Introduction

Asked by the National Library of Canada to prepare an exhibition on its Rare Book Collection, I arrived one spring day to start working. I began leafing through some books printed on old paper with vellum covers. Before long, I was surprised to come across illustrations which I recognized as the source of reproductions I had seen in various studies. But the original illustrations far surpassed the reproductions. I had the pleasant impression of having lifted the lid of a treasure chest filled with glittering gems, each with its own story. Each story showing me something of a world that has disappeared entirely, so great have been the transformations of the last centuries. And through my reading, I was slowly led to change my own views on what we refer to as the "discovery" of America.

To the question "Who discovered America?" some would reply, "the earliest inhabitants, the American Indians", others would answer, "Christopher Columbus", and yet others, "Bjarni Herjolfsson", depending on the point of view of the person answering. Each of these answers is in fact correct, but none of them is the correct answer.

Strictly speaking, Herjolfsson in the year 986 and Columbus in 1492 discovered only an infinitesimal part of America, and neither of them realized they had sailed along the coast of a new continent. As for the Indians living in America in the early 17th century, each group knew only a part of the land mass - the expanse of which varied depending on the group - and none had an overall view of the continent.

The truth is that America, and North America in particular, was discovered - if we can use that word - one step at a time, by a number of people too great to count. In terms of geographical discoveries, it took more than four centuries of exploration, from the time of the arrival of the first Europeans, to discover and traverse a navigable passage across North America linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans - the famous Northwest Passage.

The discovery of North America went far beyond the bounds of geography, moreover. Ample proof of this can be found by looking through the centuries-old accounts written by explorers and travellers, which make up an important part of the Rare Book Collection of the National Library of Canada. These show us that the exploration of North America was really a long, arduous process on several fronts: scientific (in the disciplines of botany, geology and zoology in particular), social and even artistic. Incidentally, the knowledge acquired from explorations of America raised questions which led to the emergence of a new science - anthropology.

This site is therefore an invitation for you to linger over first-hand accounts of some of the events marking the gradual exploration of the North American continent. Of course, we had to make a selection from the works themselves as well as from the events they describe. Our choices were based on the same principle as that of one of the authors included in the exhibition, Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix: to show that which is at once "curious, useful and interesting".

Of the books displayed, some were chosen for the quality and importance of their illustrations (Grasset de Saint-Sauveur), others for their extreme rareness (Alfonse). A number were selected because of the great popularity they achieved even in their author's lifetime (Hennepin) or their influence on Western literature as a whole (Lahontan), others because their author remains virtually unknown to the public or even poorly known to specialists (Gage). Works were also chosen to represent the fields of learning in which discoveries were made, for example, anthropology (Lafitau), science (Kalm) and art (Kane). In short, we aimed at a sample that would illustrate the wealth and variety of books on North American exploration in the Rare Book Collection of the National Library of Canada.

When it came time to make a selection from the facts and events reported in these accounts of explorers and travellers, the choice was more difficult. Indeed, the books selected contain so many interesting descriptions and observations that, in most cases, each one could be the subject of an entire exhibition! We finally decided to focus on passages relating to three main themes, which in our opinion had been relatively neglected: the Indian guides, the hardships endured on voyages of exploration, and the sense of wonder felt by the explorers in their discoveries.

Up until now, very little attention has been paid to the important - if not essential - role played by Indians in the continent's exploration. Without them, the already lengthy process of discovering North America would certainly have lasted longer and claimed more casualties.

The Indians acted as advisers, guides and outfitters to most of the expeditions conducted throughout the land. Some of them did so against their will, like the Indians who guided explorer Jacques Cartier in his navigation of the St. Lawrence River. Most of them were willing helpers, however, and this is confirmed in many places in the accounts.

In this age of computers and satellites, it is hard to conceive of the enormous obstacles and dangers awaiting those who ventured across the ocean to unknown lands. More than a fair share of courage, strength, determination, endurance and self-confidence was required to practise the "profession" of explorer, which in many ways resembles that of an astronaut today. For many years, just crossing the Atlantic Ocean was a great hardship, which Gabriel Sagard described in these terms: "I believe I have never in my life suffered so much in body as I suffered during those three months and six days of sailing that it took to travel across this great and terrible ocean...."

And the hardships were not over once the explorers and travellers landed on the continent. Their narratives are full of the various trials and tribulations they had to suffer. From his visit to the Great Lakes region in the mid-1680s, Lahontan had this to report: "One of the soldiers accompanying me said that you had to have blood made of alcohol, a body of stone and eyes of glass to withstand the cold winter weather." Fifty years later, in a New England forest, Kalm remarked: "... I have never felt such heat and it is difficult to breathe, as though the lungs could no longer receive enough air, or as in the case of a violent asthma attack. In short, it is almost totally suffocating." Yet Lahontan and Kalm were writing about two places located at roughly the same latitude! Other explorers were much less fortunate than Kalm and Lahontan in their hardships, some even losing their lives on their mission of discovery: Cabot, the Corte Real brothers and Lapérouse disappeared and were never seen again; Verrazzano, Soto and Cook were killed by Natives; La Salle was murdered by members of his own expedition; and Franklin perished of hunger and cold.

Finally, the early accounts of travel and exploration are liberally punctuated, as it were, with exclamations of amazement inspired by spectacular sights, new discoveries, unexplainable phenomena. "The rivers of Europe are brooks compared with those of the New World," exclaimed Lafitau. "The trees are of incredible size and height," remarked Hennepin. Such observations are legion. This New World being gradually discovered by the Old World explorer was one of vast dimensions, a new continent which could be paradise or hell, depending on where he landed. Back in France after a sojourn at Hudson Bay, La Potherie wrote: "By the Lord's grace, Monsieur, I have just left the most horrible country on earth. I do not believe I will be caught there again...." Thomas Gage, on the other hand, returned to Europe with another impression entirely: "In short, neither the city of Mexico nor the surrounding area lack anything ...and it deserves the title of earthly paradise more than any other place in the world."

Like the spectacular sights, plants and animals unknown in Europe were a source of amazement. For example, we read about "frogs of a strange size, whose croaking is as loud as the mooing of cows";"the hare which sings like a bird and sleeps all winter"; an animal which is as large "as a cat, with the face of a rat and a pouch under its throat in which it places its young"; and a beast "as large as an ox, with two tusks in its mouth like an elephant, and which goes in the sea". Such descriptions surely must have spread doubt in the minds of European readers of the time, and yet they correspond to the bullfrog, marmot, opossum and walrus respectively.

These same readers must have been even more sceptical when they came across passages like this which marvelled at the unexplainable: "In the calmest of weather, we suddenly perceive in the middle of the night [at Hudson Bay] clouds of an extraordinary whiteness, and through these clouds a very brilliant light. Even though we feel not the slightest breeze, these clouds are blown away at very great speed and take on all kinds of shapes. The darker the night, the brighter the light...." It is a description of a phenomenon which naturally would have been incomprehensible to a European who had never seen the northern lights.

To recapitulate, then, we adopted a somewhat impressionistic approach by selecting passages that described the explorers and their guides, the hardships encountered on their voyages of exploration, and the sense of wonder inspired by their discoveries. We hope this site will allow visitors to glimpse the wealth of information contained in the accounts of North American explorers and travellers.

In this site you will find images of a selection of the books that were on display for the exhibition entitled "Passages", together with summaries written by my colleague, Pierre Dufour, on the lives of the explorers and the significance of their contribution to the knowledge of the New World. The curious can then embark on their own discovery of the explorers and the continent.

Michelle Guitard
Historical Consultant

Homepage