Author ** *<>^ Title * ** V Class .JLi..L3 Book^).3i)-I.5". Imprint. u XVI. PAPERS RELATING TO THK (Barlq Irttlrnmrt at dDgfottfburglj, NEW-YORK. 17M. •03 015 ESTABLISHMENT OF A MISSION IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF FORT FRONTENAC. APRIL, 1750. [Paris Doc. X.] A large number of Iroquois Savages having declared their willingness to embrace Christianity, it has been proposed to establish a Mission in the neighbourhood of Fort Frontenac. Abbe Picquet, a zealous Missionary in whom the nations have evinced much confidence has taken charge of it, and of testing, as much as possible what reliance is to be placed on the disposi- tions of the Indians. ' Nevertheless, as Mr de la Gallisonniere had remarked in the month of October, one thousand seven hundred and forty eight, that too much dependence ought not to be placed on them, Mr. de la Jonquiere was written to, on the fourth of May one thou- sand seven hundred and forty nine, that he should neglect nothing for the formation of this establishment, because if it at all succeeded it would not be difficult to give the Indians to under- stand that the only means they had to relieve themselves of the pretensions of the English to their lands is the destruction of Choueguen which they founded solely with a view to bridle these Nations ; but it was necessary to be prudent and circumspect to induce the Savages to undertake it. 3 jst 8ber 1749. Mr. de la Jonquiere sends a plan drawn by Sieur de Lery of the ground selected by the Abb6 Picquet for his mission and a letter from that Abb6 containing a Relation of his voyage and the situation of the place. 1 The following Extract from Paris Doc. X., furnishes the date of the Abb4 Picquet's departure to establish his colony on the Oswegatchie River: — "30 Sept. 1748. The Abbe Picquet departs from Quebec for Fort Frontenac; he is to look in the neighbourhood of that Fort, for a location best adapted for a village for the Iroquois of the Five Nations who propose to embrace Christianity." 424 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. He says he left the fourth of May of last year with twenty-five Frenchmen and four Iroquois Indians; he arrived the thirtieth at the River de la Presentation, called Soegatzy. The land there is the finest in Canada. There is Oak timber in abundance, and trees of a prodigious size and height, but it will be necessary, for the defence of the settlement, to fell them without permission. Picquet reserved sufficient on the land he had cleared to build a bark. He then set about building a store house to secure his effects ; he, next, had erected a small fort of pickets and he will have a small house constructed which will serve as a bastion. Sieur Picquet had a special interview with the Indians ; they were satisfied with all he had done ; and assured him they were willing to follow his advice and to immediately establish their village. To accomplish this, they are gone to regulate their affairs and have promised to return with their provisions. The situation of this post is very advantageous ; it is on the borders of the River de la Presentation, at the head of all the rapids, on the west side of a beautiful basin formed by that river, capable of easily holding forty or fifty barks. In all parts of it there has been found at least two fathoms and a half of water and often four fajhoms. This basin is so located that no wind scarcely can prevent its being entered. The bank is very low in a level country the point of which runs far out. The passage across is hardly a quarter of a league, and all the canoes going up or down, cannot pass elsewhere. A fort on this point would be impregnable ; it would be impossible to approach, and nothing commands, it. The east side is more elevated, and runs by a gradual inclination into an Amphitheatre. A beautiful town could hereafter be built there. This post is, moreover, so much the mere advantageous as the English and Iroquois can easily descend to Montreal by the River de la Presentation which has its source in a lake bordering on the Mohawks and Corlar. If they take possession of this River they will block the passage to Fort Frontenac and more easily assist Choueguen. Whereas by means of a Fort at the Point, it would be easy to have a force there in case of need to despatch to EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 425 Choueguen and to intercept the English and Indians who may- want to penetrate into the Colony, and the voyage to Missilimak- inac could be made in safety. Moreover, this establishment is only thirty-five leagues from Montreal ; twenty-five from Fort Frontenac and thirty-three from Choueguen j 1 a distance sufficient to remove the Indians from the disorders which the proximity of Forts and Towns ordinarily engenders among them. It is convenient for the reception of the Lake Ontario, and more distant, Indians. Abbe Picquet's views are to accustom these Indians to raise Cows, Hogs and Poultry ; there are beautiful prairies, acorns and wild oats. On the other hand it can be so regulated that the batteaux carrying goods to the posts, may stop at La Presentation. The cost of freight would become smaller j men could be found to convey those batteaux @ fifteen to twenty livres instead of forty- five and fifty