Jacques Cartier discovers Canada …

11 Wednesday Aug 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, Canadian History, Colonialism, Nouvelle-France

Tags

Acadie settled, Aneda, Chief Donnacona, Jacques Cartier, Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons, Roberval, Samuel de Champlain, Scurvy, Settlement, Three Trips

Jacques Cartier‘s *La Grande Hermine* (see Cartier’s ships), used in 1535-1536 (Google)

Jacques Cartier meeting the Indians at Stadacona in 1535,
by Suzor-Coté (1907) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Jacques Cartier discovered Canada in 1534. He arrived at Gaspé Bay, planted a cross, and claimed the territory he had found for France. Cartier was looking for Asia, but he fell a continent and an ocean short of his goal. He did not find diamonds, just faux.

When Cartier sailed back to France, he took with him Iroquois Chief Donnacona‘s two sons, Domagaya and Taignoagny. They were returned to their father in 1535, during Cartier’s second expedition to the “country of the Canadas.” In 1535, Cartier explored the St. Lawrence River. One of Donnacona’s son took him to his home at Stadacona. It would be Quebec City. In October, Cartier went to Hochelaga, the future Montreal. Cartier could not go beyong the Lachine Rapids. He did not create a settlement in New France.

The Winter of 1535-1536

Cartier explores the St Lawrence River
abduction
the third voyage

Cartier’s 150 men and three ships, la Grande Hermine, la Petite Hermine and l’Émérillon, spent the winter in Canada. When winter came, his men started to die of scurvy. St Lawrence Iroquoians supplied him with anneda/aneda, harvested from thuya occidentalis, cedar trees. It has been claimed that Cartier’s men were provided with abies balsamea, from the Balsam fir. Aneda or abies balsamea were rich sources of Vitamin C, the remedy for scurvy. Cartier’s men survived.

In 1536, Jacques Cartier captured Iroquoian Chief Donnacona, his sons, Domagaya and Taignoagny, and five Iroquoian Amérindiens. Amerindians had saved his crew, but Cartier was not in the least grateful. Besides, St Lawrence Iroquois had tried to impede Cartier’s exploration. Cartier sailed back to France, but his captives were never returned to their home. Cartier did not create a settlement.

In 1541-1542, Roberval and Cartier were expected to create a first settlement, but Cartier, who met Roberval as he sailed back to France, would not turn back and join Roberval. There would be no attempt to settle the Canadas until 1604.

Map of Cartier's third voyage 1541-1542 — **Cartier’s Voyages** (1541-1542)

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Pierre Dugua de Mons and Champlain

Later explorers would be kind to Amerindians. In 1604, Pierre Dugua de Mons, Samuel de Champlain, Dugua de Mons’ cartographer, Pierre Chauvin de Tonnetuit, Matthieu Da Costa, a Black linguist, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just, Lescarbot and others went to the current Nova Scotia. In exchange for a monopoly in the fur trade, which Henri IV King of France and Navarre granted him, Dugua de Mon[t]s agreed to create a settlement in New France. Many of his men were Huguenots, French Protestant Calvinists, but Catholics would also settle in North America.

The group spent a winter on Sainte-Croix island (Dochet Island). Dugua de Mons lost half of his men (39 or so). He returned to France, but he left Champlain, François Gravé du Pont, Champlain’s uncle, Matthieu Da Costa, a Black linguist, and persons introduced above. Matthieu da Costa did not speak Amerindian languages, but he learned languages in very little time and could create a lingua franca, a language of trade and travel, etc. Champlain and Matthieu Da Costa founded Quebec City in 1608. Four years earlier, in 1604, they and colleagues had settled Port-Royal, in the current Nova Scotia. Port-Royal was located in a warmer climate than the climate at Île Sainte-Croix. To prevent scurvy, Champlain suggested the creation of the Order of Good Cheer, l’Ordre de Bon Temps (1606). Merriment and good meals were essential to everyone’s health. French-speaking settlers, voyageurs in particular, inherited this approach.

I have written drafts of posts on the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774. Guy Carleton gave French-speaking Canadians their version of the Amerindians’ magna carta. The two acts are linked. These posts turned into booklets, so I am posting this article. Amerindians were safe during the days of New France, which may well have started with Pierre Dugua de Mons, Samuel de Champlain, and the gift of aneda.

RELATED ARTICLES

Canadiana 1 (Page)

Sources and Resources

Pierre Dugua de Mons (about 1560-1628) – Musée protestant (museeprotestant.org)

I will be spending the next three weeks away from my apartment. I’m tired. The computer will travel with me. We are going to Magog, a half hour from Sherbrooke.

