DvD: Explorers of the World; French Explorers pt 2 - Jacques Cartier

The next part of the DVD is on the guy I’ve been reading the memoir of, Jacques Cartier. Like a lot of the other French explorers, Cartier was looking for silver and gold which was rumored the Spanish had found in the New World. Ships reached Newfoundland in 1534. The trader character mentions Cartier meeting the Huron and the 2 teenage boys (I thought they were men but apparently they were teenagers which I guess at that time teens counted as men to their own people and to the French) that Cartier took back to France, and who learned to speak French. The narrator states that the two boys were taken and that their father, the chief, only let a happen because there was nothing he could do about it. Cartier was sent back to the New World a second time by the King, who was still looking for a passage to the Spice Islands. The discovery of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River was not only a gateway to the content itself and into the Great Lakes through the other river systems, but it became an important travel method for trading later on. Through the St. Lawrence River they reached places like Québec and Montréal. With the intention to head back Cartier return to Québec where they built a fort to shelter them through the long winter. During that winter the crew was hit by horrible scurvy that made their teeth fall out, and might have died from it if the locals hadn’t shown them how to make a tea from the bark of a type of you tree, boiled to produce a medicine. It was foul tasting but in a week all the men that drank it were cured. The harsh winter killed off many of Cartier’s men, but if not for the medicine and the help of the natives it would have been a lot worse. The chief of the area told Cartier many stories about places rich with gold, so the Frenchman captured the chief and his two sons and took them back to France with him. The chief’s stories must’ve been convincing because the King of France sent Cartier back a third time in 1541. On the third voyage Cartier filled his crew complement with mostly criminals because it was so dangerous they were the only ones willing to volunteer to take the risk of trying to colonize the areas. The local fishermen and sailors other folks were perfectly happy up in the Newfoundland area coast so they weren’t interested on going further in. Cartier tried to take a smaller boat down the river to find this place of legend but he was not able to make it through the rapids before having to turn back. No long after he returned to the encampment a group of natives attacked them forcing Cartier and the survivors to flee, eventually boarding the ship and returning to France.

A Memoir of Jacques Cartier cont...The Huron

The next group of people the Frenchmen met are noted as being different than the ones they had previously encountered, but doesn’t explain very well how they were different except they have shaved heads save but a tuff of hair the top of their head. According to the footnotes this hairstyle is called a “scalp lock” and is worn by the Huron. Looking up the Huron I find them also referred to as the Wyandot people or Wendat. It also mentions that these people flip over their boats to use as shelter much as a group mentioned by Viking explorers called the Skraelings (which according to what I found simply means not like us, barbarians). Cartier traded knives, paternosters, glass, hair combs, and other things he considered very little worth but that’s the Huron seemed very happy with. The manuscript goes on to say that they traveled further in to where the Huron were and were greeted well by the men but most the women were frightened and ran into the woods. The few women that stayed were given hair combs and bells, and eventually the other woman returned our also gifted with little tin bells which the women were very pleased with. Some of his comments after this confused me, he mentions the Huron sharing all this food with them but then calls them thieves without any explanation of why. There was a bit of fuss a few days later when the Frenchman planted a cross on the land, but with a bit of diplomacy and some more iron trade goods, that was all smoothed over. Cartier even manages to convince one of the Huron leaders to leave his sons on the visitor’s boat with the promise they would return soon. There was no mention whether the explorer planned to keep his promise, but somehow I doubt it. Even after meeting more Huron on their journey no mention was made of the men they had taken captive. And all month after they sailed for home, marking the end of their first voyage.

The second voyage is listed as occurring between 1535 and 1536, and starts off much as the first one did with a visit to the Isle of Birds. I don’t know if this is a sign that he’s taking the same path or and it’s just the easiest way into that area. Cartier does make a note of moving off to the West to explore the other islands where at a harbor they named St Nicholas they planted another cross. He make some mention about “ by the savages we had we were told this was the beginning of the Saguenay, and inhabited land, and from it came the red copper…” which to me sounds like he had some of the First Nations folks with them, the Huron men taken during the first voyage giving him information. Since his last voyage had they in that year been converted and were now serving Cartier as guides? He does make reference later on to his “two men of the country of Canada” and the Footnote at this point simply calls them Cartier’s Indians. He doesn’t calls them by name nor talks about them as if they were equals as part of the crew, but he certainly used them later on to lore other Huron on board the ship. There is no mention on what happened with that encounter, if it was trading, if the other Huron left the ship, but I’m assuming they did since it sound like it was more than just a couple of them. 

When Cartier encounters the next group of people they are afraid of the Frenchmen until the two Huron with Cartier talk to them. At this point their names are mentioned as Taigoagny and Dom Agaya and when they introduce themselves to the people everyone is happy and no longer afraid. As before items the Frenchmen consider worthless are traded to the people who seem very pleased with them. At this point a couple names crop up. There is someone Cartier refers to as the Lord of Canada named Donnacona this title seems to be Agohanna. According to the footnote these too are Huron. At this time Taigoagny and Dom Agaya share with Agohanna the things they seen during her time in France and according to Cartier told the Huron leader how well they have been treated. Reading on this appears to be where they leave the Huron territory since the next group according to the footnote is a new group of people, but the rest will have to wait for tomorrow. I did learn the public and campus library have a great deal on the Huron/Wendat so plenty of good research stuff there for further on this tribe.