Mr. Picquet next returned to Frontenac. Never was a reception more imposing. The Nipissings and Algonquins who were. going to war with M. de Bellestre, drew up in a line of their own accord above Fort Frontenac where three standards were hoisted. They fired several volleys of musketry and cheered incessantly. They were answered in the same style from all the little craft of bark. M. de Verchere and M. de la Valtrie caused the guns of the Fort to be discharged at the same time, and the Indians transported with joy at the honors paid them also kept up a continual fire with shouts and acclamations which made every one rejoice. The commandants and officers received our Missionary at the landing. No sooner had he debarked than all the Algonquins and Nipissings of the Lake came to embrace him, saying that they had been told that the English had arrested him, and had that news been confirmed they would soon have themselves relieved him. Finally when he returned to La Presentation, he was received with that affection, that tenderness which children would experience in recovering a father whom they had lost. War was no sooner declared in 1754 than the new children of God, of the King and of M. Picquet, thought only of giving fresh proofs of their fidelity and valor, as those of the Lake of the Two Mountains had done in the war preceding. The generals were indebted to M. Picquet for the destruction of all the Forts as well on the river Corlac (Corlear) as on that of Choëguen. His Indians distinguished themselves especially at Fort George on Lake Ontario where the warriors of La Presentation alone with their bark canoes destroyed the English fleet commanded by Capt. Beccan who was made prisoner with a number of others and that in sight of the French army, commanded by M. de Villiers who was at the Isle Galop. The war parties which departed and returned continually, filled the Mission with so many prisoners that their numbers frequently surpassed that of the warriors, rendering it necessary to empty the villages and send them to Headquarters. In fine a number of other expeditions of which M. Picquet was the principal author have procured the promotion of several officers. He frequently found himself in the vanguard when the King's troops were ordered to attack the enemy. He distinguished himself particularly in the expeditions of Sarasto (Saratoga), Lake Champlain, Pointe a la Chevelure (Crown Point), the Cascades, Carillon (Ticonderoga) Choëguen (Oswego), River Corlac (Mohawk), Isle au Galop etc. The posts he established for the King protected the Colony pending the entire war. M. du Quesne said that the Abbé Picquet was worth more than ten regiments. In the month of May 1756 M. de Vaudreuil got M. Picquet to depute the Chiefs of his Missions to the Five Nations of Senecas, Cayugas, Onontagués, Tuscaroras and Oneidas to attach them more and more to the French. The English had surprised and killed their nephews in the three villages of the Loups (Mohegans?) M. de Vaudreuil requested him to form parties which could succeed each other in disquieting and harassing the English. In 1758 he destroyed the English forts on the banks of Corlac, but at length the battle of the 13 Sept. 1759, in which the Marquis of Montcalm was killed, brought ruin on Quebec and that of Canada followed. When he saw all thus lost, M. Picquet terminated his long and laborious career by his retreat on the 8th May 1760, with the advice and consent of the General, the Bishop and Intendant, in order not to fall into the hands of the English. He had determined never to swear allegiance to another power. He passed to Michilimachina between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan; proceeded thus by way of Upper Canada to the Illinois country & Louisiana, and sojourned twenty two months at New Orleans. On his return to France, he passed several years in Paris. A hernia which afflicted him a long time, having become aggravated, finally caused his death at Verjon on the 15th July 1781. In his life time he was complimented with the title of 46 Apostle of the Iroquois." NOTE.-Fort la Presentation, with the River, under the names of Wegatchi, Swegatchi, Oswegatchi, will be found laid down in the following Maps and Charts, vizt A Map of that part of America which was the principal seat of War in 1756, published in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1757, Vol. xxvii. ; An Exact Chart of the River St. Lawrence from Fort Frontenac to the Island of Anticosti by Thos Jeffereys, London 1775; with the River St. Lawrence from Quebec to Lake Ontario copied from D'Anvill's Map of 1755; Sauthiers Map of the Inhabited parts of Canada and Frontiers of New York, &c. London 1777; Sauthiers Map of the Province of New York, Lond. 1779 and in Carte Generale des (14) Etats Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale renfermant quelques Provinces Angloises adjacentes, being No. 30 in Atlas of Maps on America in State Lib. Reference to this settlement will be also found in Gent. Mag. xxiv, 593. It is sometimes, though corruptly, called Fort Patterson. |