Cartier, Jacques

Cartier, Jacques (1491–1557), French explorer.A Breton pilot from St‐Malo, Cartier had already visited Brazil before receiving King Francis I's order in 1534 to locate “certain islands and lands” blessed with gold “and other precious things” and, evidently, to find a passage to Asia. Of the three accounts of his voyages, dictated to a secretary or based upon Cartier's log books, two survived in incomplete English and Italian translations. His expeditions helped establish French claims to territory in the New World.

Cartier's 1534 expedition explored and charted the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The 1535 expedition surveyed the St. Lawrence Valley as far as Montreal Island. This expedition wintered near present Quebec City and kidnapped local Iroquoian people to be exhibited as trophies in France. Regarding the native peoples as another of the New World's curiosities, Cartier used force and deception in dealing with them. Appointed in 1541 to assist La Rocque de Roberval in locating a mythical, wealthy kingdom reported by natives and to establish a farming settlement above Quebec, Cartier was diverted by the discovery of quartz crystals and iron pyrites, which he mistook for diamonds and gold. Ignoring de Roberval, he rushed back to France in 1542 to profit from the “treasures” he had found. Cartier's booty proved worthless, and he entered private business and retired to an estate near St‐Malo. Cartier's fame rests on his discovery of the St. Lawrence, an avenue into the continent's interior rivaled only by the Mississippi. The fertile St. Lawrence Valley would be the core of the later colony of New France.
See also Exploration, Conquest, and Settlement, Era of European; French Settlements in North America.

Bibliography

Henry P. Biggar, ed., The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, Published from the Originals with Translations, 1924.
H.P. Biggar, ed., A Collection of Documents Relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval, 1930.

Peter Moogk