43S Notes on Aboriginal Antiquities, 



by Cartier, or to any previous or subsequent occupancy of the 

 Island of Montreal by Indians. 



On the 3rd of October, 1535, Cartier landed on the Island of 

 Montreal, and visited an Indian village which he calls Hoche- 

 laga, a name apparently refemng rather to the district than to 

 the town itself. In 1540, in his third voyage, of which unfortun- 

 ately only imperfect records remain, he mentions apparently at the 

 same place a village which he calls Tutonaguy; and as he had 

 learned in the meantime to apply the name Hochelaga to a re- 

 gion or district of country, it is probable that this is the same 

 place previously named Hochelaga. In 1603, Cham plain appears 

 to have found that the village of Hochelaga had dwindled away 

 or disappeared, and we hear no more of its site until in 1642, 

 when Montreal was founded by the French under the Sieur Maison- 

 neuve. On this occasion some very interestinor statements are 

 made in the Jesuits' memoirs, respecting the fate of Hochelaga. 

 (1642, chap. 9.) We are informed that at this date no trace of 

 Cartier's Hochelaga was known, except a name which the Indians 

 had given to the island, importing that it had been the site of a 

 village or fort. Further 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 the south 

 of the river, possessing many populous villages ; that the Hurons 

 who at that time were hostile to them, had expelled them ; that 

 some of them had taken refuge among the Abenaquis, others 

 among the Iroquois, others among the Hurons themselves. One 

 of them farther stated that his grandfather had cultivated the 

 very place before them, and expatiated on the excellence of its 

 soil and climate for the cultivation of Indian corn ; but the incur- 

 sions of the Iroquois were too much dreaded to permit the re- 

 occupation of the island. The missionaries farther remark that 

 these people once sedentary and cultivators of the soil, had be- 

 come migratory, owing to the dangers to which they were ex- 

 posed, a very important fact as we shall perceive in the sequel. 

 One of the men above referred to was named Atcheast, and other 

 statements show that he was one of a band regarded as Alston- 

 quins by the missionaries. These people were invited by the 

 French to return to the Island of Montreal, and were promised 

 protection from the Iroquois, but their fears do not seem to have 

 been overcome until the conclusion of peace in 1646, when a 



