Jacques Cartier was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of the North American continent. Among other things, he has been credited with the discovery of the St. Lawrence River; his was the first detailed map of the area, and he was the first Frenchman to establish a trading relationship with the local First Nations. Despite these successes, most of his concentrated efforts amounted to little material gain for his country.
Cartier was born in St. Malo, Brittany, France in 1491, as the Renaissance fervour for new knowledge that had started in Italy was spreading out to cover most of western Europe. Christopher Columbus first sailed to the New World the year after, followed by countless other explorers seeking fame, adventure, and fortune overseas. By 1518, the Spanish had found spectacular wealth in Central America, the Caribbean, and what would later be the southern United States; their colony of New Spain was so profitable that other nations were bound to try their hand at finding riches in North America.
In 1524, Florentine explorer Giovanni Verrazano was hired by the French crown to sail to the New World, recording what he found for future expeditions. As very little is known of his life apart from the voyages he led, Cartier himself may well have been a member of Verrazano's crew; if he wasn't he was certainly inspired by the two voyages that Verrazano made, in 1524 and again in 1528. He landed at what is now the coast of South Carolina and made his way as far north as Nova Scotia, but never ventured inland.
The French were not the only ones sending explorers to the more northerly parts of the new continent; while Spain seemed content with its wealth in the south, slowly extending up the west coast, the English were convinced that there was a sea route to China waiting to be found. At the time, the quickest way to send goods for trade to the Orient was by sailing around the southern tips of Africa or South America; both routes were dangerous and lengthy, but the best option available since the Ottoman Empire stood in the way of the route overland.
Several notable explorers had tried to find this Northwest Passage, and none had succeeded. The French had a different idea; having watched the English failures for several years, King François I determined that the best course would be to explore the continent's interior further south, gradually moving overland to the Pacific Ocean on the other side, claiming new land and resources for France along the way. If there was a waterway that stretched all the way across the continent, it would be found and used to its fullest potential -- but this was not necessarily the primary goal.
This is where Cartier came in; he was commissioned by François in 1534 to sail to North America and move beyond the already-explored coastal areas into the interior. He was given two ships, with a total of sixty-one men, and instructed to work his way inland and explore as much as was feasible with limited supplies, keeping records of his route and his findings. Cartier was also instructed to find treasure, precious metals and gemstones; the fantastic riches that the Spanish had found must be matched or at least approached, so that France might keep pace and prove her colonial might.
Cartier set off from the port at St. Malo, following the route taken by John Cabot in 1497. He reached the Grand Banks and the shore of Newfoundland twenty days later, but rather than halting there as had previous explorers, he continued on: through the Strait of Belle Isle that separates Newfoundland from Labrador, to the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island, and into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Approached from the east, the St. Lawrence River is a formidable sight. Standing on one side where it widens out, you can scarcely see the opposite bank; even where it narrows further upstream, it is still deep enough and wide enough that you can imagine it stretching on for thousands upon thousands of kilometres. On his first voyage, Cartier assumed that the mouth of the river was a bay; he named it the Baye de Saint Laurens, and confined his explorations to the Gulf, mapping his findings in painstakingly minute detail. His map would serve as a guide for his later expeditions as well as for the colonists who followed him.
Many of the names of places there came from Cartier's first voyage: Anticosti Island, the Baye de Chaleur (so named because it was discovered on a blisteringly hot summer day), the Gaspé Peninsula, Sept-Iles (named incorrectly -- there are only six islands, and the last is a peninsula). Also during his travels, Cartier stumbled upon the Iroquois and Mi'kmaq First Nations, leading to the discovery of another place: Stadacona (which stood near present-day Quebec City). He also found a name for the whole land. When he first heard the Mohawk word kana:ta' (translated, "town" or "village"), Cartier assumed that it applied to the entire area. By the time the misunderstanding was sorted out some years later, the name "Canada" had already become commonplace on European maps, and there it stayed.
Cartier's relationship with the native peoples he encountered would set the tone for future interactions between explorers and settlers and the First Nations. Before he had made his way into the Gulf, he had encountered some friendly Mi'kmaq on Prince Edward Island; finding them eager to exchange their goods for things from Europe, Cartier created the first trading partnership between the French and the First Nations.
Inland, the Iroquois told Cartier of great treasures to be found in the Saguenay. Autumn was drawing near and the voyage was nearing its conclusion, so Cartier was unable to verify the stories for himself; so instead, as proof of wealth that warranted further exploration, Cartier and his men convinced the Iroquois chief Donnacona's two sons, Domagaya and Taignoagny, to become interpreters, and brought them back to France.
In France, they served their purpose; their stories were convincing enough that François funded another voyage, this time on a larger scale. Three ships and one hundred and ten men accompanied Cartier on his second voyage, leaving France in summer of 1535. Donnacona's sons also went along, ostensibly to lead the explorers to the treasures of the Saguenay; they were reunited with their father and their people by early September.
