The dispute with the English was not the only source of trouble to the Governor.  His superiors at Versailles would not adopt his views, and looked on him with distrust.  He advised the building of forts near Lake Erie, and his advice was rejected.  “Niagara and Detroit,” he was told, “will secure forever our communications with Louisiana."[56] “His Majesty,” again wrote the Colonial Minister, “thought that expenses would diminish after the peace; but, on the contrary, they have increased.  There must be great abuses.  You and the Intendant must look to it."[57] Great abuses there were; and of the money sent to Canada for the service of the King the larger part found its way into the pockets of peculators.  The colony was eaten to the heart with official corruption; and the centre of it was Francois Bigot, the intendant.  The Minister directed La Jonquiere’s attention to certain malpractices which had been reported to him; and the old man, deeply touched, replied:  “I have reached the age of sixty-six years, and there is not a drop of blood in my veins that does not thrill for the service of my King.  I will not conceal from you that the slightest suspicion on your part against me would cut the thread of my days."[58]

[Footnote 56:  Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1750.]

[Footnote 57:  Ibid., 6 Juin, 1751.]

[Footnote 58:  La Jonquiere au Ministre, 19 Oct. 1751.]

Perplexities increased; affairs in the West grew worse and worse.  La Jonquiere ordered Celoron to attack the English at Pickawillany; and Celoron could not or would not obey.  “I cannot express,” writes the Governor, “how much this business troubles me; it robs me of sleep; it makes me ill.”  Another letter of rebuke presently came from Versailles.  “Last year you wrote that you would soon drive the English from the Ohio; but private letters say that you have done nothing.  This is deplorable.  If not expelled, they will seem to acquire a right against us.  Send force enough at once to drive them off, and cure them of all wish to return."[59] La Jonquiere answered with bitter complaints against Celoron, and then begged to be recalled.  His health, already shattered, was ruined by fatigue and vexation; and he took to his bed.  Before spring he was near his end.[60] It is said that, though very rich, his habits of thrift so possessed his last hours that, seeing wax-candles burning in his chamber, he ordered others of tallow to be brought instead, as being good enough to die by.  Thus frugally lighted on its way, his spirit fled; and the Baron de Longueuil took his place till a new governor should arrive.

[Footnote 59:  Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1751.]

[Footnote 60:  He died on the sixth of March, 1752 (Bigot au Ministre, 6 Mai); not on the seventeeth of May, as stated in the Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.]