and, as time went on, this number increased.  The Governor had sent a squad of soldiers to man the fort, and five small cannon to mount upon it.  The place was as safe for the new proselytes as it was convenient and agreeable.  The Pennsylvanian interpreter, Conrad Weiser, was told at Onondaga, the Iroquois capital, that Piquet had made a hundred converts from that place alone; and that, “having clothed them all in very fine clothes, laced with silver and gold, he took them down and presented them to the French Governor at Montreal, who received them very kindly, and made them large presents."[31]

[Footnote 29:  I once saw a contemporary portrait of him at the mission of Two Mountains, where he had been stationed.]

[Footnote 30:  Rouille a la Jonquiere, 1749.  The Intendant Bigot gave him money and provisions. N.Y.  Col.  Docs., X. 204.]

[Footnote 31:  Journal of Conrad Weiser, 1750.]

Such were some of the temporal attractions of La Presentation.  The nature of the spiritual instruction bestowed by Piquet and his fellow-priests may be partly inferred from the words of a proselyte warrior, who declared with enthusiasm that he had learned from the Sulpitian missionary that the King of France was the eldest son of the wife of Jesus Christ.[32] This he of course took in a literal sense, the mystic idea of the Church as the spouse of Christ being beyond his savage comprehension.  The effect was to stimulate his devotion to the Great Onontio beyond the sea, and to the lesser Onontio who represented him as Governor of Canada.

[Footnote 32:  Lalande, Notice de L’Abbe Piquet, in Lettres Edifiantes.  See also Tasse in Revue Canadienne, 1870, p. 9.]

Piquet was elated by his success; and early in 1752 he wrote to the Governor and Intendant:  “It is a great miracle that, in spite of envy, contradiction, and opposition from nearly all the Indian villages, I have formed in less than three years one of the most flourishing missions in Canada.  I find myself in a position to extend the empire of my good masters, Jesus Christ and the King, even to the extremities of this new world; and, with some little help from you, to do more than France and England have been able to do with millions of money and all their troops."[33]

[Footnote 33:  Piquet a la Jonquiere et Bigot, 8 Fev. 1752.  See Appendix A. In spite of Piquet’s self-laudation, and in spite also of the detraction of the author of the Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760, there can be no doubt of his practical capacity and his fertility of resource.  Duquesne, when governor of the colony, highly praises “ses talents et son activite pour le service de Sa Majeste.”]