Another version of the same tradition is given by Mr. Bourinot, in
"The Story of Canada," where he tells the popular tradition handed
down by the Indians, "that the Hurons and Iroquois, branches of the
same family, speaking dialects of one common language, were living at
one time in villages, not far from each other,--the Hurons probably
at Hochelaga and the Senecas on the other side of the mountain. It
was against the law of the two communities for their men and women
to intermarry, but the potent influence of true love, so rare in an
Indian's bosom, soon broke this command. A Huron girl entered a cabin
of an Iroquois chief as his wife. It was an unhappy marriage, the
husband killed the wife in an angry moment. This was a serious matter,
requiring a council meeting of the two tribes. Murder must be avenged
or liberal compensation given to the friends of the dead. The council
decided that the woman deserved death, but the verdict did not please
all her relatives, one of whom went off secretly and killed an Iroquois
warrior. Then, both tribes took up the hatchet, and went on the warpath
against each other, with the result, that the Village of Hochelaga,
with all the women and children, was destroyed, and the Hurons, who
were probably beaten, left the St. Lawrence and eventually found a new
home on Lake Huron."--See Horatio Hale's "Fall of Hochelaga" in Journal
of American Folklore, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1894.
If Cartier was the discoverer of "Hochelaga," the Island of Montreal,
it is to Champlain's honour that he was the first trader and the first
designator of the site of the present City of Montreal. He was the
first city planner in that he saw the possibilities of Montreal as a
trading port, having all the attractions for a future settlement. It
had a beautiful mountain with gentle slopes to the river at its base,
and a natural harbour; it was the natural rendezvous of all the tribes
bordering on the river beyond the _saults_, the last of which is that
now known as the Lachine Rapids; it was the port for the fur trade
of the hinterland beyond. Both Cartier and Champlain also noted the
wonderful fertility of its soil and the beauty of its surroundings. As
then, so today, Montreal's position, placed at the head of Atlantic
navigation, the natural headquarters of the Gulf trade, that of the
St. Lawrence and of the Great Lakes, centre of attraction and terminus
of all the great railroads of the West and from the United States,
secures it an undoubted future as a great commercial centre. It is to
Champlain's credit that in his own day he realized the geographical
value of Montreal as a trading centre, indicated by the natural laws
for shipment and transportation, albeit he contemplated it only with
the limited vision of a fur trader whose clients were the savages from
the back country and their freight vessels, canoes laden with peltry.
He looked ahead.
[Illustration: The first trader at Montreal]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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