A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time, Part 9

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885
Publication date: 1853
Publisher: Albany, N.Y. : Little & Co.
Number of Pages: 750

USA > New York > Franklin County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 9
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time > Part 9

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

* A literal translation can not prudently be given.

AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.

remedy so many evils, they withdrew the garrisons which had placed two missionaries in the greatest danger; but the Jesuits were compelled to remove their mission from the Saut Saint Louis, below Lake St. Francis, to separate the savages from the frequent intercourse of the French.

Experience has always proved, that it was by religion, that we have succeeded best in attaching to us the savages, and that the missionaries formed and consolidated the union. In fact our missions have been always preserved in the same fidelity, when the missionaries have ex- ercised liberally their ministry. But instead of which we see deserted the fine villages which were established at Fort Frontenac, at Niagara, below the portage, and nearly all the other posts of Upper Canada.

The commandants of these very posts, with their garrisons, have so dispersed and destroyed these establishments, that there remained no trace of them at the time of M. Picquet. These savages were without missionaries, without councils, and without sympathies, having all aban- doned the French posts, to array themselves for the most part on the side of the English; and these kind of refugees are more dangerous to us than savages whom we have never known.

Before the missionaries had conciliated to us the people of Upper Canada, they conspired in all their posts against the French, and sought occasion to butcher them. Those who were on our side were of no assistance in time of war.

There were in all not more than forty in the expeditions of the first years of the war of 1755; and even except the domiciliated Christians, we saw almost none of the savages of the upper country, during more than three-quarters of a year, notwithstanding continual invitations and negociations; but the domesticated Christians, while they were quietly at home in their villages, with their missionaries, were always ready at the first signal to fly to the governor general.

We have seen them arrange themselves under their proper nations when the necessity came, and even not sparing their families; for in the affair of M. Diskau, they slew all the parents that they had made prisoners.

Instead of this, in the war of 1745, whilst they had garrisons in their villages, sometimes they refused to take up arms, and wished to remain neutral, and sometimes they betrayed us, and served our enemies, and could not be induced to undertake expeditions by the influence of en- treaties, nor caresses, nor presents, and withstood until missionaries were sent to march with them.

But what is more strange, the governors general M. de Beauharnais, de la Galissonnière, de la Jonquière, and du Quesne, have themselves many times discovered that the savages have been persuaded by the commandants of forts to go contrary to the orders of the generals, to the end, without doubt, that such faults would recoil upon the missionaries, and diminish the confidence which the generals reposed in them. When once got rid of, there was nothing to oppose the fire of age, the violence of the passions, and the inveterate habits of a great part of the soldiery.

The commanders of the magazine guards, were still more dangerous than the soldiers, the one by their authority, or their independence, as they had the disposal of the effects of the king; the other by the facilities which they equally had to make presents, and all the facilities which they enjoyed of corrupting the morals of the people. This lias intro- duced confusion into the villages, to the contempt of the nation, and as a consequence the general alienation of these people from the French

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE

which has rendered it difficult for the missionaries to inspire them with courage, to engage on our side.

There might perhaps, meanwhile, be fear of withdrawing the garrison in time of war, Lut M. Picquet was persuaded that this would be still less hazardous than to allow them to remain; because, said he, the English think less of attacking a village in which there were only savages, than one in which is a garrison. 'They well kuow-

1st. That they have nothing to gain from the savages, whom it is diffi- cult to surprise, and that one of their villages is like a nest of hornets, that take wing the moment they are disturbed, but who fall suddenly upon their aggressors from every quarter, and abandon them only on the last extremity.

2d. The English would have no longer to excuse themselves by the pretext of saying that they wished only to injure the French. He would set upon him all the nations, and irritate them in such a manner as to render them irreconcilable. It would be a happy blow for the French, but the English would be too much on his guard to undertake it.

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 Catarocoui, 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, werc bad: they had not even brandy there to staunch a wound. Arrived at a point of Lake Ontario called Kaoi, he found a negro fugitive from Vir- ginia. He assured him on this occasion that there would be no difficulty to obtain a great part of the negroes of New England, who were received well iu Canada, and supported the first year, and that lands were con- ceded to them as to habitants. The savages served them voluntarily as guides.