—ooo—

Love to everyone and apologies for days away from WordPress. 💕

La Henriade

10 Thursday Sep 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Acadia, Age of Enlightenment, France, French Literature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Acadie, Charlesbourg-Royal, Henri IV of France, Huguenots, Jacques Cartier, La Henriade, Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons, Port-Royal, Quebec City, Voltaire

Voltaire (portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1724)

The ostensible subject [of La Henriade] is the siege of Paris in 1589 by Henry III in concert with Henry of Navarre, soon to be Henry IV, but its themes are the twin evils of religious fanaticism and civil discord.
La Henriade, wiki2.org

I think the above captures the spirit of Voltaire’s La Henriade. But it also describes Voltaire who spent a lifetime combating fanaticism, injustice and superstitions. Our subject is New France in its earliest days. We wish to know what happened during the half century separating Cartier’s attempt to found a settlement and Dugua de Mons’ similar endeavour. This period has not been chronicled, but Huguenots had been involved in the fur trade. Our King is no longer François I^er, but Henri IV.

The contents of this post may seem repetitive, but they sum up Cartier’s era and Henri IV’s brief reign. More importantly, although New France has Huguenot roots, I am portraying a good king who was attempting to put away a divided Kingdom. He was assassinated in 1610.

Jacques Cartier

Many Huguenots (French Protestants) or former Huguenots, were the founders of what became Canada. Dugua de Mons converted to Catholicism in 1593, at approximately the same time Henri IV became a Catholic. As King of Navarre, he had been a Huguenot.

Nothing suggests that Jacques Cartier was a Huguenot, but he settled Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, a settlement that ended in 1543. François Ier (Francis I^st), had commissioned Pierre de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval, known as Roberval, a nobleman, to build the first French settlement in North America, but Roberval did not set sail until 1542. Although sources differ, Charlesbourg-Royal was settled, almost undoubtedly, by Jacques Cartier, rather than Roberval.

Jacques Cartier left France in 1541, a year before Roberval sailed for the New World. Jacques Cartier met Roberval, near Newfoundland, but refused to turn around to assist Roberval, as the King had requested. Jacques Cartier was not a nobleman, but he is the explorer who discovered Canada and named it Canada, after Kanata, its Amerindian name.

Francis 1^st, King of France, did not ask Jacques Cartier to build a settlement. As we know, the person he commissioned was Pierre de La Rocque, sieur de Roberval, a nobleman. This may have been an affront to Jacques Cartier who had discovered “Canada.” Jacques Cartier lost 35 men during the first winter he spent at Charlesbourg-Royal, pictured above. By 1543, the settlement was abandoned. Then came a seemingly inactive period spanning nearly a half-century, but was it?

Henri IV

The settlements that survive are Dugua de Mons’ Port-Royal and Quebec City. As a noted, Champlain founded Quebec City, as Dugua’s employee. In fact, he and Mathieu da Costa were Dugua’s employees. So, Mathieu da Costa, the first Black in Canada, may have co-founded Quebec City, as an employee of Dugua de Mons. Mathieu de Coste is also Canada’s first linguist and he died in the settlement he co-founded. He was a free Black.

Had he not been a fur-trader, it is very unlikely that Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit could have built a trading-post. The Huguenots had been fleeing the Wars of Religion. Henri IV reigned from 1589 to 14 May 1610, when he was assassinated, and events do not suggest that during his reign Henri IV encouraged the growth of Protestantism. As we know, he signed the Édit de Nantes promoting religions toleration.

at the end of the Wars of Religion, [Henri IV] abjured Protestantism and converted to Roman Catholicism (1593) in order to win Paris and reunify France. With the aid of such ministers as the Duc de Sully, he brought new prosperity to France.
Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-IV-king-of-France

When Henri IV died he had yet to finish unifying France and, given Richelieu’s concept of absolutism, Huguenots would have to convert. Richelieu’s notion of absolutism required that all French citizens practice the same religion. As conceived by Richelieu, absolutism consisted of one religion, one language, and one King. When the Siege of Larochelle began, so did the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629. England was defeated and the Edict of Nantes, revoked in 1685, unleashing a reign of terror a Voltaire could not accept.

Acadie had just begun, when Marc Lescarbot wrote and published his Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. He had been in Acadia for one year, 1607-1608. He also produced a play, le Théâtre de Neptune, in Port-Royal. His History of Nouvelle-France is not a bad history. On the contrary. It is a good story. But Nouvelle-France consisted of one settlement, or habitation: Port-Royal that was about to crumble to be reborn again. The picture above features Lescarbot reading his play. The artist is William Jefferys (photo-credit: wiki2.org).