livres which are given for the whole voyage. Other batteaux of La Presentation would convey them farther on, and the first would take in return plank, boards and other timber, abundant there. This timber would not come to more than twelve @ fifteen livres, whilst they are purchased at sixty-eight livres at Montreal and sometimes more. Eventually this post will be able to supply Fort Frontenac with provisions which will save the King considerable expense. The Abbe Picquet adds in his letter, that he examined in his voyage the nature of the rapids of the Fort Frontenac river, very important to secure to us the possession of Lake Ontario on which the English have an eye. The most dangerous of those rapids, in number fourteen, are the Trou (the Hole) and the Buisson (the Thicket). Abbe Picquet points out a mode of rendering this River navigable ; and to meet the expense he proposes a tax of ten livres on each canoe sent up and an ecu (fifty cents) on each of the crew, which according to him will produce three thousand livres, a sum sufficient for the workmen. 1 Ogdensburg is 105 miles from Montreal; 60 from Kingston, Can., and about 90 from Oswego. The distances laid down in the Text are very accurate, consi- dering the time and the circumstances. 426 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. Mess rs de la Jonquiere and Bigot remark that they find this establishment necessary as well as the erection of a saw-mill, as it will diminish the expense in the purchase of timber ; but as regards the Rapids they will verify them in order to ascertain if in fact the river can be rendered navigable and they will send an estimate of the works. They have caused five cannon of two pound calibre to be sent to the Abbe" Picquet for his little fort so as to give confidence to his Indians and to persuade them that they will be in securit) there. M. de la Jonquiere in particular says, he will see if the pro- prietors of batteaux would contribute to the expense necessary to be incurred for the Rapids ; but he asks that convicts from the galleys or people out of" work (gens inutiles) be sent every year to him to cultivate the ground. He is in want of men, and the few he has exact high wages. 1st 8ber, 1749. Mr. Bigot also sends a special memoir of the expense incurred by Abbe" Picquet for improvements (defrichemens) amounting to three thousand four hundred and eighty five livres ten sous. 1 Provisions were also furnished him for himself and workmen, and this settlement is only commenced. M. de la Jonquiere cannot dispense with sending an officer there and. some soldiers. Sieur de la Morandiere, Engineer, is to be sent there this winter to draw out a. plan of quarters for these soldiers and a store for provisions. If there be not a garrison at that post, a considerable foreign trade will be carried on there. 7th 9ber 1749. Since all these letters M. de la Jonquiere has written another in which he states that M. de Longueuil informed him that a band of Savages believed to be Mohawks had attacked Sieur Picquet's Mission on the twenty- sixth of October last — that Sieur de Vassau, commandant of Fort Frontenac, had sent a de- tachment thither which could not prevent the burning of two ves- sels loaded with hay and the palisades of the fort. Abb6 Picquet's house alone was saved. The loss by this fire is considerable. It would have been greater were it not for four Abenakis who furnished on this occasion a 1 Equal to $653.23. EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 427 proof of their fidelity. The man named Perdreaux had half the hand carried away. His arm had to be cut off. One of the Abe- nakis received the discharge of a gun the ball of which remained in his blanket. M. de Longueuil has provided every thing necessary. M. de la Jonquiere gave him orders to have a detachment of ten soldiers sent there, and he will take measures, next spring, to secure that post. M. de la Jonquiere adds that the Savages were instigated to this attack by the English. The Iroquois who were on a com- plimentary visit at Montreal were surprized at it and assured M. de Longueuil that it could only be Colonel Amson [Johnson?] who could have induced them. He omitted nothing to persuade those same Iroquois to undertake this expedition and to prevent them going to compliment the Governor, having offered them Belts which they refused. COL. JOHNSON TO GOV. CLINTON, 18 AUG. 1750. " [Lond. Doc. XXIX.] The next thing of consequence he (an Indian Sachem) told me was, that he had heard from several Indians that the Gover nor had given orders to the Priest who is now settled below Cadaraqui to use all means possible to induce the five Nations to settle there, for which end they have a large magazine of all kinds of clothing fitted for Indians as also Arms, Ammunition Provision &c which they distribute very liberally. THE SAME TO THE BOARD OF TRADE, 28 AUG. 1756. [Lond. Doc. XXXIII.] The Onnondagas and Oneidas are in the neighbourhood of Swe- gatchie a French settlement on the River St. Lawrence, whither numbers of those two Nations have of late years been debauched and gone to live. Tho' our Indians do not now resort to 428 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. those places as frequently and familiarly as they formerly did, yet some among them do occasionally visit there, when the French and the Indians in their interest poison the minds of ours with stories not only to the disadvantage of our good intentions towards them, but endeavour to frighten them with pompous accounts of the superior prowess and martial abilities of the French. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. ABBE PICQUET. [Abridged from Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, XIV.] Francois Picquet, doctor of the Soibonne, King's Missionary ard Prefect Apostolic to Canada was born at Bourg in Bresse on the 6 th December, 1708 ... As early as the seventeenth year of his age, he successfully commenced the functions of a missionary in his country and at twenty years the Bishop of Sinope, Suffragan of the Diocese of Lyon, gave him, by a flattering exception, permission to preach in all the parishes of Bresse and Franche-Comte which depended on his diocese. The enthusiasm of his new state rendered him desirous to go to Rome, but the Archibishop of Lyons advised him to study theology at Paris. He followed this advice and entered the Congregation of Saint Sulpice. The direction of the new converts was soon proposed to him ; but the activity of his zeal induced him to seek a wider field, and led him beyond the seas in 1733, to the Missions of North America where he remained thirty years, and where his constitu- tion debilitated by labor, acquired a force and vigor which secured for him a robust health to the end of his life. M. Picquet was among the first to foresee the war which sprung up about 1742 between the English and the French. He pre- pared himself for it a long time beforehand. He began by draw- ing to his Mission (at the Lake of the Two Mountains) all the French scattered in the vicinity, to strengthen themselves and afford more liberty to the savages. These furnished all the necessary detachments; they wet e continually on the frontiers to spy the enemy's movements. M. Picquet learned, by one of these detachments that the English were making warlike preparations at Sarasto [Saratoga ?] and were pushing their settlements up to EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 429 Lake St. Sacrement. 1 He informed the General of the circum- stance and proposed to him to send a body of troops there at least to intimidate the enemy, if we could do no more. The ex- pedition was formed. M. Picquet accompanied M. Marin who commanded this detachment. They burnt the fort, the Lydius establishments, 2 several saw mills, the planks, boards and other building timber, the stock of supplies, provisions, the herds of cattle along nearly fifteen leagues of settlement and made one hundred and forty-five prisoners without having lost a single Frenchman or without having any even wounded. 3 This expedition alone prevented the English undertaking any thing at that side during the war. Peace having been re-established in 1748, our Missionary occu- pied himself with the means of remedying, for the future, the in- conveniences which he had witnessed. The road he saw taken by the Savages and other parties of the enemy sent by the English against us, caused him to select a post which could, hereafter, intercept the passage of the English. He proposed to M. de la Galissoniere to make a settlement of the Mission of La Presentation, near Lake Ontario, an establishment which succeded beyond his hopes, and has been the most useful of all those of Canada. Mr. Rouill£, Minister of the Marine wrote on the 4 th May 1749* "A large number of Iroquois having declared that they were desirous of embracing Christianity, it has been proposed to establish a Mis- sion towards Fort Frontenac in order to attract the greatest number possible thither. It is Abba Picquet, a zealous Missionary and in whom these Nations seem to have confidence, who has been en- 1 "lam building a Fort at this Lake which the French call Lake St. Sacrement, but I have given it the name of Lake George, not only in honour to his Majesty but to ascertain his undoubted dominion here." Sir William Johnson to the Board of Trade, Sept. 3d, 1755. Land. Doc. xxxii., 178. 2 Now Fort Edward, Washington County. 3 "I received an account on the 19th inst., by express from Albany, that a party of French and their Indians had cut off a settlement in this Province called Saraghtoge, about fifty miles from Albany, and that about twenty houses with a Fort (which the publick would not repair) were burned to ashes, thirty persons killed and scalped and about sixty taken prisoners. Gov. Olmton to the Board, 30 Nov. 1745. Land. Doc. xxvii., 187, 235. 430 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 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 5 th October last, M. de la Gallisonniere 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 under- stand 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 des- truction 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 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. I 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. FtDlRT SLA PI ES EI Ti' a EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBUUGH. 