THE SAILOR OF ST. MALO

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 24

THE SAILOR OF ST. MALO

When Henry the Eighth was crossing the Channel in great, swelling ships and vying in splendour with the French King Francis a man paced the battlements of St. Malo, the port of the Corsairs, and felt the call to go back again to the unknown West, seeking a passage to the Indies.

The man's name was Jacques Cartier, a Breton with a strong, bold, bearded face and piercing eyes, wearing a black cap and a little ruff round his neck. On his first voyage Cartier had met with many adventures. But he had not found'the passage he wanted, and so the next year he set sail again to explore beyond Newfoundland. His two little boats, which he had had to man with criminals, and his galley fought their way across the Atlantic.

They rode In the vast sea-arm of the river which Cartier named"the St Lawrence. At last Cartier thought he had found the sea passage to the West, but the banks grew closer and the water fresher. He was in a river after all. On they went, ever westward, past the gloomy River Saguenay, sweeping down through gorges, through a country which the Indians told him was a land rich and wealthy In precious stones.

At last Jacques Cartier landed at what is now Quebec. The Indian chief Donnacona came down with pomp to meet him. He made Cartier a speech with many friendly gestures. But he turned against the white stranger wheu he found that he wanted to sail farther up the river to the village of Hochelaga. How could he stop him? Donnacona thought of a wily plan. Three of his medicine men painted themselves black and put horns on their heads. They came out in little boats and sailed round the French ships, saying they were sent by the god of Hochelaga to warn the white men that if they came there they would perish.

But the sturdy Breton was not to be dismayed. He set out with some of his men and, after two weeks’ journey, landed among the woods, not far from Hochelaga.

He was greeted warmly. Into the Square the natives poured. They thought the white man a god. On their shoulders they carried their palsied king, asking Cartier to heal him.

Cartier was so touched that he prayed for them'and read the Gospel to them. Then Cartier went up the great mountain near the village and looked down on the two grand rivers stretching far away to the west. He called the mountain Montreal, or Mount Royal. What did Jacques Cartier call the vast, untrodden land which he claimed for Francis? He made the mistake that the Redskins’ name for a cluster of huts was the name they gave to the whole country, and called it Kanata.