Fort de la Présentation - 1749-1759

Fort de la Présentation - 1749-1759. A French Foothold on the South Bank. , A Mission/Supply Base , Fort de la Présentation, used as a fortified mission by Father Abbé François Picquet, was built at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River in 1749 and 1750. Picquet intended to Christianize much of the native population, make them French allies, and convince them to attack the English settlements to the south on the Mohawk River, and to the west at Oswego. Picquet accompanied them on numerous occasions. Captain de Lery's winter raid on Fort Bull on the Oneida Carry in 1756, Captain de Belletre's successful attack on Burnetsfield (Herkimer) in the fall of 1757, and the surprise raid on Fort Herkimer in April of 1758 are but a few of them., Bird's Eye View of the Fort and Surroundings from the South , While the garrison at the fort remained small, two dozen or so men, Picquet's parish included 3,000 people on both sides of the river., Abbé François Picquet 1708-1781 , Father Picquet was a Sulpician priest who came to Montreal from France in 1734. He spent several years studying Indian languages and customs and serving the local native parish. He served at the Sulpician Mission at Lake of Two Mountains (Oka) from 1739-1749 where he decided to work with the American Indians south of the Great Lakes for conversion and to secure their loyalty to France. He encouraged his followers to attack English settlements, and to raise crops and farm animals to be sent to French forts in the interior, along with native made clothing and equipment., After Fort Niagara fell in 1759 Picquet abandoned Fort de la Présentation, relocating his mission on Isle Péquétou de Gal (Galop Island). When British allied American Indians burned that mission in 1760, Picquet fled to Montreal, then to New Orleans, eventually returning to France in 1772., Strategic Role , Fort de la Présentation became an important supply base to western French forts at Niagara on Lake Ontario and Duquesne in western Pennsylvania. Native made snowshoes, toboggans and clothing, along with native grown fruits, vegetables, dried fish, meat and bread from the fort's oven were constantly shipped from the warehouses of Fort de la Présentation into the interior. Lumber from the fort's sawmill was shipped to the boat building facility at Pointe au Baril located on the St. Lawrence River to the west.