October 2, 1535, Jacques Cartier and his troupe arrived in the vicinity of Hochelaga. As night fell, he withdrew with his men aboard the boats. Early on the morning of October 3, along with his men and twenty marines, he undertook on foot the worn path to Hochelaga. After walking about two leagues (about 11 km or 6 miles), he saw the village surrounded by hills and cultivated fields of corn. This appeared to him much more impressive than Stadacona. He writes: "And here within the countryside is situated and sits the said town of Hochelaga, near and joining a mountain that is, around it, ploughed and very fertile, from on top of which one can see very far." He declared that the mountain would be named Mount Royal, in honour of King Francis I of France, as was customary in that period. Cartier then visited Hochelaga, and notes its organization: "The said town is all in a circle, enclosed in wood, in three ranks, in the manner of a pyramid, crossed at the top, having a row perpendicular to it all. And this town there is only one door and entrance. There are within this town roughly fifty houses, each about fifty steps long, and..." He then gives a detailed description of the interior of a longhouse and how people lived in it: "...in each one of them, there are several hearths and several rooms." In the center of each house was a common room, where the indigenous people built a fire and lived as a community. When the tour of the village was over, Cartier and his companions were then guided up Mount Royal, probably on the back of a man, according to a custom of courtesy he mentions further down. The mountain was "distant from the village by about a quarter-league". Once atop the summit of one of the hills comprising the mount, Cartier declared: "We can see the said river, other than where we left our barques, where there is a rapid, the most impetuous it is given to see, one which is not possible for us to pass." Once the visit was over, Cartier and his men returned to their boats: "We withdrew to our boats, not without a great number of the said people, a part of which, that when they saw our people tired, took them upon themselves, as on a horse, and