1749-1755.] DEFECTION OF THE IROQUOIS. 89 



ment.' This result became still more imminent, 

 when, in the year 1749, the French priest Picquet 

 established his mission of La Presentation on the 

 St. Lawrence, at the site of Ogdensburg.^ This 

 pious father, like the martial churchmen of an 

 earlier day, deemed it no scandal to gird on earthly 

 armor against the enemies of the faith. He built 

 a fort and founded a settlement ; he mustered the 

 Indians about him from far and near, organized 

 their governments, and marshalled their war-parties. 

 From the crenelled walls of his mission-house the 

 warlike apostle could look forth upon a military 

 colony of his own creating, upon farms and clear- 

 ings, white Canadian cabins, and the bark lodges 

 of Indian hordes which he had gathered under his 

 protecting w^ing. A chief object of the settlement 

 was to form a barrier against the English ; but the 

 purpose dearest to the missionary's heart was to 

 gain over the Iroquois to the side of France ; and 

 in this he succeeded so well, that, as a writer of 

 good authority declares, the number of their war- 

 riors within the circle of his influence surpassed 

 the whole remaining force of the confederacy.^ 



Thoughtful men in the English colonies saw with 

 anxiety the growing defection of the Iroquois, and 

 dreaded lest, in the event of a war with France, her 

 ancient foes might now be found her friends. But 

 in this ominous conjuncture, one strong influence 

 was at work to bind the confederates to their old 



1 Minutes of Indian Council, 1746. 



2 Doc. Hist N. Y. I. 423. 



3 MS. Letter — Colden to Lord Halifax, no date. 



