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trusted 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 dispositions of these same nations. In a letter of the 5th October last, M. de la Gallisonnière 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, 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."

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Mr. Picquet eminently possessed the qualities requisite to effect the removal of the English from our neighbourhood. Therefore the General, the Intendant, and the Bishop deferred absolutely to him in the selection of the 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. T ongitude, and at 44 deg. 50 min. Latitude on the Presentation River, which the Indians name Soegasti; thirty leagues above Mont-Real; 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 bay served as a port for the Mercantile and Military Marine which had been formed there on that sort of sea where the 1 Oswego.

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tempests are as frequent and as dangerous as on the ocean. 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 Abbé 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 busting 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 he employed it only for the benefit for 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 charm

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