I then left his house, returning him thanks for his civility; and having procured pecuniary assistance from a friend, took lodgings in the town, where I stayed some time. I then went to Quebec, where a gentleman accidentally hearing that I was out of employ, and knowing that I could speak the Indian languages, sent for me and engaged me in his service, to go among the Indians at Lake Temiscaming,[99] or any other situation I might think most eligible for commerce. {154} _Leave Quebec—Description of the Loretto Indians; some Remarks relative to an Assertion, that the American Indians have no Beards.—Mistake the Mercury Packet of Quebec for an American Privateer.—Proceed on our Journey, and arrive at our Winter Residence.—Description of several Sorts of Snakes.—Meet with great Success, and soon complete our Traffic.—Return to Quebec._ Being furnished with a proper assortment of merchandise, I left Quebec, and proceeded to Tadousac,[100] which is at the end of the Saguenay River, near the River St. Laurence. About nine miles from Quebec there is a village inhabited by the Loretto Indians, who are properly of the nation of the Hurons.[101] They embraced Christianity, through the means of the Jesuits, and follow the Catholic religion. The women have remarkable good voices, and sing hymns in their own language most charmingly. They cultivate the ground, and bring the produce to market; and in their manners they are the most innocent and harmless of all the Savages in North America. Their houses are decent, and built after the Canadian fashion; they are an exception to the generality of Indians, seldom drinking any spirituous liquors; they are for the most part tall, robust people, and well shaped; have short black hair, which is shaved off the forehead from ear to ear, and wear neither caps nor hats. With regard to their beards, though they are scarcely visible, they have them in common with all the tribes of Savages; but having an aversion to excrescences, they carefully pluck {155} out every hair from the upper jaw and chin with brass wire, which they twist together in the form of pincers; and it is well known that all traders carry out that article of commerce for this express purpose. Baron de la Hontan seems to have been much mistaken when, in speaking of the Savages, he says that they have no beards. Lord Kaims was also in the same error, when he asserted there is not a single hair on an Indian’s body, excepting the eyelashes, eyebrows, and hair of the head, and that there is no appearance of a beard. This observation Mr. James Adair remarks is utterly void of foundation, as can be attested by all who have had any communication with them; and major Robert Rogers,[102] who certainly knew the Indians as well as any man, says that they _totally destroy_ their beards; which proves beyond a doubt that they are not naturally _imbarbes_.