Some of Cartier’s Place-Names 1535–1536

SOME OF CARTIER'S PLACE-NAMES 1535-1536 ARTIERin describing hissecond voyage mentions sixcommunities subject to Stadacona: "Ajoaste, Starnatan, Tailla, which is on a mountain, and Sitadin... beyond this point [Stadacona] lies the abodeof the peopleof Tequenonday and Hochelay, the former on a mountain and the latter in a flat region.''• However, at the end of hisvocabulary of somehundred and sixty Huron words and phrasesthe explorer gives a second list of twelve placeswith the heading, "Ensuivent les nomsdes rilles subgectes au seigneur Donnacona. Ajoast•, Thoagahen, Sitadin, Stadacon•, Deganonda,Thegnignond•,Thegadechoall•, Tella, Thequenondahy, Stagoattem, Agouchonda, Ochela. "• I shouldlike to make somecommentson the etymology of these place-names in an effort to removethe apparent discrepancy. On September7, 1535,the explorerwas traversing the region between Ile aux Coudres and Ile d'Orleans where he remarks "the provinceand territory of Canadabegins. "a Cartier whouses the word Canada for the first time in history usesit to indicate eitherStadacona ortheprovince orcountryoverwhichDonnacona exercisedauthority. All the placesmentioned in the two lists lie within this region; but in employingthe word Canada asthe name of this region,it is plain that he goesbeyond the proper signification of the word which he himself in his vocabulary translates ville, i.e., a town or village. Sincethe word Canada is to be found in variousformsin all the dialectsof the Huron-Iroquoislanguage and always with the same meaning and never in the senseof a region or province, the conclusionis inevitable that it was the French themselveswho extendedthe meaningof the word when they applied it to New France2 On the sameday Cartier arrived at the easternendof the Island of Orleans. He landedand foundthe islandinhabited by Indians "muchemployedin fishingfor the many varietiesof fishcaughtin this river according to the season. "• From the abundance of wild grapeswhich he found growing on the island he named it, Isle deBascu•. The wordAjo•,s• whichcomes firstin bothlists •H. P. Biggar, The Voyages of JacquesCartier (Publicationsof the Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa, 1924), 196. 2Ibid., 246. albid., 119. 4KANATA isthe Mohawk formof the word;PotiergivesAm>ATA; Sagard (a misprint for Ca•aa•a) and *Ibid., 119-20. 401 402 TIlE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW isto bederivedfromthe wordfor grapesfoundin Carrier'sHuron vocabulary, OzA•A, to which is appendeda local suffix--sTE. AjoAsTf• is the Huron name of Ile d'Orleans and means "where the grapes grow."ø "On the morrow,the lord of Canada, namedDonnacona(but aschiefthey callhimAGOUIIANNA) cameto ourshipsaccompanied by many Indians in twelve canoes. "7 This word AGOU•ANNA, which appearsalso in Cartier's narrative in the contractedform AGONA,with the meaning chief, corresponds exactly with the later Huron HAi8ANNENle plus ag•, the oldest or the chief; and to the modem Mohawk RAKOWANA, 8 The word Donnacona is Cartier's transcription of the Huron ONNE9A•ONA, "this is our chief." On the withdrawal of Donnacona and his people, Cartier orderedout his long-boats"to make our way up stream with the flood tide to find a harbour and safe spot in which to lay up the ships.'uø In the first list the secondname is STARNATAN; in the longer list SIX•tNXIXN is omitted and THOAaXHENis substituted. Both namesrefer to the Falls of Montmorency which must have deeply impressedthe explorer. Potier on page 69 of the Potier Manuscripts givesthe Huron name for the cataract in usein the seventeenthand eighteenthcenturies,EKANDAOTRAIt8I; by adding the brief comment"ab O•r•}I8i a rocher"he indicatesthe meaning "the river hangs over the rock." STARNATAN,the sixteenthcentury name hasmuch the samemeaningalthough derived from another root. S?x-O•tENTON n "there it hangs." The word THOXGAI•EN which replaces SIA•tNX•XN in the second list is derivedfrom Tao, there, and O4m•x celafait du bruit? There are numerous errors in transcription in Cartier's lists of Huron words; TaOXaAaEN should have been written Taoxaxr. aEN. Passingthe Falls of Montmorency the boatscame"ten leagues up the river to a forking of the waters, which is an exceedingly 6Potier'sword for grapes8CHAHENDA is identical with Sagard's OC}XAENNX; Potier states that in Huron "C is always joined with H and these two letters joined together are pronouncedas in French, and sometimes as C in Italian" (Huron Manuscriptsfrom Rev. Pierre Potier's Collection,Ontario Bureau of Archives Report...