from whose top one can see to a great distance. This mountain we called Mount Royal. The town is built in a circle, and surrounded with a wooden palisade in three tiers, like a pyramid; the top row is crosswise, the centre row upright, and the bottom row is laid lengthwise; the whole compactly joined and lashed together after their manner, rising to about twice the height of a lance. The town has but one gate or entry, closed with bars; on it and at several points along the wall are galleries of a kind, with ladders ascending to them, provided with rocks and stones for its guard and defence. In the town are about fifty houses, each about fifty paces long or more, and twelve to fifteen broad, built all of wood, with roofs and sides made of strips of bark or of wood as broad as a table, well and cunningly knotted together after their fashion; within these are several rooms, large and small; in the midst of each house, on the ground, is a large hall where they light their fire and live in common, afterwards retiring, the men with their women and children, to their said chambers. They also have garners at the top of their houses, where they store their corn, which they call caraconi, whereof they make their bread in the following manner. They have wooden mortars, like those for beating hemp, and in these with wooden beetles they beat the corn to powder, then make paste of it and cakes of the paste, which they put on a hot stone and cover with hot pebbles, and thus they bake their bread, for want of an oven. They also make many stews of this corn, and also of beans and peas, of which they have good store; also of large cucumbers and other fruits. They have also in their houses large vats like tuns, wherein they store their eels and other fish, which they smoke during the summer and live upon in winter; of these they gather great plenty, as we by experience have seen. None of their viands have any touch of salt; and they sleep on strips of bark laid on the ground, covered with wretched skins, whereof they also make their garments, such as otters, beavers, martens, foxes, wild cats, roes, stags and other wild beasts, though indeed the greater part of them go practically stark naked. 3. THE FRENCH SETTLEMENT IN THE ISLAND OF ST. CROIX (1604). =Source.=--Grant and Biggar's edition of Lescarbot's _History_.