Joncaire’s landing spot marked the northern end of the strategic Niagara Portage, an eight-and-a-half-mile trail that bypassed Niagara Falls, linking the lower Niagara River with the upper river above the Falls. Native travelers had used the Portage for millennia, calling it Duh-jih-heh-ah or “walk on all fours.” Those heading east landed above the rapids and carried their goods and canoes overland, descending the steep Niagara Escarpment until they reached the Lower Landing. At this spot, a natural gully provided access to the lower river. Once back in the water, they could journey north into Lake Ontario and ultimately to trade entrepôts at Montreal or Albany.

While Native traders plied the steep path that avoided the Falls, the French had avoided the Niagara route in their journeys to the upper Great Lakes for decades. Hostilities with the Five Nations or Haudenosaunee people made Niagara a dangerous place. Instead, French traders preferred the more difficult Ottawa River route from Montreal to the upper lakes.

With the dawning of the 18th century, the situation changed. In August 1701, the French and 39 Native nations concluded the Great Peace of Montreal, a treaty that ended decades of destructive warfare. At the same time, the French established Detroit, which consisted of a fort, trading post and settlement. Both of these factors made the Niagara Portage a more desirable route west for French traders and military personnel. Joncaire himself was trading on the Niagara by at least 1704. In May 1720, however, his mission was of a different sort—the establishment of a permanent post on the Niagara.

French authorities in Canada and Paris had considered the merits of an outpost on the Niagara since the 1670s, when the explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, built the first storehouse at the Lower Landing. Two attempts to fortify the mouth of the Niagara between 1679 and 1688 (where Fort Niagara stands today) ended badly for the French and they were naturally reluctant to try again.

In 1706, the Governor of New France, Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, advanced a proposal to erect a post on the Niagara. Vaudreuil believed that Niagara was the best place to trade with the Five Nations and to “keep them in check.” He also recognized that Niagara provided a vital link with the new settlement at Detroit. In addition, the post would provide a refuge for France’s Native allies and create a barrier to keep Natives “from going to trade with the English.” The approach would not be through “violence and force” but by “peace and mildness” through attracting “the trade and friendship of the Indians.”

There was, perhaps, no better emissary to broker this deal than Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire. Born about 1670 in St. Remi, France, Joncaire emigrated to New France in the late 1680s. He was captured a few years later while on campaign against the Seneca. Destined for torture and death, he was reprieved and adopted by the Seneca nation. Living among the Seneca, he learned their language and culture and became an indispensable emissary between the government of New France and the Seneca. Long an advocate of the construction of a post on the Niagara, Joncaire stood ready to use his adopted status and influence to gain Seneca assent.

The indispensable frontier diplomat was not, however, without his critics. Several French officials were suspicious of Joncaire and his fur trading activities. Antoine-Denis Raudot, a brilliant young economist and son of the Intendant (New France’s chief civil official), remarked that Joncaire, “does not conduct himself…for the good of His Majesty’s service…he is a man who talks much, who brags and even lies.” Francois Clairambault D’Aigremont, who later served as Naval Commissary in New France, commented, “his greatest study is to think of his private business and private business is often injurious to public affairs especially in this colony, as I have had occasion frequently to remark.”

To determine the feasibility of a post on the Niagara and investigate other trade issues around the Great Lakes, D’Aigremont arrived on the Niagara in June 1708. On June 27, he met Joncaire at the mouth of the river. Joncaire advanced the idea of establishing a fort and garrison on the Niagara. He suggested to D’Aigremont that the post would attract Native settlers “by whose means we could always know what would be going on in those villages and among the English.” When D’Aigremont returned from his mission, however, he dismissed the idea of the Niagara post. He even suggested that Joncaire and Governor Vaudreuil were colluding on illicit trade deals. By 1709, the idea of a post on the Niagara was rejected in Paris as “not expedient.”

The concept was revived in 1716, however, this time by the King’s Lieutenant of Montreal, Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil. The 60-year-old Longueuil was a distinguished soldier, prominent seigneur (landlord) and adopted member of the Haudenosaunee. In this last capacity, he spent much time as a diplomat living among the Onondaga near present Syracuse.

During the long war between Britain and France, known as the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713), Longueuil became concerned about growing British influence among the Five Nations. Representatives from the Albany Indian Commissioners, New York’s liaison to the Five Nations, visited the territory of the Haudenosaunee, trying to entice them to join efforts to invade New France. Owing greatly to Longueuil’s diplomatic efforts, many of the Five Nations remained neutral. Nonetheless, Longueuil was concerned about English designs on the Niagara and recommended that the French establish an outpost there before the English did. Governor Vaudreuil agreed, but remained cautious, insisting that the Five Nations must first ask for the post.

Longueuil’s concerns were not without foundation. English traders had visited Niagara in the 1680s and the acting Governor of New York had obtained a “deed” to a huge swath of the Five Nations’ hunting grounds south of the Great Lakes in 1701. Britain also claimed suzerainty over the Five Nations under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. It would be only a matter of time until the English cut the French off from the upper country by fortifying Niagara.