The negroes would be the most terrible enemies of the Englishı, be- cause they have no hope of pardon if the English become masters of Canada, aud they contribute much to build up this colony by their labor. The same is the case with natives of Flanders, Lorraine and Switzerland, who have followed their example, because they were ill at ease with the English who loved them not.

At the Bay of Quinte, he visited the site of the ancient mission which M. Dollieres de Kleus and Abbé 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 Fronte- nac, 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 com- plained that instead of building a church, they had constructed only a canton for them. M. Picquet did not allow them to finish, and answered then 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 to christianity, but as he had no order to attract them to his inission, be avoided a more lengthy explanation.

AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.

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 expense 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 of 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 famnous 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 quan- tity 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 sin- gular 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 Choegnenn [Oswego], 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 commandant 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 repair 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.

The young Indians who accompanied Picquet had spoken of this old man as a veritable apostle. M. Picquet withdrew with him to say his breviary; and the savages and the Sonnotoaus, without losing time, as- sembled themselves to hold council with M. de Touraine, who addressed them for some time at length, and said:

"You savages and the Sonnotoans know your firmness in your re- solutions, and know that you have designed to pass by Choëguen [Os- wego] in returning. Let me request you at once that you attempt to do nothing. They are informed of the bad disposition of the English, whom you regard as the formidable enemy of their colony, and as the one that has done them the most harm. They are disposed to destroy themselves, rather than that you should suffer the least harm ; but all this amounts to nothing, and the savages will always lose by the approaches of this people who hate you. As for myself, added M. de Touraine, I entreat you ear- nestly not to pass that way. The Indians have told me nothing more." M. Picquet immediately replied : Ethonciaouin ( that is, as you desire, my children).

He set out with all those savages to return to Fort Niagara. M. Cha- bert de Joncaire would not abandon him. At each place where they encountered camps, cabins and entrepots, they were saluted with mus- quetry by the Indians, who never ceased testifying their consideration for the missionary. M. Picquet took the lead with the savages of the

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

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE

hills; Messrs. 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 with the dis- charge 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 Ontario. Along- side of Choëguen, a young Seneca met her uncle who was coming fromn his village with his wife and children. This young girl spoke so well to her uncle, though she had but little knowledge 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,* 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 pro- portion and variety. They may be one hundred and some feet high.t 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; 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 Choëguen 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,t which would make a very good harbor and furnish very fine anchorage. No place is better adapted for a fort.

He examined attentively the fort of Choëguen, a post the most per- nicious to France that the English could erect. It was commanded 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 sur- mounted 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 Choëguen was supplied with merchandize adapted only to the French, at least as much

* The Genesee river. In Belin's map of Pærtie Occidentale de la Nouvelle France, 1755, (No. 992. W C. State Lib.) it is described as a " River unknown to Geographers, filled with Rapids and Waterfalls."

t The highest fall on the river is 105 feet.

# Sodus bay.

AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.

as with what suited to the savages, a circumstance that indicated an illicit trade. Had the minister's orders been executed, the Choëguen 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 Joaded with furs to the Portage, and that no canoes could go to Toronto, except those which can not 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 savages, such as silver bracelets, etc. The Indians compared and weighed them, as the storekeeper at Niagara stated, and the Choëguen 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 discredited, 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 Choëguen. To destroy the trade the king's posts ought to have been supplied with the same goods as Choëgueu 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.

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 con- firmed 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.

In 1753, M. Picquet repaired to France to render an account of his labors, and solicit assistance for the benefit of the colony. Ile took with him three natives, the appearance of whom might create an interest in the success of his establishments, and who, in the quality of hostages, might serve to control the mission during his absence. The nations there assembled consented to it, and even appeared to desire it, as well as the chiefs of the colony. He conducted his savages to Paris, and to the court, where they were received with so much kindness and atten- tion that they said without ceasing, that could their nations know as well as themselves, the character and the goodness of the French, they would not fail to be otherwise than of the same heart and interests with that of France.

While M. Picquet was in Paris, in 1754, M. Rouillé, then minister of the marine, caused him to draw up sundry memoirs, especially a general memoir upou Canada, in which he suggested infallible means for pre_

HISTORY OF ST. LAWRENCE

serving this colony to France. He also made observations upon the dis- turbances which certain inquiet spirits, rash and boisterous, had occa- sioned in Canada. The minister highly approved of them, and assured him that he would write to the general, to prevent in future the recur- rence of like disorders, which could. not fail to be pernicious in a colony still weak, and too distant from succors should they be necessary.

