Towards the end of spring the vanguard of the expedition sent by Duquesne to occupy the Ohio landed at Presquisle, where Erie now stands.  This route to the Ohio, far better than that which Celeron had followed, was a new discovery to the French; and Duquesne calls the harbor “the finest in nature.”  Here they built a fort of squared chestnut logs, and when it was finished they cut a road of several leagues through the woods to Riviere aux Boeufs, now French Creek.  At the farther end of this road they began another wooden fort and called it Fort Le Boeuf.  Thence, when the water was high, they could descend French Creek to the Allegheny, and follow that stream to the main current of the Ohio.

It was heavy work to carry the cumbrous load of baggage across the portages.  Much of it is said to have been superfluous, consisting of velvets, silks, and other useless and costly articles, sold to the King at enormous prices as necessaries of the expedition.[127] The weight of the task fell on the Canadians, who worked with cheerful hardihood, and did their part to admiration.  Marin, commander of the expedition, a gruff, choleric old man of sixty-three, but full of force and capacity, spared himself so little that he was struck down with dysentery, and, refusing to be sent home to Montreal, was before long in a dying state.  His place was taken by Pean, of whose private character there is little good to be said, but whose conduct as an officer was such that Duquesne calls him a prodigy of talents, resources, and zeal.[128] The subalterns deserve no such praise.  They disliked the service, and made no secret of their discontent.  Rumors of it filled Montreal; and Duquesne wrote to Marin:  “I am surprised that you have not told me of this change.  Take note of the sullen and discouraged faces about you.  This sort are worse than useless.  Rid yourself of them at once; send them to Montreal, that I may make an example of them."[129] Pean wrote at the end of September that Marin was in extremity; and the Governor, disturbed and alarmed, for he knew the value of the sturdy old officer, looked anxiously for a successor.  He chose another veteran, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, who had just returned from a journey of exploration towards the Rocky Mountains,[130] and whom Duquesne now ordered to the Ohio.

[Footnote 127:  Pouchot, Memoires sur la derniere Guerre de l’Amerique Septentrionale, I. 8.]

[Footnote 128:  Duquesne au Ministre, 2 Nov. 1753; compare Memoire pour Michel-Jean Hugues Pean.]

[Footnote 129:  Duquesne a Marin, 27 Aout, 1753.]

[Footnote 130:  Memoire ou Journal sommaire du Voyage de Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.]