The Mariner of St. Malo : A chronicle of the voyages of Jacques Cartier — John Shaqi
The Mariner of St. Malo : A chronicle of the voyages of Jacques CartierLeacock, Stephen
History
The Mariner of St. Malo : A chronicle of the voyages of Jacques Cartier
Leacock, Stephen
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557; New France -- Discovery and exploration
From this point the ships sailed again to Anticosti and reached the
extreme western cape of that island. The two Indian guides were now in
a familiar country. The land in sight, they told Cartier, was a great
island; south of it was Gaspe, from which country Cartier had taken
them in the preceding summer; two days' journey beyond the island
towards the west lay the kingdom of Saguenay, a part of the northern
coast that stretches westwards towards the land of Canada. The use of
this name, destined to mean so much to later generations, here appears
for the first time in Cartier's narrative. The word was evidently taken
from the lips of the savages, but its exact significance has remained a
matter of dispute. The most fantastic derivations have been suggested.
Charlevoix, writing two hundred years later, even tells us that the
name originated from the fact that the Spaniards had been upon the
coast before Cartier, looking for mines. Their search proving
fruitless, they kept repeating 'aca nada' (that is 'nothing here') in
the hearing of the savages, who repeated the words to the French, thus
causing them to suppose this to be the name of the country. There seems
no doubt, however, that the word is Indian, though whether it is from
the Iroquois Kannata, a settlement, or from some term meaning a narrow
strait or passage, it is impossible to say.
From Anticosti, which Cartier named the Island of the Assumption, the
ships sailed across to the Gaspe side of the Gulf, which they saw on
August 16, and which was noted to be a land 'full of very great and
high hills.' According to the information of his Indian guides, he had
now reached the point beyond which extended the great kingdom of
Saguenay. The northern and southern coasts were evidently drawing more
closely together, and between them, so the savages averred, lay a great
river.
'There is,' wrote Cartier in his narrative, 'between the southerly
lands and the northerly about thirty leagues distance and more than two
hundred fathoms depth. The said men did, moreover, certify unto us that
there was the way and beginning of the great river of Hochelaga, and
ready way to Canada, which river the farther it went the narrower it
came, even unto Canada, and that then there was fresh water which went
so far upwards that they had never heard of any man who had gone to the
head of it, and that there is no other passage but with small boats.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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