Despite the lack of a permanent outpost on the Niagara, French merchants, including Joncaire, regularly traded with Natives at the Lower Landing of the Niagara after 1715. According to an anonymous account dated 1718, there already existed a small Native village at the landing. The account described the village:

From the landing, which is three leagues up the river, four hills are to be ascended. Above the first hill, there is a Seneca village of about ten cabins, where Indian corn, beans, peas, watermelons and pumpkins are raised, all of which are very fine. These Senecas are employed by the French, from whom they earn money by carrying the goods of those who are going to the upper country; some for mittasses (woolen leggings), others for shirts, some for powder and ball, whilst some others pilfer; and on the return of the French, they carry their packs of furs for some peltry. This portage is made for the purpose of avoiding the Cataract of Niagara, the grandest sheet of water in the World, having a perpendicular fall of three hundred feet.

Late in 1719, 23-year-old Lt. Louis LaCorne (the elder) also an officer in les Compagnies Franches de la Marine, was sent to the Lower Landing with a cargo of goods to open trade the following spring.  At the same time, Joncaire carried “small merchandizes, powder, lead, wampum and brandy” to Seneca villages near present-day Geneva and Canandaigua. Here he wintered, apparently negotiating for the establishment of a permanent post on the Niagara.

In early May 1720, Joncaire appeared at Fort Frontenac, a French outpost where Kingston, Ontario stands today. He reported that the Senecas were “favorably disposed” to a “house” on the Niagara and that they had agreed to help maintain it. Joncaire quickly loaded a canoe with trade goods including “some pieces of Blew Cloth, three dozen or thereabouts of white blankets for the use of the Indians, half a barrel of Brandy, etc.” By the middle of May, he had arrived at the Lower Landing along with eight soldiers and Lt. LaCorne. They quickly commenced construction of their house of trade, naming it le Magazin Royal, the royal store.

Joncaire did not linger long on the Niagara. Leaving young Louis LaCorne in command, he soon departed for Seneca villages, probably to protect his somewhat dubious claims. For word of the French progress on the Niagara had reached New York authorities. Indian commissioners Myndert Schuyler and Robert Livingston were dispatched to Seneca Castle to protest the French actions. After conferring with Seneca leaders, Schuyler and Livingston sent interpreter Lawrence Claessen, accompanied by three sachems, to the Lower Landing.

When Claessen’s party arrived at the landing at the end of May, he confronted Louis LaCorne, demanding that the French cease construction and demolish what they had already completed. Claessen, speaking for the Five Nations, stated, “it is much against their inclination that any buildings should be made here and that they desire you to desist further building and to leave and demolish what you have made.”

LaCorne stood his ground, replying that, “we had leave from the young fighting men of the Senecas to build a house at Niagara. My master is the Governor of Canada. He has posted me here to trade. This house will not be torn down until he orders it.”

Following this confrontation, Claessen returned to Seneca Castle (near modern Geneva) and held council with tribal leaders. He warned that French presence on the Niagara would create a barrier to traditional hunting grounds and block trade. Once the French had created a trade monopoly, they would charge exorbitant rates for trade goods. Native leaders responded that Joncaire had not asked their permission to build a house on the Niagara. They recommended that New York officials contact the Governor General of New France and demand that the house be demolished.

During the council, Joncaire appeared and countered Claessen’s arguments, assuring the Native leaders that the expansion of trade would greatly benefit the Five Nations. In the end, Joncaire’s arguments prevailed. The English were in no position to destroy Joncaire’s post and the Five Nations were unwilling to allow the issue to create an internal dispute. Le Magazin Royal would remain.

As no contemporary image exists, the actual appearance of the building constructed at the Lower Landing remains unclear. Claessen, who provides the best account, describes it as “a house of forty-foot-long and thirty wide.” Another eyewitness, John Durant, State Chaplain of the Fort of Cataracouy (Frontenac/Kingston, ON) described it as “a kind of cabbin of bark where they displayed the King’s colors and honored it with the name of Magazin Royal.”

New York Provincial Governor William Burnet reported to the British Lords of Trade on November 26, 1720, “a trading house or Blockhouse that is made Muskett proof with Portholes for firing with small arms, which the French have set up near the fall of Niagara.” This description seems a bit grand when compared to the others, but Burnet had not actually seen the structure. 

Regardless of the building’s appearance, just two Frenchmen were left at the Magazin over the winter of 1720-21, a sign that the post’s continued existence depended entirely on the support of local Senecas. This, in turn, depended on a steady supply of trade goods. Joncaire was well aware of this and attempted to reach the landing with additional goods late in 1720. Instead of resupplying his nascent post, he was forced by ice on Lake Ontario to winter on the Genesee. 

