(that is 'nothing here') in the hearing of the savages,
who repeated the words to the French, thus causing them
to suppose this to be the name of the country. There
seems no doubt, however, that the word is Indian, though
whether it is from the Iroquois Kannata, a settlement,
or from some term meaning a narrow strait or passage, it
is impossible to say.

From Anticosti, which Cartier named the Island of the
Assumption, the ships sailed across to the Gaspe side of
the Gulf, which they saw on August 16, and which was
noted to be a land 'full of very great and high hills.'
According to the information of his Indian guides, he
had now reached the point beyond which extended the great
kingdom of Saguenay. The northern and southern coasts
were evidently drawing more closely together, and between
them, so the savages averred, lay a great river.

'There is,' wrote Cartier in his narrative, 'between the
southerly lands and the northerly about thirty leagues
distance and more than two hundred fathoms depth. The
said men did, moreover, certify unto us that there was
the way and beginning of the great river of Hochelaga,
and ready way to Canada, which river the farther it went
the narrower it came, even unto Canada, and that then
there was fresh water which went so far upwards that they
had never heard of any man who had gone to the head of
it, and that there is no other passage but with small
boats.'