te-stone which ribbed the open glades of the wood
there were veins of mineral matter which shone like gold and silver.
Cartier's mineral discoveries have unfortunately not resulted in
anything. We know now that his diamonds, still to be seen about Cap
Rouge, are rock crystals. The gold which he later on showed to
Roberval, and which was tested, proved genuine enough, but the quantity
of such deposits in the region has proved insignificant. It is very
likely that Cartier would make the most of his mineral discoveries as
the readiest means of exciting his master's interest.

When everything was in order at the settlement, the provisions landed,
and the building well under way, the leader decided to make a brief
journey to Hochelaga, in order to view more narrowly the rapids that he
had seen, and to be the better able to plan an expedition into the
interior for the coming spring. The account of this journey is the last
of Cartier's exploits of which we have any detailed account, and even
here the closing pages of his narrative are unsatisfactory and
inconclusive. What is most strange is that, although he expressly says
that he intended to 'go as far as Hochelaga, of purpose to view and
understand the fashion of the saults [falls] of water,' he makes no
mention of the settlement of Hochelaga itself, and does not seem to
have visited it.

The Hochelaga expedition, in which two boats were used, left the camp
at Cap Rouge on September 7, 1541. A number of Cartier's gentlemen
accompanied him on the journey, while the Viscount Beaupre was left
behind in command of the fort. On their way up the river Cartier
visited the chief who had entrusted his little daughter to the case of
the French at Stadacona at the time of Cartier's wintering there. He
left two young French boys in charge of this Indian chief that they
might learn the language of the country. No further episode of the
journey is chronicled until on September 11 the boats arrived at the
foot of the rapids now called Lachine. Cartier tells us that two
leagues from the foot of the bottom fall was an Indian village called
Tutonaguy, but he does not say whether or not this was the same place
as the Hochelaga of his previous voyage. The French left their boats
and, conducted by the Indians, walked along the portage path that led
past the rapids. There were large encampments of natives beside the
second fall, and they received the French with every expression of
good-will. B