Jacques Cartier

French explorer

• Born: December 31, 1491
• Birthplace: Saint-Malo, Brittany, France
• Died: September 1, 1557
• Place of death: Saint-Malo, Brittany, France

Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in what is now Canada, claiming the area for France, and wrote a detailed account of his travels.

Early Life

Nothing is known about the early years of Jacques Cartier (zhahk kahr-tyay), although it is likely that he sailed to the waters near Newfoundland on fishing trips. His only known early voyage was in a Portuguese ship that crossed the South Atlantic to Brazil.

In 1519, Cartier married Marie Catherine, the daughter of Messire Honoré des Granches, chevalier and constable of Saint-Malo. Stocky, with a sharp profile and high, wide brow, Cartier dressed as a worker in an unpretentious cloak and tunic. He was religious but strong-spirited and showed himself to be capable, courageous, and fair to his crew. His methodical nature was shown by the detailed journals he kept daily on his voyages.

Life’s Work

Intrigued by the stories of earlier explorers, King Francis I commissioned Cartier to sail to Newfoundland to look for gold and to search for a waterway through the New World to India. On April 20, 1534, Cartier left Saint-Malo with two small caravels, weighing not more than sixty tons each.

The ships sighted Newfoundland within twenty days but, because of the bad weather, took shelter in a harbor south of Bonavista Bay. Choosing to investigate the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Cartier sailed through the straits of Belle Isle, entered the Gulf of Chaleurs, and landed on the Gaspé Peninsula. There he erected a cross, claiming the area for France. At Gaspé he met the Iroquois and their chief, Donnacona. When Cartier left, he took with him Donnacona’s two sons. It may be that Cartier persuaded the chief to allow him to take the young men, but more likely Cartier tricked the chief and kidnapped the two brothers. As the autumn storms were beginning, the two ships headed back toward Saint-Malo.

Although Cartier had not found a northwest passage or riches, he convinced the king of the possibilities of the new land. One of these was the opportunity to convert the heathen North American Indians to the Catholic faith, thereby recouping the Church’s losses to Calvinism and Lutheranism. Because of this and the potential for riches, King Francis sent Cartier on a second voyage in 1535 to explore further.

Leaving Saint-Malo with three ships and 110 men, Cartier entered and named the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The ships passed Anticosti, and then, with Donnacona’s sons as guides, they sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Saguenay and on to the village of Stadacona, near the site of what is now called Quebec. There, Donnacona welcomed back his sons and received the gifts the French had brought.

The North American Indians used trickery and false warnings to prevent Cartier from going to the next village, as they did not want their rivals to receive any of the French trinkets. Despite Indian protestations, Cartier and about thirty of his men traveled farther up the river to the village of Hochelaga, where Montreal was later established. The Indians there indicated that up another river were great stores of silver and copper, a story that would impress the king of France.

The men returned to Stadacona, where hostility between the Indians and the explorers had grown. For protection, a stockade had been built and fortified with cannons. Cartier had not expected the severity of the winter, and for five months the fort and ships were buried under snow. In addition to enduring subzero temperatures, the men were stricken with scurvy because no fresh foods were available. At least twenty-five had died before the Iroquois showed the French their remedy the bark and needles of white spruce boiled in water.

Eventually, the weather warmed, and Cartier prepared to return to France. Since he thought that only the North American Indians could convince King Francis of the riches in the land, Cartier took Donnacona and several of his tribesmen prisoner. Promising to return them in a year, he sailed downriver and back to Saint-Malo, reaching it on July 16, 1536. Despite Cartier’s words, he did not return in a year, and the Indians never again saw their homeland; all died in France.

Cartier’s and Donnacona’s stories intrigued the king, but war with Spain prevented Francis from sending out another expedition until 1541. This expedition was not only to explore the land and find the precious metals but also to establish a permanent colony in Canada.

The commander would be a Protestant nobleman, Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, and Cartier would serve on the ship as his subordinate, his captain-general and master navigator. The king provided funds for ten ships, four hundred sailors, three hundred soldiers, skilled tradesmen, and all kinds of supplies and livestock. It was difficult to recruit artisans and laborers, however, so criminals were taken from prison to become Canada’s first settlers.

Cartier sailed with five ships in May, 1541, but Roberval was delayed until the following year. Cartier reached Stadacona on August 23, four years after he had promised to return with the kidnapped North American Indians. When the Iroquois asked about them, Cartier admitted that Donnacona was dead but then lied and said that the others had been well and that they enjoyed France so much they did not want to leave. The truth was that only one young girl had been alive; the others had already died.

Since the Indians did not seem especially friendly, Cartier proceeded up the St. Lawrence to Cap Rouge. There, the men built two forts, planted a garden, and named the settlement Charlesbourg. While these preparations were being made, samples were found of what appeared to be gold and diamonds. Two of the ships were sent back to France to report on these discoveries and Roberval’s nonappearance. The rest of the explorers wintered in Charlesbourg, and while scurvy was not a problem this time, the Iroquois were. In June, 1542, after enduring months of severe weather and threats from the Indians, Cartier set sail for France.

