Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 2).djvu/198



furnished with a proper assortment of merchandise, I left Quebec, and proceeded to Tadousac, which is at the end of the Saguenay River, near the River St. Laurence. About nine miles from Quebec there is a village inhabited by the Loretto Indians, who are properly of the nation of the Hurons. They embraced Christianity, through the means of the Jesuits, and follow the Catholic religion. The women have remarkable good voices, and sing hymns in their own language most charmingly. They cultivate the ground, and bring the produce to market; and in their manners they are the most innocent and harmless of all the Savages in North America. Their houses are decent, and built after the Canadian fashion; they are an exception to the generality of Indians, seldom drinking any spirituous liquors; they are for the most part tall, robust people, and well shaped; have short black hair, which is shaved off the forehead from ear to ear, and wear neither caps nor hats. With ————