28 FOSSIL MEN. 



autumnal hues. He saw many huts on the banks, 

 occupied by fishermen, who came to his boats with as 

 great confidence and nonchalance as if the French had 

 been well-known friends and neighbours, and at the 

 mouth of the Richelieu he was visited by a great chief, 

 apparently tributary to him of Stadacona, with many 

 professions of friendship. There seems little doubt 

 that the news of the arrival of the French had pre- 

 ceded them far up the river, and that as allies of 

 Donnacanna they were everywhere received as friends. 



At length, on the evening of the 2nd of October, 

 amid all the autumnal glories of the Canadian forest, 

 Cartier moored his boats at the foot of the current of 

 St. Mary, opposite what is now a suburb of Montreal, 

 and in sight of the wooded trappean hill which over- 

 looked the town of Hochelaga as it now overlooks the 

 chief city of Canada. 



The arrival of the voyagers was speedily made 

 known in the town, for before night more than a 

 thousand persons had assembled on the bank, and 

 signified their joy and welcome by dances, in which 

 the men, women, and children performed separately, 

 and by throwing fish and corn-bread into the boats. 

 Not content with this, they lighted fires on the shore, 

 and kept up their dances all night, with cries of 

 Aguiaze, which Cartier interpreted as a word of wel- 

 come. 



The place where the boats halted, and to which the 

 Europeans have now restricted the once more exten- 

 sive name of Hochelaga, was about three miles from 



