The habitation was composed of three buildings of two stories, each one of three fathoms long and two and a half wide.  The storehouse was six fathoms long and three wide, with a cellar six feet deep.  There was a gallery around the buildings, at the second story.  There were also ditches fifteen feet wide and six deep.  On the outer side of the ditches Champlain constructed several spurs, which enclosed a part of the dwelling, at the point where he placed a cannon.  Before the habitation there was a square four fathoms wide and six or seven long, looking out upon the river bank.  Surrounding the habitation were very good gardens, and an open space on the north side, some hundred and twenty paces long and fifty or sixty wide.

During the first weeks after his installation, Champlain made an investigation of the vicinity.  “Near Quebec,” he says, “there is a little river coming from a lake in the interior, distant six or seven leagues from our settlement.  I am of opinion that this river, which is north a quarter north-west from our settlement, is the place where Jacques Cartier wintered, since there are still, a league up the river, remains of what seems to have been a chimney, the foundation of which has been found, and indications of there having been ditches surrounding their dwelling, which was small.  We found also, large pieces of hewn, worm-eaten timber, and some three or four cannon balls.  All these things show clearly that there was a settlement there founded by Christians; and what leads me to say and believe that it was that of Jacques Cartier is the fact that there is no evidence whatever that any one wintered and built a house in these places except Jacques Cartier at the time of his discoveries.”

This “little river coming from a lake in the interior,” is evidently the river St. Charles, called Ste. Croix by Cartier.  Champlain’s conjectures about the place where Jacques Cartier wintered, are certainly correct.  It was near this spot also that the Jesuits erected their convent of Notre Dame des Anges in 1626, namely, at two hundred feet from the shore, where the river Lairet joins the St. Charles.

Pont-Grave sailed for France on September 18th, 1608, leaving Champlain with twenty-seven men, and provisions for the approaching winter at Quebec.  The carpenters, sawyers, and other workmen were employed in clearing up the place and in preparing gardens.

Many Indians were encamped in the vicinity, who proved troublesome neighbours, as they were constantly visiting the habitation, either to beg food for their families or to express their fear of invisible enemies.  Champlain readily understood the character of these people, but he was too charitable to refuse them assistance in their need; besides he believed that they might easily be taught how to live and how to cultivate the soil.  It was a difficult task, however, to induce the Indians to settle in any particular place.  For generations they had led a wandering life, subsisting on the products of their hunting and fishing.  This wild freedom was as necessary to their existence as the open air, and all attempts to make them follow the habits of civilized races seemed to tend towards their deterioration.