Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, January 26, 1999

Jacques Cartier looked for gold, nutmeg and men with wings

by Jim Bradshaw

The abbot, Jean Le Veneur de Tilliers, promised that he would send chaplains on the voyage to convert whomever they found and, to clinch the deal, he would even pay part of the cost of the trip.

It took two years to get everything ready, but Cartier finally sailed from Saint-Malo on April 20, 1534, in command of two small ships carrying 30 men each. Even though Verrazano had reported to Francis that North America was not a part of Asia, Cartier's instructions were to find a way to the wealth of China and also to discover the gold and silver that Verrazano had said could be found in the region that he had explored.

Cartier landed at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, on May 10. He made some repairs to his ships there, then sailed to L'Ile des Ouaisseaulx (sic) (Isle of the Birds, Funk Island today), then explored the west coast of Newfoundland, continued south to what is now Prince Edward Island, then crossed the Northumberland Strait to discover the present Miramichi Bay and, two days later, Chaleur Bay, where he met Micmac Indians for the first time and deemed them "ripe for conversion."

He searched the area for five months, sailing completely around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but he found no road to the wealth of the East. When he sailed back to France he took with him Taignoagny and Domagaya, sons of Donnaconna, a Huron Indian chief. They told Francis I a story about a kingdom called Saguenay, a country where yellow metal could be found practically everywhere.

It was located far up a mighty river which flowed straight down from the north and joined an even greater one where Hochelaga, a city of hundreds of wigwams, stood on an island. The people of this mysterious kingdom, according to the Huron tale, dressed themselves in cloth like that of white men, wore ropes of gold around their necks, and had plenty of precious stones.

Francis I decided to send Jacques Cartier back across the sea.

Cartier began his second trip on May 19, 1535, this time setting out with three ships from Saint-Malo. Upon reaching North America, he sailed along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence basin, eventually linking up again with the Huron tribe, bringing Donnaconna's two sons home safely to him. Donnaconna took him to their village, which was close to a huge rock that loomed up on the horizon. The place would later be called Québec.

The legendary Hochelaga, Cartier was told, was farther up the river, but his Huron hosts said it would not be wise for the white men to go there. They even brought out three of their medicine men to give dire prophecies of what would happen to the Frenchmen if they tried to go up river.

According to Cartier, the medicine men "were dressed like devils, being wrapped in dog skins, white and black, their faces besmeared as black as any coals, with horns on their heads more than a yard long. They said that the cruel god Cudragny had declared that the white men would die if they went to Hochelaga.

Cartier replied that Cudragny was "a fool and a noodle," and that he had been promised safety by the white man's God.

Paddling up the river, they found Hochelaga, a huge village built in a cleared field at the base of a mountain which Cartier named Mont Réal. The people of Hochelaga welcomed the white men, but told them this was not the fabled Saguenay. That fabled kingdom was on the Ottawa River, they said. But they also warned that the land where the gold and silver could be found belonged to the Agojudas, a cruel and wicked people.

Winter was setting in, so Cartier headed back down the river to a stockade built by his men near Donnaconna's village. They were sheltered against the bitter Canadian winter, but they had no fresh food. Scurvy killed fifty men before the winter ended. Cartier sailed for France again in May.

He had not yet found the fabled city of gold, but he had been given directions to it. This time he took Donnaconna himself to tell the king about the place.

Donnaconna spread it thick. He noted that Francis liked spices, so Donnaconna told him that nutmeg and cloves and pepper could be found at Saguenay. He said they grew oranges and pomegranates there, and that these fed a race of men who had wings instead of arms and who flew like bats from tree to tree.

Francis I became more convinced than ever that North America should claim more of his attention.