AN OLD STORY OF THE NEW WORLD. 43 



the nomadic tribes of the Ottawa. They represented 

 themselves as the last remnant of a great people who 

 had once possessed broad lands and many towns on 

 both sides of the St. Lawrence. Their tribal name 

 had been Onontchataranons, but by the French they 

 were called Iroquet, a name apparently expressing 

 a supposed affinity with their bitter enemies the 

 Iroquois. The French invited them to return to 

 Montreal, and a few families accepted the invitation, 

 but remained only for a short time, being driven away 

 by the dread of the Iroquois, from whom they doubted 

 the ability of the French to protect them. This is 

 the last historical notice of Hochelaga. Its site was 

 overgrown with trees, and subsequently cleared and 

 cultivated. Its name was transferred to Cartier's 

 landing-place, at the foot of the current of St. Mary. 

 In 1860 the excavations for foundations of houses in 

 the western part of Montreal uncovered its old hearths 

 and kitchen-middens and burial-places. In the next 

 and following chapters we shall direct attention to its 

 history and remains, and to the light which these 

 throw on the primitive relations of the American 

 tribes. 



In the meantime let us think of the instructive fact 

 that within three hundred years of the time when the 

 French explorer found at the foot of Mount Eoyal 

 a populous Indian town, strongly fortified and sur- 

 rounded by cultivated ground, its very site had been 

 forgotten, and was occupied with fields showing no 

 sign above the green sward of the remains beneath. 



