ALGONQUINS. Xxiii 



amites, and others, included by the French under the 

 general name of Montagnais. When, in spring, the 

 French trading-ships arrived and anchored in the port 

 of Tadoussac, they gathered from far and near, toiling 

 painfully through the desolation of forests, musterhig by 

 hundreds at the point of traffic, and setting up their 

 bark wigwams along the strand of that wild harbor. 

 They were of the lowest Algonquin type. Their ordi- 

 nary sustenance was derived from the chase ; though 

 often, goaded by deadly famine, they would subsist on 

 roots, the bark and buds of trees, or the foulest ' offal ; 

 and in extremity, even cannibalism was not rare among 

 them. 



Ascending the St. Lawrence, it was seldom that the 

 sight of a human form gave relief to the loneliness, 

 until, at Quebec, the roar of Champlain's cannon from 

 the verge of the cliff announced that the savage prologue 

 of the American drama was drawing to a close, and that 

 the civilization of Europe was advancing on the scene. 

 Ascending farther, all was solitude, except at Three 

 Rivers, a noted place of trade, where a few Algonquins 

 of the tribe called Atticamegues might possibly be seen. 

 The fear of the Iroquois was everywhere ; and as the 

 voyager passed some wooded point, or thicket-covered 

 island, the whistling of a stone-headed arrow proclaimed, 

 perhaps, the presence of these fierce marauders. At 

 Montreal there was no human life, save during a brief 

 space in early summer, when the shore swarmed witli 

 savages, who had come to the yearly trade from the 

 great communities of the interior. To-day there were 

 dances, songs, and feastings ; to-morrow all again was 

 solitude, and the Ottawa was covered with the canoes of 

 the returning warriors. 



Along this stream, a main route of traffic, the silence 



