Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/207

 far as Massachusetts. These visits did not lead to any settlements being made, and were very soon-forgotten, so that Columbus is the real discoverer of America. After a long voyage he came to an island and thought he had reached India. This mistake led to the group, of which this island is one, being called the West Indies. But Columbus did not reach the mainland as soon as John and Sebastian Cabot, two navigators sent out by Henry VII. of England, who explored the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland in 1497-98. A little later a Florentine named Amerigo Vespucci visited the New World and wrote an account of his travels. This led to the new continent being called America.

5. Jacques Cartier.—France, unlike Spain and England, did not take much interest in the work of exploring America until 1534, when Francis I. sent out from the sea-port of St. Malo, the famous sea captain, Jacques Cartier. Cartier sailed to Newfoundland, entered the straits of Belle Isle and passed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He landed at Gaspé, and erected a cross bearing the arms of France, to indicate that he had taken possession of the country for the French King. The next year he made another visit and entered the Gulf on St. Lawrence’s Day, and for this reason he named the Gulf and the great river which empties into it the St. Lawrence. Sailing up the river he came to an Indian village, Stadacona, situated near where now the city of Quebec stands. Continuing his voyage he reached another Indian village, called Hochelaga. This village was situated at the foot of a beautiful mountain covered with trees, and he named it Mont Royal—hence the name of our great commercial city Montreal. After a short stay Cartier returned to Stadacona, and spent the winter there. His men suffered terribly from cold and scurvy, but were treated with the utmost kindness by the Indians. In the spring he returned to France, taking with him by force a number of Indian chiefs who were never permitted to go back to their own people—a base reward for their hospitality. Six years after, Cartier and Sieur de Roberval made an attempt to colonize Canada, but their efforts were fruitless; and France, occupied with matters of greater interest at home, sent out no other expedition for nearly fifty years.

6. Champlain.—At last in 1603, Samuel De Champlain, a distinguished naval officer, and Pontgravé, a merchant of St. Malo,