Jacques Cartier was born in Saint-Malo, France in 1491 to Janet Cartier and Joseline Jansart. He received a good education and through trading expeditions to Portugal he soon became a skilled navigator. He married Mary Catherine des Granches, daughter of St. Malo’s high constable, in 1520. Evidence shows that he accompanied Giovanni Verrazano on a voyage to the New World in 1524 and again to Brazil in 1528.
Cartier’s First Voyage
In 1534, under a commission by King Francis I of France Cartier set out in search of a north-west passage to Cathay (China) and to discover countries where “there is to be found great quantity of gold and other riches”. Reaching Newfoundland he sailed through the Strait of Belle Isle and down the coast into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He proceeded along the coast of Newfoundland, crossed the gulf to Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick to Gaspé where he landed and planted a cross to claim the land for France. By now the weather was becoming stormy so Cartier elected to return to France. With him went two native peoples, the sons of the Iroquois chief, Donnacona to show the king. From these men Cartier learned of a passage into the interior and the apparent wealth of the inhabitants.
Cartier’s Second Voyage
King Francis was not impressed when Cartier returned with little to show for the voyage but he was intensely interested in the stories about the great river leading inland. In hopes that this was the fabled north-west passage, Francis sent Cartier out again in 1535 with three ships, Grande Hermine, Petite Hermine and Emérillon. This time he sailed up the St. Lawrence, landed on the Ile d’Orléans where the sons of Donnacona were reunited with their father who arrived the next day. Despite attempts by the Iroquois to deter him, Cartier continued on to the villages of Stadacona (now Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal). He wintered at Stadacona in a makeshift fort where scurvy decimated his crew. The Iroquois saved a few lives by telling Cartier about their cure for scurvy. From November to mid-April the ships were frozen in the ice of the river. In the spring of 1536 Cartier was forced to abandoned Petite Hermine and return to France with the Iroquois chief Donnacona and ten of his people who would never see their country again.
Cartier’s Third Voyage
Cartier would not sail again until 1541 when he set out with Grand Hermine and four other ships. This time King Francis was sending Cartier to found a colony. Sieur de Roberval, who was to accompany Cartier with colonists and serve at lieutenant-governor, was delayed but Cartier went ahead and after waiting impatiently for Roberval at St. John’s sailed across the gulf to meet the new Iroquois chief, Agona. Cartier then found a suitable place to build the fort he named Charlesbourg-Royale at Cap Rouge just above Stadacona. Gardens were planted and some rocks looking like iron and gold were found. Still waiting for Roberval to arrive, Cartier went up the river as far as the Lachine Rapids where he was shown quantities of rocks that he assumed were gold and silver. In a hurry to report back to Francis, Cartier set out as soon as the ice melted and found Roberval had finally arrived at St. Johns’s. Despite Roberval’s insistence that he stay, Cartier left him to fend for himself while he sailed for France.
Cartier was to be disappointed when his precious stones turned out to be worthless and the French government lost interest in his efforts. Still Cartier continued in the trading business with Grand Hermine and Canadie. There is reason to believe that he returned to Canada to rescue the survivors of Roberval’s ill-fated colony.
Jacques Cartier retired to his manor house at Limoilou where he died in 1557 and was buried in the cathedral at St. Malo.
See John Cabot for a previous voyage of discovery.
Bibliography
Thomas B. Costain – The White and the Gold - 1954
Edwin and Mary Guillet – The Pathfinders of North America – 1957
Lawrence J. Burpee - The Oxford Encyclopedia of Canadian History – 1926
Encyclopedia Canadiana
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