Francis I. of France, piqued at the discoveries of Spain and Portugal, and having his ambition roused by the monopolizing pretensions of these two powers to the possessions in the New World, authorized the fitting out of an expedition, the command of which he gave to Verrazzano, a Florentine, who on his second voyage discovered Florida, and thence sailing back along the American coast to the 50° of lat. took formal possession of it for his royal master, and called it _La Nouvelle France_. On Verrazzano’s return to Europe in 1525, without gold or silver or valuable merchandize, he was at first coldly received, but, it is said, subsequently sent out with more particular instructions and directions to open a communication with the natives; in endeavouring to fulfil which, he lost his life in a fray with the Indians. This, however, is denied; and it is asserted that the capture of Francis I. at the battle of Pavia in 1525, prevented him from further exploring the coast, and that he returned to his native country and died in obscurity. When the government ceased to follow up the result of Verrazzano’s formal acquisition of Canada, the Frenchmen of St. Maloes commenced a successful fishery at Newfoundland, which so early as 1517 had fifty ships, belonging to the English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, employed in the cod-fishery on its banks. _Jacques Cartier_, a native of St. Maloes, engaged in the Newfoundland fishery, took the lead in exploring at his own risk the northern coasts of the new hemisphere. This bold and experienced navigator at last received a commission from his sovereign, Francis I., and left St. Maloes on the 20th of April, 1534, with two vessels of sixty tons each; arrived at Newfoundland on the 10th of May, remained there ten days, and then sailed to the northward, passing through the straits of Bellisle; changed his course somewhat to the southward, traversed the great gulf of St. Lawrence, (already known to Europeans,) and, in the month of July, arrived in the _Bay of Chaleurs_, which he so named on account of its heat. On the 24th of July, Cartier was at Gaspé, where he erected a cross, surmounted by a _fleur-de-lis_, and on the 25th of July sailed for France with two native Indians. The enterprising character of his royal master induced him to despatch Cartier in the following year with three larger vessels, and a number of young gentlemen as volunteers. The ships rendezvoused at Newfoundland, and in August sailed up the St. Lawrence, so called from its being discovered on the 10th day of that month, being the festival of the saint of that name.