Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, Sieur de La Verendrye, established Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods in 1732 as part of his ambitious effort to find the fabled Western Sea and create French outposts along the way. On Magnuson's Island, then connected with the mainland, he built a palisaded fort and named it for Charles de Beauharnois, governor of New France. Fort St. Charles became the western capital of the French empire in the Northwest, serving as a base from which expeditions were launched and supplies sent to newer posts around Lake Winnipeg, while Indians brought furs to trade for white men's goods and the pelts were carried by canoe to Montreal. Life there was precarious because of scarce food and Indian warfare. In 1736 La Verendrye's oldest son, Jean-Baptiste, nineteen voyageurs, and Father Jean-Pierre Aulneau, a Jesuit priest, were sent east for supplies and were massacred by a Sioux war party on a nearby island. The fort was abandoned after 1760.