'Pose par le
Chevalyet de Lave
t b St (?) Louis la Londette
A Miottee
le 30 de Marse 1743'
"Louise or St. Louis la Londette and A. Miottee who sign as witnesses were undoubtedly the 'two Frenchmen' who had accompanied the Chevalier.
"Everything about the plate tallies with everything in the journal; its authenticity cannot be doubted. As a reminder of the plucky attempt of ancestors, acting under the most trying difficulties the new-found relic has a truly sacred character, for Frenchmen and for Americans both."
Later he added the further observation:
"I can add but little to what I had written before concerning the La Verendrye family and the leaden plate so wonderfully discovered. I have, however, ascertained how the third line of the inscription in French should be interpreted. The first letters preceding the word Louis are an abbreviation for the christian name of Toussaint. The full name of the man mentioned in that line reads, therefore: Toussaint Louis la Londelle."
[South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. VII, pp. 374, 378 (1914).]
The tablet was discovered at Fort Pierre, South Dakota, February 16, 1913, and, its historical importance being at once recognized, it became the subject of much study. The chief documents concerning the La Verendrye explorers, in Pierre Margry's valuable work, entitled: "Devouvertes et Etablissements des Francais dans le Sud de FAmerique Septentrionale, 1614, 1754," (Paris, Vol. VI, 1888), were critically examined, and the whole subject became the theme of debates and historical comments that were later published in the volume of the South Dakota Historical Collections above mentioned.
