fifty paces each at most, and twelve or fifteen paces wide," made of
bark on sapling frames in the manner of the Iroquois long houses. The
round "fifties" are obviously approximate. The plan of the town given in
Ramusio shows some forty-five fires, each serving some five families,
but the interior division differs so greatly from that of early Huron
and Iroquois houses, and from his phrase "fifty by twelve or fifteen,"
that it appears to be the result of inaccurate drawing. There is
therefore considerable room for difference as to the population of the
town, ranging from say 1,200 to 2,000 souls, the verbal description
which is much the more authoritative, inclining in favour of the latter.
Any estimate of the total population of the Hochelagan race on the
river, must be a guess. If, however, those on the island of Montreal be
set at 2,000, and the "more than 500" of Stadacona be considered as a
fair average for the principal town and 300 (which also was the average
estimated by Père Lalemant for the Neutral nation) as an average for the
eight or so villages of the Quebec district, (the absentees, such as the
200 at Gaspé from Stadacona being perhaps offset by contingents from the
places close to Stadacona) we have some 4,900 accounted for. Those on
all the hills to the south and east of Mount Royal would add anywhere
from say 3,000 to an indefinitely greater number more. Perhaps 5,000,
however, should not be exceeded as the limit for these hills and Lake
Champlain. We arrive therefore at a guess of from 7,900 to 9,900 as the
total. As the lower figures seem conservative, compared with the early
average of Huron and Iroquois villages, the guess may perhaps be raised
a little to say from 10,000 to 11,000. "This people confines itself to
tillage and fishing, for they do not leave their country and are not
migratory like those of Canada and Saguenay, although the said Canadians
are subject to them, _with eight or nine other peoples who are on
the said river_." Nevertheless the site of Hochelaga, unearthed in
1860, shows them to have been _traders_ to some extent with the west,