ows of tree-trunks,
the outer and the inner inclining toward each other and supported by an
upright row between them. Along the top were "places to run along and
ladders to get up, all full of stones for the defence of it." In
short, it was a very complete fortification, of the kind that the
Hurons and the Iroquois always built.

Passing through a narrow portal, the Frenchmen saw for the first rime a
group of those large, oblong dwellings, each containing several
families, with which later travelers became familiar in the Iroquois
and the Huron countries. Arriving within the town, the visitors found
themselves objects of curious interest to a great throng of women and
children who crowded around the first Europeans they had ever beheld,
with expressions of wonder and delight. These bearded men seemed to
them to have come down from the skies, children of the Sun.

{60}

Next, a great meeting was held. Then came a touching scene. An aged
chief who was paralyzed was brought and placed at Cartier's feet, and
the latter understood that he was asked to heal him. He laid his hands
on the palsied limbs. Then came a great procession of the sick, the
lame, and the blind, "for it seemed unto them," says Cartier, "that God
was descended and come down from Heaven to heal them." We cannot but
recall how Cortes and his Spaniards were held by the superstitious
Aztecs to have come from another world, and how Cabeza de Vaca was
believed to exercise the power of God to heal the sick. (See "Pioneer
Spaniards in North America.") Cartier solemnly read a passage of the
Scriptures, made the sign of the cross over the poor suppliants, and
offered prayer. The throng of savages, without comprehending a word,
listened in awe-struck silence.

After distributing gifts, the Frenchmen, with a blast of trumpets,
marched out and were led to the top of a neighboring mountain. Seeing
the magnificent expanse of forest extending to the horizon, with the
broad, blue river cleaving its way through. Cartier thought it a
domain worthy or a prince and called the eminence _Mont Royal_. {61}
Thus originated the name of the future city of Montreal, built almost a
century later.

By the time that he had returned to Stadacone the autumn was well
advanced, and his comrades had made preparations against the coming of
winter by building a fort of palisades on or near the site where Quebec
now stands.

Soon snow and ice shut in the company of Europ