from Canghyenye! He says white men not come
to Hochelaga!" And Kadoc chimed in eagerly, "Not go! Not go!"

"Coudouagny?" Cartier repeated to Maclou, completely mystified. "Who can
that be?"

Further questioning drew out information which sounded as if Coudouagny,
or Canyengye, were a tribal god. In reality this was the word for "elder
brother." In that region it was applied to the Tekarihokens, the eldest
of the five nations in the league of the Long House. They were afterward
dubbed by their enemies the Mohawks or man-eaters, and the fear for the
white men's safety which the interpreters expressed may very well have
been quite genuine.

But the Breton captain had not come across the Atlantic to give up his
plans for fear of an Indian god, if it was a god, and his reply to the
warning was to the effect that Coudouagny must be a numskull. More
seriously he explained to the interpreters that although he had not
himself spoken with the God of his people his priests had, and he fully
trusted in the power of his God to protect him. The party set forth at
the appointed time.

In about two weeks they reached the greatest Indian town that any of
them had ever seen. It was not the walled city of the Norumbega legend,
but both Maclou and Cartier had ceased to expect anything of that kind.
The Indian guides had said that the town was near, and all were dressed
in their best. A thousand Indians, men, women and children, were on the
shore to receive them, and the commander at the head of his little troop
marched into Hochelaga to pay their respects to the chief.

The Indian city was inhabited by several thousand people, living in
wigwams about a hundred and fifty feet long by fifty wide, built of bark
over a frame of wood, and arranged around a large open space. The whole
was surrounded by a stockade of three rows of stakes twelve or fifteen
feet high. The middle row was set straight, the other two rows five or
six feet from it and inclining toward it like wigwam-poles. The three
rows, meeting at the top, were lashed to a ridgepole. Half way down and
again at the bottom cross-braces were fastened diagonally, making a
strong wall. Around the inside, near the top, was a gallery reached by
ladders, on which were piles of stones to be thrown at invaders. Instead
of being square, or irregular with many angles and outstanding towers,
like a French walled town, it was perfectly round.

The interpreters afterward explained that each o