of Hochelaga, the royal mount, as they fitly called it, which has
since given its name to the stately city below. The site of that city
was then filled by a village surrounded by maize fields and strongly
fortified after the Iroquois manner. There the French were received
with hospitality and with a reverence which seemed to imply that they
were something more than mortal. The sick were laid before them to be
healed, and when Cartier read portions of the Gospel in French, the
savages listened reverently to the unknown sounds. On his return,
Cartier found his fort securely palisaded, and decided there to await
the winter. So far all had gone well, but the settlers were soon
destined to see the unfavorable side of Canadian life. The savages,
after their fickle nature, began to waver in their friendship. A worse
danger was to come. Scurvy broke out, and before long twenty-five men
had died, and not more than three or four remained well. At length the
leaf of a tree whose virtues were pointed out by the Indians restored
the sufferers to health. When winter disappeared and the river again
became navigable, Cartier determined to return. He was anxious that
the French king should learn the wonders of the country from the
mouths of its own people. Accordingly, with a characteristic mixture
of caution, subtlety, and conciliation, he allured the principal chief
Donnacona, and some of his followers into the fort. There they were
seized and carried to the ships, nominally as honored guests, like
Montezuma among the followers of Cortez. Cartier then set sail with
his captives, and in July reached St. Malo. The Indians, as was
usually the fate of such captives, pined under a strange sky, and when
Cartier sailed again not one was alive.
Four years elapsed before another voyage was undertaken. In 1540 a
fleet of five ships was made ready at the expense of the king, who
reserved to himself a third of the profits of the voyage. Cartier was
appointed captain-general, with instructions to establish a settlement
and to labor for the conversion of the savages. With Cartier was
associated a man of high birth, the Sieur de Roberval, who was
appointed Viceroy and Lieutenant-general of Newfoundland, Labrador,
and all the territory explored by Cartier, with the title of Lord of
Norumbega. This division of command seems to have led to no good
results. Another measure which probably contributed to the failure of
the expedition was the mode employed for raising the necessary crews.
Cartier, like Frobisher, was empowered to search the prisons for
recruits. Even before the voyage began things took an unfavorable
turn. Roberval's ammunition was not ready at the stated time, and the
departure of the fleet was thereby hindered.
At length, lest further delay should give offense at court, Cartier
sailed, leaving Roberval to follow. The first interview with the
savages was a source of some fear, as it was doubtful how they would
receive the tidings of Donnacona's death. Luckily, the chief to whom
the news was first told was Donnacona's successor, and, as might have
been expected, he showed no dissatisfaction at Cartier's story. The
French then settled themselves in their old quarters at Quebec. Two of
the four ships were sent home to France to report safe arrival of the
expedition, while Cartier himself, with two boats, set out to explore
the river above Hochelaga. After his departure the relations between
the settlers and the Indians became unfriendly, a change probably due
in part to the loss of Donnacona and his companions. Whatever the
cause, the danger seemed so serious that Cartier on his return decided
to abandon the colony and to make for France. From later events it
would seem as if Cartier had no friendly feeling toward Roberval, and
jealousy may have had some share in leading him to forsake the
enterprise for which he had endured and risked so much. On his
homeward voyage he put into the harbor of St. John, in Newfoundland.
There he met Roberval with three ships and 200 men. Their meeting
seems to have been friendly, but Cartier, instead of obeying
Roberval's orders and returning with him to Canada, quietly weighed
anchor in the night and sailed away to France.
With this inglorious departure ends the career of the first great
French colonizer. Robervai resumed his voyage and landed above Quebec.
There he built a single abode for the whole colony on the model of a
college or monastery, with a common hail and kitchen. Of the doings of
the settlers we have but scanty accounts, but we learn enough to see
that the colony was ill-planned from the outset, and that either
Roberval was unfit for command or singularly unfortunate in his
subjects. The supplies were soon found to be inadequate, and scurvy
set in, the colonists became disorderly, and Roberval ruled them with
a rod of iron. Trifling offenses were punished with fearful severity;
men and women were flogged, and if we may believe one account, the
punishment of death was inflicted with no sparing hand. How long the
colony lingered on is unknown. Roberval himself returned to France
only, it is said, to die a violent death in the streets of Paris.
There is nothing to tell us whether his colonists returned with him or
whether, like White's unhappy followers, they were left to fall
victims to the horrors of the wilderness. Whatever was their fate, no
attempt was made to restore the colony, and the St. Lawrence was left
for more than fifty years to the savages and wild beasts.