The minister wished to give him a pension of a thousand crowns, but M. de Laport, the first steward, conferred it upon the Abbé Maillard. The minister was displeased, while M. Picquet had only the pleasure of receiving a thousand crowns, of which in truth the ordinance was con- ceived in terms the most honorable. The king presented him some books, and when he took his leave, the minister said to him, "Your ma- jesty still gives you new marks of his pleasure."

'The king always evinced the same sentiments towards him whenever he took occasion to mention him at Versailles or at Bellevue.

Meanwhile M. de Laporte was displeased with this journey of the Abbé Picquet, because it was leaving the other ecclesiastic jealous of the impression which this abbe was making with the court and the city. He restrained him from continually exhibiting his savages, and attempted to justify himself in what he had done.

At length he departed at the close of April, 1754, and returned to la Presentation with two missionaries.

The sojourn of the three natives in France produced a very good effect among the nations of Canada.

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 espe- cially at Fort George on Lake Ontario, where the warriors of La Pre- sentation 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, notwithstanding some have declared that there were neither honors, nor pensions, nor favors, nor promotions, nor marks of distinction, conferred by the king upon those who had served in Canada, who were prevented from re- ceiving these by M. Picquet.

M. du Quesne, on the occasion of the army of General Braddock, re- commended him to send as large a detachment of savages as was possi- ble, and gave him on this occasion full powers. In fact, the exhortations which M. Picquet made them to give an example of zeal and courage for the king their father, and the instructions which he gave them pro- duced, in short, the entire defeat of this general of the enemy, in the summer of 1755, near Fort Du Quesne, upon the Ohio.

This event, which conferred more honor upon the arms of the king than all the rest of the war, is due principally to the care which M. Picquet bestowed upon the execution of the commands of M. the Mar- quis du Quesne in this expedition, and by the choice which he made of warriors equally faithful and intrepid.

AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES.

The assurance which he gave them, that they should conquer the enemy, so warmed their imaginations, that they thought in the combat that they saw the missionary at their head, cheering them on and pro- mising them victory, although he was distant from them almost a hun- dred and fifty leagues; it was one of their superstitions, which he had taken pains to impart to them.

He frequently found himself in the vanguard when the king's troops were ordered to attack the enemy. He distinguished himself particu- larly 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 Abbe Picquet was worth more than ten regiments.

He wrote to him on the 23d of September, 1754:

"I shall never forget as a good citizen, I shall remember as long as I live, the proofs which you have given me of your generosity, and for your unquenchable zeal for all that concerns the public good."

On the 9th of June, 1755, M. DuQuesne, upon the point of departing, sent word to him that the English thought of abandoning Niagara. He added, " the precautions to be taken must all emanate from your zeal, prudence and foresight."

The English then endeavored, as well by menaces as by promises, to gain the savages, especially after the lesson which Du Quesne had given thein at the Belle rivière (of the Ohio).

In the month of May, 1756, M. de Vaudreuil got M. Picquet to depute the chiefs of his mission to the Five Nations of Senecas, Cayugas, Onon- taqués, 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. He asked of him his projects in forming a camp; he prayed him to give a free expression to his ideas, and exhibited on his side the greatest confidence, and made him a part of all the opera- tions which he proposed to undertake; and declared that the success of his measures was the work of M. Picquet.

The letters of M. de Vaudreuil from 1756 to 1759, which are among the papers of our missionary, are filled with these evidences of his confi- dence and satisfaction ; but as those of M. Picquet are not to be found, it would be difficult to find wherewith to make a history of these events, of which alone M. Picquet has the greatest part.

In proportion as our circumstances became more embarrassing, the zeal of M. Picquet became more precious and more active.

In 1758, he destroyed the English forts on the banks of Corlac, but at length the battle of the 13th of September, 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.

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A history of St. Lawrence and Franklin counties, New York : from the earliest period to the present time, Part 9

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885 Publication date: 1853 Publisher: Albany, N.Y. : Little & Co. Number of Pages: 750

Author: Hough, Franklin Benjamin, 1822-1885
Publication date: 1853
Publisher: Albany, N.Y. : Little & Co.
Number of Pages: 750