Database: Louis-Joseph Gauthier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye

Born: 1717 Died: 1760

Louis-Joseph Gaultier, Chevalier de la Vérendrye was born to a family of explorers on Île aux Vaches in New France. In 1735, he went on his first expedition with his father to Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods. A year later, he re-established Fort Maurepas. He was rewarded with the title of "chevalier" (knight) from his father, who passed over Louis-Joseph's older brother to do so. He spent the next four years exploring North Dakota and Manitoba.

In 1744, de la Vérendrye became a frontier post commander for the French government. It was around this time that he met Achilles and Liam O'Brien and helped them complete an Assassin mission. In 1746, Achilles asked de la Vérendrye to join him, an offer that was gladly accepted.

De la Vérendrye lost his father in 1749, and further explorations westward were disrupted by politics. Later that same year, he met Shay Cormac for the first time and took an instant dislike to him.

In 1752, De la Vérendrye returned to fur trading, but business did not go well for him.

In 1761 he planned a trip to France, but his ship was lost off the coast of Cape Breton.

(That's how history remembers it going down, but we know the truth, don't we, numbskull? -V.)