the second son of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye. An explorer and fur trader who served many years under the command of his father, he was born on Île aux Vaches, (Isle of Cows) near Sorel, New France. The young Pierre spent two years in the colonial regular troops las a cadet, doing garrison duty in Montreal. In 1731, when his father planned an expedition to expand the fur trade westward and at the same time search for a water route to the Western Sea, he accompanied his father and brothers Jean Baptiste, François, and Louis-Joseph as a member of the expedition.
