Pierre Robineau de Portneuf

On 15 April 1750 the minister of Marine, Antoine Louis Rouillé, consenting to a request made by Governor Marquis de la Jonquière and Intendant François Bigot, granted permission to build a small fortified post at Toronto on the shore of Lake Ontario.

The authorities of the colony hoped by this means to attract the Indians in the region, probably the Mississaugas, to trade with the French and thus dissuade them from taking their furs to the English at Fort Oswego.

Pierre Robineau de Portneuf, who was an ensign at Fort Frontenac, was designated to carry out the project.

While the necessary provisions and articles for trade were being forwarded from Montreal, he began to build the fort that was planned on the east bank of the Toronto river, near its mouth.

Trade with the Indians at Fort Toronto proved successful, and by July 17, a shipment of furs worth 18,000 livres had been sent to Montreal.

On August 20, the governor wrote to the minister to acquaint him of the success and to inform him that he intended to build a new and larger fort at the point of the peninsula called La Baye.