On the way, Cartier met Roberval at St. John’s in Newfoundland and was ordered to turn back. For reasons known only to himself, Cartier disobeyed and slipped away in the night to continue his voyage to France. Once there, he discovered that his gold chips were iron pyrites and the diamonds worthless quartz.

Inexperienced and with little leadership ability, Roberval spent a tragic and unsuccessful winter at Charlesbourg. Disease, lack of food, and probably violence killed many before the winter was over. In 1543, Roberval returned to France, and the first effort to found a French colony in Canada ended.

Little is known of Cartier’s remaining years except that he spent them on his estate near Saint-Malo. He wrote an account of his travels in 1545, which was translated into English by Richard Hakluyt in 1600. Mapmakers and geographers occasionally consulted him, and he sometimes served as a Portuguese interpreter. Cartier died at Saint-Malo on September 1, 1557.

Significance

Although Cartier is known as the European discoverer of the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, historians differ as to the importance of his explorations, and most believe that Cartier’s travels primarily covered areas that other Europeans had already discovered. He left the first detailed account of voyages up the St. Lawrence, however, and this was valued by later explorers and historians. Although he explored that waterway as far as anyone had gone, he did not proceed farther when he had the opportunity. He did discover that the river was not a passage to India and claimed the gulf and valley of the St. Lawrence for France.

One significant discovery, which no one appreciated at the time, was that furs could be obtained from the North American Indians at bargain prices. When beaver hats became popular, traders went to the tribes near the St. Lawrence.

Cartier’s fame as an explorer is marred by his dishonest and treacherous dealings with the North American Indians. When he first met with them, the Iroquois were friendly and helpful; after they experienced French betrayal, they became hostile and uninviting to the French.

Cartier’s vision and first voyage awakened a spirit of discovery among the French, and this produced maps and information not known before. Although colonization would not occur for years after his death, Cartier did establish the future center of the French effort in North America.

Bibliography

Cartier, Jacques. The Voyages of Jacques Cartier. Translated and edited by H. P. Biggar. Introduction by Ramsay Cook. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1993. Modern edition of Cartier’s narrative of his travels includes an introductory analysis of the voyages, as well as appendices reproducing letters, charters, and other historical documents. Bibliographic references; no index.

Costain, Thomas B. The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1954. This history of early Canada, written by a popular historical novelist, re-creates the lives of the people who helped to shape the nation. Detailed yet easy to read, it begins in 1490 and continues to the end of the seventeenth century.

Coulter, Tony. Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, and the Explorers of Canada. New York: Chelsea House, 1993. Brief monograph, geared toward younger readers but still informative, detailing the exploration of Canada by the French. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, index.

Creighton, Donald. Canada: The Heroic Beginnings. Toronto, Canada: Macmillan, 1974. Readable history of Canada’s settlement and development to the middle of the twentieth century. Written in cooperation with two government agencies, it contains many pictures of individuals and scenes in Canadian history.

Eccles, William J. The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969. In this history of the Canadian frontier, Eccles captures the spirit of the times as he describes the hardships, adventures, and rewards experienced by the early explorers and pioneers. He also gives background to the explorations and discusses the reasons for them.

Francis, R. Douglas, Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith. Origins: Canadian History to Confederation. 5th ed. Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson Canada, 2004. Textbook on early Canadian history; discusses the cultures and lifestyles of Canadian Indians and Cartier’s encounters with them. Publisher Web site contains many links to online resources for further study of early Canadian exploration, including a Cartier Web site.

Lower, Arthur R. M. Colony to Nation: A History of Canada. Don Mills, Ont.: Longmans, Green, 1964. Lower examines topics such as Indian-French cultures, exploitation of peoples, and imperialism and colonialism. He also includes material on the governments of Canada and how the wars affected those governments.

McInnis, Edgar, with Michael Horn. Canada: A Political and Social History. 4th ed. Toronto, Canada: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston of Canada, 1982. Comprehensive history of Canada written in terms of politics and government. McInnis discusses Canada’s periods of economic and social difficulties and how these difficulties have been overcome and followed by progress in independence, unity, and economic growth.

Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America. Vol. 1. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1983. Depicts the struggle between France and England for possession of the North American continent. Includes some Spanish history and covers in detail the years between 1512 and 1635.

Pendergast, James F., and Bruce G. Trigger. Cartier’s Hochelaga and the Dawson Site. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1972. Scholarly examination of the possible locations of Hochelaga, an Iroquoian village Cartier visited and described. Much of the research used in this study is based on Cartier’s data and account of his travels.

Winsor, Justin. Cartier to Frontenac. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1894. Describes the explorations of North America from 1492 to 1698. Maps and charts of the voyages are included to expand the geographical descriptions of the area. Includes a brief history of Cartier and discusses the results of his explorations.