Knowing that the diplomatic foundation of the Magazin stood on shaky ground, French officials moved quickly in the spring of 1721 to strengthen their position on the Niagara. As soon as navigation opened, a party of dignitaries, accompanied by soldiers, Native allies, boatmen, cooks, valets and bundles of trade goods set sail for Niagara. Sixty-four-year-old King’s Lieutenant Longueuil led the party, which was also scoping out possible locations for future forts. Also aboard was 21-year-old Pierre Rigaud de Cavagnial, son of Governor General Vaudreuil and Captain Jacques de Senneville, military officer, merchant and son of one of the wealthiest men in New France.

Their arrival in late May coincided with a visit by Pierre François-Xavier de Charlevoix, a 38-year-old Jesuit priest. Charlevoix was on a mission to find a route to the western sea via the Great Lakes. He provides one of the most interesting descriptions of activities at the Magazin:

After sailing three leagues [up the Niagara River], you find on the left some cabins of the Iroquois Tsonnonthouans [Senecas], and of the Missisagues as at Catarocoui [Fort Frontenac]. The Sieur de Joncaire, lieutenant of our troops, has also a cabin at this place, to which they have beforehand given the name of Fort: for it is claimed that in time this will be changed into a great fortress.

Charlevoix found the surroundings at the Lower Landing wild and frightful. “On the one side you see just under your feet…a great river…a torrent by its rapidity,” with “whirlpools formed by a thousand rocks.” As Charlevoix looked up at the Niagara Escarpment, he saw “three mountains placed one over the other…the last hides itself in the clouds.” The Jesuit was equally impressed with a performance put on by group of Mississaugas, who sang and danced all night. At one point during the festivities, “an Indian appeared with a lighted coal in his mouth while the music still played.” The women repeated their dancing from time to time and the Indian with the coal in his mouth appeared “like a goblin.”

During Charlevoix’s brief sojourn at the Lower Landing, Joncaire and the French officials from Montreal held council with local Senecas. Charlevoix recorded that Joncaire spoke with “good sense,” and “the sublimest eloquence of an Iroquois.” According to the Jesuit, “The Tsonnonthouans [Senecas] renewed to them the promise they had formerly made them, to maintain it.”

New York officials vehemently protested the establishment of Joncaire’s post. By 1724, they obtained permission to erect a trading station of their own on the shores of Lake Ontario, 150 miles east of Niagara at Oswego. This development hastened French efforts to strengthen Joncaire’s Magazin. Governor Vaudreuil wrote Versailles, warning that Niagara must be fortified because its loss “would entail at the same time that of the entire Indian trade of the upper country [Great Lakes].”

In 1723 Joncaire had reported to Governor Vaudreuil that the Five Nations were willing to allow a more heavily fortified military post at the Lower Landing, so long as it was only a, “little fort of palisades, in which 300 men could defend themselves.” Two years later, he advised that the Seneca would not oppose a larger fort on the Niagara but that, “no stone fort should be erected there.”

French officials moved quickly in the spring of 1725. Longueuil visited Onondaga and reported that delegates of four of the Five Nations had given permission for the construction of a stone house near Joncaire’s bark structure. According to Ajewachta, an Onondaga sachem who witnessed the council, Longueuil argued that the bark house at Niagara had begun to decay and no longer kept the rain off its contents of valuable trade goods. Longueuil asked for permission to build a bigger house, “wherein his goods might be safe from rain…for their good, peace and quietness.” 

One nation, the Seneca, had opposed the plan, but the Onondagas rejected their protest and gave Longueuil permission. He then set about designing a large stone house that was to sit between Joncaire’s bark cabin and the bank of the Niagara River.

The following year, 1726, an expedition of 100 soldiers and a group of workmen set out for the Niagara. Accompanying them was New France’s Chief Engineer, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros DeLery. The engineer was a veteran of battles and sieges in Europe and had served in Canada since 1716. He took Longueuil’s basic plan and added details and defensive features. More importantly, DeLery realized that the new building’s proposed location was strategically weak. While it was well positioned for trade, it could be easily cut off, were the British to build their own fort at the mouth of the Niagara River. Thus, the stone house was erected at the river’s mouth and Fort Niagara was born. 

While Joncaire’s Magazin continued in use for several years, with the construction of DeLery’s stone house, the focus of activity had moved to the mouth of the Niagara. French officials debated the value of rebuilding the Magazin in the late 1720s but in the end, its status was reduced to that of a storehouse used to shelter goods moving over the portage.

Today, little evidence remains of these important events at the base of the Niagara Escarpment.  In the late 1950s, construction of the Robert Moses Power Plant resulted in huge quantities of earth being transported to the area, dramatically changing the topography. A decade and a half later, Artpark would be constructed near the site where Joncaire would have carried on his commercial transactions and diplomatic efforts.  That same year, the Lower Landing Archaeological District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. While the site of Joncaire’s cabin is now occupied by Artpark’s Parking Lot C (“the painted parking lot”), a portion of the gully that once marked the northern end of the portage route remains.

In May 2020, the Historical Association of Lewiston, Artpark, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area and Old Fort Niagara plan to commemorate the establishment of the Magazin with a day-long living history program and special exhibits to highlight both the French and Native presence on the Niagara 300 years ago.