Cartier Questions

Where did Cartier set sail from?

Where did he go?

Who sent him and finaced the voyage?

• In 1531, Francis I commissioned Cartier to look for the Northwest Passage

What was the motivation (money, religion, land, land position=power)?

Who did he meet?

What type of relationship did he have with the existing cultures?

• Cartier landed and held friendly intercourse with the Indians. There he set up a huge wooden cross, as before, with a shield and the French lilies, and took possession in the name of King Francis. His kindness inspired the natives with such confidence, that one of the chiefs offered to Cartier two of his sons to accompany him to France, on the condition that he should return them to their home the next year.
• Back at his fort (called Charlesbourg-Royal) he spent the winter. Some thirty-five of his men were killed in sporadical indian attacks (the Hurons had become hostile when they realized the French had come to stay).

What was the outcome?

What deeds did he do that makes him a hero or villain?

• In 1535, the king sent him out again. He sailed up the St. Lawrence River and recognized it for what it was. He continued on, establishing Mont Real (Mount Royal) which is now Montreal, Canada. They spent the winter at an Indian village near Quebec, where Cartier watched 25 of his men die of scurvy. The Huron were generous to him, but he betrayed them. He kidnapped 12 Indians, including their chief, and headed straight for France. Cartier hoped that his prisoners would tell him where their gold mine was located, but there really was no gold mine.

Jacques Cartier