[1] From Doyle's "_English Colonies in America_." By permission of
the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Jacques Cartier was born at St.
Malo, France, in 1494, and died some time after 1552. He made
three voyages to Canada, the first in 1534, the second in 1535,
the third in 1541.
[2] The site is now occupied by Montreal.
II
CARTIER'S OWN ACCOUNT[1]
Vpon Thursday being the eight of the moneth, because the winde was not
good to go out with our ships, we set our boates in a readinesse to
goe to discouer the said Bay[2], and that day wee went 25 leagues
within it. The next day the wind and weather being faire, we sailed
vntil noone, in which time we had notice of a great part of the said
Bay, and how that ouer the low lands, there were other lands with high
mountaines: but seeing that there was no passage at all, wee began to
turne back againe, taking our way along the coast and sayling, we saw
certaine wilde men.... and by and by in clusters they came to the
shore where we were, with their boates, bringing with them skinnes and
other such things as they had, to haue of our wares.... til they had
nothing but their naked bodies; for they gaue vs all whatsoeuer they
had, and that was but of small value. We perceiued that this people
might very easily be conuerted to our Religion. They goe from place to
place. They liue onely with fishing. They haue an ordinarie time to
fish for their prouision. The countrey is hotter than the countrey of
Spaine, and the fairest that can possibly be found, altogether smooth,
and leuel. There is no place be it neuer so little, but it bath some
trees (yea albeit it be sandie) or else is full of wilde corne, that
hath an eare like vnto Rie: the corne is like oates, and smal peason
as thicke as if they had bene sowen and plowed, white and red Roses,
with many other flouers of very sweet and pleasant smell. There be
also many goodly medowes full of grasse, and lakes wherein great
plentie of salmons be. They call a hatchet in their tongue Cochi, and
a knife Bacon: we named it The bay of heat....
The Saturday following, being the first of August, by Sunne rising,
wee had certaine other landes, lying North and Northeast, that were
very high and craggie, and seemed to be mountaines: betweene which
were other low lands with woods and riuers: wee went about the sayd
lands, as well on the one side as on the other, still bending
Northwest, to see if it were either a gulfe, or a passage, vntill the
fift of the moneth. The distance from one land to the other is about
fifteene leagues. The middle between them both is 50 degrees and a
terce in latitude. We had much adoe to go fiue miles farther, the
winds were so great and the tide against vs. And at fiue miles end, we
might plainely see and perceiue land on both sides, which there
beginneth to spread it selfe.
After we had sailed along the sayd coast, for the space of two houres,
behold, the tide began to tame against vs, with so swift and raging a
course, that it was not possible for vs with 13 oares to row or get
one stones cast farther, so that we were constrained to leaue our
boates with some of our men to guard them, and 10 or 12 men went
ashore to the sayd Cape, where we found that the land beginneth to
bend Southwest, which hauing scene, we came to our boats againe, and
so to our ships, which were stil ready vnder salle, hoping to go
forward; but for all that, they were fallen more then four leagues to
leeward from the place where we had left them, where so soone as we
came, wee assembled together all our Captaines, Masters, and Mariners,
to haue their aduice and opinion what was best to be done; and after
that euery one had said, considering that the Easterly winds began to
beare away, and blow, and that the flood was so great, that we did but
fall, and that there was nothing to be gotten, and that stormes and
tempests began to reigne in Newfoundland, and that we were so farre
from home, not knowing the perils and dangers that were behind, for
either we must agree to reture home againe, or els to stay there all
the yeere. More ouer, we did consider, that if the Northerne winds did
take vs, it were not possible for vs to depart thence. All which
opinions being heard and considered, we altogether determined to
addresse our selues homeward. Nowe because vpon Saint Peters day wee
entred into the sayd Streite, we named it Saint Peters Streite....
