These are really huge porpoises, allied to the narwhals, but without the narwhal’s exaggerated tusk.  When he reached the vicinity of the modern Quebec,[5] and his Amerindian interpreters found themselves at their actual home (for they were far away from home on a fishing expedition when he caught them in Gaspe Bay) there was great rejoicing; for they were able to tell their relations of the wonderful country to which they had been across the ocean.  Cartier was delighted with the surroundings of “Canada” (Quebec), near which at that time was a large settlement (Stadacona) of Huron Indians under a chief named Donnacona.  He decided to lay up his ships here for the winter, and to pursue the rest of his western explorations in his boats.

[Footnote 5:  Then called “Canada”.  The word Quebec (pronounced Kebek) means the narrow part of a river.]

But the Amerindians for some reason were not willing that he should go any farther, and attempted to scare him from his projects by arranging for three of their number to come down river in a canoe, dressed in dogs’ skins, with their faces blackened, and with bisons’ horns fastened to their heads.  These devils pretended to take no notice of the French, but to die suddenly as they reached the shore, while the rest of the natives gave vent to howlings of despair and consternation.  The three devils were pretending to have brought a message from a god to these Hurons of “Canada” that the country up river (Hochelaga) was so full of ice and snow that it would be death for anyone to go there.

However, this made little or no impression on Cartier; but he consented to leave a proportion of his party behind with the chief Donnacona as hostages, and then started up country in his boats with about seventy picked officers and men.  On the 2nd of October, 1535, they reached the vicinity of the modern Montreal, the chief settlement of Hochelaga.  The Huron town at the foot of the hills was circular in outline, surrounded by a stockade of three rows of upright tree trunks, which rose to its highest point in the middle, where the timbers of the inner and outward sides sloped to meet one another, the height of the central row being about 8 feet above the ground.  All round the inside there was a platform or rampart on which were stored heavy stones to be hurled at any enemy who should attempt to scale the fence.  The town was entered by only one doorway, and contained about fifty houses surrounding an open space whereon the towns-people made their bonfires.  Each house was about 50 feet long by 12 to 15 feet wide.  They were roofed with bark, and usually had attics which were storerooms for food.  In the centre of each of these long houses there was a fireplace where the cooking for the whole of the house inhabitants was done.  Each family had its own room, but each house probably contained five families.  Almost the only furniture, except cooking pots, was mats on which the people sat and slept.  The food of the people consisted, besides fish and the flesh of beavers and deer, of maize and beans.  Cartier at once recognized the maize or Indian corn as the same grain ("a large millet”) as that which he had seen in Brazil.