CARTIER, JACQUES French navigator, dis coverer of the Canadian river St. Lawrence, was born at St. Malo in Brittany. Of his early life nothing is known. On the suppres sion by Admiral Chabot of the trade to Brazil, an expedition con sisting of two ships and 61 men was despatched from St. Malo under Cartier on April 20, 1534, to look for a north-west passage to the East. Cartier reached Newfoundland on May 1 o and en tered the strait of Belle Isle. On June 15 Cartier set sail for the south side of the strait, by following which he was led down almost the whole west coast of Newfoundland. Off St. George's bay a storm drove the ships out into the gulf, but on resuming his course Cartier fell in with the Bird Rocks. The island south of these he named Brion island, after Chabot (q.v.) . Cartier mistook Magda len and Prince Edward islands for the main shore on the south side of this inland sea. Following the coast of New Brunswick north ward he was greatly disappointed to discover Chaleur bay was not a strait. During a ten days' stay in Gaspe harbour Cartier made friends with a tribe of Huron-Iroquois Indians from Quebec, two of whom he carried off with him. On discovering the passage between the island of Acosti and the Quebec shore it was decided to postpone the exploration of this strait until the following year. Heading eastward along the Quebec shore, Cartier soon regained the strait of Belle Isle and reached St. Malo on Sept. 5.
Cartier set sail again from St. Malo with three vessels on May 16, 1536, and passing through the strait of Belle Isle anchored on Aug. 9 in Pillage Bay, opposite Anticosti, which he named the bay of St. Lawrence, a name which spread to the gulf and finally to the river. Proceeding through the passage north of Anticosti, Cartier anchored on Sept. 1 at the mouth of the Saguenay, which the two Indians informed him was the name of a kingdom "rich and wealthy in precious stones." Again on reaching the island of Orleans they told Cartier he was now in the kingdom of Canada, in reality the Huron-Iroquois word for village. Leaving his two larger vessels in the St. Charles which there enters the St. Law rence, Cartier set off westward with the bark and the long-boats. The former grounded in lake St. Peter, but in the latter he reached on Oct. 2 the Huron-Iroquois village of Hochelaga on the site of the city of Montreal. Further progress was checked by the La chine rapid. On his return to the St. Charles, where during the winter 25 men died of scurvy, Cartier sought further information about the rich country called Saguenay, which he was informed could be reached more easily by way of the Ottawa. In order to give Francis I. authentic information of this northern Mexico, Cartier seized the chief and I1 of the headmen of the village and carried them off to France. This time he passed south of Anticosti and, entering the Atlantic through Cabot strait, reached St. Malo on July 16, In the spring of 1541 Cartier set sail with five vessels and took up his quarters at Cap Rouge, 9m. above Quebec. The seigneur de Roberval had been chosen to command ; but when he did not arrive, Cartier made a fresh examination of the rapid of Lachine, preparatory to sending the men up the river Ottawa. Roberval at length set sail in April 1542, but on reaching St. John's, New foundland, met Cartier on his way back to France. In the summer of 1J43 Cartier was sent out to bring home Roberval, whose at tempt to make his way up the Ottawa to this mythical Saguenay had proved futile. From 1544 until his death at St. Malo, on Sept. 1, 1557, Cartier appears to have done little else than give technical advice in nautical matters and act as Portuguese in terpreter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Cartier's Brief rich et succincte narration de la Bibliography.-Cartier's Brief rich et succincte narration de la navigation faicte es ysles de Canada . was first printed in 1545 an English translation was made by Richard Hakluyt in his The Principal Navigations, vol. iii. (1600) . J. P. Baxter's Memoir of Jacques Cartier (New York, 1906), contains an English translation and a detailed bibliography. See also The Voyages of Jacques Cartier, edited by H. P. Biggar (Publications of the Public Archives of Canada, No. ii. ; Ottawa, 1924).