on board fishing-vessels
trading between Europe and the Banks of Newfoundland.

He was selected and recommended to the King for appointment as one who
might be expected to realize, for the benefit of France, some of the
discoveries of his predecessor, Verrazano, which had been attended with
no substantial result, since this navigator and his companions had
scarcely done more than view, from a distance, the coasts of the
extensive regions to which the name of New France had been given. It was
also expected of Cartier that, through his endeavors, valuable lands
would be taken possession of in the King's name, and that places
suitable for settlement, and stations for carrying on traffic, would be
established. Moreover, it was hoped that the precious metals would be
procured in those parts, and that a passage onward to China (Cathay) and
the East Indies would be found out. And, finally, the ambitious
sovereign of France was induced to believe that, in spite of the
pretensions of Portugal and Spain,[44] he might make good his own claim
to a share in transatlantic territories.

With such objects in view, Jacques Cartier set sail from St. Malo, on
Monday, April 20, 1534.[45] His command consisted of two small vessels,
with crews amounting to about one hundred twenty men, and provisioned
for four or five months.

On May 10th the little squadron arrived off Cape Bonavista,
Newfoundland; but, as the ice and snow of the previous winter had not
yet disappeared, the vessels were laid up for ten days in a harbor near
by, named St. Catherine's. From this, on the 21st, they sailed northward
to an island northeast of Cape Bonavista, situated about forty miles
from the mainland, which had been called by the Portuguese the "Isle of
Birds." Here were found several species of birds which, it appears,
frequented the island at that season of the year in prodigious numbers,
so that, according to Cartier's own narrative, the crews had no
difficulty in capturing enough of them, both for their immediate use and
to fill eight or ten large barrels (_pippes_) for future consumption.
Bears and foxes are described as passing from the mainland, in order to
feed upon the birds as well as their eggs and young.

From the Isle of Birds the ships proceeded northward and westward until
they came to the Straits of Belle-Isle, when they were detained by foul
weather, and by ice, in a harbor, from May 27th until June 9th. The
ensuing fifteen days were spen