beads, and other trifles. Hochelaga was the chief
Indian Emporium of Canada; it was ever a first class city--in Canada.
Charlevoix says, even in those days this (Hochelaga) was a place of
considerable importance, as the capital of a great extent of country.
Eight or ten villages were subject to its sway. Jacques Cartier
returned to Quebec, loaded his vessels with supposed gold ore, and Cape
Diamonds, which he supposed were brilliants of the first water, and
then went home to France, where he told a truly magnificent tale
concerning a truly magnificent country. Expeditions for Canada were
everywhere set afoot. Even Queen Elizabeth, of England, sent Frobisher
on a voyage of discovery, but he only discovered a foreland and tons of
mica, which he mistook for golden ore. Martin Frobisher was ruined. His
was a ruinous speculation. Talc or mica did not pay the expense of a
nine month's voyage with fifteen ships. But all that was then sought
for is now found in Canada--and more. To obtain much gold, however, the
settlement of a country is necessary. It is the wants of the settlers
which extract gold from the ground for the benefit of the trader. The
only occupiers of Canada, no farther back than two hundred years, were
Indians. The Montagnais, the Hurons, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the
Outagomies, the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Sioux, the Blackfeet, and the
Crowfeet red-faces, were the undisputed possessors of the soil. They
held the mine, the lake, the river, the forest, and the township in
free and common soccage. They were sometimes merchants and sometimes
soldiers. They were all ready to trade with their white invaders, all
prone to quarrel among themselves. The Iroquois and Hurons were ever at
war with each other. When not smoking they were sure to be fighting.

The first white man who opened up the trade of the St. Lawrence was M.
Pontgrave, of St. Malo. He made several voyages in search of furs to
Tadousac, and the wealthy merchant was successful. With the aid of a
Captain Chauvin, of the French navy, whom he induced to join him,
Pontgrave attempted to establish a trading post at Tadousac. He was,
however, unsuccessful. Chauvin died in 1603, leaving a stone house for
his monument, then the only one in Canada.

It was now determined by the French government to form settlements in
Canada. And the military mind of France attempted to carry into effect
a plan not dissimilar to that recommended a few years ago by Major
Car