“The wine here is of the best; there is nothing wanting in this fort; everything is abundant, fine, and good.”  There was reason for this.  The Northern Indians were flocking with their beaver-skins to the English of Oswego; and in April, 1749, an officer named Portneuf had been sent with soldiers and workmen to build a stockaded trading-house at Toronto, in order to intercept them,—­not by force, which would have been ruinous to French interests, but by a tempting supply of goods and brandy.[35] Thus the fort was kept well stocked, and with excellent effect.  Piquet found here a band of Mississagas, who would otherwise, no doubt, have carried their furs to the English.  He was strongly impelled to persuade them to migrate to La Presentation; but the Governor had told him to confine his efforts to other tribes; and lest, he says, the ardor of his zeal should betray him to disobedience, he reimbarked, and encamped six leagues from temptation.

[Footnote 35:  On Toronto, La Jonquiere et Bigot au Ministre, 1749.  La Jonquiere au Ministre, 30 Aout, 1750.  N.Y.  Col.  Docs.  X. 201, 246.]

Two days more brought him to Niagara, where he was warmly received by the commandant, the chaplain, and the storekeeper,—­the triumvirate who ruled these forest outposts, and stood respectively for then:  three vital principles, war, religion, and trade.  Here Piquet said mass; and after resting a day, set out for the trading-house at the portage of the cataract, recently built, like Toronto, to stop the Indians on their way to Oswego.[36] Here he found Joncaire, and here also was encamped a large band of Senecas; though, being all drunk, men, women, and children, they were in no condition to receive the Faith, or appreciate the temporal advantages that attended it.  On the next morning, finding them partially sober, he invited them to remove to La Presentation; “but as they had still something left in their bottles, I could get no answer till the following day.”  “I pass in silence,” pursues the missionary, “an infinity of talks on this occasion.  Monsieur de Joncaire forgot nothing that could help me, and behaved like a great servant of God and the King.  My recruits increased every moment.  I went to say my breviary while my Indians and the Senecas, without loss of time, assembled to hold a council with Monsieur de Joncaire.”  The result of the council was an entreaty to the missionary not to stop at Oswego, lest evil should befall him at the hands of the English.  He promised to do as they wished, and presently set out on his return to Fort Niagara, attended by Joncaire and a troop of his new followers.  The journey was a triumphal progress.  “Whenever was passed a camp or a wigwam, the Indians saluted me by firing their guns, which happened so often that I thought all the trees along the way were charged with gunpowder; and when we reached the fort, Monsieur de Becancour received us with great ceremony and the firing of cannon, by which my savages were infinitely flattered.”