88 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. I. 



that practised by all the tribes of the Iroquois race. The Algonquins, on 

 the other hand, did not employ this means of defence." Mr. Pope says 

 further, " There are likewise strong grounds for tliinking that the people of 

 Stadacon(^ (Quebec) were also of Huron-Iroquois lineage. In the first 

 place there is every likelihood that they spoke the same language as did the 

 people of Hochelaga. We have seen how at Gasp(?, Cartier was quick to 

 notice and record the difference in habits and in language between the 

 Indians he met there and those he had before encountered. But at Hoche- 

 laga, he says nothing which would lead us to suppose that the Indians he 

 there found differed in any essential particular from those at Stadacone. 

 The evidence we have is all the other way. For example, the vocabu- 

 lary of Indian words appended to the relation of Cartier's second voyage is 

 styled ' le lagage des pays et Royaulmes de Hochelaga et Canada, aultre- 

 ment appellee par nous la nouvelle France.' Now, anyone reading 

 Cartier's narrative must acknowledge that by Canada he means Stadacon^ 

 and its neighbourhood ; this being so, the inference from the foregoing is 

 that the same tongue was spoken at Stadacon^ and Hochelaga." 



Mr. Pope gives other reasons for his contention, which it is not necessary 

 to state here. From other sources we learn that the chief of the Indian 

 band who met Cartier at Hochelaga, in their interview with him gave him 

 to understand that their home was by the side of a great lake which they 

 reached by the river Utawa (Ottawa). They escorted him to the top of the 

 Mountain of Montreal, and while making their way to this vantage point 

 of observation, described to him the country whence they came, and where 

 they obtained " Caignetage," a red copper of which they had specimens 

 with them. It has often created surprise in the minds of many how it was 

 that at this time the Huron Indians were in possession of shells and other 

 commodities of the sea shore. The explanation is that frequent trips were 

 made by them to the far west for copper implements and agate arrow heads 

 which they traded ofi" to other Indians of the Maritime Coast for products of 

 the sea on which they placed a high value. 



How long the Hurons had been in the possession of their hunting grounds 

 in the vicinity of Lake Huron is not known with any degree of certainty, 

 but that they had been there for many decades, and it may be for 

 many centuries is evident from the fact that when Champlain, 

 in the year 1611, established the frontier trading post of Montreal, 

 he at once set about arranging for trade with the distant Hurons, 

 a large and populous tribe. It has been computed that at that time 

 not less than 16,000 of this aboriginal people occupied the forest home 

 of the Hurons. It is related that in the year 1642, or about that time, 

 two savages of a nation which had once inhabited Montreal accompanied 



