Cartier, Jacques (1491–1557)

A French explorer and the first European to navigate the interior of Canada, Cartier was born in the port of Saint Malo in Brittany, then a duchy independent of the king of France. He earned a reputation as an able mariner and, in 1534, set out on his first voyage of exploration with two ships and 120 crew members. He made short work of the Atlantic crossing, arriving off the coast of Newfoundland after a voyage of just twenty days. He sailed north to the Strait of Belle Isle, and explored what are now known as Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands. After returning south as far as the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, and taking two Iroquois boys named Domagaya and Taignoagny hostage, he returned to France. Cartier was then rewarded with a commission to return to North America. He set out with his young Iroquois guides and three ships in May 1535, and sailed up the Saint Lawrence, still determined to find a northerly route to the Spice Islands as well as a legendary land of blond men and mineral riches the local Indians knew as Sanguenay. The expedition sailed past the site of Quebec, where Cartier reunited the boys with their father, Chief Donnaconna, and then sailed as far as a large village of Huron Indians, Hochelaga at a site named Mont Royal (Montreal) by Cartier. The expedition wintered along the river, but many members took sick from scurvy. The company was saved by the use of white cedar bark, a remedy provided by Domagaya.

On a third voyage, in 1541, Cartier sailed with five ships to the mouth of the River Cap Rouge. He had brought farmers and convicts to establish a productive farming settlement; his instructions were to assist Jean-Francois de la Rocque in his attempt to found a permanent North American colony for the French king. Cartier built a winter fort at Charlesbourg-Royal, skirmished with the Hurons, and waited for de la Rocque to make his appearance. The settlement was decimated by scurvy and Indian attacks; Cartier finally abandoned it in the spring of 1542. While sailing off the coast of Newfoundland, he finally crossed paths with de la Rocque but decided to return immediately to France. On returning to France after this voyage, he settled in a country house near Saint Malo. Cartier's exploration of the Saint Lawrence and surrounding land opened this region to settlement and colonization by France; the French-speaking province of Quebec has since this time kept its ties to France despite the dominance of the rest of eastern North America by English-speaking settlers from Great Britain.

See Also: Caboto, Giovanni