Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye de Boumois

Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye de Boumois
La Vérendrye l'aîné
Born	1714-12-01 Île aux Vaches, Lac Saint-Pierre, Quebec
Died	1755-09-13 Quebec
Occupation	Explorer; military officer
Father	Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye
Mother	Marie-Anne Dandonneau Du Sablé
Siblings	François Gaultier Du Tremblay

Pierre Gaultier de La Vérendrye de Boumois ((1714-12-01)1 December 1714 – 13 September 1755(1755-09-13) (aged 40)) was a French-Canadian explorer and military officer who participated in the exploration of the western interior of New France during the mid-18th century.

Early life and military service

Pierre was born on 1 December 1714 at Île aux Vaches on Lac Saint-Pierre, Quebec, the son of the explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye and Marie-Anne Dandonneau Du Sablé. He enlisted in the colonial regular troops as a cadet in 1728, spending his first two years on garrison duty in Montreal.

In 1731, at the age of sixteen, Pierre traveled west with his father's expedition, wintering at Kaministiquia — the site of present-day Thunder Bay, Ontario. The following year he took part in the construction of Fort Saint-Charles at the Lake of the Woods, and from spring 1734 he commanded that post until his cousin Christophe Dufrost de La Jemerais arrived to relieve him later that summer.

Exploration of the western interior

Pierre accompanied his father to Fort Maurepas on the Red River in February 1737, returning to Montreal with him in June of that year. When the party reached Fort Saint-Charles again in August 1738, his father left him in command while leading an expedition into Mandan territory in what is now North Dakota; Pierre held this command until November 1739.

In the summer of 1740 his father dispatched him with trade goods from Michilimackinac. Pierre made his way to Fort La Reine on the Assiniboine River near present-day Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba, remaining there through the spring of 1741. Accompanied by two Frenchmen, he then pressed south, reportedly reaching as far as two Spanish forts — likely in present-day Nebraska — before turning back for want of guides, returning with two horses and several Spanish trade goods.

Upon his father's arrival at Fort La Reine in October 1741, Pierre was immediately tasked with establishing Fort Dauphin north of Dauphin Lake near present-day Winnipegosis, inviting Cree and Assiniboin peoples to trade furs at the new post. He spent all of 1742 at Fort La Reine. After his father departed the western posts permanently in 1744, when Nicolas-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont assumed command, Pierre remained in the west until 1745, when he returned to Montreal.

Later military career

Shortly after returning east, Pierre joined the forces under Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in New England. He followed Legardeur to Acadia in May 1746 and participated in fighting against Mohawks under the same commander in the spring of 1747.

Designated to manage the western posts, he left Michilimackinac on 10 August 1747. The acting commandant Charles-Joseph de Noyelles de Fleurimont had detained the voyageurs owing to unrest among Indigenous peoples, but Pierre pressed on independently, succeeding in reconciling the groups involved with French interests. He returned to Michilimackinac in the spring of 1748, then traveled west again to rebuild Fort Maurepas on the Winnipeg River — which had been burned — and to restore the deteriorating Fort La Reine.

On 1 May 1749 Pierre received the rank of second ensign. Although he was proposed for service as a lieutenant in the West Indies, he chose to remain in Canada at his lower rank. He also submitted a report to Rouillé, the minister of Marine, summarizing his years of western service and requesting royal support, but received no reply.

Learning of his father's death in December 1749, Pierre returned to Montreal in the summer of 1750. In 1752 he was posted to Fort Beauséjour near present-day Sackville, New Brunswick, where he served until the fort fell to a British force in 1755.

Death

Pierre returned to Canada in the summer of 1755 and died at Quebec on 13 September 1755. He never married. His biographer Antoine Champagne described him as an excellent soldier and capable explorer who shared many qualities with his cousin Christophe Dufrost de La Jemerais and his brothers Jean-Baptiste Gaultier de La Vérendrye and Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye, though the latter possessed a broader vision.

After the death of his brother Jean-Baptiste in 1736, Pierre adopted the designation La Vérendrye l'aîné (the elder).

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography