The French in the Heart of America | Page 6

to man the three ships home. And probably not a man
would have been left and not even the Grande Hermine would have

come back if a specific for scurvy had not been found before the end of
the winter--a decoction learned of the Indians and made from the bark
or leaves of a tree so efficacious that if all the "doctors of Lorraine and
Montpellier had been there, with all the drugs of Alexandria, they could
not have done so much in a year as the said tree did in six days; for it
profited us so much that all those who would use it recovered health
and soundness, thanks to God."
Cartier appears again in July, 1536, before the ramparts of St. Malo
with two of his vessels. The savages on the St. Charles were given the
Petite Hermine, [Footnote: James Phinney Baxter, "A Memoir of
Jacques Cartier," p. 200, writes: "The remains of this ship, the Petite
Hermine, were discovered in 1843, in the river St. Charles, at the
mouth of the rivulet known as the Lairet. These precious relics were
found buried under five feet of mud, and were divided into two
portions, one of which was placed in the museum of the Literary and
Historical Society of Quebec, and destroyed by fire in 1854. The other
portion was sent to the museum at St. Malo, where it now remains. For
a particular account vide Le Canadien of August 25, and the Quebec
Gazette of August 30, 1843; 'Transactions of the Quebec Literary and
Historical Society for 1862'; and 'Picturesque Quebec,' Le Moine,
Montreal, 1862, pp. 484-7."] its nails being accepted in part requital for
the temporary loss of their chief. Donnacona, whom Cartier kidnapped.
A cross was left standing on the shores of the St. Lawrence with the
fleur-de-lis planted near it. Donnacona was presented to King Francis
and baptized, and with all his exiled companions save one was buried,
where I have not yet learned, but probably somewhere out on that
headland of France nearest Stadacone, the seat of his lost kingdom.
Cartier busied himself in St. Malo (or Limoilou) till called upon, in
1541, when peace was restored in France to take the post of captain-
general of a new expedition under Sieur de Roberval, "Lord of
Norembega, Viceroy and Lieutenant-General of Canada, Hochelaga,
Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay
and Baccalaos," [Footnote: Baxter, "Memoir of Jacques Cartier," note,
p. 40, writes: "These titles are given on the authority of Charlevoix,

'Histoire de la Nouvelle France,' Paris, 1744, tome I, p. 32. Reference,
however, to the letters patent of January 15, 1540, from which he
professes to quote and which are still preserved and can be identified as
the same which he says were to be found in the Etat Ordinaire des
Guerres in the Chambre des Comptes at Paris, does not bear out his
statement."] with a commission of discovery, settlement, and
conversion of the Indians, and with power to ransack the prisons for
material with which to carry out these ambitious and pious designs,
thereby, as the king said, employing "clemency in doing a merciful and
meritorious work toward some criminals and malefactors, that by this
they may recognize the Creator by rendering Him thanks, and
amending their lives." Again Cartier (Roberval having failed to arrive
in time) sets out; again he passes the gloomy Saguenay and the cliff of
Quebec; again he leaves his companions to prepare for the winter;
again he ascends the river to explore the rapids, still dreaming of the
way to Asia; again after a miserable winter he sails back to France,
eluding Roberval a year late, and carrying but a few worthless quartz
diamonds and a little sham gold. Then Roberval, the Lord of
Norembega, reigns alone in his vast and many-titled domain, for
another season of snows and famine, freely using the lash and gibbet to
keep his penal colonists in subjection; and then, according to some
authorities, supported by the absence of Carder's name from the local
records of St. Malo for a few months, Cartier was sent out to bring the
Lord of Norembega home.
So Cartier's name passes from the pages of history, even if it still
appears again in the records of St. Malo, and he spends the rest of his
days on the rugged little peninsula thrust out from France toward the
west, as it were a hand. A few miles out of St. Malo the Breton tenants
of the Cartier manor, Port Cartier, to-day carry their cauliflower and
carrots to market and seemingly wonder at my curiosity in seeking
Cartier's birthplace rather than Châteaubriand's tomb. It were far fitter
that Cartier instead of Châteaubriand should have been buried out on
the "Plage" beyond the ramparts, exiled for