deep and resistless stream. Here he met some timid natives in canoes, engaged in hunting the seal. They fled, until they heard the voices of his two savages, Taignoagny and Domagaya, when they returned, and gave the French a hospitable reception. Without exploring the Saguenay, Cartier returned to the main river, passing up to the Isle aux Coudres, or Isle of Hazel-nuts, where he found the savages engaged in capturing a marine monster called the "adhothoys," in form, says the narrative, as shapely as a greyhound. This was the Beluga catadon, the well-known white whale, whose bones are found in the post-pliocene clay of the St. Lawrence. The manuscript of Allefonsce says: "In the Canadian Sea there is one sort of fish very much like a whale, almost as large, white as snow, and with a mouth like a horse." Continuing his ascent, Cartier met more of the natives, and at last encountered the lord of the country, the well-known Donnacona, who dwelt at Stadaconna (Quebec). The chief addressed the French commander in a set oration, delivered in the native style with many gesticulations and contortions. Finally Cartier reached a large island, which he called Bacchus Island, with reference to the abundance of vines; though afterward it was given. the name it now bears, the Island of Orleans. Here he anchored his fleet, and went on in boats to find a convenient harbor. This he discovered near Stadaconna, at the mouth of the river now known as the St. Charles, calling it the harbor of the Holy Cross. On September 14 the ships were brought up. The French were received with great rejoicing by all except Donnacona and the two natives, Taignoagny and Domagaya; the latter had rejoined their old friends, and appeared "changed in mind and purpose," refusing to come to the ships. Donnacona had discovered that Cartier wished to ascend the river to Hochelaga, and he regarded this step as opposed to his personal interests. Finally, however, a league of friendship was formed, when the two natives returned on board, attended by no less than five hundred of the inhabitants of Stadaconna. Still Donnacona persisted in his opposition to Cartier's proposed exploration; and finally dressed several members of his tribe in the garb of devils, introducing them as delegates from the god Cudragny, supposed to dwell at Hochelaga. The antics of these performers did not intimidate Cartier, and accordingly, leaving a sufficient force to guard the ships, he started with a pinnace and two boats containing fifty men. It was now the middle of September, and the Canadian forests were putting on their robes of autumnal glory. The scenery was at its best, and the French were greatly impressed by the beauty of the country. On the 28th the river suddenly expanded, and it was called the Lake of Angoulême, in recognition of the birthplace of Francis I. In passing out of the lake, the strength of the rapids rendered it necessary to leave the pinnace behind; but with the two boats Cartier went on; and, October 2, after a journey of thirteen days, he landed on the alluvial ground close by the current now called St. Mary, about three miles from Hochelaga. He was received by throngs a of the natives, who brought presents of corn-bread and fish, showing every sign of friendship and joy. The next day Cartier went with five gentlemen and twenty sailors to visit the people at their houses, and to view “ certain mountain that is near the city." They met a chief, who received them with an address of welcome, and led them to the town, situated among cultivated fields, and "joined to a great mountain that is tilled round about and very fertile," which Cartier called Mount Royal, now contracted into Montreal. The town itself is described in the narrative of Cartier's voyage as circular and cunningly built of wood, having a single gate, being fortified with a gallery extending around the top of the wall. This was supplied with ammunition, consisting of "stones and pebbles for the defence of it." With the Hochelagans it was the Age of Stone. Their mode of life is well described in the narrative which, in the Italian version of Ramusio, is accompanied by a plan of the town. Cartier and his companions were freely brought into the public square, where the women and maidens suddenly assembled with children in their arms, kissing their visitors heartily, and "weeping for joy," while they requested Cartier to "touch" the children. Next appeared Agouhanna, the palsied lord of Hochelaga, a man of fifty years, borne upon the shoulders of nine or ten The chief welcomed Cartier, and desired him to touch his shrunken limbs, evidently believing him to be a superior being. Taking the wreath of royalty from his own head, he placed it upon Cartier. Then the sick, the blind, the impotent, and the aged were brought to be "touched;" for it seemed to them that "God was descended and come down from heaven to heal them." Moved with compassion, Cartier recited a portion of the Gospel of St. John, made the sign of the Cross, with prayer; afterward, service-book in hand, he "read all the Passion of Christ, word by word," ending with a distribution of hatchets, knives, and trinkets, and a flourish of trumpets. The latter made them all "very merry." very merry." Next he ascended the Mount, and viewed the distant prospect, being told of the extent of the river, the character of distant tribes, and the resources of the country. This done, he prepared for his return, and, amid the regrets of the natives, started on the downward voyage. men. In 1603, when Champlain reached the site of ancient Hochelaga, the fortified city and its inhabitants had disappeared.1 With a narrative of Cartier in hand, he doubtless sought the imposing town and its warlike and superior inhabitants, as later, on the banks of the Penobscot, he inquired for the ancient Norumbega, celebrated by so many navigators and his 1 In 1642 the Sieur Maissonneuve selected the site for Montreal; see Champlain's Euvres, 1870 (Des Savvages), ii. 39. On Norumbega, see the present work, Vol. III. p. 169. On Hochelaga, also, see Professor Dawson's Fossil Men and their Modern Representatives: an Attempt to Illustrate the Characters and Conditions of Prehistoric Men in Europe by those of the American Race. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1880, chaps. ii. and iii. By his excavations, Dr. Dawson has brought to light relics of the Hochelagans, whose ethnic relations he has studied, finding evidence which convinces him that they were representatives of a decaying nation to which the Eries and others belonged, and that originally they were connected with the Mound-Builders. He uses their history in combating some views entertained respecting the antiquity of the Stone Age. torians. But Hochelaga, like its contemporary capital on the great river of Maine, had disappeared, and the Hochelagans were extinct. On October II Cartier reached the Harbor of Holy Cross, where, during his absence, the people had constructed a fort and had mounted artillery. Donnacona and the two natives reappeared, and Cartier visited the chief at Stadaconna, the people coming out in due form to receive him. He found the houses comfortable after their fashion, and well provided with food for the approaching winter. The scalps of five human heads were stretched upon boughs, and these, Cartier was told, were taken from their enemies, with whom they were in constant warfare, as it would appear from their defences and from other signs. The inhabitants of Stadaconna were nevertheless inclined to religion, and earnestly desired to be baptized; when Cartier, who appears to have been a good lay preacher, explained its importance, though he could not accede to their request, as he had with him neither priest. nor chrism. The next year he promised to provide both. It would appear that at the outset Cartier had decided to winter in the country, and upon his return from Hochelaga preparations were made. His experience, however, was somewhat sad, and nothing was gained by the decision to remain, except some traffic. In the month of December a pestilence broke out among the natives, of whom finally the French came to see but little, as the Indians were charged not to come near the fort. Soon afterward the same disease attacked the French, proving to be a form of the scurvy, which at one time reduced all but ten of Cartier's company to a frightful condition, while eventually no less than twenty-five died. In their distress an image of Christ was set up on the shore. They marched thither, and prostrated themselves upon the deep snow, chanting litanies and penitential psalms, while Cartier himself vowed a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Rocquemado. Nevertheless on that day Philip Rougemont died. Cartier, being determined to leave nothing undone, ordered a post-mortem examination of the remains of this young man from Amboise. This afforded no facts throwing light upon the disease, which continued its ravages with still greater virulence, until the French learned from the natives that they might be cured by a decoction made from a tree called ameda. The effect of this medicine proved so remarkable, that if "all the doctors of Montpelier and Louvain had been there with all the drugs of Alexandria, they would not have done so much in a year as that tree did in six days." Winter finally wore away, and in May, on Holy-Rood Day, Cartier set up a fair cross and the arms of France, with the legend, "Franciscus Primus, Dei gratia Francorum Rex regnat," concluding the act by entrapping the King Donnacona, and carrying him a prisoner on board his ship. The natives vainly offered a ransom, but were pacified on being told that Cartier would return the next year and bring back their king. Destroying one of his vessels, the "Little Hermina," on May 6, Cartier bade the people adieu, and sailed 1 down to a little port near the Isle of Orleans, going thence to the Island of Hazel-Nuts, where he remained until the 16th, on account of the swiftness of the stream. He was followed by the amazed savages, who were still unwilling to part with their king. Receiving, however, assurances from Donnacona himself that he would return in a year, they affected a degree of satisfaction, thanked Cartier, gave him bundles of beaver-skins, a chain of esurguy, or wampum, and a red copper knife from the Saguenay, while they obtained some hatchets in return. He then set sail; 2 but bad weather forced him to return. He took his final departure May 21, and soon reached Gaspé, next passing Cape Prato, "the beginning of the Port of Chaleur." On Ascension Day he was at Brion Island. He sailed thence towards the main, but was beaten back by head-winds. He finally reached the southern coast of Newfoundland, giving names to the places he visited. At St. Peter's Island he met "many ships from France and Britain." On June 16 he left Cape Race, the southern point of Newfoundland, having on this voyage nearly circumnavigated the coast of the island, and