, he commenced
his work by felling the trees, and rooting up the wild vines and tangled
underwood from the virgin soil. Some rude huts were speedily erected for
shelter; spots around them were cultivated to test the fertility of the
land: this labor was repaid by abundant production. The first permanent
work undertaken in the new settlement was the erection of a solid
building as a magazine for their provisions. A temporary barrack on the
highest point of the position, for the officers and men, was
subsequently constructed. These preparations occupied the remainder of
the summer. The first snow fell on the 18th of November, but only
remained on the ground for two days: in December it again returned, and
the face of nature was covered till the end of April, 1609. From the
time of Jacques Cartier to the establishment of Champlain, and even to
the present day, there has been no very decided amelioration of the
severity of the climate; indeed, some of the earliest records notice
seasons milder than many of modern days.

The town of Stadacona, like its prouder neighbor of Hochelaga, seems to
have dwindled into insignificance since the time when it had been an
object of such interest and suspicion to Jacques Cartier. Some Indians
still lived in huts around Quebec, but in a state of poverty and
destitution, very different from the condition of their ancestors.
During the winter of 1608, they suffered dire extremities of famine;
several came over from the southern shores of the river, miserably
reduced by starvation, and scarcely able to drag along their feeble
limbs, to seek aid from the strangers. Champlain relieved their
necessities and treated them with politic kindness. The French suffered
severely from the scurvy during the first winter of their residence.

On the 18th of April, 1609, Champlain, accompanied by two Frenchmen,
ascended the Great River with a war party of Canadian Indians. After a
time, turning southward up a tributary stream, he came to the shores of
a large and beautiful lake, abounding with fish; the shores and
neighboring forests sheltered, in their undisturbed solitude, countless
deer and other animals of the chase. To this splendid sheet of water he
gave his own name, which it still bears. To the south and west rose huge
snow-capped mountains, and in the fertile valleys below dwelt numbers of
the fierce and hostile Iroquois. Champlain and his savage allies pushed
on to the furthest extremity of the la