Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 3 | Page 8

proceeded meanwhile on the other bank also, we returned without finding anything.
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CHAMPLAIN'S EXPLANATION OF THE ACCOMPANYING MAP.
LE GRAND SAULT ST. LOUIS.
A. Small place that I had cleared up. B. Small pond. C. Small islet, where I had a stone wall made. D. Small brook, where the barques are kept. E. Meadows where the savages stay when they come to this region. F. Mountains seen in the interior. G. Small pond. H. Mont Royal. I. Small brook. L. The fall. M. Place on the north side, where the savages transfer their canoes by land. N. Spot where one of our men and a savage were drowned. O. Small rocky islet. P. Another islet where birds make their nests. Q. Heron island. R. Another island in the fall. S. Small islet T. Small round islet. V. Another islet half covered with water. X. Another islet, where there are many river birds. Y. Meadows. Z. Small river. 2. Very large and fine islands. 3. Places which are bare when the water is low, where there are great eddies, as at the main fall. 4. Meadows covered with water 5. Very shallow places. 6. Another little islet. 7. Small rocks. 8. Island St. Hélène. 9. Small island without trees. oo. Marshes connecting with the great fall.
ENDNOTES:
4. This journey of eight leagues would take them as far as the Lake of Two Mountains.
5. This little river is mentioned by Champlain in his Voyage of 1603, Vol. I. p. 268. It is represented on early maps as formed by two small streams, flowing, one from the north or northeastern, and the other from the southern side of the mountain, in the rear of the city of Montreal, which unite some distance before they reach the St. Lawrence, flowing into that river at Point Callières. These little brooks are laid down on Champlain's local map, _Le Grand Sault St. Louis_, on Charlevoix's _Carte de l'Isle de Montréal_, 1744, and on Bellin's _L'Isle de Montréal_, 1764; but they have disappeared on modern maps, and probably are either extinct or are lost in the sewerage of the city, of which they have become a part. We have called the stream formed by these two brooks, note 190, Vol. I., _Rivière St. Pierre_. On Potherie's map, the only stream coming from the interior is so named. _Vide Histoire de L'Amerique_ par M. de Bacqueville de la Potherie, 1722, p. 311. On a map in Greig's Hochelaga Depicta, 1839, it is called St. Peter's River. The same stream on Bouchette's map, 1830, is denominated Little River. It seems not unlikely that a part of it was called, at one time, Rivière St. Pierre, and another part Petite Rivière.
It is plain that on this stream was situated the sixty acres of cleared land alluded to in the text as formerly occupied by the savages.
It will be remembered that seventy-six years anterior to this, in 1535, Jacques Cartier discovered this place, which was then the seat of a large and flourishing Indian town. It is to be regretted that Champlain did not inform us more definitely as to the history of the former occupants of the soil. Some important, and we think conclusive, reasons have been assigned for supposing that they were a tribe of the Iroquois. Among others may be mentioned the similarity in the construction of their towns and houses or cabins, the identity of their language as determined by a collation of the words found in Cartier's journal with the language of the Iroquois; and to these may be added the traditions obtained by missionaries and others, as cited by Laverdière, to which we must not, however, attach too much value. _Vide Laverdière in loco_. While it seems probable that the former occupants were of the Iroquois family, it is impossible to determine whether on retiring they joined the Five Nations in the State of New York, or merged themselves with the Hurons, who were likewise of Iroquois origin.
6. I am unable to identify this plant. Its climbing propensity and the color of its fruit suggest Rhus radicans, but in other respects the similarity fails.
7. _Cerfs, Daims, Cheureuls, Caribous_. Champlain employs the names of the different species of the Cerf family as used in Europe; but as our species are different, this use of names creates some confusion. There were in Canada, the moose, the caribou, the wapiti, and the common red deer. Any enumeration by the early writers must include these, under whatever names they may be described. One will be found applying a name to a given species, while another will apply the same name to quite a different species. Charlevoix mentions the orignal (moose) caribou, the hart, and the roebuck. Under the name hart, he probably refers to the wapiti, elaphus Canadensis, and