Choueguen at first was simply a so-called "beaver trap" or trading-post, established by permission, nominally obtained, of the Iroquois; but it speedily developed into a strong stone-fort, and became, in fact, a standing menace to Fort Frontenac, on the northern shore of the Lake. Choueguen likewise drew to itself a large share of the valuable peltries of the north shore, which used before to find their way down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec. The goods offered at the English trading-post of Choueguen were found to be superior to the French goods, and the price given for furs was greater there than on the French side of the water. The storekeeper at Niagara told the Abbé Picquet, of whom we shall hear again presently, that the Indians compared the silver-trinkets which were procured at Choueguen with those which were procured at the French Stores; and they found that the Choueguen articles were as heavy as the others, of purer silver and better workmanship, but did not cost them quite two beavers, whilst for those offered for sale at the French King's post, ten beavers were demanded. "Thus we are discredited" the Abbé complained, "and this silver-ware remains a pure loss in the King's stores. French brandy indeed," the Abbé adds, "was preferred to the English: nevertheless that did not prevent the Indians going to Choueguen. To destroy the trade there," he affirms, "the King's posts ought to have been supplied with the same goods as Choueguen and at the same price. The French ought also," he says, "to have been forbidden to send the domiciliated Indians thither: but that" he confesses, "would have been very difficult."
Choueguen had thus, in the eyes of the French authorities, come to be a little Carthage that must be put down, or, at all events, crippled to the greatest possible extent.
Accordingly, as a counterpoise in point of commercial influence, Toronto, as we have seen, was to be made a fortified trading post. "On being informed" says M. de la Galissonière, in the document referred to, bearing date 1749, "that the northern Indians ordinarily went to Choueguen with their peltries by way of Toronto on the northwest side of Lake Ontario, twenty-five leagues from Niagara, and seventy-five from Fort Frontenac, it was thought advisable to establish a post at that place and to send thither an officer, fifteen soldiers, and some workmen, to construct a small stockade-fort there. Its expense will not be great," M. de la Galissonière assures the minister, "the timber is transported there, and the remainder will be conveyed by the barques belonging to Fort Frontenac. Too much care cannot be taken," remarks the Administrator, "to prevent these Indians continuing their trade with the English, and to furnish them at this post with all their necessaries, even as cheap as at Choueguen. Messrs. de la Jonquière and Bigot will permit some canoes to go there on license and will apply the funds as a gratuity to the officer in command there. But it will be necessary to order the commandants at Detroit, Niagara, and Fort Frontenac, to be careful that the traders and store-keepers of these posts furnish goods for two or three years to come, at the same rates as the English. By these means the Indians will disaccustom themselves from going to Choueguen, and the English will be obliged to abandon that place."
De la Galissonière returned to France in 1749. He was a naval officer and fond of scientific pursuits. It was he who in 1756, commanded the expedition against Minorca, which led to the execution of Admiral Byng.
1752.
From a despatch written by M. de Longueil in 1752, we gather that the post of the Toronto portage, in its improved, strengthened state, is known as Fort Rouillé, so named, doubtless from Antoine Louis Rouillé, Count de Jouy, Colonial Minister from 1749 to 1754. M. de Longueil says that "M. de Celeron had addressed certain despatches to M. de Lavalterie, the commandant at Niagara, who detached a soldier to convey them to Fort Rouillé, with orders to the store-keeper at that post to transmit them promptly to Montreal. It is not known," he remarks, "what became of that soldier." About the same time, a Mississagué from Toronto arrived at Niagara, who informed M. de Lavalterie that he had not seen that soldier at the Fort, nor met him on the way. "It is to be feared that he has been killed by Indians," he adds, "and the despatches carried to the English."
An uncomfortable Anglophobia was reigning at Fort Rouillé, as generally along the whole of the north shore of Lake Ontario in 1752. We learn this also from another passage in the same despatch. "The store-keeper at Toronto, says," M. de Longueil writes to M. de Verchères, commandant at Fort Frontenac, "that some trustworthy Indians have assured him that the Saulteux (Otchipways,) who killed our Frenchman some years ago, have dispersed themselves along the head of Lake Ontario; and seeing himself surrounded by them, he doubts not but they have some evil design on his Fort. There is no doubt," he continues, "but 'tis the English who are inducing the Indians to destroy the French, and that they would give a good deal to get the Savages to destroy Fort Toronto, on account of the essential injury it does their trade at Choueguen."
Such observations help us to imagine the anxious life which the lonely occupants of Fort Rouillé must have been leading at the period referred to. From an abstract of a journal or memoir of the Abbé Picquet given in the Documentary History of the State of New York (i. 283), we obtain a glimpse of the state of things at the same place, about the same period, from the point of view, however, of an interested ecclesiastic. The Abbé Picquet was a doctor of the Sorbonne, and bore the titles of King's Missionary and Prefect Apostolic of Canada. He established a mission at Oswegatchie (Ogdensburg) which was known as La Presentation, and which became virtually a military outpost of Fort Frontenac. He was very useful to the authorities at Quebec in advocating French interests on the south side of the St. Lawrence. The Marquis du Quesne used to say that the Abbé Picquet was worth ten regiments to New France. His activity was so great, especially among the Six Nations, that even during his lifetime he was complimented with the title of "Apostle of the Iroquois." When at length the French power fell he retired to France, where he died in 1781. In 1751 the Abbé made a tour of exploration round Lake Ontario. He was conveyed in a King's canoe, and was accompanied by one of bark containing five trusty natives. He visited Fort Frontenac and the Bay of Quinté; especially the site there of an ancient mission which M. Dollières de Kleus and Abbé d'Urfé, priests of the St. Sulpice Seminary had established. "The quarter is beautiful," the Abbé remarks, "but the land is not good." He then visited Fort Toronto, the journal goes on to say, seventy leagues from Fort Frontenac, at the west end of Lake Ontario. He found good bread and good wine there, it is stated, and everything requisite for the trade, whilst they were in want of these things at all the other posts. He found Mississagués there, we are told, who flocked around him; they spoke first of the happiness their young people, the women and children, would feel if the King would be as good to them as to the Iroquois, for whom he procured missionaries. They complained that instead of building a church, they had constructed only a canteen for them. The Abbé Picquet, we are told, did not allow them to finish; and answered them that they had been treated according to their fancy; that they had never evinced the least zeal for religion; that their conduct was much opposed to it; that the Iroquois on the contrary had manifested their love for Christianity. But as he had no order, it is subjoined, to attract them, viz., the Mississagués, to his mission at La Presentation—he avoided a more lengthened explanation.
The poor fellows were somewhat unfairly lectured by the Abbé, for, according to his own showing, they expressed a desire for a church amongst them.
A note on the Mississagués in the Documentary History (i. 22) mentions the neighbourhood of Toronto as one of the quarters frequented by that tribe: at the same time it sets down their numbers as incredibly few. "The Mississagués," the note says, "are dispersed along this lake (Ontario), some at Kenté, others at the river Toronto (the Humber), and finally at the head of the Lake, to the number of 150 in all; and at Matchedash. The principal tribe is that of the Crane."