Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/577

Rh as commandant of the naval academy at Annapolis from 1809 till 1872, being promoted to captain 28 Oct., 1870 ; was a member of the light-house board from 1876 till 1880 ; was commissioned commodore 13 Nov., 1878, and retired 6 Aug., 1881. On 16 May. 1882, he was made a rear-admiral.

CARTIER, Sir George Etienne, Bart., Cana- dian statesman, b. in St. Antoine, Quebec, 6 Sept., 1814 ; d. in England, 20 May, 1873. He was edu- cated at St. Sulpice college, Montreal, and admit- ted t6 the bar in 1835. He took part in the Lower Canada rebellion of 1837, and was under arms at the battle of St. Denis. He escaped to the United States, but shortly afterward was permitted to re- turn to Canada without molestation. He entered parliament in 1848 as member for Vercheres, in the conservative interest, and in 1855 became provin- cial secretary in the McNab-Tache government. On the resignation of Sir Allan McNab, in 1856, Mr. Cartier became attorney-general for Lower Canada in the Tache-Macdonald ministry, and in this capacity effected the codification of the civil laws of Lower Canada and accomplished great im- provements in the system of administering the criminal law. In 1857 he proposed to leave the solution of the question of a permanent seat of government to her majesty. At this time the legislative assembly had decided upon Quebec, and had authorized the erection of government build- ings in that city ; but the legislative council had refused to vote the supplies. The queen decided that Ottawa should be the permanent seat of gov- ernment. On 26 Nov., 1857, the cabinet was re- organized, John A. Macdonald becoming premier and Mr. Cartier being the only Lower Canada min- ister retained. On 29 July, 1858, the Macdonald- Cartier ministry resigned, in consequence of the assembly's having passed a resolution that Ottawa ought not to be the seat of government. George Brown having formed a ministry, and resigned after an administration of two days, the so-called " double shuffle " was performed. Taking advan- tage of a clause of the independence of parliament act, which provided that a cabinet minister resign- ing one office might accept another within one month without forfeiting his scat in parliament, the Macdonald-Cartier ministry became the Cartier- Macdonald ministry. Cartier, who had resigned the portfolio of attorney-general on 29 July, be- came inspector-general on 6 Aug. On 7 Aug. he was again sworn in as attorney-general. Li the interests of Lower Canada, Cartier was a deter- mined opponent of the principle of representation by population demanded I)y Upper Canada, which had a population of 285,427 moi'e than the sister province. The Cartier-MacdonaJd ministry fell in attempting to pass a militia bill in May, 1862. Cartier was one of the active promoters of confed- eration, and became minister of militia in the first Dominion cabinet in July, 1867. In August of the followiiig vear he was created a baronet.

CARTIER, Jacques, explorer, b. in St. Malo, France, 31 Dec, 1494; d. 1 Sept., 1557. He had led a seafaring life, and made fishing voyages to the grand banks of Labrador, when he entered, 20 April, 1534, upon his voyage of discovery. Steer- ing for Newfoundland, he passed through the straits of Belle Isle into the gulf of Chaleurs, and planted a cross at Gaspe, decorated with the arms of France, and bearing the inscription, " Vive le Roi de France ! " The native Indians, who sur- mised no good from its erection, he deceived by saying that it " was only set up to be as a light and leader which ways to enter into the port." He also caused two young Indians to be kidnapped, whom he carried away with him to France, after ascend- ing the St. Lawrence, past the shores of Anticosti, not doubting that he had discovered the road to Cathay. In the year ensuing, 19 May, 1535, he began his second voyage with three small vessels, and, steering westward along the coast of Labrador, entered a small bay opposite the island of Anticosti, which he called the bay of St. Lawrence. He proceeded cau- tiously up the river, past the Saguenay and Cape Tour- mente, and an- chored off a wooded and vine-clad isl- and; he called it, on account of the rich clusters of grapes, the island of Bacchus (the island of Orleans), and, after friendly converse with the Indians, notably with Donnacona, their chief, descried the majestic site of the modern Quebec, then called Stadaeone, went in a boat up the St. Croix river (now the St. Charles), and, understanding that many days' journey up the river Hochelaga (for by that name the Indians called the St. Lawrence) there was a large town of the same name, he resolved to go thither. The Indians were averse to his going, and tried to frighten him by sending three of their number, disguised as devils, with blackened faces and " horns on their heads more than a yard long." But Cartier was not dissuaded from his purpose, and on 2 Oct., 1535, his vessels lay in the stream off Hochelaga, the modern Montreal. The Indians there received the French with demonstrations of great joy, and on the following day introduced them into their rudely fortified city, containing fifty log houses about 150 feet in length and from 12 to 15 feet in width ; they set before Cartier their paralyzed chief, that he should touch and heal him ; a crowd of afflicted people came for the same purpose, "as if a god had come down to cure them." He read, in default of other or better medicine, a portion of St. John's gospel over them, made the sign of the cross, and, after a prayer, concluded with reading to them, either in Latin or French (whereof they did not understand a word), the story of the passion, and distributed among them knives, hatchets, beads, pewter rings, etc. A blast of trumpets terminated the visit. Delighted with the country. Cartier returned to Stadaeone, and in a fort, which he had built on the St. Charles, passed a terrible winter; and, after treacherously possessing himself of the person of Donnacona and his chiefs, returned, with nuirvellous stories of his discoveries, to St. Malo, 16 July, 1536. The said chiefs received baptism, but died in the land of their captivity. Cartier, in the capacity of captain-general, joined the expedition of Roberval, who was made lieutenant-governor and viceroy of the numerous American territories, and preceded the latter, leaving St. Malo, 23 May, 1541. On his return to Stadaeone, Cartier announced the death of Donnacona, and spread the false report that the other chiefs had married in France and lived in great affluence.