It brought them presently to the tall palisades that surrounded the group of long wooden houses forming the Indian settlement.

It stood just below the slope of the mountain, and covered a space of almost two acres.

On the map of the modern city this village of Hochelaga would be bounded by the four streets, Metcalfe, Mansfield, Burnside, and Sherbrooke, just below the site of McGill University.

But the visit of Cartier is an event of such historic interest that it can best be narrated in the words of his own narrative.

We may follow here as elsewhere the translation of Hakluyt, which is itself three hundred years old, and seems in its quaint and picturesque form more fitting than the commoner garb of modern prose.
Our captain [so runs the narrative], the next day very early in the morning, having very gorgeously attired himself, caused all his company to be set in order to go to see the town and habitation of these people, and a certain mountain that is somewhere near the city; with whom went also five gentlemen and twenty mariners, leaving the rest to keep and look to our boats.