[22] The commandant of this famous expedition (1749) was Pierre Joseph Céloron, Sieur de Blainville, born in 1693, and having served a long apprenticeship in the posts of the upper country. He commanded an invasion of the Chickasaw country (1739), and had charge of the post at Detroit in 1742-43, and again in 1750-54. Fort Niagara was entrusted to him in 1744-47, whence he was transferred to Crown Point, until his Ohio expedition took place. In the French and Indian War he held the rank of major, and served on the staff of the commander-in-chief. He died about 1777. In 1760, the Canadian authorities characterized him as “poor and brave.” Some question has arisen, whether the leader of this expedition might not have been a younger brother, Jean Baptiste. For Croghan’s visit to the Ohio directly after Céloron’s expedition had passed, see _post_; also, _Pennsylvania Colonial Records_, v, p. 387, and _Pennsylvania Archives_, ii, p. 31.—ED. [23] The Onondaga Council was the chief governing body of the Six Nations, or Iroquois, and since this confederacy assumed supremacy over the Ohio Indians, it was the chief centre of Indian diplomacy. The council house was situated on the site of the present town of Onondaga, New York, and was about eighty feet long, with broad seats arranged on each side. For an early description see Bartram, _Observations, etc._ (London, 1751), pp. 40, 41.—ED. [24] Galissonière, the governor of Canada, who planned Céloron’s expedition to the Ohio, was superseded in the autumn of 1749 by Jacques Pierre de Taffanel, Marquis de la Jonquière, who continued the policy of the former; he sent orders to the commandants of the Western posts to arrest all British subjects found in the Ohio Valley. La Jonquière, who was born in 1686, had served in the French navy with distinction, and after his first commission as governor of New France was captured by an English vessel (1747), and kept a prisoner for more than a year, so that he did not reach his post until 1749. His term of service was but two years and a half, being terminated by his death in May, 1752.—ED.