The King's consent having been obtained,
he joined the expedition under Pontgrave, and sailed for the mouth of the
St. Lawrence on the 15th of March, 1603. The expedition, as we have seen,
was merely preliminary to more specific and extended operations. The ocean
voyage, which was a tempestuous one, occupied more than two months, and
they did not reach the St. Lawrence until the latter end of May. They
sailed up as far as Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, where a little
trading-post had been established four years before by Pontgrave, and
Chauvin. Here they cast anchor, and a fleet of canoes filled with wondering
natives gathered round their little barques to sell peltries, and
(unconsciously) to sit to Champlain for their portraits. After a short stay
at Tadousac the leaders of the expedition, accompanied by several of
the crew, embarked in a batteau and preceded up the river past deserted
Stadacona to the site of the Indian village of Hochelaga, discovered by
Jacques Cartier in 1535. The village so graphically described by that
navigator had ceased to exist, and the tribe which had inhabited it at
the time of his visit had given place to a few Algonquin Indians.
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