In the yeere of our Lord 1535, vpon Whitsunday, being the 16. of May,
by the commandement of our Captaine Iames Cartier, and with a common
accord, in the Cathedrall Church of S. Malo we deuoutly each one
confessed our selues, and receiued the Sacrament: and all entring into
the Quier of the sayd Church, wee presented our selues before the
Reuerend Father in Christ, the Lord Bishop of S. Malo, who blessed vs
all, being in his Bishops roabes. The Wednesday following, being the
19. of May, there arose a good gale of wind, and therefore we hoysed
seyle with three ships.... We staied and rested our selues in the sayd
hauen, vntill the seuenth of August being Sonday: on which day we
hoysed sayle, and came toward land on the South side toward Cape
Robast, distant from the sayd hauen about twentie leagues
Northnortheast, and Southsouthwest: but the next day there rose a
stormie and a contrary winde, and because we could find no hauen there
toward the South, thence we went coasting along toward the North,
beyond the abouesayd hauen about ten leagues, where we found a goodly
great gulfe, full of Islands, passages, and entrances, toward what
wind soeuer you please to bend: for the knowledge of this gulfe there
is a great Island that is like to a Cape of lande, stretching somewhat
further foorth than the others, and about two leagues within the land,
there is an hill fashioned as it were an heape of corne. We named the
sayd gulfe Saint Laurence his bay. The twelfth of the sayd moneth wee
went from the sayd Saint Laurence his Bay, or gulfe, sayling Westward,
and discouered a Cape of land toward the South, that runneth West and
by South, distant from the sayd Saint Laurence his Bay, about fiue and
twenty leagues....
Moreouer, I beleeue that there were neuer so many Whales seen as we
saw that day about the sayd Cape. The next day after being aur Ladie
day of August the fifteenth of the moneth, hauing passed the Straight,
we had notice of certaine lands that wee left toward the South, which
landes are full of uery great and high hilles, and this Cape wee named
The Island of the Assumption, and perceuived to be higher than the
Southerly, more then thirty leagues in length. We treaded the sayd
landes about toward the South: from the sayd day vntill Tewesday noone
following, the winde came West, and therefore wee bended toward the
North, purposing to goe and see the land that we before had spied.
Being arriued there, we found the sayd landes as it were ioyned
together, and low toward the Sea. And the Northerly mountaines that
are vpon the sayd low lands stretch East, and West, and a quarter of
the South. Our wild men told vs that there was the beginning of
Saguenay, and that it was land inhabited, and that thence commeth the
red Copper, of them named Caignetdaze.
There is between the Southerly lands, and the Northerly about thirty
leagues distance, and more then two hundredth fadome depth. The sayd
men did moreouer certifie vnto vs, that there was the way and
beginning of the great riuer of Hochelaga and ready way to Canada,
which riuer the further it went the narrower it came, euen vnto
Canada, and that then there was fresh water, which went so famine
vpwards, that they had neuer heard of any man who had gone to the head
of it, and that there is no other passage but with small boates....
Vpon the first of September we departed out of the said hauen,
purposing to go toward Canada; and about 15 leagues from it toward the
West, and Westsouthwest, amidst the riuer, there are three Islands,
ouer against the which there is a riuer which runneth swift, and is of
great depth, and it is that which leadeth, and runneth into the
countrey and kingdome of Saguenay, as by the two wild men of Canada it
was told vs. This riuer passeth and runneth along very high and steepe
hills of bare stone, where uery little earth is, and notwithstanding
there is a great quantity of sundry sorts of trees that grow in the
said bare stones, euen as vpon good and fertile ground, in such sort
that we haue seene some so great as wel would suffise to make a mast
for a ship of 30 tunne burden, and as greene as possibly can be,
growing in a stony rocke without any earth at all....
The seuenth of the moneth being our Ladies euen, after seruice we went
from that Iland to go vp higher into the riuer, and came to 14 Ilands
seuen or eight leagues from the Iland of Filberds, where the countrey
of Canada beginneth, one of which Ilands is ten leagues in length, and
fiue in bredth, greatly inhabited of such men as onely liue by fishing
of such sorts of fishes as the riuer affordeth, according to the
season of them.... The next day following, the Lord of Canada (whose
proper name was Donnacona, but by the name of Lord they call him
Agouhanna) with twelue boats came to our ships, accompanied with many
people, who causing ten of his boates to goe backe with the other two,
approched vnto vs with sixteene men ... Our Captaine then caused our
boates to be set in order, that with the next tide he might goe vp
higher into the riuer, to find some safe harborough for our ships: and
we passed vp the riuer against the streame about tenne leagues,
coasting the said Iland, at the end whereof, we found a goodly and
pleasant sound, where is a little riuer and hauen, where by reason of
the flood there is about three fadome water. This place seemed to us
very fit and commodious to harbour our ships therein, and so we did
very safely, we named it the holy Crosse, for on that day we came
thither. Neere vnto it, there is a village, whereof Donnacona is Lord,
and there he keepeth his abode: it is called Stadacona [Quebec] as
goodly a plot of ground as possibly may be seene.
