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Page 35
After a fortnight's journey they came in sight of the natural citadel
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.
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