[4] Hennepin relates that at the Falls of St. Anthony two of the men, to the great indignation of Du Lhut when he learned of it, stole two buffalo-robes which were hung on trees as offerings to the Great Spirit. Striking natural objects seem to have been regarded by the Indians as special manifestations of divinity. It is an interesting confirmation, that Jonathan Carver relates that, at the same place, a young warrior who accompanied him threw into the stream his pipe, his tobacco, his bracelets, his neck ornaments, in short, everything of value about him, all the while smiting his breast and crying aloud to the Great Spirit for his blessing. {313} Chapter XVI THE VERENDRYES DISCOVER THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS Verendrye's Experience as a Fur-trader.--As a Soldier.--He returns to the Forests.--His Plan for reaching the Pacific.--Tremendous Difficulties in his Way.--He reaches the Mandans.--His Sons discover the Rocky Mountains.--Alexander Mackenzie follows the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean.--He achieves a Passage over the Mountains to the Pacific.--Note on Mandan Indians.--Mah-to-toh-pa's Vengeance.--Singular Dwellings of the Mandans.--Their Bloody Ordeal.--Skin-boats.--Catlin's Fanciful Theory. We have seen how the dream of a short route to China and the Indies inspired a long line of adventurous explorers. At the first it was hoped that the Mississippi afforded such a passage. When it was known beyond all doubt that the Great River flows into the Gulf, not the "Western Sea," longing eyes were turned toward the western part of the continent, in the hope that some stream would be found flowing into the Pacific which would carry the keels of commerce Indiaward. The huge barrier of the Rocky Mountains was {314} not known, and it was only in the effort to reach the Pacific by water that they were discovered. So important was the desired route considered that, in 1720, the French King sent out the noted historian of New France, Father Charlevoix, to explore westward and discover a way to the Pacific. He recommended two plans, either to follow the Missouri River to its head-waters or to push a chain of trading-posts gradually westward until the continent should be crossed. The former plan was the one actually carried out, eighty-three years later, by the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, which crossed the Rockies and followed the Columbia River to the ocean. The second plan was the easier and less expensive, and it was the earlier to be tried. Still several years elapsed before the effort was made.