4                         HISTORY  OF BRUIT'S
the Indians inhabiting the region as '' quebec,'' or "kebec," equivalent to a " restricted channel," or " a narrowing of water."
Leaving his two largest ships in the waters of the river now known as the St. Charles, Cartier, with the smallest and two open boats, having fifty men as an escort, ascended the St. Lawrence until a considerable Indian village was reached, situated on an island called Hochelaga. Standing upon the summit of a hill, on this island, and looking away up the river, the commander had fond imaginings of future glories awaiting his countrymen in colonizing this region. He called the hill " Mont Royale;" " and time, that has transferred the name to the island, is realizing his visions; " for, on that island,1 now stands the City of Montreal.2
While at Hochelaga, Cartier gathered some indistinct accounts of the surrounding country, and of the Ottawa river coming down from the hills situated   to   the   northwest.3    He also obtained,
1 Now called Montreal Island.
1 Montreal is a city of the Province of Quebec, Canada, and the commercial metropolis of the Dominion. It is situated on the south side of the island of Montreal, in the St. Lawrence river (which is here about two miles wide). It is one hundred and eighty miles from Quebec; six hundred and twenty from the gulf; and four hundred and twenty from New York. The island of Montreal is thirty-two miles long and about ten miles broad at its widest part The city occupies a low tract about two miles wide between " Mount Royal " and the river.
8 The Ottawa river rises near latitude 480 36' north, and longitude 8o° west It has a southeastward course until the city of Ottawa is reached, whence it flows eastward, entering the St Lawrence about twenty-five miles above Montreal. Its length is estimated at seven hundred miles.