Part 20 (1/2)

CHAPTER xxxI

JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA

All the nations of Europe were now straining ard for new lands to conquer French sailors had fished in the seas washi+ng the western coast of North America; Verazzano, a Florentine, in the service of France, had explored the coast of the United States, and a good deal was knohen Jacques Cartier, a Frenche tract of land about the river St Lawrence

His object was to find a way across America to Cathay With two little shi+ps of sixty tons and sixty-one ”chosen men,” Cartier left St Malo on 20th April 1534 With prosperous weather he tells us he made the coast of Newfoundland in three weeks, which wouldover one hundred miles a day He was a little too early in the season, for the easterly winds which had helped him on his way had blocked the east coast of the island with Arctic ice Having named the point at which he first touched land Cape Bona Vista, he cruised about till, the ice having melted, he could sail down the straits of Belle Isle between the mainland of Labrador and Newfoundland, already discovered by Breton fishermen Then he explored the now familiar Gulf of St

Lawrence--the first European to report on it All through June the little French shi+ps sailed about the Gulf, darting across from island to island and cape to cape Prince Edward Island appealed to hily ”It is very pleasant to behold,” he tells us ”We found sweet-sround was bare of trees it seeooseberries, strawberries, and blackberries, as if it had been cultivated on purpose” It no hotter, and Cartier hted Nova Scotia and sailed by the coast of New Brunswick, without na them He describes accurately the bay still called Chaleur Bay: ”We named this the Warly pleasant” They sailed up as far as they could, filled with hope that this e to the Pacific Ocean Hope Cape they na only a deep bay, and to-day, by a strange coincidence, the point opposite the northern shore is known as Cape Despair--the Cap d'Espoir of the early Frenchcurrents and a heavy sea, Cartier at last put into a shelter (Gaspe Bay) Here, ”on the 24th of July, weup a shi+eld with three fleurs-de-lis, and inscribed the cross with this motto: 'Vive le roi de France' When this was finished, in presence of all the natives, we all knelt down before the cross, holding up our hands to heaven and praising God”

[Illustration: JACQUES CARTIER Fro at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris]

Stor tides now decided Cartier to return to France He knew nothing of the Cabot Strait between Newfoundland and the land afterwards called Nova Scotia, so he guided his little shi+ps right through the Straits of Belle Isle, and after being ”much tossed by a heavy te of God,” he arrived safely home on 5th September, after his six months'

adventure He was soon coation of these new lands, and in May 1535 he safely led three shi+ps slightly larger than the last across the stors turned the voyage of three weeks into five--the shi+ps losing one another not toalong the southern coast, Cartier now entered a ”very fine and large bay, full of islands, and with channels of entrance and exit in all winds” Cartier named it ”Baye Saint Laurens,”

because he entered it on 10th August--the feast of St Lawrence

Do any of the English reat ocean steaht to the little pioneer French shi+ps that four hundred years ago thought they were sailing toward Cathay?

”Savages,” as Cartier calls the Indians, told hia (now the St Lawrence), which became narrower ”as we approach towards Canada, where the water is fresh”

”On the first day of September,” says Cartier, ”we set sail from the said harbour for Canada” Canada was just a native word for a town or village It see down the river with twelve canoes and reet the first whiteat ”the place called Hochelaga--twenty-five leagues above Canada,”

where the river becoerous on account of rocks For another week the French explorers sailed on up the unknown river The country was pleasant, ooded, with ”vines as full of grapes as they would hang” On 2nd October, Cartier arrived at the native town of Hochelaga He elcoave the travellers as ”friendly a welcome as if we had been of their own nation co and perilous absence” The women carried their children to hiht that soht they danced to the light of fires lit upon the shore

[Illustration: CANADA AND THE RIVER ST LAWRENCE, SHOWING QUEBEC (KEBEC) From Lescarbot's _Histoire de la Nouvelle France_, 1609]

The nextdressed himself splendidly,” went ashore with soh the natives see a well-beaten track to the Indian city, which stood in the ain the inhabitantswas carried shoulder high, seated on a large deer-skin with a red wreath round his head s instead of a crown

A curious scene then took place The King placed his crown on the head of the French explorer, before whom he humbled hiard hiht to hiht cure theroundless confidence of these poor people, Cartier signed then of the cross ”He then opened a service book and read the passion of Christ in an audible voice, during which all the natives kept a profound silence, looking up to heaven and iestures He then caused our trumpets and other musical instruments to be sounded, which made the natives very merry”

Cartier and hismountain

The extensive view from the top created a deep irew enthusiastic over the beauty of the level valley below and called the place Mont Royal--a name communicated to the busy city of Montreal that lies below

Winter was now co the hoe so late in the year; but to winter in the country he chose a spot between Montreal and Quebec, little thinking what the long winterforth The little handful of Frenchmen had no idea of the severity of the Canadian climate; they little dreaation was possible Before Christmas had come round the men were doith scurvy; by the middle of February, ”out of one hundred and ten persons co the companies of our three shi+ps, there were not ten in perfect health Eight were dead already The sickness increased to such a pitch that there were not above three sound ed to bury such as died under the snow, as the ground was frozen quite hard, and ere all reduced to extre to France” From November to March four feet of snow lay upon the decks of their little shi+ps And yet, shut up as they were in the heart of a strange and unknown land, with their shi+ps icebound and nought but savages around, there is no sound of murmur or complaint ”It ” is all we hear

[Illustration: NEW FRANCE, SHOWING NEWFOUNDLAND, LABRADOR, AND THE ST LAWRENCE From Jocomo di Gastaldi's Map, about 1550 The ”Isola de Demoni” is Labrador, and ”Terra Nuova” and the islands south of it make up Newfoundland The snaky-like line represents a sandbank, which was then thought, and agreed, to be the li Montreal (Port Real) will be noticed on the coast]

May found thereat news that, though they had not found the way to Cathay, they had discovered and taken a great new country for France

A new ives the river St Lawrence just beyond Montreal A oes further, and calls the sea that washes the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador the ”Sea of France,” while to the south it is avowedly the ”Sea of Spain”

[Illustration: THE ”DAUPHIN” MAP OF THE WORLD MADE BY PIERRE DESCELIERS, 1546, TO THE ORDER OF FRANCIS I, FOR THE DAUPHIN (HENRI II OF FRANCE) This raphical knowledge in the first half of the sixteenth century

(It is to be noted that all objects on one side of the Equinoctial are reversed)]