LAVERDIt&E
50
LAVIGEUE
Layerdidre, Charlbs-Honob£, French-Canadian
historian, b. at Chateau-Richer, Province of Quebec,
1826; d. at Quebec, 1873. After his ordination (1851)
he was attached to the Quebec Seminary, where he had
studied the classics and theolofi;y, and he remained
there till his death. He utilizea his varied talents in
teaching belles-lettres, physics, chemistry, mathemat-
ics, music, and drawing. His favourite pursuits were
Canadian history and archaeology. Although his orig-
inal writings were few, including a school history of
Canada and some historical pamphlets, he supervised
the re-editing of several most important works, which
are the very sources of Canadian history. Conspicu-
ous among these are the "Relations des J^suites"
(1858), with erudite and exhaustive analytical tables;
the "Journal des J^suites'* (1871); and finally, the
realization of his most ardent wish, " Les CEuvres de
Champlain" of which he wrote the introduction and
countless annotations of great historical exactness and
value. He often spent a day in verifying a single date
or the spelling of a name. WTien the recently com-
pleted edition was entirely destroyed by fire, Laver-
di^re calmly remarked that some misprints that had
escaped his vigilance might be avoided in a new edi-
tion. His thorough knowledge of plain-song enabled
him to publish a series of liturgical works. He was of
a mild and amiable character, esteemed by all who
knew him. His mastery of Canadian history, espe-
cially the period from 1500 to 1700, gave his assertions
great authority.
Annuaire de VUnxversUf Laval (Quebec, 1874); Faucher DB St -Maurice, L'AbbS Chanea- Honors Laverdicre (Quebec, 1874).
Lionel Lindsay.
Lay^rendrye, Piehre Gaul/tier de Varennes, SiEUR de, discoverer of the Canadian West, b. at Three Rivers, Quebec, 17 Nov., 1685; d. at Montreal, 6 Dec., 1749. His early manhood was passed as a soldier in the service of France, and he was wounded on the battlefield of Malplaquet. Later he returned to his native country and engaged in the fur trade. As a step towards the exploration of the Pacific, or the Western Sea as it was then called, he established three trading posts west of Lake Superior, i. e. Forts St. Pierre, on Rainy River (1731), St. Charles on the Lake of the Woods (1732), and Maurepas, at the mouth of the Winnipeg River (1734). A sincere Christian, and having at heart his own religious interests as well as those of his men, he had taken with him Father Charles M. Mesaiger, a Jesuit, who did not go farther than the Lake of the Woods, where he was succeeded, in the summer of 1735, by Father Jean P. Aulneau de La Touche.
This young priest having temporarily left for the east (8 June, 1736) with Lavdrendrye's eldest son, Jean-Baptiste, and nineteen "voyagcurs'*, in quest of much needed provisions, the entire party was slain on an island of the Lake of the Woods on the very day of their departure. Lav6rendrye prudently resisted the pressing solicitations of the natives, burn- ing to avenge on the Sioux, the authors of the mas- sacre, the wrong done to the French. Then, in spite of his many debts occasioned by explorations and estab- lishments for which he had no other funds than the desultory returns of the fur trade in an unorganized coimtry, he went on with the task entrusted to his patriotism bv the French court. On 24 September, 1 738, he reached the exact spot where now stands Win- nipeg, and, ascending the Assiniboine to the present site of Portage la Prairie, he built there a post which he caUed Fort La Reine. Thence he made for the south, and by the end of 1738 he was at a Mandan village on \he Upper Missouri. Early in the spring of the follow- ing year, he sent north one of his sons, who discovered Luces Manitoba, Dauphin, Winnipegosis, and Bour- boni and erected a fort on Lake Daupnin. Meantime
La v^ndiye had had to repair to Montreal to ocmie to
an imderstanding with his creditors. On his return
to the west he took with him the Jesuit Father Claude
G. Coquart, the first priest to see the confluence of the
Assiniboine with the Red River and reside at what is
now Portage la Prairie (1741). In the spring of 17^
he commissioned two of his sons, Pierre Gauthier, dii
the Chevalier, and Fran9ois, to explore the country as
far west as they could possibly go. In the company of
savages who had never seen a white man, they reached,
after many perils, one of the spurs of the Rocky
Moimtains, which the^ partially scaled (12 Jan.,1743).
The desertion of their native guides, terrified at the
unexpected discovery of a village of their traditional
enemies, alone prevented further progress. The ex-
plorers must have penetrated to a point in the north-
west comer of what is now Montana. Lav4rendr>'e
was naturally endowed, it is true^ with inuomi-
table energy, but he was struggling against too
heavy odds. Dragged before the law courts by
the Montreal merchants whom he could not pay,
and accused by others of thinking more of filthy lucre
than of discoveries, and ill sustained by the Paris
authorities, he had to give up his work (1744), after
consecrating to it the thirteen best years of his life.
Gradually his worth became recognised at Paris, and
honours were bestowed upon him oy the French king.
He was on the eve of resuming his explorations when
he died, and was buried in the vault of Notre-Dame,
Montreal.
An upright man and a good Christian, Lav^ren- drye was considerably more than a mere explorer. No less than six fur -trading stations attested to his efficiency as an organizer. On the other hand, the numerous personnel of " voyageurs" whom these posts necessitated eventuallv gave rise to that won- derful race, the M^tis, which was in after years to glay such an important part in the history of Central anada.
DuoAS, V Quest Canadien (Montreal, 1896); Laitt, Path' Anders of the West (Toronto, 1904): Prud'uommb. Pierre O. de Varennes, Sieur de La Virendrye (()ttawa, 1905); Burpub, The Search for the Western Sea (Toronto, 1908) { Marsh, Where the Buffalo roamed (Toronto. 1908) ; Moricb, Dtctionnaire historioue des Canadiens et des Mitts Francais de V Quest (Quebec. 190b): Idbm, History of the Catholic Church in Western Canada (To- ronto, 1910).
A. 0. MORICE.
Layerlochdre, Jean-Nicolas, missionary, b. at St. Georges d'Esp^rance, Grenoble, France, 6 Dec., 1812; d. at Temiscaming, Canada, 4 Oct., 1884. He began his religious life as a lay brother in the Congregation of the Oblates, but feeling called to evangelize the natives of Canada, he was allowed to studv for the priesthood, and was ordained 5 May, 1844, at L'Acadie^ near Mon- treal. He was sent in succession to Abittibbi, Moose Factory, and other posts on Hudson Bay, where he laboured for the conversion of the native tribes. Alone, or in collaboration with others, he published a number of devotional books in Indian. Btis letters in the ** Annales de la Propagation de la Foi" attracted wide attention, and his reputation as a zealous mis- sionary spread throughout Catholic Europe to such an extent that he was ultimately recognized as the Apos- tle of Hudson Bay. A stroke of palsy intemiptea his labours in the course of 1851.
Soullerin, LePhre Laverlochhre (Paris, s. d.); Annales de la Propagation die la Foi, passim.
A. G. MoRicE.
LayiaUe, Peteb Joseph. See Louisville, Dio- cese OF.
Lavigerie, Chables-Martial-A'llemand, French cardinal, b. at Huire near Bayonne, 13 Oct., 1825; d. at Algiers, 27 Nov., 1892. He studied at the diocesan seminary of Larressore, then went to St. Nicolas-du- Chardonnet in Paris, and finally to St. Sulpice. Or- dained On 2 June, 1849, he devoted the first years bf
