Hi: Just discovered a site that has first hand accounts of U.S. westward expansion. It is at: American Journeys -- Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement: A Digital Library and Learning Center http://www.americanjourneys.org/ Regards Nan 71532.734@compuserve.com ==================== Found using the search at: http://www.americanjourneys.org/ Journal in the Form of a Letter Covering the Period from the 20th of July 1738, When I Left Michilimackinac, to May, 1739, Sent to the Marquis de Beauharnois by La Vérendrye, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de, 1685-1749 "I sent off my son the Chevralier this morning, the 16th of April in the company with a savage, to go and explore the region near the fort on Lake Winnipeg and examine the rivers that flow into that lake, especially the Blanche River where I propose to go on the return of our canoes, also the mine on the lake and on the Blanche River, and to explore the outlet of the lake and make a circuit of it, and try to prevent the savages from going to the English by encouraging them to look for our arrival in a short time. Footnote: River Blanche is shown on the 1739 map, and is evidently the Saskatchewan. J. B. Tyrrell, in support of this view, notes that the Saskatchewan as shown on Jeffrey's map of 1762 as White's or Hind's River. (Geol. Survey of Canada Report 1898, 89G.) On the other hand Dr. Eliot Coues notes that Sir Alexander MacKenzie and D. W. Harmon refer to the Winnipeg as White River, 'after River Blanche of the French' (New Light, etc. I 27) Nan's comment: There must have been a Hinds in this region at some time - how else would someone call a river the Hinds River?.