to found a colony somewhere in the North-west. Acting on these somewhat vague instructions, Cartier first made the land at Bona Vista Bay (N. lat. 48° 50′, W. long. 53° 20′), on the eastern coast of Newfoundland. With a knowledge of geography scarcely to have been expected at that early date, Cartier lost no time in steering, first north and then northwest, for the straits of Belle Isle, dividing Newfoundland from the Mainland; and, though his course was considerably impeded by the ice, he passed without accident into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, crossing which, in a southwesterly direction, he entered a bay on the coast of Canada, which he named Chaleur (N. lat. 49° 55,′ W. long. 65° 25′), on account of the heat.
Landing on the shores of what he describes as an inviting country—though the natives were half-naked savages, living on raw fish and flesh, and with no houses but the canoe tents already noticed in speaking of the discoveries of the Northmen—Cartier took possession of the land in the name of the King of France, setting up a huge cross upon the beach, with the Fleur de Lys carved upon it, in spite of the deprecatory gestures of the natives, who well knew what the proceeding portended.
By dint of the exercise of a good deal more tact than was usually shown by early explorers, Cartier disarmed the suspicions of the natives, and even persuaded their chief to allow him to take his two sons, Taignoagny and Domagaia, to France, for which country he sailed shortly afterward, to report progress and receive further instructions.
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CARTIER'S SHIP.
Pleased with the description given of the new country, Francis I. sent Cartier back in the following spring with three well-manned vessels under his command, and full powers to plant French colonies wherever he chose, also to prosecute the search for a short cut to the East, and to convert the natives to the true faith.
With the two Indian lads—whose full confidence he seems to have won—beside him on the deck of the foremost vessel, the future founder of Quebec arrived at the mouth of a large river, the St. Lawrence of the present day, on the 10th August, 1534; and being informed by the natives that its name was Hochelaga, and that it came from a far country which no man had ever seen, he determined to ascend it, thinking that it might perhaps be that strait leading to the Indian Ocean which had so long been sought in vain.
Naming the new river the St. Lawrence, in honor of the saint on whose
