8. Cartier's Winter of Discontent
Stadacona, scurvy and a captive Donnacona
Updated: February 18, 2024
Jacques Cartier provided a detailed description of his discoveries of the route to Canada and Hochelaga as well as a record of his relations with the St. Lawrence Iroquois. The records of his journeys are unmatched by any other early 16th century explorer. Other Europeans had visited Newfoundland and even managed to enter the Gulf of St. Lawrence. However, they were not explorers but fishermen who were determined to keep the source of their livelihood secret from other Europeans. Cartier, on the other hand, came as a representative of the French crown to claim land and describe to his masters in France the land he claimed for his king.
To modern sensibilities, Cartier represented all that was questionable about Imperial greed and power in his capture of “savages” to bring them back to France as specimens of strange new world people. In fact, he did this twice and …
