The Life of Jacques Cartier-Mini Biography

French mariner and explorer Jacques Cartier, born in 1491 in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France. In 1534, Francis I of France commissioned Cartier to explore the northern lands of the Americas to search for gold, spices, and the long-sought northeast route to Asia. Jacques Cartier's first expedition sailed with two ships to the St. Lawrence Seaway. He coasted around Newfoundland into the St. Lawrence Seaway, where ultimately he encountered a Native American village. What's he saying, father? This nation's name is Canada. Canada. Big, big pardon, sir, but the word he used, I think it really means those houses down there. No, no, believe me, I know the word. It means nation, and Canada is its name. And he kidnapped two young Indians, the sons of the chief, and brought them back to France. Back in France, Cartier's stories of fertile lands, mineral wealth, and Chief Donacona's captive sons impressed Francis I enough so he immediately funded a second, larger expedition back to North America. When Cartier returns in 1535, he comes back with Donacona's two sons. They sail up the river now known as the St. Lawrence River, and they first come to a place called Staticona, a site of modern-day Quebec. They go farther upriver until they find a place which is a site of what is now known as Montreal. Cartier returns to St. Lawrence, reaches Staticona, leaves a small contingent behind who had found the French city of Quebec, and then takes a group of men into the wilderness looking for the gold that he'd heard existed in Saguenay. That search ends up fruitless, and Cartier decides he's tired of waiting for Roberville and decides he's going to sail back to France. Cartier, as far as we know, spent the rest of his life in Saint-Malo as a, we would say today, a technical advisor on navigation. Cartier does not return to the New World. Jacques Cartier died on September 1, 1551, in his manor in Limoilou, near Saint-Malo. Jacques Cartier is known for making three voyages, none of which found the Northwest Passage to East Asia, none of which found any great wealth, but which enabled the French to make a legitimate claim in the contest with other Europeans for land in North America.