dastean Andoaste, shows how close was the
relationship. Nevertheless the Hochelagans were quite cut off from
the Hurons, whose country as we have found, some of them point to and
describe to Cartier as inhabited by evil men. As the Stadacona people,
more distant, independently refer to them as good, no war could have
been then proceeding with them.

In 1540 when Roberval came--and down to 1543--the conditions were still
unchanged. What of the events between this date and the coming of
Champlain in 1605? This period can be filled up to some extent.

About 1560 the Hurons came down, conquered the Hochelagans and their
subject peoples and destroyed Hochelaga. I reach this date as follows:
In 1646 (Relation of 1646, p. 34) Pere Lalemant reports that "under the
Algonquin name" the French included "a diversity of small peoples,"
one of which was named the Onontchataronons or "the tribe of Iroquet,"
"whose ancestors formerly inhabited the island of Montreal," and one of
their old men "aged say eighty years" said "my mother told me that in
her youth _the Hurons_ drove us from this island." (1646, p. 40.) This
makes it clear that the inroad was _Huron_. Note that this man of eighty
years does not mention having _himself_ lived on the island; and also
the addition "_in her youth_." This fact brings us back to before 1566.
But in 1642, another "old man" states that his "grandfathers" had lived
there. Note that he does not say his parents nor himself. These two
statements, I think, reasoning from the average ages of old men, carry
us back to about 1550-60. Champlain, in 1622, notes a remark of two
Iroquois that the war with the Hurons was then "more than fifty years"
old. The Huron inroad could not likely have occurred for several years
after 1542, for so serious an incursion would have taken some years
to grow to such a point out of profound peace. 1550 would therefore
appear a little early. The facts demonstrate incidentally a period of
prosperity and dominance on the part of the Hurons themselves, for
instead of a mere incursion, it exhibits, even if made by invitation of
the Algonquins, a permanent breaking through of the barriers between the
Huron country and the Montreal neighbourhood, and a continuance of their
power long enough and sufficiently to press forward against the enemy
even into Lake Champlain. It also shows that the Superior Iroquois were
not then strong enough to confine them. Before the League, the latter
were