French, then there is much 

 to be feared for the Sieur St. Pierre, who is commandant at the post of 

 the Sioux- The Sioux nations are the fiercest of all the native tribes. 

 They have been from time immemorial at war with the Cristinaux and 

 the Assiniboels. These latter were originally from the same stock; 

 they speak ver)»- nearly the same language, and yet they are irreconcil- 

 able enemies. A circumstance which the same Bourassa reports is, 

 that the Sioux complained to him that the French supplied the 

 Cristinaux with arms and ammunition. The Cristinaux might as well 

 complain of the French furnishing the Sioux with ammunition. 



" The Sieur de la Véranderie writes that, grief -stricken at the 

 loss of his son, he intends placing himself at the head of the Cristinaux 

 and Assiniboels, and of marching against the Sioux (an extreme 

 measure and not to be recommended). He would do better to agree 

 to give up the post of the Western Sea, or have another officer 



^ Pierre Margry, in an article in the Moniteur (Paris, 1852), says tbat the 

 discovery of the murdered man was made by five Canadian voyageurs, several 

 days after the event. 



^ Fort Beauharnois, situated on Lake Pepin, about forty miles south- 

 east of the present city of St. Paul. 