431 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 Jonquiere, 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 else- where than under the cannon of Fort Presentation when coming down from the South ; the Iroquois to the South and the Micis- sagues 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, notwith- standing, then regarded that establishment as chimerical. Envy and opposition had effected its failure had it not been for the firm- ness of the Abbe Picquet supported by that of the Administration. This establishment served to protect, aid, and comfort the Posts already erected on LakeO; tario. 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 h ■ ! u ting 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 432 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. lands cleared for the savages. His improvements were estimated as thirty to forty thousand livres, but he introduced as much 'udgment 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, li 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 reck- oned 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 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 433 ing and the most abundant of the Colony. Depending on it were La Presentation, La Galette, Suegatzi, 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 abun- dance 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 Presen- tation went thither in 1749, accompanied by some Officers, royal interpreters, Priests from other Missions and several other cler- gymen, and spent ten days examining and causing the Catechu- mens 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 pro- posed 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 434 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 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 Quinte he visited the site of the antient Mission which M. Dollieres de Kleus and Abbe D'Urfe, 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 child- ren 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 con- trary 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 aw r ay 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, Mr. 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 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 435 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. ' The establishment at this Carrying place, the most important in a commercial point of 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 Choueguen or Choeguen [Osw T ego] at the mouth of the river of the same name. M. Picquet counted there as many as fifty canoes. There was notwithstanding at Niagara a Trading House where the Com- mandant and Trader lodged, but it was too small, and the King's property was not safe there. M. Picquet negotiated with the Senecas who promised to re- pair to his Mission and gave him twelve children as hostages, saying to him that their parents had nothing dearer to them and followed him immediately, as well as the Chief of the Little Rapid with all his family He set out with all those Savages to return to Fort Niagara. M. Chabert de Joncaire would not abandon him. At each place where they encountered camps, cabins and entrepots, they were saluted with musquetry by the Indians who never ceased testifying their consideration for the Missionary. M. Picquet took the lead with the Savages of the hills ; Mess" Joncaire and Rigouille following with the recruits. He embarked with thirty-nine Savages in his large canoe and was received on arriving at the fort with the greatest ceremony, even w r ith the discharge of cannon which greatly pleased the Indians. On the morrow he assembled the Senecas, for the first time, in the chapel of the Fort for religious services. M. Picquet returned along the south coast of Lake Ontaria. Alongside of Choeguen, a young Seneca met her Uncle who was coming from his village with his wife and children. This young 1 These are French feet. The falls on the American side are 164 feet high.— Burr's Atlas, Introil. p. 31. 436 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. girl spoke so well to her Uncle, though she had but little know- ledge of Religion that he promised to repair to La Presentation early the following spring, and that he hoped to gain over also seven other cabins of Senecas of which he was chief. Twenty- five leagues from Niagara he visited the River Gascouchagou 1 where he met a number of Rattlesnakes. The young Indians jumped into the midst of them and killed forty-two without having been bitten by any. He next visited the Falls of this River. The first which appear in sight in ascending resemble much the great Cascade at Saint Cloud, except that they have not been ornamented and do not seem so high, but they possess natural beauties which render them very curious. The second, a quarter of a mile higher, are less considerable, yet are remarkable. The third, also a quarter of a league higher, has beauties truly admirable by its curtains and falls which form also, as at Niagara, a charming proportion and variety. They maybe one hundred and some feet high. 3 In the intervals between the falls, there are a hundred little cascades which present likewise a curious spectacle ; and if the altitudes of each chute were joined together, and they made but one as at Niagara, the height would, perhaps, be four hundred feet j but there is four times less water than at the Niagara Fall which will