ENDNOTES:
309. Champlain here plainly means to say that the Indians call the narrow place in the river Quebec. For this meaning of the word, viz., narrowing of waters, in the Algonquin language, the authority is abundant. Laverdière quotes, as agreeing with him in this view, Bellenger, Ferland, and Lescarbot. "The narrowing of the river," says Charlevoix, "gave it the name of Quebeio or Quebec, which in the Algonquin language signifies contraction. The Abenaquis, whose language is a dialect of the Algonquin, call it Quelibec, which signifies something shut up."—Charlevoix's Letters, pp. 18, 19. Alfred Hawkins, in his "Historical Recollections of Quebec," regards the word of Norman origin, which he finds on a seal of the Duke of Suffolk, as early as 1420. The theory is ingenious: but it requires some other characteristic historical facts to challenge our belief. When Cartier visited Quebec, it was called by the natives Stadacone. —Vide Cartier's Brief Récit, 1545, D'Avezac ed., Paris, 1863, p. 14.