cu.u'. XXI. EOUTE TO IIUDSOX S BAY. 21 



Oumanois chief, who had been to Hudson's Bay in the 

 ' North Sea ' by that route. A constant Hue of com- 

 munication was kept up between the St. La^vrence and 

 Hudson's Bay by different Indian tribes, chiefly Mon- 

 tagnais, and one of the first indications of this traffic is 

 given in the following dialogue wliich took place be- 

 tween Henri Nouvel and their chief. 



Priest — ' Is it far to the two villages where you and 

 your relatives hve ? ' 



Chief. — ' You may travel there in twenty nights or 

 thereabouts.' (Indians of the present day would say, 

 ' You will sleep twenty nights on the road.') 



Priest. — ' Are the two villages thickly peopled ? ' 



Chief. — ' There are many people there.' 



Priest. — ' Are there other villages near them ? ' 



Chief. — ' Yes, there are two, and fiuther on two other 

 villages.' 



Priest. — ' Is it very far to the village on the North 

 Sea ? ' (Hudson's Bay.) 



Chief. — ' It will take a winter to go there and return.' 



Priest. — ' Have you been to the North Sea ? ' 



Chief— 'Yes.' 



Priest. — ' Is the coast of that sea inhabited ? ' 



Chief. — ' I have seen a number of Lidians there.' 

 ****** 



Priest. — ' Have Europeans, French, Spanish, or English, 



been on that coast ?'* 



azy.— 'No.'t 



* Tlie Montagnais told Cliamplain fifty years before this that they traded 

 mtli a people to the north who visited the salt sea on the other side, 

 t Relation de la Nouvelle France, en I'Ann^e 1G64. 



