France's interest in North America began with her fishermen who crossed the Atlantic to fish for cod off the Newfoundland Banks. Going ashore to dry and preserve their catch, they encountered tribes of coastal Indians and began communicating and trading with them, starting an association between French pioneers and Indians which was to be a remarkable feature of France's exploration in North America.
Jacques Cartier 1491-1557
One of the founders of French Canada, Jacques Cartier discovered the entrance to the St. Lawrence River in 1534, and returned to spend the winter there in 1535-6. Friendly Indians told him of a place further up-river they called "Canada", which became the name of the new land. Cartier himself named a hilltop "Mont Real" (royal mountain). But rocks which he hoped contained gold and diamonds turned out to be worthless, and he had to be content with trading rather than settling the country he had discovered.
The Role of the Indians and Canoes
French scouts outstripped all other nations as, with the help of the Indians, they penetrated as far west as the foot-hills of the Rockies. Many of the scouts were themselves half Indian, and married Indian wives. In the early days they explored the forests of the eastern seaboard and were known as coureurs de bois - "runners of the woods". Farther west where the forests gave way to prairie country, the French scouts preferred to travel by water, journeying for as long as three years into the interior, living in Indian villages during the winters. These men were known simply as voyageurs - "the travellers".
Their favourite craft was the birch-bark canoe which was ideally suited for their work. Its size varied according to the load it had to carry, but the canoe always had to be light enough to be portaged (carried) over obstacles or across the watershed between one river and the next.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle 1643-1687
Brilliant and energetic, La Salle dreamed of building a great French empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Canada. He explored the area south of the Great Lakes, and was one of the earliest backwoodsmen to see the mighty Niagara Falls. Then in 1680-82, with a party of Indians and French Canadians in canoes, he became the first man to navigate the entire length of the Mississippi River. He had a great gift for dealing with the Indians of North America, and was always accompanied on his journeys by Nika, a Shawnee scout.
Sources:
- Balchin, J (2005) To the Ends of the Earth : Journeys of the Great Explorers: From the Equator to the Poles. Arcturus Publishing.
- Johnson, D (2002) La Salle: A Perilous Odyssey from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Cooper Square Publishers: United States
Linda Smallwood - Hi my name is Linda Smallwood. I am married with two sons aged 13 and 11 and live in North Wales. After 18 years working for The ...
