The next morning Cartier, with twenty-five of his company, went to visit the town, and were met on the way by a person of distinction, who bade them welcome. To him they gave two hatchets and two knives, and hung over his neck a cross which they taught him to kiss. As they proceeded, they passed through groves of oak, from which the acorns were fallen and lay thick on the ground. After this they came to fields of ripe corn, some of which was gathered. In the midst of these fields was situate the town of Hochelaga. It was of a round form, encompassed with three lines of palisades, through which was one entrance, well secured with stakes and bars. On the inside was a rampart of timber, to which were ascents by ladders, and heaps of stones were laid in proper places for defence. In the town were about fifty long huts built with stakes and covered with bark. In the middle of each hut was a fire, round which were lodging places, floored with bark and covered with skins. In the upper part was a scaffold, on which they dried and preserved their corn. To prepare it for eating, they pounded it in wooden mortars, and having mixed it with water, baked it on hot stones. Besides corn they had beans, squashes and pumpkins. They dried their fish and preserved them in troughs. These people lived chiefly by tillage and fishing, and seldom went far from home. Those on the lower parts of the river were more given to hunting, and considered the Lord of Hochelaga as their sovereign, to whom they paid tribute. When the new guests were conducted to an open square in the centre of the town, the females came to them, rubbing their hands and faces, weeping with joy at their arrival, and bringing their children to be touched by the strangers. They spread mats for them on the ground, whilst the men seated themselves in a large circle on the outside. The King was then brought in a litter, on the shoulders of ten men, and placed on a mat next to the French Captain. He was about fifty years old, and had no mark of distinction but a coronet made of porcupine’s quills dyed red; which he took off and gave to the Captain, requesting him to rub his arms and legs which were trembling with a palsy. Several persons, blind, lame, and withered with age, were also brought to be touched; as if they supposed that their new guests were messengers from heaven invested with a power of healing diseases. Cartier gratified them as well as he could, by laying his hands on them and repeating some devotional passages from a service book, which he had in his pocket; accompanying his ejaculations with significant gestures, and lifting up his eyes to heaven. The natives attentively observed and imitated all his motions.