thus passed to sea, making a prosperous voyage, and reached St. Malo July 6, 1536. Though, according to the narrative, Cartier gave the name of St. Paul to the north coast of Cape Breton, this appellation was on the map of Maijolla, 1527, and that of Viegas, drawn in the year 1533. Manifestly the narrative does Cartier some injustice. Several years passed before anything more was done officially respecting the exploration of the New Lands. Champlain assumes that Cartier made bad representations of the country, and discouraged effort. This view has been repeated without much examination. It is clear that all were disappointed by finding no mines of precious metals, as well as by the failure to discover a passage to the Indies; yet for all this Cartier has been maligned. This appears to be so from the statement found in the narrative of the third voyage, which opens in a cheerful strain, the writer saying that King Francis I. having heard the report of Captain Jacques Cartier, his 1 Professor Dawson, speaking of the account in the narrative, which says "that the most precious thing that they have in all the world they call esurguy, which is white, and which they take in the said river in cornifats," explains that esurguy is "probably a vulgar local name for some shell supposed to resemble that of which these Indians made their wampum. I would suggest that it may be derived from cornet, which is used by old French writers as a name for the shells of the genus Voluta, and is also a technical term in conchology. In this case it is likely that the esurguy was made of the shells of some species of Melania or Paludina, just as the Indians on the coast used for beads and ornaments the shells of Purpura la pillus and of Dentalium, etc. It is just possible It is just possible that Cartier may have misunderstood the mode 2 When Champlain was at Quebec he thought that he identified the site of Cartier's fort, where he found hewn timber decayed and several cannon balls near the St. Charles and the Lairet. Euvres, iii. 155. [Lescarbot and Sagard also mention the remains. Faillon (Histoire de la Colonie Française, i. 496) discusses the site of Cartier's wintering-place. Lemoine (Picturesque Quebec, p. 484) speaks of the remains of one of Cartier's vessels being discovered in 1843, some parts of which were carried to St. Malo. — ED.] pilot-general, in his two former voyages of discovery, as well by writing as by word of mouth, respecting that which he had found and seen in the western parts discovered by him in the ports of Canada and Hochelaga; and having seen and talked with the people which the said Cartier had brought from those countries, of whom one was King of Canada," resolved to “send Cartier, his pilot, thither again." With the navigator he concluded to associate Jean François de la Roche, Lord of Roberval, invested with a commission as Lieutenant and Governor Roberval was a gentleman of Picardy, highly and, according to Charlevoix, he was sometimes "petty King of Vimeu.” petty King of Vimeu." Roberval was commissioned by Francis I. at Fontainebleau, Jan. 15, 1540, and on February 6 took the oath in the presence of Cardinal de Tournon. His subordinate, Cartier, was not appointed until October 17 following, his papers being signed by Henry the Dauphin on the 20th. of Canada and Hochelaga. esteemed in his province; styled by Francis I. the The apparent object of this voyage is stated where the narrative recites that it was undertaken 'that they might discover more than was done before in some voyages, and attain, if possible, to a knowledge of the country of the Saguenay, whereof the people brought by Cartier, as is declared, mentioned to the King that there were great riches and very good lands." The first and second voyages of Cartier may not have attracted the attention of the Spaniards; but when the expedition of 1541 was in preparation Spain sought to interfere, as in the case of Verrazano in 1523.1 Francis anticipated this, Alexander VI. having coolly given all America to Spain, as she eagerly claimed; and the explanation was that the fleet was simply going to the poor region of Baccalaos. The Spanish ambassador, knowing well that his master was too poor to support his pretensions by force of arms, finally came to the conclusion that the French could do no harm, while others prophesied a failure.2 To carry out the voyage, a sum of money was placed at the disposal of Roberval, who agreed with Cartier to build and equip five3 vessels. Soon the shipyards of St. Malo resounded with the din of labor, and the Breton carpenters promptly fulfilled their task. Roberval, however, had not in the mean time completed his preparations, and yet, having express orders from the King not to delay, Cartier, with the approval of Roberval, set sail with three or more ships, May 23, 1541. He encountered a succession of storms for three months, having less than thirty hours of fair wind 1 The Voyage of Verrazzano, p. 163, and Ver- of Hakluyt. The Spaniards understood that razano the Explorer, p. 25. 2 Buckingham Smith's Coleccion de varios documentos, Londres, 1851, p. 107; also Harrisse, Jean et Sébastien Cabot, p. 146. * Possibly he had only three; see Coleccion, etc., p. 107. That he had five is the statement Cartier had thirteen ships, Smith's Coleccion, p. 107. Hakluyt is perhaps in error where he asserts that it was agreed to build five ships. Two of the ships actually sailing with this Expedition were the "Great Hermina" and the "Emerilon." |