CHAPTER IV.

RETURN OF PONT GRAVE TO FRANCE.--DESCRIPTION OF OUR QUARTERS AND THE PLACE
WHERE JACQUES CARTIER STAYED IN 1535.


After all these occurrences, Pont Grave set out from Quebec, on the 18th of
September, to return to France with the three prisoners. After he had gone,
all who remained conducted themselves correctly in the discharge of their
duty.

I had the work on our quarters continued, which was composed of three
buildings of two stories. Each one was three fathoms long, and two and a
half wide. The storehouse was six fathoms long and three wide, with a fine
cellar six feet deep. I had a gallery made all around our buildings, on the
outside, at the second story, which proved very convenient. There were
also ditches, fifteen feet wide and six deep. On the outer side of the
ditches, I constructed several spurs, which enclosed a part of the
dwelling, at the points where we placed our cannon. Before the habitation
there is a place four fathoms wide and six or seven long, looking out upon
the river-bank. Surrounding the habitation are very good gardens, and a
place on the north side some hundred or hundred and twenty paces long and
fifty or sixty wide. Moreover, near Quebec, there is a little river, coming
from a lake in the interior, [310] distant six or seven leagues from our
settlement. I am of opinion that this river, which is north a quarter
north-west from our settlement, is the place where Jacques Cartier