Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, vol 3 | Page 8

seething and boiling of the water being fearful. A
part of the fall was all white with foam, indicating the worst spot, the
noise of which was like thunder, the air resounding with the echo of the
cataracts. After viewing and carefully examining this place, and
searching along the river bank for the dead bodies, another very light
shallop having proceeded meanwhile on the other bank also, we
returned without finding anything.
* * * * *
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