cause the latter to pass, for ever, as a Wonder perhaps unique in the World. The English to throw disorder into this new levy sent a good deal of brandy. Some savages did, in fact get drunk whom M. Picquet could not bring along. He therefore desired much that Choeguen were destroyed and the English prevented rebuilding it ; and in order that we should be absolutely masters of the south side of Lake Ontario, he proposed erecting a Fort near there at the bay of the Cayugas 3 which would make a very good harbour and furnish very fine anchorage. No place is better adapted for a Fort. He examined attentively the Fort of Choeguen, a post the most pernicious to France that the English could erect. It was com- 1 The Genesee River. In Be) ; n"s Map of Partie Occidentale dela Nouvtlle France 1755 (No. 992. W. C. State Lib.; it is described as a "River unknown to Geogra- phers, tilled with Rapids and Waterfalls." 2 The hijrhest fall on the river is 105 feet. 3 Sodus bay. EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBUB.GH. 437 manded almost from all sides and could be very easily approached in time of war. It was a two story very low building ; decked like a ship and surmounted on the top by a gallery ; the whole was surrounded by a stone wall, flanked only with two bastions at the side towards the nearest hill. Two batteries each of three twelve pounders, would have been more than sufficient to reduce that establishment to ashes. It was prejudicial to us by the facility it afforded the English of communicating with all the tribes of Canada still more than by the trade carried on there as well by the French of the Colony as by the savages : for Choeguen was supplied with merchandize adapted only to the French, at least as much as with what suited to the savages, a circumstance that indicated an illicit trade. Had the Minister's orders been executed, the Choeguen trade at least with the savages of Upper Canada would be almost ruined. But it was necessary to supply Niagara, especially the Portage, rather than Toronto. The difference between the two first of these posts and the last is, that three or four hundred canoes could come loaded with furs to the Portage, and that no canoes could go to Toronto except those which cannot pass before Niagara and to Fort Frontenac, such as the Otaois of the head of the Lake {Fond du Lac) and the Mississagues ; so that Toronto could not but diminish the trade of these two antient posts, which would have been sufficient to stop all the savages had the stores been furnished with goods to their liking. There was a wish to imitate the English in the trifles they sold the sava- ges such a silver bracelets etc. The Indians compared & weighed them, as the storekeeper at Niagara stated, and the Choeguen bracelets which were found as heavy, of a purer silver and more elegant, did not cost them two beavers, whilst those at the King's posts wanted to sell them for ten beavers. • Thus we were discre- dited, and this silver ware remained a pure loss in the King's stores. French brandy was preferred to the English, but that did not prevent the Indians going to Choeguen. To destroy the Trade the King's posts ought to have been supplied with the same goods as Choeguen and at the same price. The French ought also have been forbidden to send the domiciliated Indians thither : but that would have been very difficult. 438 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. Mr. Picquet next returned to Frontenac. Never was a recep- tion 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 Algon- quins 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 ChoOguen. 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 fl.-et 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 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 439 enemy. He distinguished himself particularly in the expeditions of Sarasto (Saratoga), Lake Champlain, Pointe a la Chevelure (Crown Point), the Cascades, Carillon (Ticonderoga) Chocguen (Oswego), River Corlac (Mohawk), Isle au Galop etc. The posts he established for the King protected the Colony pending the en- tire war. M. du Quesne said that the Abbe 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, Onontagu£s, 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 suc- ceed 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 Ca- nada followed. When he saw all thus lost, M. Picquet ter- minated his long and laborious career by his retreat on the 8 th 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 ct 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 15 th July 1781. In his life time he was complimented with the title of n Apostle of the Iroquois." Note. — Fort la Presentation, with the River, under the names of Wegatchi) Sioegatchi, Oswcgatchi, will be found laid down in the following Maps and Charts, viz 1 440 EARLY SETTLEMENT AT OGDENSBURGH. 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 Fron- tenac to the Island of Anticosti by Tho s Jeffereys, London 1775 ; with the River St. Lawrence from Quebec to Lake Ontario copied from D'Anvill's Map of 1755 j 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) EtatsUnis 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. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ')U*. 014 205 545 4