Would there ever be a King of France so loved that a young Voltaire would praise him in long cantos, or “fictions” “drawn from the regions of the marvelous” (Voltaire, 1859)? There wouldn’t, except in “fictions.”

Sources and Resources

Musing on Champlain & New France (9 May 2012)
Wikipedia
The Encyclopædia Britannica
La Henriade is an Internet Archive publication
La Henriade is a Wikisource publication

Love to everyone 💕

Musing on Champlain & New France

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History, Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Musing on Champlain & New France

Tags

Bon-Temps, Champlain, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Henry IV of France, New France, Order of Good Cheer, Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons, Port-Royal, Samuel, Samuel de Champlain

The Order of Good Cheer, C. W. Jefferys* historical illustrator

The Order of Good Cheer

To the left is a picture of French settlers spending their second winter in Acadia. They are at Port-Royal, now Annapolis Royal. In the winter of 1604-1605, Du Gua lost half his men to scurvy. So it came that Champlain founded l’Ordre de Bon Temps. Men died, but “[w]e passed this winter most joyously, & fared lavishly,” wrote Champlain.[i]

*C. W. Jefferys (25 August 1869 – 8 October 1951)

Samuel de Champlain[ii] (13 August 1574 – 25 December 1635)

There were fatalities during the winter of 1605-1606 but most men survived and Champlain’s Ordre du Bon-Temps may have helped. However, “[t]he Order’s practices were established by the first Chief Steward Marc Lescarbot.” Lescarbot, a lawyer, also established a theater: le Théâtre de Neptune, and wrote and published a History of New France (Histoire de la Nouvelle-France), in 1609.

However, Champlain is not the founder of Acadia. Pierre du Gua de Monts or Mons is the person who raised the funds from various merchants to travel to North America. He organized the expedition to the current Atlantic Ocean, or more precisely, Nova Scotia.[iii] As for Champlain, as written above, he was Du Gua de Monts‘[iv] cartographer and his lieutenant. He, Du Gua, and their men first settled on Isle Sainte-Croix, but moved to Port-Royal, today’s Annapolis Royal, where the Order of Good Cheers was founded and where Acadie (from Acadia or algatig, MicMac) rooted itself.

Champlain: a lack of records

We have very little information about the father of the nation. In fact, until the early 1600s, little can be ascertained concerning Samuel Champlain or Samuel de Champlain (Wikipedia). “As the parish registers of Brouage have been destroyed by fire, nothing is known of the date of Champlain’s birth or of his baptism; he may have been born c. 1570, perhaps in 1567.” (DCB) According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB), “Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book, and to be Saintongeois in the title of his second book (1613).” In short, because of the fire in Brouage and conflicting statements on the part of Champlain, we do not know with certainty

where Champlain was born;
in which year he was born;
whether or not he was baptized a Catholic or a Protestant;
whether or not he was a nobleman by birth.

Samuel Champlain or Samuel de Champlain

However, Champlain left an account of his life as explorer, settler and fur trader. But was he or was he not a member of the nobility? “His 1603 volume gives ‘Samuel Champlain’ and the dedication to Admiral Montmorency is signed ‘S. Champlain,’ whereas in the privilège, in the same edition, there are the words ‘Sieur de Champlain,’ just as in the marriage contract of 1610 and in the 1613, 1619, and 1632 volumes.” (DCB) Again, as is the case with his place and date of birth and his religion, Champlain confuses posterity.

Champlain’s Marriage

In 1610, at the age of forty, Champlain travelled to France to marry 12 year-old Hélène Boullé, a Protestant. That is on record. However, that marriage seems to have been a mere contract. After the wedding, Hélène remained in France because she was too young to be a wife. But Champlain collected 4,500 out of a 6,000-livre dowry the day following the wedding.

Hélène did sail to Canada in 1620 (DCB) but she spent very little time in her husband’s country of adoption and no mention is made of children born to her and Samuel. Hélène converted to Catholicism at the age of 14 and, about ten years after Champlain’s death (25 December 1635), she entered a convent, that of the Ursuline Order in Paris, which had long been her wish.

Protestantism

Given his name, Samuel, a protestant name, the two years he spent at Henri IV’s court in the early 1600s, his marriage to Hélène Boullé, his friendships, it would appear Champlain was a Protestant. However, it may have been in his best interest to call himself a Catholic. There was no official conversion, but he did as Henri IV did.

