year.

It is not certainly known how nearly he advanced to the mouth of that
river on his passage from Gaspe Bay. But it is believed that he passed
round the western point of Anticosti, subsequently named by him Isle de
l'Assumption, and that he then turned to the east, leaving behind the
entrance into the great river, which he then supposed to be an extensive
bay, and, coasting along the shore of Labrador, came to the river
Natachquoin, near Mount Joli, whence, as already stated, he passed
eastward and northward to Blanc Sablon.

Cartier and his companions were favorably received on their return to
France. The expectations of his employers had been to a certain extent
realized, while the narrative of the voyage, and the prospects which
this afforded of greater results in future, inspired such feelings of
hope and confidence that there seems to have been no hesitation in
furnishing means for the equipment of another expedition. The Indians
who had been brought to France were instructed in the French language,
and served also as specimens of the people inhabiting his majesty's
western dominions. During the winter the necessary preparations were
made.

On the May 19, 1535, Cartier took his departure from St. Malo on his
second expedition. It was in every way better equipped than that of the
preceding year, and consisted of three ships, manned by one hundred ten
sailors. A number of gentlemen volunteers from France accompanied it.
Cartier himself embarked on board the largest vessel, which was named
La Grande Hermine, along with his two interpreters. Adverse winds
lengthened the voyage, so that seven weeks were occupied in sailing to
the Straits of Belle-Isle. Thence the squadron made for the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, so named by Cartier in honor of the day upon which he entered
it. Emboldened by the information derived from his Indian interpreters,
he sailed up the great river, at first named the River of Canada, or of
Hochelaga. The mouth of the Saguenay was passed on September 1st, and
the island of Orleans reached on the 9th. To this he gave the name "Isle
of Bacchus," on account of the abundance of grape-vines upon it.

On the 16th the ships arrived off the headland since known as Cape
Diamond. Near to this, a small river, called by Cartier St. Croix, now
the St. Charles, was observed flowing into the St. Lawrence,
intercepting, at the confluence, a piece of lowland, which was the site
of the Indian village Stadacona