Jacques Legardeur De Saint-Pierre: Officer, Gentleman, Entrepeneur

The Mythical Western Sea

5 BEYOND MICHILlMACKINAC: THE WESTERN SEA (PART I), 1750-1751 THE MYTHICAL WESTERN SEA The notion of a western sea that would provide the French with a navigable northern water route to Asia can be traced back to Giovanni da Verrazano who sailed for Francis I of France in 1524. Finding "a barrier of new land" (the Atlantic coast of North America), he unsuccessfully sought "a strait to penetrate to the Eastern ocean." By 1717, the king's first geographer , Guillaume Delisle, had put on paper his conception of where the mythical Western Sea (Mer de I'ouest) and River of the West (Riviere de I'ouest) might be situated. Knowing by then that the Gulf of California (Mer Vermeille) was joined to the Pacific Ocean, and influenced by Indian reports, the French saw the Western Sea as a gulfsimilarly joined to the Pacific.1 While the search for a northwest passage was ofgreat importance to the French authorities, the prospect of new French trading posts in the Lake Winnipeg area to supplant the English fur trade at Hudson Bay was always of greater immediate interest. As early as 1717, the Council ofMarine and the regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, had approved the founding of the first posts to the north of Lake Superior as the initial step toward locating the Western Sea, decreeing: To succeed in this exploration, it is necessary to begin to establish, from this point on, three posts, one at the Kamanistigoya River on Lake Superior [Thunder Bay], another on the Lake of the Crees [Lake Winnipeg], and the third on the one of the Assinipoiles [Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Manitoba]. These settlements can be made without it costing the King any expense other than the one for several presents to be made to those nations to attract them to us. The trade of those who would exploit these posts will compensate them for the expense that they will be obliged to incur. 129 doc. 45 13a Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre Es.tAJ ~ C'AR7'1'; '1'4te J'\~ GwHaumf" Dc-I••If' /'!" C,.o"raplU' dll RC'r n til' l}lcnd~mt~ r/.c6 .srtUIL'~" aJlo".,/outI. a .ron AI""qtrr pn."";,.,, a 10 COW" ,-It IU" .r.... i4 MElt DE J:O('E."~J·. y rt vn~ON 1.6. firm",,.,,. til' IlJ'1yuurt n 'NI .1') 'I'" dim .nmpll" '1"",1-. rl' '" .J7fi.,. 1"11" Inrl~ ,,1 <'Oft/nil' d~1Il. ,.Crlt(' j\r..'n nr. fOI't.:Sl' (dlJ'flu \,'-"nC"li"lc doll./' 1111 If,m,."yo VII PIT",,. nr 'I 1706' 1111 oN,!"/' d,m P,.,"N df" rOllu.ifnrUlm) tV" lUll' 1/' inN Iln"""'t'I*"... ll:llj .. O",UIU rI n"tvr 1'fl4' 101ijOIll'" ;, /"oqpOJ' II,. 1'"ldirT' U 'III., lim .r«tlL 011 U 'l'N' lim "nYITf'Jf¥mml;/l" /1'(11 pa"' .. jci;', "rr."".". Nfl' M,,",' cit· rOIl~t ria"., IN Qt"",!~U yllf'P'u "rtrldll publu..r. n, tIQI"~UlI pllJ yilt' lar..P.11yul'ln"J P''!'fi1n.r.rrnf'dl' ull, .nr~·flllv"rlt', .. '11(,1/, 91t;"//, pilI ,.irr, (lINUlI '1'U' I'on 1'111 1W"~/lIli dOli". tV" R,!lImmtl' J't /i", '" I'Jllr .. rnlt lurr- 9"«,111' (lVIIIl/f(fll' .flf",,, /t' I'tWill.r IIIW .fur I,. /Tf,.", /{;untJt'1T1 "lie in., .. /'/w,mrur d~ 1"''':'''''''''''' (,." 'lf9:" ~ IV /~ ('lta"u",.,. IJ"urlu,..,/, rI i'lIl '/mllll n (t'T1 ,-vo-) ~ 11/. Ie (vmlr ,I, /{mIt1urdnu" ltvP'''''~'~'',f~ /;"'",rlnnu .1, rrHc' 11/;.., ret:t~ Cnrle " ro4f'l'vr/ ;, In .r"~('Tld" pnrllr dr.r F.drur('..~C'm('1U W J\\MaOtrC" l',.,:.rrlll/ rI h; ia I:'-LrtTlI,NIU ,/"., ,rrWlIl'tV I,.." ..1",,', r.i~p(lr rlu' l\M.('br Speculative map showing the presumed location of the Western Sea, originally drawn and presented to the court by the king's principal geographer, Guillaume Delisle, in 1717. Archives du Seminaire de Quebec, Tiroir 223, Atlas 4, carte 5 (Fiche: A-120): photograph by Brown et Chalifour, Quebec. By means of these posts we would turn the Indians away from taking their peltries, which are the most beautiful in the continent, that is to say beaver and other skins, to the English at Hudson Bay, which could oblige them, as a consequence, to abandon that post, having no other trade but with these Indians.2 + Beyond Michilimackinac: The ffistern Sea (Part J), 1750-1751 131 In 1717 Zacharie Robutel de La Noue was sent out to establish posts at Kaministiquia and Lake Winnipeg, and to secure information from the Indians preparatory to establishing a post further west at "Lac des AssenipoeIle." These posts were to serve as bases for further exploration for the Western Sea, but due to Indian hostility La Noue was not able to proceed beyond Kaministiquia. In 1728, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Verendrye was placed in command of Kaministiquia, where, from the Chippewas and Crees, he learned something about Lake Winnipeg, the rivers in its region, and the River of the West. In 1730 he convinced Governor Charles de La Boische de Beauharnois and Intendant Gilles Hocquart to send him to establish a post at Lake Winnipeg, but official support was limited to 2000 livres from the king for Indian presents, and a three-year fur-trade monopoly granted by Beauharnois. The expedition was financed by a partnership which included La Verendrye, his eldest son, his nephew, and a number of merchants.3 IS,\~KAT I\EWA~I 1\1A."rroB·\1 - - I I ~~nIDAKOTAI ~ ! ~ ~ Center for Canographk Research and Spatia! Analysis Michigan Slate University IMINNESOTA] The Western Sea Posts, 1731-1753. (Dates indicate years posts were founded.) ...