t
Malo. Seventy-four of their names are still preserved upon a roll of
the crew. The company numbered in all one hundred and twelve persons,
including the two savages who had been brought from Gaspe in the
preceding voyage, and who were now to return as guides and interpreters
of the expedition.

Whether or not there were any priests on board the ships is a matter
that is not clear. The titles of two persons in the roll--Dom Guillaume
and Dom Antoine--seem to suggest a priestly calling. But the fact that
Cartier made no attempt to baptize the Indians to whom he narrated the
truths of the Gospel, and that he makes no mention of priests in
connection with any of the sacred ceremonies which he carried out, seem
to show that none were included in the expedition. There is, indeed,
reference in the narrative to the hearing of mass, but it relates
probably to the mere reading of prayers by the explorer himself. On one
occasion, also, as will appear, Cartier spoke to the Indians of what
his priests had told him, but the meaning of the phrase is doubtful.

Before sailing, every man of the company repaired to the Cathedral
Church of St Malo, where all confessed their sins and received the
benediction of the good bishop of the town. This was on the day and
feast of Pentecost in 1535, and three days later, on May 19, the ships
sailed out from the little harbour and were borne with a fair wind
beyond the horizon of the west. But the voyage was by no means as
prosperous as that of the year before. The ships kept happily together
until May 26. Then they were assailed in mid-Atlantic by furious gales
from the west, and were enveloped in dense banks of fog. During a month
of buffeting against adverse seas, they were driven apart and lost
sight of one another.

Cartier in the Grande Hermine reached the coast of Newfoundland safely
on July coming again to the Island of Birds. 'So full of birds it was,'
he writes, 'that all the ships of France might be loaded with them, and
yet it would not seem that any were taken away.' On the next day the
Grande Hermine sailed on through the Strait of Belle Isle for Blanc
Sablon, and there, by agreement, waited in the hope that her consorts
might arrive. In the end, on the 26th, the two missing ships sailed
into the harbour together. Three days more were spent in making
necessary repairs and in obtaining water and other supplies, and on the
29th at sunrise the reunited expedition set out on its explo