Taking a break from Cartier’s memoirs to check out a DVD I got from the Library called Explorers of the World; French Explorers. One I needed a break from the book. I don’t know if his writing is just bad, or the translation is faulty, but Cartier is is very hard to follow at times. The back of the DVD mentions how the French explorers established New France and claimed most of present-day Canada. They mention people like Jacques Cartier (St. Lawrence River area), Giovanni da Verrazano (the first European to sail into New York Bay), Samuel de Champlain (Quebec), as well as Lewis Joliet and Jacques Marguerite (Mississippi River Valley), and several others. This DVD series apparently has one on Spanish explorers and one on Vikings that I may want to check out at some point. The study guide is useful giving me a basic timeline of who went to where and when. I don’t know if they’re going to follow the timeline order as far as which Explorer is discussed when, but I guess I’ll find out. I apologize now if I seem to jump around a lot since this is mainly just taking notes from the video.
Okay first warning to anybody planning to watch this video, its horribly cheesy. Is supposed for 5th to 8th graders, but honestly it’s a bit too cheesy for them I think. They have 2 kids walking from their school into some art gallery with portraits that talk to them like something out of Harry Potter. They did have a picture of a guy in some really nifty French trader outfit that’s got some serious possibilities towards Metis wear. He’s got some high moccasin boots, the puffy pants, what looks like a capote coat with minor fringe, and a simple belt. There looks like there’s some sort of shirt under his coat that looks like it has small lacing at the neck and what might be a bandanna on his head. Okay I admitted I notice weird stuff, blame the ADD. The guy introduces himself as Pierre Castor, a French trader from Montréal. He talks about New France which I had thought was mostly Canada but it seems is not only part of Canada but a good chunk of land in the center of the US right around the Mississippi River. I’ll have to check the dates, but Cherokee territory is in the section they note on the map. He mentions beaver fur was a very popular trading item in Europe, that everyone wanted a beaver skin hat or trim in their clothing. I know that beaver skin is very water resistant and not overly coarse.
He says that French exploration of the New World began with Giovanni da Verrazano. What amuses me is one of the kids mention that name doesn’t sound French, which was honestly the first thing I thought of I saw the name on the back of the DVD case. Apparently were both right. He was an Italian explorer working for the King of France who was looking for a passage through the New World east to the Spice Islands for trading purposes, something closer and easier to use than Magellan’s route. The French king at the time was King Francis I. The King was also concerned at the amount of land the Spanish were claiming on the southern end of North America into South America, and that the English had claimed the area up by Newfoundland so I guess King Francis wanted his piece of the pie before all the good parts were taken.
Verrazano left France in 1524 and landed at Cape Fear, North Carolina. On hearing the location I was hopeful he encountered Cherokee there since I know that’s part of their territory at the time, but it seems he didn’t stop there he just sailed north up the coast. When he saw Pamlico Sound Verrazano thought he was seeing the Pacific Ocean since from the entrance to the waterway the land is completely invisible. He continued to sail north looking for passage through all the way up to Newfoundland. At this the actor playing the trader mentions there were some contact with the local peoples during Verrazano’s journeys. According to the teacher narrating the French’s purpose wasn’t conquest so the interactions with the people they met were far friendlier then other explorers. There is no mention here what tribes Verrazano encountered, but this is still positive news regarding my research on my persona, because it shows that the interactions happen with the French as early as 1524. I tried going online to look up what tribes he might’ve encountered, and the interesting thing I learned was that 4 years after Verrazano’s journey began he ran into some people in the islands around Florida and the Bahamas that happened to be cannibals and who ate him. I will point out the eaten by cannibals section was not mentioned in in this educational DVD. This means I need to do a little further research on this explorer to figure out which tribes he encountered during his journeys.
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