(HAP. XXI. TIIK VILI.AUH OF HOCIIELAGA. 3 



was encompassed by three separate rows of palisades, or 

 rather picket fences, one within the other, well secured 

 and put together. The single entrance to this rude 

 fortification was guarded with pikes and stakes, and every 

 precaution was taken against sudden attack. The cabins 

 or lodges of the inhabitants, about fifty in number, were 

 each fifty feet in length by fifteen in breadth. They 

 were formed of wood and covered with bark. Above the 

 doors of these houses, as w^ell as along the outer rows of 

 the palisades, ran a gallery, ascended by ladders, where 

 stones and other missiles were ranged in order for the 

 defence of the place. Each house contained several 

 chambers, and the whole were so arranged as to enclose 

 an open court-yard, where the fire was made. 



In 1603, Champlain appears to have satisfied himself 

 that the village of Hochelaga had wholly disappeared, for 

 we hear nothing even of the site it once occupied until 

 1642, when Montreal was founded by the French under 

 the Sieur Maisonneuve. On this occasion some very 

 interesting statements were made by the Jesuits in their 

 memoirs respecting the fate of Hochelaga.* We are 

 informed that at this date no trace of Cartier's Hochelaga 

 was known, except a name which the Indians had given 

 to tlie island, importing that it had been the site of 

 a village or fort. Two aged Indians who accompanied 

 some of the new colonists to the mountain-top, stated 

 that they were descendants of the original inhabitants ; 

 that their tribe had at one time inhabited all the 

 surrounding region, even to tlie south of the river, and 



* Jesuit Memoirs, 1(>42. 

 B 2 



