50 Fun Facts About Jacques Cartier

In which Breton port was Jacques Cartier born in 1491?

He is buried in the town's cathedral and appears often in its baptismal registers as a godfather.

Which French king commissioned Cartier's voyages?

He had earlier backed Verrazzano's 1524 exploration of the North American coast.

Which bishop introduced Cartier to the king at the Manoir de Brion?

He was abbot of Mont Saint-Michel and cited Cartier's voyages to Newfoundland and Brazil.

What was Cartier hoping to find when he set sail in April 1534?

His commission spoke of lands 'where it is said that a great quantity of gold and other precious things are to be found'.

How long did Cartier's first Atlantic crossing take?

He began exploring Newfoundland and the Gulf on 10 May 1534.

Which now-extinct bird did Cartier's crew slaughter by the hundreds in the Magdalen Islands?

About 1,000 birds were killed; the great auk died out in 1852.

Which people did Cartier most likely meet in his first two encounters, on Chaleur Bay?

The meetings were brief and some trading took place.

What does the name Cartier gave Chaleur Bay mean?

The local Indigenous name is Mawipoqtapei.

Where did Cartier plant a ten-metre cross on 24 July 1534 to claim the land for France?

It bore the words 'Long Live the King of France'; the local Iroquoians understood the gesture.

Whose two sons did Cartier take to France at the end of his first voyage?

The chief agreed only on condition they return with European trade goods; they were Domagaya and Taignoagny.

What did Cartier believe he had reached when he returned to France in September 1534?

He would only later acknowledge the New World as a separate landmass.

How large was Cartier's second expedition, which sailed in May 1535?

His two Iroquoian captives sailed with them as guides.

What was the Iroquoian capital Cartier reached, on the site of today's Quebec City?

Its chief ruled the region; Cartier called it small and squalid next to the larger town upriver.

How large was the crowd that greeted Cartier at Hochelaga on 2 October 1535?

He found the town far more impressive than the chief's squalid village downriver.

Which mountain did Cartier climb and name in honour of his king in 1535?

Residents of the town guided him up; the city of Montreal takes its name from it.

Why were the rapids blocking Cartier's route named Lachine?

He was so sure the river was the Northwest Passage that the town there is still called Lachine.

Where did Cartier's fleet lie frozen from mid-November 1535 to mid-April 1536?

Ice was over a fathom thick and snow four feet deep under the Rock of Quebec.

What disease ravaged Cartier's men that winter?

By mid-February, of 110 men 'not ten were well enough to help the others'.

What cured Cartier's men of the winter sickness?

Domagaya revealed the remedy, probably from arbor vitae; the French used up a whole tree in a week.

How many Frenchmen survived the winter of 1535-36 thanks to the remedy?

Cartier proclaimed the cure a Godsend and a miracle.

Whom did Cartier kidnap in May 1536 to tell the king about a land of gold?

The chief was treated well at the king's expense but died in France around 1539.

What was the name of the mythical rich land Cartier sought on his later voyages?

It was said to be full of gold, rubies and other treasures somewhere to the north.

How many moons did Cartier promise to bring Donnacona back within?

He never did; the chief died in France about 1539.

Who was appointed lieutenant general over Cartier for the third expedition in 1541?

A Huguenot friend of the king, he let Cartier sail ahead while he waited for supplies.

How many ships did Cartier take on his third voyage in May 1541?

The goals were now Saguenay's riches and a permanent settlement, not a passage to the Orient.

What did Cartier name the fortified settlement he built at Cap-Rouge in 1541?

Convicts and colonists landed, cattle were turned loose and cabbages, turnips and lettuce planted.

What did the 'diamonds' and 'gold' Cartier shipped home turn out to be?

The French still say 'faux comme les diamants du Canada'.

Roughly how many settlers were killed by the Iroquoians in the winter of 1541-42?

No records survive of that winter; the details come from returning sailors.

How did Cartier part from Roberval off Newfoundland in June 1542?

Roberval wanted him to return to Saguenay; Cartier sailed home with his 'gold and diamonds' instead.

Whom did Roberval maroon around the time he met Cartier off Newfoundland?

The young relative's ordeal was retold in Marguerite of Navarre's Heptaméron.

In what year was Cartier's Cap-Rouge colony finally abandoned?

Disease, foul weather and hostile natives drove Roberval's settlers to despair.

In what language did Cartier serve as an interpreter in his later years at home?

He died there at 65 in 1557 during an epidemic, possibly of typhus.

From which Iroquoian word did Cartier's name 'Canada' come, and what did it mean?

He mistook the generic word for a settlement for the name of the whole territory.

What did Cartier call the Iroquoian inhabitants he met along the river?

French colonists were called Canadiens until the mid-19th century.

How many ships did Cartier lose across his three voyages?

He entered and left some 50 uncharted harbours without serious mishap.

What did archaeologists find in 2006 to pinpoint Cartier's lost colony?

The Faenza plate could only have belonged to a French aristocrat, probably Roberval.

What was the name of the flagship the king gave Cartier in 1535?

A replica was built for Expo 67 in Montreal; the Petite Hermine was abandoned in 1536 for lack of crew.

Why did Cartier abandon the Petite Hermine in the spring of 1536?

It was left in the Saint-Charles River near Quebec.

Montreal's Harbour Bridge was renamed for Cartier in 1934 to mark what?

It carries about 35.8 million vehicles a year across the St. Lawrence to Longueuil.

What did Cartier first call the Île d'Orléans, and why?

It was later renamed for the king's second son, the future Henry II.

Which future Canadian province did Cartier become the first European to see in 1534?

The French later named it Île Saint-Jean.

Which Italian explorer had the same king sent to the North American coast in 1524?

He visited the site of New York in 1524 and named it New Angoulême.

Who finally founded a permanent settlement at Quebec in 1608, long after Cartier?

France paid little attention to Cartier's claim for some 60 years.

What had become of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians Cartier met, by the time Champlain arrived?

The people existed until about the late 16th century; scholars still debate what happened to them.

Which Canadian band references Cartier in the 1992 song 'Looking for a Place to Happen'?

The song deals with European encroachment on indigenous lands.

What did Cartier's Iroquoian guides call the region where they had been captured?

Cartier recorded the name in his account; a strait off Anticosti still bears it.

Cartier raised his social standing in 1520 by marrying into which leading Saint-Malo family?

His good name shows in how often he appears as a godfather in the town's baptismal registers.

Where is Jacques Cartier buried?

He died at 65 in September 1557 during an epidemic, possibly of typhus.

Roughly how many previously undiscovered harbours did Cartier enter and leave without serious mishap?

Across three voyages in unknown waters he never lost a ship, a record that marks him as one of the most careful explorers of his age.

Cartier's third voyage was the first European attempt to settle North America since whose effort of 1526-27?

No lasting European settlement followed in Canada until Dugua and Champlain founded Port Royal in 1605.