Hauing considered the place, and finding it fit for our purpose, our
Captaine withdrew himselfe on purpose to returne to our ships. After
we were come with our boats vnto our ships againe, our Captaine cause
our barks to be made readie to goe on land in the said Iland, to note
the trees that in shew seemed so faire, and to consider the nature and
qualitie of it: which things we did, and found it full of goodly trees
like to ours. Also we saw many goodly Vines, a thing not before of vs
seene in those countries, and therefore we named it Bacchus Iland. It
is in length about twelue leagues, in sight very pleasant, but full of
woods, no part of it manured, vnless it be in certaine places, where a
few cottages be for Fishers dwellings as before we haue said....
The next day being the 19 of September we hoysed saile, and with our
Pinnesse and two boates departed to goe vp the riuer with the flood,
where on both shores of it we beganne to see as goodly a countrey as
possibly can with eye seene, all replenished with very goodly trees,
and Vines laden as full of grapes as could be all along the riuer,
which rather seemed to haue bin planted by mans hand than otherwise.
True it is, that because they are not dressed and wrought as they
should be, their bunches of grapes are not so great nor sweete as
ours.... From the nineteenth vntill the eight and twentieth of
September, we sailed vp along the saide riuer, neuer losing one houre
of time, all which time we saw as goodly and pleasant a countrey as
possibly can be wished for....
The next day our Captaine seeing for that time it was not possible for
our Pinesse to goe on any further, he caused our boates to be made
readie, and as much munition and victuals to be put in them, as they
could well beare: he departed with them, accompanyed with many
Gentlemen, that is to say, Claudius of Ponte Briand, Cupbearer to the
Lorde Dolphin of France, Charles of Pommeraye, Iohn Gouion, Iohn
Powlet, with twentie and eight Mariners: and Mace Iallobert, and
William Briton, who had the charge vnder the Captaine of the other two
ships, to goe vp as farre as they could into that riuer: we sayled
with good and prosperous weather vntill the second of October, on
which day we came to the towne of Hochelaga, [Montreal] distant from
the place where we had left our Pinnesse fiue and fortie leagues.
[1] From a letter by Cartier, of which a translation exists in
Hakluyt's "Principal Navigations," etc. Printed in Hart's "American
History Told by Contemporaries."
[2] The Gulf of St. Lawrence.
SEARCHES FOR "THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA"
(1530-1540)
THE ACCOUNT BY REUBEN GOLD THWAITES[1]
In 1513, a hundred and seven years before the landing of the Pilgrims
at Plymouth, Balboa scaled the continental backbone at Darien and
unfurled the flag of Spain by the waters of the Pacific. With wondrous
zeal did Spanish explorers beat up and down the western shore of the
Gulf of Mexico, seeking for an opening through. Cortez had no sooner
secured possession of Mexico, after his frightful slaughter of the
Aztecs, than he began pushing out to the west and northwest--along the
"upper coasts of the South Sea"--in search of the strait which
Montezuma told him existed.
It is unlikely that Montezuma's knowledge of North American geography
was much greater than that of his conqueror. But in every age and land
aborigines have first ascertained what visiting strangers most sought,
whether it be gold or waterways, and assured them that somewhere
beyond the neighboring horizon these objects were to be found in
plenty. Spanish, French, and English have each in their turn chased
American rainbows that existed only in the brains of imaginative
tribesmen who had little other thought than a childish desire to
gratify their guests.
Cortez undertook, at his own charge, several of these expensive
exploring expeditions to discover the strait of which Montezuma had
spoken, and one of them he conducted in person. In 1528--the year he
visited Spain to meet his accusers--we find him dispatching Maldonado
northward along the Pacific coast for three hundred miles; and five
years later Grijalva and Jimenez were claiming for Spain the southern
portion of Lower California. A full hundred years before Jean Nicolet
related to the French authorities at their feeble outpost on the rock
of Quebec the story of his daring progress into the wilds of the upper
Mississippi Valley, and the rumors he had there heard of the great
river which flowed into the South Sea, Spanish officials in the halls
of Montezuma were receiving the tales of their adventurers, who had
penetrated to strange lands laved by the waters of this selfsame
ocean.
It was about the year 1530 when the Spaniards in Mexico first received
word, through an itinerant monk, Marcos de Niza, of certain powerful
semi-civilized tribes dwelling some six hundred miles north of the
capital of the Aztecs. These strange people were said to possess in
great store domestic utensils and ornaments made of gold and silver;
to be massed in seven large cities composed of houses built with
stone; and to be proficient in many of the arts of the Europeans. The
search for "the seven cities of Cibola," as these reputed communities
came to be called by the Spaniards, was at once begun.
