[Footnote 41:  Journal qui peut servir de Memoire et de Relation du Voyage que j’ay fait sur le Lac Ontario pour attirer au nouvel Etablissement de La Presentation les Sauvages Iroquois des Cinq Nations, 1751.  The last passage given above is condensed in the rendering, as the original is extremely involved and ungrammatical.]

In his late journey he had made the entire circuit of Lake Ontario.  Beyond lay four other inland oceans, to which Fort Niagara was the key.  As that all-essential post controlled the passage from Ontario to Erie, so did Fort Detroit control that from Erie to Huron, and Fort Michillimackinac that from Huron to Michigan; while Fort Ste. Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, had lately received a garrison, and changed from a mission and trading-station to a post of war.[42] This immense extent of inland navigation was safe in the hands of France so long as she held Niagara.  Niagara lost, not only the lakes, but also the Valley of the Ohio was lost with it.  Next in importance was Detroit.  This was not a military post alone, but also a settlement; and, except the hamlets about Fort Chartres, the only settlement that France owned in all the West.  There were, it is true, but a few families; yet the hope of growth seemed good; for to such as liked a wilderness home, no spot in America had more attraction.  Father Bonnecamp stopped here for a day on his way back from the expedition of Celoron.  “The situation,” he says, “is charming.  A fine river flows at the foot of the fortifications; vast meadows, asking only to be tilled, extend beyond the sight.  Nothing can be more agreeable than the climate.  Winter lasts hardly two months.  European grains and fruits grow here far better than in many parts of France.  It is the Touraine and Beauce of Canada."[43] The white flag of the Bourbons floated over the compact little palisaded town, with its population of soldiers and fur-traders; and from the blockhouses which served as bastions, one saw on either hand the small solid dwellings of the habitants, ranged at intervals along the margin of the water; while at a little distance three Indian villages—­Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and Wyandot—­curled their wigwam smoke into the pure summer air.[44]

[Footnote 42:  La Jonquiere au Ministre, 24 Aout, 1750.]

[Footnote 43:  Relation du Voiage de la Belle Riviere, 1749.]

[Footnote 44:  A plan of Detroit is before me, made about this time by the engineer Lery.]

When Celoron de Bienville returned from the Ohio, he went, with a royal commission, sent him a year before, to command at Detroit.[45] His late chaplain, the very intelligent Father Bonnecamp, speaks of him as fearless, energetic, and full of resource; but the Governor calls him haughty and insubordinate.  Great efforts were made, at the same time, to build up Detroit as a centre of French power in the West.  The methods employed were of the debilitating, paternal