Near the mouth of the Mississippi, New
Orleans was now becoming a considerable town with a governor
independent of the governor at Quebec. Along the Mississippi at
strategic points stretching northward beyond the mouth of the
Missouri were a few French settlements, ragged enough and with a
shiftless population of fur traders and farmers, but adequate to
assert France's possession of that mighty highway. The weak point
in France's position was in her connection of the Mississippi
with the St. Lawrence by way of the Ohio. This was the place of
danger, for here English rivalry was strongest, and it was to
cure this weakness that Celoron was now sent forth.
Celoron moved toilsomely over the portage which led past the
great cataract of Niagara and launched his canoes on Lake Erie.
>From its south shore, during seven days of heart-breaking labor,
the party dragged the canoes and supplies through dense forest
and over steep hills until they reached Chautauqua Lake, the
waters of which flow into the Allegheny River and by it to the
Ohio. For many weary days they went with the current, stopping at
Indian villages, treating with the savages, who were sometimes
awed and sometimes menacing.
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