CANADIAN GUIDE BOOK. 51 man French, when he saw the cape, “ Que bee !” What a beak ! Moreover, many regard Quebec as a likely corruption or slight varia tion of the latter division of Cabircoubat, the name which the In dians gave to the River St. Charles, denoting Winding River. Champlain chose the point where the St. Charles flows into the St. Lawrence, as the spot for his first settlement. The reflection is calculated to surprise us, that the Great River, or the St. Lawrence, (as the Gulf below was called in honour of the Saint,'whose festival is celebrated on the tenth of August, the day on which it was enter ed,) should have been discovered in 1535, and that for nearly seventy years the French settlers continued to disperse themselves over various parts of the’sea-coast or on islands in the Gulf, before a site was selected for the foundation of a town, destined ere long to be the metropolis of New France. The progress of the young city was undoubtedly much impeded by an impolitic step of Champlain and the new settlers. The neighbouring nations of the Algonquins and Iroquois were at this period on hostile terms. The French took part with the Algonquins, and thus excited the hatred of the power ful Iroquois. Hence the colony was involved in a destructive and tedious war; and it was necessary to defend Quebec against the implacable enemy with fortifications, certainly of a yery rude de - scription. In 1629 it fell into the hands of the English, but was restored in 1632. In 1663 the colony became a royal government, and Quebec the capital. In 1690 the English made an unsuccessful attempt to reconquer it. In that year it was fortified in a regular manner by works of stone according to the rules of art. From that period its increase was gradual till it fell into the hands of the En glish under General Wolfe in 1759, when the population was estimat ed at between eight and nine thousand. The site of Quebec may be described as a triangle, whose base is formed by the Banlieu line, and the sides by the St. Lawrence and St. Charles, the point at their confluence answering to the apex. The Lower Town includes all underneath the cliff, from the spot where the Banlieu line strikes the St. Lawrence on the South to the King’s Woodyard on the St. Charles towards the North. The suburb of St. Roch is beyond the wood- yard. The St. Lawrence is believed to be the river farthest naviga-