103

BOOK VII.

CANADA.

CHAPTER I.

CARTIER. - CHAMPLAIN

DISCOVERY AND HISTORY. - JACQUES
FOUNDS QUEBEC. - WAR WITH THE INDIANS. - COMPANY OF

NEW FRANCE. - RECOLLET FRIARS. - QUEBEC TAKEN BY THE
ENGLISH. - RESTORED TO FRANCE. - MISSION OF SILLERY.-
JESUITS' COLLEGE AT QUEBEC FOUNDED. - HÔTEL-DIEU.
CONVENT OF ST. URSULA. - DEATH OF CHAMPLAIN. - ORDER
OF ST. SULPICIUS FOUND AN ESTABLISHMENT AT MONTREAL.
HOSTILITIES OF THE IROQUOIS. - INTRODUCTION OF BRANDY
AMONG THE SAVAGES. - A BISHOP ARRIVES AT QUEBEC, AND
A SEMINARY FOUNDED.
SISTERS OF THE CONGREGATION. -

TREMENDOUS EARTHQUAKE.

CANADA is said to have been first discovered by the Spaniards; who, not finding any of the precious metals which formed the grand object of all their discoveries and conquests, abandoned any claim to a country which only appeared to afford the means of living by the cultivation of its soil.*

When the French afterwards visited this part of America, the Indians repeated so frequently the words "Aca nada,” here is nothing, (which they are said to have heard the Spaniards exclaim,) that Cartier imagined them to mean the name of the country; and to this circumstance is usually attributed the origin of the appellation Canada, by which it has been designated since that period, although it bore also for some time, in common with the adjacent territories, the general name of New France.

Jacques Cartier was a master mariner of St. Maloes. He was intrusted, at the recommendation of Chabot, Admiral of France, with a commission of discovery, for the purpose of establishing a colony in America, and he sailed from St. Maloes on the 20th of April, 1534, with two vessels, neither of which were more than twenty tons burden. He arrived at Newfoundland, near Cape Bonavista, on the 10th of May, and then traversed the coast to the south, landing at a harbour which he named St. Catherine. Proceeding west and northward, he entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and passed in sight of Birds' Islands, which he named " Isles aux Oiseaux." After sailing for some days along the western coast of Newfoundland, he crossed the gulf, and entered a large deep inlet, which he named Bay de Chaleur, on account of the intense summer heat which he experienced while exploring its shores. This bay was previously, it appears, known to the Spaniards, and in very old charts it is termed Bay des Espagnols. After exploring the greater part of the gulf, he returned towards France on the 15th of August, and arrived at St. Maloes in twenty-one days.

.

In consequence of the favourable report he gave of his voyage, he was invested, the following year, with the command of three ships of superior size, and well equipped with all sorts of necessaries. On board the largest of these, "La Grande Hermoine," he embarked on the 19th of May, and on the 26th of July he was joined by the other vessels, which had been separated from him during a storm, at an appointed place of rendezvous within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They then proceeded together on their course up the great River St. Lawrence, so named, according to some, from Cartier having either returned to the gulf on the 10th of August, the festival of St. Laurente, or his having called a cape on the coast of Cape Breton, at the entrance of the gulf, by the name of the Cape St. Laurente, which was afterwards given to the Gulf and River of Canada. There appears, however, some uncertainty in the account transmitted to us on this subject. He named the Island of Anticosti, Assumption, an appellation which it did not long retain. On the 1st of August he was driven into a harbour on the north coast, which still retains the name of St. Nicholas, which he gave it. He then proceeded up the River St. Lawrence until he entered the Saghunny, from which he continued his course, passing the islands which he named Isle aux Coudres, and Isle de Bacchus, now Orleans. He then proceeded in the Hermoine until his ship grounded on the shoals of Lake St. Peter, from whence,

in two boats, he explored the river to the island on which Montreal now stands, and which was at that time inhabited by a tribe of the Huron nation, who lived in a village called Hochelaga. The river was then designated the Great Hochelaga, and afterwards, before it acquired that of St. Lawrence, the River of Canada. Cartier was received by the natives with great kindness and hospitality.

He returned from the village of Hochelaga on the 5th of October, and on the 11th arrived at a river that still bears his name, but which he named the St. Croix. Here he wintered, and during the inclemency of that season, he and his crew were subjected to a violent attack of scurvy, which the natives taught them to cure by means of a decoction prepared of the bark of the species of fir (Pinus balsamifera), which yields the Canada balsam of our pharmacopœia. He returned next summer to France; but notwithstanding the favourable and unexaggerated account he gave of the countries he explored, four years elapsed before any further attempt was made to prosecute his discoveries.

In January, 1540, François de la Roque, Seigneur de Roberval, received a patent from Francis I., declaring him Seigneur of Norembegue (the name by which nearly all North America was then designated), Viceroy and Lieutenant-General in Canada, Hochelaga (Isle of Montreal), Saguenay (the harbour of Tadousac and country on the River Saghunny), Terre Neuf (Newfoundland), Belle Isle (an island in the strait that separates Newfoundland from Labrador), Carpon (near Cape St. John, still named Quirpon), Labrador, Le Grande Bay (Bay de Chaleur), and Baccalieu (the coast about, and south of Bonavista,

in Newfoundland *), with all the power and authority possessed by the king over those places.

Early in the summer of 1540, Roberval, with a squadron of five vessels, sailed for America, Jacques Cartier having the supreme naval eommand. This voyage was successful, and a fort was erected on some part of those coasts, but whether in Cape Breton or in Canada, appears quite uncertain. It was, however, injudiciously selected; the spot was much exposed both to the cold and to the incursions of the natives. Cartier was left at this station as commandant; but he was so harassed by the Indians, who were offended at strangers taking unceremonious possession of a hold in their country, and having despaired of the return of M. Roberval, that he embarked with all his people in order to return to France.

On the banks of Newfoundland he met M. de Roberval with some vessels, carrying men, arms, and provisions; and returning with him, reassumed the command of the garrison. M. de Roberval then sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed at Tadousac, at the débouché of the Saghunny. He made also some attempts, of which we have no very authentic accounts, to explore Labrador; but for some time after this period Newfoundland was not known to be an island. We have no information on which we can rely, as to what occurred for some years afterwards, when we find Cartiert embarking again for America under the Viceroy Roberval, and with the brother

* Newfoundland was often called Baccalieu, or the place of codfish. An isle, at the north point of Conception Bay, still retains the name of "Baccalieu."

† Some accounts state that Cartier did not accompany this voyage, having died previously, heart-broken from disappointment.