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Jacques Cartier

French explorer who mapped the St. Lawrence and named Canada.

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Cartier named the territory "Canada" after the Iroquoian word for village.[1][2] Cartier was the initial European to chart and write about the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the Saint Lawrence River's banks, naming the area "Canada" after Iroquoian terms for the large settlements at Stadacona and Hochelaga.[1]

Life and work

In 1534, Cartier was introduced to King Francis I by Jean Le Veneur, bishop of Saint-Malo.[3] On 20 April 1534, Cartier set sail under a royal commission to discover a western passage to the East Indies.[4][5] On his second voyage in 1535, Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River and reached the Iroquoian capital of Stadacona.[6] Scurvy broke out, and a remedy made from a tree called annedda saved the expedition.[7][8]

Cartier kidnapped Chief Donnacona in May 1536 to bring him to France.[9] Cartier's birth occurred in 1491 at Saint-Malo, a port situated on Brittany's northeastern coast.[10] The French fleet was trapped by ice at the St. Charles River's mouth from the middle of November 1535 until the middle of April 1536.[7][8]

What the cited sources add

The Chronicles of America account describes Cartier as a corsair who had made a business of roving the seas to despoil the enemies of France.[5] Before his 1534 expedition, Cartier had probably made a voyage to Brazil and visited the Newfoundland fishing-banks.[5] The same source notes that Cartier shipped his crew at St. Malo on 20 April 1534 with two small ships.[5] A short biography states that Cartier named Canada "Kanata," meaning village in the Huron-Iroquois language.[11]

The biography also reports that Cartier married Catherine Des Granches in May 1520 and that they had no children.[11] According to the heritage source, "Canada" probably derives from the Huron-Iroquois term "kanata," which translates to "village" or "settlement."[2] That same source notes Cartier applied "Canada" to the village of Stadacona and the broader territory governed by its chief, Donnacona.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: His maps are lost but referenced in a letter by his nephew Jacques Noël, dated 1587 and printed by Richard Hakluyt with the Relation of Cartier's third voyage, ; Heritage, "Origin of the name "Canada"", www.canada.ca, 2017-08-15; Trudel, "Cartier, Jacques", September 2023; .; "Exploration – Jacques Cartier", The Historica Dominion Institute; "Jacques Cartier", September 2023 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Heritage, "Origin of the name "Canada"", www.canada.ca, 2017-08-15. facts only, no text reused. canada.ca
  3. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gustave Lanctôt observed that Cartier was absent from Saint-Malo's registers at the time and that his first voyage in 1534 arrived at the very place in Newfound; Baron de La Chapelle, « Jean Le Veneur et le Canada », Nova Francia, vol. 6, 1931, pp. 341–343, quoting a genealogical work made in 1723 for the Le Veneur famil; "The Explorers Jacques Cartier 1534-1542", Canadian Museum of History (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tracy, Frank Basil, "The Tercentenary History of Canada", P.F. Collier & Sons, 1908; J. P. B., "Jacques Cartier's Voyage Of 1534", Notes and Queries, 1901-05-25, p. 409 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "Jacques Cartier's Voyages", Chronicles of America, 2010. facts only, no text reused. chroniclesofamerica.com
  6. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Stadacona", www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ebberts, "To Brew or Not to Brew: A Brief History of Beer in Canada", Manitoba Historical Society, 9 March 2015; Biggar 1924, p. 213 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Ebberts, "To Brew or Not to Brew: A Brief History of Beer in Canada", Manitoba Historical Society, 9 March 2015. facts only, no text reused. mhs.mb.ca
  9. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hildreth, "The History of the United States of America", New York, Harper & Brothers, 1871, p. 46 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Jacques Cartier" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: No baptismal certificate has been found, but Cartier stated his age in at least three letters. See Marcel Trudel, Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, Fides, vol. 1,; Alan Axelrod. A Savage Empire: Trappers, Traders, Tribes, and the Wars That Made America. Macmillan, 2011; p. 30; Biggar, H.P. (1930) A Collection of Documents relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval, Ottawa, Public Archives of Canada. Over 20 baptisms cited. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Jacques Cartier, Short Biography (w/timeline)", Elizabethan Era, 2010. facts only, no text reused. elizabethan-era.org.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Jacques Cartier (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year was Jacques Cartier born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1491.

From the source: “Jacques Cartier was born in 1491 in Saint-Malo, the port on the north-east coast of Brittany.”

2. In which place was Jacques Cartier born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Saint-Malo, Duchy of Brittany.

3. In what year did Jacques Cartier die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1557.

From the source: “Jacques Cartier (; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he na”

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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