Cartier (1534-1542)
Ramusio, Giovanni Battista (1485-1557). Primo[-terzo] volume, & terza editione della navigation et viaggi [...]. Venetia: Nella stamperia de Giunti, 1563-1583 [vol. 3,1565].
Jacques Cartier was born in Saint-Malo, Brittany, probably in 1491 and died there in 1557.
Little is known about his career before 1534 when he was commissioned by Francis I to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said there is a large amount of gold and other riches to be found" and, if possible, find the route to Asia. The same year Cartier explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and then returned to France with two Indians of North America whom he had abducted in Gaspé. In 1535 he undertook a second voyage during which he discovered, thanks to his two Indian guides, "incomparably the largest river anyone has ever seen - as far as is known!" He sailed upriver to "Canada" (as the present Quebec City region was called by the Indians of North America) and even to Hochelaga (Montreal). From 1541 to 1542 Cartier participated in the expedition led by La Rocque de Roberval one of whose aims was to establish a colony in the Saint Lawrence Valley, a plan which came to nothing.
The account of Cartier's first voyage was first published in Italian by Ramusio in 1565 and then in English in 1580, before finally appearing in French in 1598.
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