post which could, hereafter, intercept the passage of the English. He proposed to M. de la Galissonière to make a settlement of the Mission of La Presentation, near Lake Ontario, an establishment which succeeded beyond his hopes, and has been the most useful of all those of Canada. Mr. Rouillé, Minister of the Marine wrote on the 4th may 1749; "A large number of Iroquois having declared that they were desirous of embracing Christianity, it has been proposed to establish a Mission towards Fort Frontenac in order to attract the greatest number possible thither. It is Abbé Picquet, a zealous Missionary and in whom these Nations seem to have confidence, who has been entrusted with this negotiation. He was to have gone last year, to select a suitable site for the establishment of the Mission, and verify as precisely as was possible what can be depended upon relative to the disposition of these same nations. In a letter of the 5th October last, M. de la Gallisonniére stated that though an entire confidence cannot be placed in those they have manifested, it is notwithstanding of so much importance to succeed in dividing them, that nothing must be neglected that can contribute to it. It is for this reason that His Majesty desires you shall prosecute the design of the proposed settlement. If it could attain a certain success, it would not be difficult then to make the savages understand that the only means of extricating themselves from the pretensions of the English to them and their lands, is to destroy Choueguen,1 so as to deprive them thereby of a Post which they established chiefly with a view to control their tribes. This destruction is of such great importance, both as regards our possessions and the attachment of the savages and their Trade, that it is proper to use every means to engage the Iroquois to undertake it. This is actually the only means that can be employed, but you must feel that it requires much prudence and circumspection."

Mr. Picquet eminently possessed the qualities requisite to effect the removal of the English from our neighborhood. Therefore the General, the Intendant, and the Bishop deferred absolutely to him in the selection of a settlement for this new Mission, and despite the efforts of those who had opposite interests, he was entrusted with the undertaking.

The Fort of La Presentation is situated at 302 deg. 40 min. Longitude, and at 44 deg. 50 minutes. Latitude on the Presentation River, which the Indians name Soegasti, thirty leagues above MontReal; fifteen leagues from Lake Ontario or Lake Frontenac, which with Lake Champlain gives rise to the River St. Laurence; 15 leagues west of the source of the River Hudson which falls into the sea at New-York. Fort Frontenac had been built near there in 1671, to arrest the incursions of the English and the Iroquois; the hay served as a port for the Mercantile and Military Marine which had been formed there on that sort of sea where the tempests are as frequent and as dangerous as on the ocean. But the Post of La Presentation appeared still more important, because the harbour is very good, the river freezes there rarely, the barks can leave with northern, eastern and southern winds, the lands are excellent, and that quarter can be fortified most advantageously. Besides, that Mission was adapted by its situation to reconcile to us the Iroquois savages of the Five Nations who inhabit between Virginia and Lake Ontario. The Marquis of Beauharnois and afterwards M. de la Jonquière, Governor General of New France, were very desirous that we should occupy it, especially at a time when English jealousy irritated by a war of many years, sought to alienate from us the tribes of Canada.

This establishment was as if the key of the Colony, because the English, French and Upper Canada savages could not pass elsewhere than under the cannon of Fort Presentation when coming down from the South; the Iroquois to the South and the Micissagués to the North were within its reach. Thus it eventually succeeded in collecting them together from over a distance of one hundred leagues. The officers, interpreters and traders, notwithstanding, then regarded that establishment as chimerical. Envy and opposition had effected its failure had it not been for the firmness of the Abbè 1 Oswego.

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Picquet supported by that of the Administration. This establishment served to protect, aid, and comfort the posts already erected on Lake Ontario. The Barks and Canoes for the Transportation of the King's effects could be constructed there at a third less expense than elsewhere because timber is in greater quantity and more accessible, especially when M. Picquet had had a saw mill erected there for preparing and manufacturing the timber. In fine he could establish a very important settlement for the French Colonists and a point of reunion for Europeans and savages, where they would find themselves very convenient to the hunting and fishing in the upper part of Canada. M. Picquet left with a detachment of soldiers, mechanics and some savages. He placed himself at first in as great security as possible against the insults of the enemy, which availed him ever since. On the 20th October 1749, he had built a Fort of palisades, a house, a barn, a stable, a redoubt and an oven. He had lands cleared for the savages. His improvements were estimated as thirty to forty thousand livres, but he introduced as much judgment as economy. He animated the workmen and they laboured from three o'clock in the morning until nine at night. As for himself his disinterestedness was extreme. He received at that time neither allowance nor presents; he supported himself by his industry and credit. From the King he had but one ration of two pounds of bread and one half pound of pork, which made the savages say, when they brought him a Buck and some Partridges, "We doubt not, Father, but that there have been disagreeable expostulations in your stomach, because you have had nothing but pork to eat. Here's something to put your affairs in order." The hunters furnished him wherewithal to support the Frenchmen, and to treat the Generals occasionally. The savages brought him trout weighing as many as eighty pounds. When the Court had granted him a pension Le employed it only for the benefit of his establishment. At first, he had six heads of families in 1749, eighty-seven the year following, and three hundred and ninety-six in 1751. All these were of the most antient and most influential families, so that this Mission was, from that time sufficiently powerful to attach the Five Nations to us, amounting to twenty-five thousand inhabitants, and he reckoned as many as three thousand in his Colony. By attaching the Iroquois Cantons to France and establishing them fully in our interest, we were certain of having nothing to fear from the other savage tribes and thus a limit could be put to the ambition of the English. Mr. Picquet took considerable advantage of the peace to increase that settlement, and he carried it in less than four years to the most desirable perfection, despite of the contradictions that he had to combat against; the obstacles he had to surmount; the jibes and unbecoming jokes which he was obliged to bear; but his happiness and glory suffered nothing therefrom. People saw with astonishment several villages start up almost at once ; a convenient, habitable and pleasantly situated fort; vast clearances covered almost at the same time with the finest maize. More than five hundred families, still all infidels, who congregated there, soon rendered this settlement the most beautiful, the most charming and the most abundant of the Colony. Depending on it were La Presentation, La Galette, Seugatzi, L'isle au Galop, and L'isle Picquet in the River St. Lawrence. There were in the Fort, seven small stone guns and eleven four to six pounders.

