embled Indians.
Finally, on May 6, the caravels dropped down the river, and the
homeward voyage began.

The voyage passed without incident. The ships were some time in
descending the St Lawrence. At Isle-aux-Coudres they waited for the
swollen tide of the river to abate. The Indians still flocked about
them in canoes, talking with Donnacona and his men, but powerless to
effect a rescue of the chief. Contrary winds held the vessels until,
at last, on May 21, fair winds set in from the west that carried them
in an easy run to the familiar coast of Gaspe, past Brion Island,
through the passage between Newfoundland and the Cape Breton shore, and
so outward into the open Atlantic.

'On July 6, 1536,' so ends Cartier's chronicle of this voyage, 'we
reached the harbour of St Malo, by the Grace of our Creator, whom we
pray, making an end of our navigation, to grant us His Grace, and
Paradise at the end. Amen.'

CHAPTER VIII

THE THIRD VOYAGE

Nearly five years elapsed after Cartier's return to St Malo before he
again set sail for the New World. His royal master, indeed, had
received him most graciously. Francis had deigned to listen with
pleasure to the recital of his pilot's adventures, and had ordered him
to set them down in writing. Moreover, he had seen and conversed with
Donnacona and the other captive Indians, who had told of the wonders of
their distant country. The Indians had learned the language of their
captors and spoke with the king in French. Francis gave orders that
they should be received into the faith, and the registers of St Malo
show that on March 25, 1538, or 1539 (the year is a little uncertain),
there were baptized three savages from Canada brought from the said
country by 'honnete homme [honest man], Jacques Cartier, captain of our
Lord the King.'

But the moment was unsuited for further endeavour in the New World.
Francis had enough to do to save his own soil from the invading
Spaniard. Nor was it until the king of France on June 15, 1538, made a
truce with his inveterate foe, Charles V, that he was able to turn
again to American discovery. Profoundly impressed with the vast extent
and unbounded resources of the countries described in Cartier's
narrative, the king decided to assume the sovereignty of this new land,
and to send out for further discovery an expedition of some magnitude.
At the head of it he placed Jean Francois de la Roque, Sieur de
Roberval, whom, on January 15, 1540, he cr