When three centuries and a half had passed, a hundred thousand French
Canadians, in the presence of an English governor-general of Canada, a
French Canadian lieutenant-governor and cardinal {43} archbishop, many
ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries, assisted in the unveiling of a
noble monument in memory of Jacques Cartier and his hardy companions of
the voyage of 1535-36, and of Jean de Brebeuf, Ennemond Masse, and
Charles Lalemant, the missionaries who built the first residence of the
Jesuits nearly a century later on the site of the old French fort, and
one of whom afterwards sacrificed his life for the faith to which they
were all so devoted.
On the return voyage Cartier sailed to the southward of the Gulf, saw
the picturesque headlands of northern Cape Breton, remained a few days
in some harbours of Newfoundland, and finally reached St. Malo on the
sixteenth of July, with the joyful news that he had discovered a great
country and a noble river for France.
[1] The obstructions which created these rapids have been removed.
{44}
IV.
FROM CARTIER TO DE MONTS.
(1540-1603.)
The third voyage made by Cartier to the new world, in 1541, was
relatively of little importance. Donnacona and the other Indians of
Stadacona, whom the French carried away with them, never returned to
their forest homes, but died in France. During the year Cartier
remained in Canada he built a fortified post at Cap Rouge, about seven
miles west of the heights of Quebec, and named it Charlesbourg in
honour of one of the sons of Francis the First. He visited Hochelaga,
and attempted to pass up the river beyond the village, but was stopped
by the dangerous rapids now known as the St. Louis or Lachine. He
returned to France in the spring of 1542, with a few specimens of
worthless metal resembling gold which he found among the rocks of Cap
Rouge, and some pieces of quartz crystal which he believed were
diamonds, and which have given the name to the bold promontory on which
stand the ancient fortifications of Quebec.
[Illustration: The "Dauphin Map" of Canada, _circa_ 1543, showing
Cartier's Discoveries.]
{45}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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