The most distinguished of the Iroquois families were distributed at La Presentation in three villages: that which adjoined the French fort contained, in 1754, forty-nine bark cabins some of which were from sixty to eighty feet long and accommodated three to four families. The place pleased them on account of the abundance of hunting and fishing. This Mission could no doubt be increased, but cleared land sufficient to allow all the families to plant and to aid them to subsist would be necessary and each Tribe should have a separate location. The Bishop of Quebec wishing to witness and assure himself personally of the wonders related to him of the establishment at La Presentation went thither in 1749, accompanied by some officers, royal interpreters, Priests from other Missions and several other clergymen, and spent ten days examining and causing the

Catechumens to be examined. He himself baptized one hundred and thirty-two, and did not cease during his sojourn, blessing Heaven for the progress of Religion among these Infidels.

Scarcely were they baptized when M. Picket determined to give them a form of Government. He established a Council of Twelve Ancients; chose the most influential among the Five Nations; brought them to Mont Real where at the hands of the Marquis Du Quesne they took the Oath of Allegiance to the King to the great astonishment of the whole Colony where no person dared to hope for such an event.

In the month of June 1751, M. Picquet made a voyage around Lake Ontario with a King's Canoe and one of Bark in which he had five trusty Savages, with the design of attracting some Indian families to the new settlement of La Presentation. There is a memoir, among his papers on the subject, from which it is proposed to give an extract.

He visited Fort Frontenac or Cataracoui, situate twelve leagues west of La Presentation. He found no Indians there though it was formerly the rendezvous of the Five Nations. The bread and milk, there, were bad; they had not even brandy there to staunch a wound. Arrived at a point of Lake Ontario called Kaoi, he found a runaway there from Virginia. At the Bay of Quinteé he visited the site of the antient Mission which M. Dollieres de Kleus and Abbé D'Urfé, priests of the Saint Sulpice Seminary had established there. The quarter is beautiful but the land is not good. He visited Fort Toronto, seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac, at the West end of Lake Ontario. He found good Bread and good Wine there, and every thing requisite for the trade, whilst they were in want of these at all the other posts. He found Mississagues there who flocked around him; they spoke first of the happiness their young people, the women and children would feel if the King would be as good to them as to the Iroquois for whom he procured Missionaries. They complained that instead of building a church, they had constructed only a canteen for them. M. Picquet did not allow them to finish and answered them that they had been treated according to their fancy; that they had never evinced the least zeal for religion; that their conduct was much opposed to it; that the Iroquois on the contrary had manifested their love for Christianity, but as he had no order to attract them to his Mission, he avoided a more lengthy explanation.

He passed thence to Niagara. He examined the situation of that fort, not having any savages to whom he could speak. It is well located for defence not being commanded from any point. The view extends to a great distance; they have the advantage of the landing of all the canoes and barks which land and are in safety there. But the rain was washing the soil away by degrees, notwithstanding the vast expence which the King incurred to sustain it. M. Picquet was of opinion that the space between the land and the wharf might be filled in so as to support it, and make a glacis there. This place was important as a Trading post and as securing possession of the Carrying place, Niagara and Lake Ontario.

From Niagara, M. Picquet went to the Carrying place which is six leagues from that Post. He visited on the same day the famous Fall of Niagara by which the four Great Canada lakes discharge themselves into Lake Ontario. This Cascade is as prodigious by its height and the quantity of water which falls there, as by the variety of its falls which are to the number of six principal ones divided by a small island, leaving three to the North and three to the South. They produce of themselves a singular symmetry and wonderful effect. He measured the height of one of those falls from the south side, and he found it about one hundred and forty feet.1 The establishment at this Carrying place, the most important in a commercial point of a view was the worst stocked. The Indians, who came there in great numbers, were in the best disposition to trade, but not finding what they wanted, they went to Chouoguen or Choëguen [Oswego] at the mouth of the river of the same name. M.

1 These are French feet. The falls on the American side are 164 feet high-Burr's Atlas, Introd. p. 31.