When everything was in order at the settlement, the
provisions landed, and the building well under way, the
leader decided to make a brief journey to Hochelaga, in
order to view more narrowly the rapids that he had seen,
and to be the better able to plan an expedition into the
interior for the coming spring. The account of this
journey is the last of Cartier's exploits of which we
have any detailed account, and even here the closing
pages of his narrative are unsatisfactory and inconclusive.
What is most strange is that, although he expressly says
that he intended to 'go as far as Hochelaga, of purpose
to view and understand the fashion of the saults [falls]
of water,' he makes no mention of the settlement of
Hochelaga itself, and does not seem to have visited it.

The Hochelaga expedition, in which two boats were used,
left the camp at Cap Rouge on September 7, 1541. A number
of Cartier's gentlemen accompanied him on the journey,
while the Viscount Beaupre was left behind in command of
the fort. On their way up the river Cartier visited the
chief who had entrusted his little daughter to the case
of the French at Stadacona at the time of Cartier's
wintering there. He left two young French boys in charge
of this Indian chief that they might learn the language
of the country. No further episode of the journey is
chronicled until on September 11 the boats arrived at
the foot of the rapids now called Lachine. Cartier tells
us that two leagues from the foot of the bottom fall was
an Indian village called Tutonaguy, but he does not say
whether or not this was the same place as the Hochelaga