This second voyage was more ambitious than the first. Intending to stay over the winter (but not having the faintest clue when it came to the severity of the weather that was coming), Cartier established a base called Sainte Croix, on the St. Charles River, and a fort at Stadacona. This time he found the entrance to the St. Lawrence River; sailing up it he established another base at Hochelaga, naming the mountain on which it stood Mont Royal in honour of François. He and his men were brought to a halt by the rapids on the St. Lawrence; Cartier named them the Lachine Rapids, thinking that he really had found a waterway across the continent and that China lay beyond.
Unfortunately he was no nearer to China than he was to France, but winter set in before he could move any further up the St. Lawrence or the Saguenay River. Expecting a relatively mild season, Cartier and his men were shocked by the heaviness of the snowfall and the bitterness of the cold; running out of supplies, many of his men became desperately ill with scurvy, while the rest slowly starved.
Despite the somewhat questionable taking of Domagaya and Taignoagny the year before, the Iroquois helped Cartier's crew; the tea that they brewed from white cedar needles and bark was rich in ascorbic acid and therefore an effective cure for scurvy. They also brought food, and warm blankets to keep the French explorers from starving or freezing to death. By spring, twenty-five men had died; the rest owed their lives to the Iroquois.
In spite of his miraculous survival, Cartier had very little to show for his voyage, especially considering the great wealth of treasure that he had promised to bring back with him. And despite the innumerable good turns that the Iroquois had done for he and his men, Cartier's men kidnapped Donnacona himself as well as three other leaders and a young girl to bring back to France, again as proof of treasure waiting to be discovered. Shortly after seizing the captives, Cartier and his men left for home; it was July 1536, and neither riches nor a pathway across the continent had been found.
By the time Cartier returned with Donnacona in tow, the French court had grown impatient of funding expeditions that amounted to nothing. Again, the Iroquois stories of treasure were believable; but conflict in France created setbacks that delayed a third voyage until 1541.
By this point, all of the captives had sickened and died, save for the young girl. Cartier was wary of returning to Iroquois lands without Donnacona, but wealth beckoned; so too did the prospect of establishing a permanent settlement. Seven ships, with a number of colonists on board, sailed from France to Cap Rouge, where a new base was set up just outside Iroquois territory; another fleet was set to follow, led by Jean Francois de la Rocque, Lord of Roberval, carrying more colonists and enough supplies to last them through several winters.
From Cap Rouge, Cartier was able to explore the rest of the Saguenay River -- he found that it was a dead end. The Iroquois in the area, considerably less friendly after the hostage-taking and the loss of their chief (Cartier glibly told them that the captives had liked France so well that they chose to stay there, but the lie was transparent), became hostile to the point of killing any of Cartier's men who strayed too far from their encampment.
Desperate now for some form of treasure to prove that the new continent was worthwhile, Cartier located and unearthed large quantities of what he believed to be gold and diamonds (from Cap Diamant, at Stadacona). Fearful of the Iroquois and worried about Roberval's fleet, which had not yet appeared with supplies for the winter, Cartier left the St. Lawrence, despondent and defeated.
Roberval's fleet of ships with colonists and supplies had landed in Newfoundland; when Cartier arrived there Roberval ordered him to turn around and return to Cap Rouge to spend the winter, but Cartier refused, frustrated by his failures and the Iroquois hostility. He and his seven ships left the New World in September 1542; Cartier would never go back.
Adding insult to injury, upon returning to France it was discovered that the "diamonds" were quartz and the "gold" was iron pyrite, both completely worthless.
Cartier settled down as a businessman in his hometown of St. Malo with his wife, Catherine des Granches (whom he had married in 1520, then all but abandoned in favour of his career as an explorer). They had no children. Cartier died in 1557 at the age of sixty-six.
Despite any evidence, Cartier believed to his death that the St. Lawrence was the waterway across the continent that he had been looking for; like the Northwest Passage, but less treacherous, with China laying not far beyond the Lachine Rapids. And despite his failure to find the vast stores of wealth from the Iroquois stories, he believed that the New World would prove to be valuable.
Cartier's legacy lies mostly in the accounts of his voyages and the maps he made to show his progress; they would smooth the path for later navigators. Despite his work, further exploration would not begin in earnest until Champlain, Radisson, Groseillier, and others discovered the potential value of the fur trade and established the colony of New France in the early 1600s.
Sources:
Cook, R. The Voyages of Jacques Cartier. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
Engels, Andre. Jacques Cartier. http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/discovery/cartier.html (11 August 2004)
Ménard, Alexandre, et al. Les Voyages de Jacques Cartier. http://www.cartier.f2s.com/cartier.htm (11 August 2004) (If for no other reason, this website is worth visiting because it is soundtracked in part by music appropriated from Final Fantasy VI. I kid you not.)
Jacques Cartier: Explorer of the St. Lawrence. Concordia University.
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/stlauren/hist/hi_cartier.htm (11 August 2004)
Voyages of Jacques Cartier. The Mariners' Museum. http://www.mariner.org/age/cartier.html (11 August 2004)
Also, a sheaf of relevant notes and handouts from a history class.
JudyT has a 1337 eye for typos. ph34r!