It had also been in Henri IV’s best interest to convert to Catholicism. His official mistress as of 1591, Gabrielle d’Estrées, told Henri IV that converting to Catholicism may lead to his being crowned King of France. He had been King of France since 1589, when Henri III (a Valois King) died, but had yet to be crowned.

On July 25, 1593, Henri IV (13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), King of Navarre, is reported to have said that “Paris (being King of France) is well worth a mass,” or « Paris vaut bien une messe. » Gabrielle was right. He was crowned King of France on 27 February 1594.

As for Champlain’s religion, according to Wikipedia, “he [Champlain] belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one, since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children.” Moreover, why did he settle in North America? Henri IV had converted and married a Medici, but he was nevertheless assassinated.

I will list Champlain’s functions in the New World, before the birth of the Company of One Hundred Associates. He was lieutenant

to Lieutenant-General Pierre Du Gua de Monts 1608–12,
to Lieutenant-General Bourbon de Soissons in 1612,
to Viceroy Bourbon de Condé 1612–20,[v]
to Viceroy de Montmorency 1620–25,
to Viceroy de Ventadour 1625–27.

By looking at the above list, we have a list of the persons who governed New France officially, although they may not have travelle to New France, until the Seigneurial System was put into place (1727) and the Compagnie des Cent-Associés chartered, in 1628. At this point, Richelieu took control of New France, but Champlain was one of the Cent-Associés the Company of One Hundred Associates (1628-1663).

So let us finish the list. Champlain was

commandant at Quebec in 1627 and 1628, between de [sic] Ventadour’s resignation and the creation of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés;
commander in New France “in the absence of my Lord the Cardinal de Richelieu” 1629–35;
member of the Compagnie des Cent-Associés (founded when Quebec City had been captured by the brothers Kirke and was under British rule [1628 to 1632]) ;
probably b. at Brouage, in Saintonge (Charente-Maritime);
d. 25 Dec. 1635 at Quebec.

The Kirke Brothers in Tadoussac and Quebec City

In 1628, the brothers Kirke (see also Place Royale) captured Tadoussac and then Quebec City. From 1629 and 1632, Quebec City was under British control. So we have just learned, however, that after a failed attempt to settle Tadoussac in 1600, Tadoussac was later settled. Because of its location, at the confluence of the Saguenay River and the St Lawrence River, New France’s highway, Tadoussac is a beautiful place.

Conclusion

Before pausing, I will note that

Du Gua de Monts settled Acadie, with the assistance of Champlain;
that Champlain benefitted from calling himself a Catholic. He was not persecuted and could be named “father of Canada” by the Clergy.
that Acadie remained, i.e. Du Gua did not fail, and that Quebec was settled by Champlain;
that the Company of One Hundred Associates was founded in 1628 and dissolved in 1663;
that a Sovereign Council governed New France from 1675 until the Battle of Sainte-Foy (28 April 1760);
that the Seigneurial System was in place from 1627 until 1854;
that although it was abolished some SEIGNEURS continued to collect rentes from CENSITAIRES;
that France could not afford its North-American colony and failed to give it a self-sustaining and eventually prosperous economy;
that under the Quebec Act (1674), Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester seems to have been the first person to give a voice in government to French-speaking Canadians citizens: Parliament. However, the country he governed was the country Champlain had founded.

Buddy’s Point, etching by Anna Syperek, 2011

Ode à l’Acadie – Lina Boudreau

(please click on the title to hear the music)

New France: Once Upon a Time…
Pierre Du Gua de Monts: a Mostly Forgotten Founder of Canada
Richelieu & Nouvelle-France (Filles du Roy)
Une éminence grise: Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac (Huguenots)
Dumas, père & Marguerite de Valois fictionalized (Huguenots)
Poisson d’avril, pesce d’aprile, April’s Fools Day & the Edict of Roussillon, 1574 (Huguenots)

9 May 2012

WordPress

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[i] James Marsh “Ordre de Bon Temps,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/ordre-de-bon-temps

[ii] “Samuel de Champlain,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain

[iii] Micheline Walker, Pierre Du Gua de Monts: a Mostly Forgotten Founder of Canada https://michelinewalker.com/2012/05/05/pierre-du-gua-de-monts-a-mostly-forgotten-founder-of-canada/

[iv] Marcel Trudel ,“Samuel de Champlain,” DCB Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=115

[v] “In 1620 the king [Louis XIII] reaffirmed Champlain’s authority over Quebec but forbade his personal exploration, directing him instead to employ his talents in administrative tasks.” In C. T. Ritchie, “Samuel de Champlain,” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 09 May. 2012
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/105187/Samuel-de-Champlain>.