Pierre Gaultier de Varennes was born at Trois-Rivières, Canada, where his father, René Gaultier, Sieur de Varennes, was governor. His mother, Marie, was a daughter of Pierre Boucher, first historian of New France. La Verendrye was the fourth son, and his maternal grandfather was his godfather. His father died when the boy was but four years old.
At the age of twelve La Verendrye entered the colonial army. He took part in several raids, notably that at Deerfield, Massachussets, in 1704. Three years later he was sent to France, where as lieutenant in the Regiment de Bretagne he saw hard service, was wounded nine times, and in 1709 was left for dead on the battlefield of Malplaquet.
In 1711 he returned to Canada, and the next year was commissioned ensign in the local forces. In 1726 La Verendrye obtained the command of a post on Lake Nipigon, north of Lake Superior, and there heard from the Indians accounts of far western regions and the routes thither. One Ochagah drew for him a map of a westward-flowing river, which so impressed La Verendrye that in 1729 he went to Quebec to obtain permission from the governor to search overland for the Western Sea.
Governor Beauharnois sent him to France, where he secured permission to explore at his own expense. The promise of a monopoly of the fur trade in the regions he might discover encouraged him to attempt the exploration. In 1731 he started west with his three eldest sons and his nephew, La Jemmeraye. Pushing west from Lake Superior by the Grand Portage route, they reached Rainy Lake, where Fort St. Pierre was built.
The next year they erected Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods. During La Verendrye's absence in Canada, his sons penetrated further into the wilderness, and in 1734 built Fort Maurepas on Lake Winnipeg. The year 1736 was one of disaster: in May La Jemmeraye died; and in the summer Jean Baptiste La Verendrye, Father Aulneau, and nineteen companions were murdered by the Sioux Indians on Massacre Island, Lake of the Woods. (The site was identified in 1909. )
Nevertheless, La Verendrye continued his advance, building in 1738 Fort La Reine on Assiniboin River and Fort Rouge on the site of Winnipeg, Manitoba. From Fort La Reine the explorers made their way overland to the Mandan villages on the upper Missouri. Thence four years later two of the sons with two voyageurs pushed west to mountains, variously identified as the Black Hills and as a portion of the Rocky Mountains. On their return they buried a leaden plate, which was found in 1913 at Fort Pierre, S. D. , dated to correspond with the explorers' journal (Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1913, 1914, pp. 146-50).
In 1744 La Verendrye for the fourth time returned to Montreal to meet his creditors and to ask aid to continue his explorations. To his disappointment, however, he was kept on duty in Canada, while his posts were assigned to another officer. In 1746 he was promoted to a captaincy.
In that year a new governor granted him permission to return to the west, and he was making preparations for an expedition when he died. His sons were not allowed to continue his work.
Persistence in the face of great discouragements enabled La Verendrye to enter the far West and to be the discoverer of Manitoba, the Dakotas, the western plains of Minnesota, the northwest territories of Canada, and probably part of Montana. He and his sons were the first white men to see the Red River of the North, the Assiniboin, probably the Saskatchewan, and great stretches of the upper Missouri. His discoveries opened a vast region for the French fur trade and pointed the way to the overland route to the Pacific. In 1749 he received the cross of St. Louis for his services for French government.
On October 29, 1712, La Verendrye married Marie-Anne Dandonneau Du Sablé, daughter of Louis Dandonneau du Sablé, Sieur de l'Ile du Pas. She bore him four sons: Jean Baptiste, Pierre, François, and Louis Joseph.
