An Old Frontier of France: The Niagara Region and Adjacent Lakes Under French Control. E-book. Formato PDF Frank H. Severance   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

My purpose in the following study has been to record, with all useful detail, the events of French occupancy in the region of the Niagara and adjoining lakes; and I would here antici pate a possible criticism that my pages are overladen with details — by stating that it was a desire to know what had happened in the region during the time it was dominated by France, a desire to make the facts available for others, and an inability to find many of them in existing works, that induced me to write the narrative that follows. If I have seldom turned aside from the mere recording of events, to remark on the policies of the Powers which were rivals in the region, or on the consequences of their conduct, it is because I have felt that the truest exposition of these am bitions of courts, these failures or achievements of Ministries, lay in setting forth as simply and clearly as possible, the things that were done. The student of history, like the scientist, is on safest ground when he draws his conclusions from an as semblage of facts. Such a contribution to historical study, this work is designed to be; and those most familiar with the subject will perhaps be first to note that the narrative here offered supplements rather than duplicates existing works of wider scope. An especial aim has been, to present new matter; minimizing, so far as consistent, the narration of episodes else where adequately recorded.

An Old Frontier of France: Thew Niagara Region and Adjacent Lakes Under French Control. E-book. Formato PDF Frank H. Severance   -  Forgotten Books, 2017  - 

Such was the situation when in the summer of 1752 the Marquis Duquesne arrived from France to assume the unhappy task of governing Canada. At once his attention was turned to the defense and occupation of the Lakes and Ohio Valley. With the sanction of the King to "build on the Ohio such forts as are absolutely necessary, but no more," he planned an expedition for the ensuing year, placing in command the Chevalier Pierre Paul Marin, a veteran captain of infantry, most of whose 63 years had been spent in wilderness service. The engineer of the expedition was the Chevalier Le Mercier, who was also entrusted with the distribution of provisions. Duquesne speaks of him as "an officer possessing the rarest talent." These two, with an advance guard of 250 men, made their way to Niagara before the ice was out of the river, in the early spring of 1753. A much larger detachment followed later, under command of Michel Jean Hughes Pean, who was second in command. To his letters and reports we are indebted for many particulars of the campaign.In an era of favoritism and fraud, when flourished a system of dealings which we to-day call "graft," this expedition offered vast opportunities. If we may believe their contemporaries, Duquesne and his Intendant, Bigot, were in corrupt connivance for profit, power and pleasure.