Guzman, just then at the head of affairs in New Spain, zealously set
forth at the head of four hundred Spanish soldiers, and a large
following of Indians, to search for this marvelous country. But the
farther north the army marched the more distant became Cibola in the
report of the natives whom they met on the way; until at last the
invaders became involved in the pathless deserts of New Mexico and the
intricate ravines of the foothills beyond. The soldiers grew mutinous,
and Guzman returned, crestfallen, to Mexico.
In April, 1528, three hundred enthusiastic young nobles and gentlemen
from Spain landed at Tampa Bay, under the leadership of Narvaez, whom
Cortez supplanted in the conquest of Mexico. Narvaez had been given a
commission to hold Florida, with its supposed wealth of mines and
precious stones, and to become its governor. Led by the customary
fables of the natives, who told only such tales as they supposed their
Spanish tormentors wished most to hear, the brilliant company wandered
hither and thither through the vast swamps and forests, wasted by
fatigue, famine, disease, and frequent assaults of savages. At last,
after many distressing adventures, but four men were left--Cabeza de
Vaca, treasurer of the expedition, and three others. For eight long
years did these bruised and ragged Spaniards wearily roam across the
region now divided into Texas, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, New Mexico,
and Arizona--through tangled forests, across broad rivers, morasses,
and desert stretches beset by wild beasts and men; but ever spurred on
by vague reports of a colony of their countrymen to the southwest. At
last (May, 1536), the miserable wanderers, first to make the
transcontinental trip in northern latitudes, reached the Gulf of
California, where they met some of their fellow countrymen, who bore
them in triumph to the City of Mexico, as the guests of the
province....
In that golden age of romance travelers were expected to gild their
tales, and in this respect seldom failed to meet the popular demand.
The Spanish conquistadores, in particular, lived in an atmosphere of
fancy. They looked at American savages and their ways through Spanish
spectacles; and knowing nothing of the modern science of ethnology,
quite misunderstood the import of what they saw. Beset by the national
vice of flowery embellishment, they were also pardonably ignorant of
savage life, and had an indiscriminating thirst for the marvelous.
Thus, we see plainly how the Cibola myth arose and grew; and why most
official Spanish reports of the conquest of the Aztecs were so
distorted by false conceptions of the conquered people as in some
particulars to be of light value as material for history. It was,
then, small wonder that Cabeza de Vaca and his fellow adventurers, in
the midst of the hero worship of which they were now recipients,
should claim themselves to have seen the mysterious seven cities, and
to have enlarged upon the previous stories.
Coronado, governor of the northern province of New Galicia, was
accordingly sent to conquer this wonderful country, which the
adventurers had seen, but Guzman failed to find. In 1540, the years
when Cortez again returned to meet ungrateful neglect at the bands of
the Spanish court, Coronado set out with a well--equipped following of
three hundred whites and eight hundred Indians. The Cibola cities were
found to be but mud pueblos in Arizona and New Mexico, with the aspect
of which we are to--day familiar; while the mild--tempered
inhabitants, destitute of wealth, peacefully practising their crude
industries and tilling their irrigated field, were foemen hardly
worthy of Castilian steel.
[1] From Mr. Thwaites' "Rocky Mountain Explorations." By
permission of the publishers, D. Appleton & Co. Copyright 1904.
Cabeza de Vaca was born at Jeraz de la Frontera, in Spain, about
1490, and died at Seville some time after 1560. In 1528 he was
made treasurer of an expedition under Narvaez to Florida. From
Florida he sailed westward with Narvaez and off the coast of
Lousiana was shipwrecked. A combat with Indians ensued from which
De Vaca and three others escaped with their lives. After spending
six years with the Indians as captives, he reached Mexico in 1536,
meanwhile making the journey here described. He returned to Spain
in 1537, and in 1540 was made Governor of Paraguay, which he
explored in 1543. In the following year he was deposed and
imprisoned by Spanish colonists in Paraguay for alleged arbitrary
conduct and sent to Spain, where he was sentenced to be banished
to Oran in Africa, but was subsequently recalled and made judge of
the Supreme Court of Seville.
CABEZA DE VACA'S JOURNEY TO THE SOUTHWEST
(1535-1536)
DE VACA'S OWN ACCOUNT[1]