[Footnote 53:  Modern navigators prefer the north side, all the way from the Seven Islands to the Isle of Orleans, where they take the southern channel to Point Levi, at which place they enter the bason of Quebec.—­E.]

[Footnote 54:  The distance does not exceed 135 marine leagues.—­E.]

[Footnote 55:  The Isle of Orleans, the only one which can be here alluded to, is only 6 1/2 marine leagues in length; Cartier seems to use the small French league of about 12 furlongs, and even not to have been very accurate in its application.—­E.]

After our return from Hochelega or the Isle of Montreal, we dwelt and trafficked in great cordiality with the natives near our ships, except that we sometimes had strife with certain ill-disposed people, much to the displeasure of the rest.  From Donnacona and others, we learnt that the river of Saguenay is capable of being navigated by small boats for a distance of eight or nine days journey; but that the most convenient and best way to the country of Saguenay is to ascend the great river in the first place to Hochelega, and thence by another river which comes from Saguenay, to which it is a navigation of a month[56].  The natives likewise gave us to understand that the people in that country of Saguenay were very honest, were clothed in a similar manner to us Frenchmen, had many populous towns, and had great store of gold and red copper.  They added, that beyond the river of Hochelega and Saguenay, there is an island environed by that and other rivers, beyond which and Saguenay the river leads into three or four great lakes, and a great inland sea of fresh water, the end whereof had never been found, as they had heard from the natives of Saguenay, having never been there themselves.  They told us likewise that, at the place where we left our pinnace when we went to Hochelega or Montreal, there is a river which flows from the south-west, by which in a months sailing they reach a certain other land having neither ice nor snow, where the inhabitants are continually at war against each other, and which country produces abundance of oranges, almonds, nuts, apples, and many other kinds of fruit, the natives being clad in the skins of beasts.  On being asked if there were any gold or red copper in that country, they answered no.  So far as I could understand their signs and tokens, I take this country to be towards Florida[57].

[Footnote 56:  The meaning of these routes are not explicable, as we are unacquainted with what is meant by Saguenay.  The river of that name flows into the north-west side of the St Lawrence 150 miles below Quebec, in a nearly east course of about 150 miles from the lake of St John.  The other river, said in the text to come from Saguenay, is probably that of the Utawas; but there does not appear to be any common direction or object attainable by the navigation of these two rivers.  The subsequent account of the inhabitants of Saguenay is obviously fabulous, or had been misunderstood by the French adventurers.—­E.]