they fell in with a party of the Stadacona Indians. These,
frightened at the strange faces and unwonted dress of the French, would
have taken to flight, but Cartier's two Indians, whose names are
recorded as Taignoagny and Domagaya, called after them in their own
language. Great was the surprise of the natives not only to hear their
own speech, but also to recognize in Taignoagny and Domagaya two
members of their own tribe. The two guides, so far as we can judge from
Cartier's narrative, had come down from the Huron-Iroquois settlements
on the St Lawrence to the Gaspe country, whence Cartier had carried
them to France. Their friends now surrounded them with tumultuous
expressions of joy, leaping and shouting as if to perform a ceremonial
of welcome. Without fear now of the French they followed them down to
their boats, and brought them a plentiful supply of corn and of the
great pumpkins that were ripening in their fields.

The news of the arrival of the strangers spread at once through the
settlement. To see the ships, canoe after canoe came floating down the
river. They were filled with men and women eager to welcome their
returned kinsmen and to share in the trinkets which Cartier distributed
with a liberal hand. On the next day the chief of the tribe, the lord
of Canada, as Cartier calls him, Donnacona by name, visited the French
ships. The ceremonial was appropriate to his rank. Twelve canoes filled
with Indian warriors appeared upon the stream. As they neared the
ships, at a command from Donnacona, all fell back except two, which
came close alongside the Emerillon. Donnacona then delivered a powerful
and lengthy harangue, accompanied by wondrous gesticulations of body
and limbs. The canoes then moved down to the side of the Grande
Hermine, where Donnacona spoke with Cartier's guides. As these savages
told him of the wonders they had seen in France, he was apparently
moved to very transports of joy. Nothing would satisfy him but that
Cartier should step down into the canoe, that the chief might put his
arms about his neck in sign of welcome. Cartier, unable to rival
Donnacona's oratory, made up for it by causing the sailors hand down
food and wine, to the keen delight of the Indians. This being done, the
visitors departed with every expression of good-will.

Waiting only for a favourable tide, the ships left their anchorage,
and, sailing past the Island of Orleans, cast anchor in the St Charles
river, where it flo