Jacques Cartier Claims Land for France—Journal

People keep journals to record interesting events that happen to them, as well as their thoughts and feelings. They often write in their journals every day. Below is an excerpt from the journal Jacques Cartier (ZHAHK khar TYAY) kept at the time he was exploring the St. Lawrence River in what is now Canada.

Primary Source

We had a cross made thirty feet high, which was put together in the presence of a number of the [Stadacona] Indians on the point [opposite Sandy Beach] at the entrance to this harbour, under the cross-bar of which we fixed a shield with three fleurs-de-lys in relief, and above it a wooden board, engraved in large Gothic characters, where was written, LONG LIVE THE KING OF FRANCE. We erected this cross on the point in their presence and they watched it being put together and set up. And when it had been raised in the air, we all knelt down with our hands joined, worshipping it before them….

When we had returned to our ships, the chief, dressed in an old black bear-skin, arrived in a canoe with three of his sons and his brother…And pointing to the cross he made us a long harangue, making the sign of the cross with two of his fingers; and then he pointed to the land all around about, as if he wished to say that all this region belonged to him, and that we ought not to have set up this cross without his permission….

Background

Jacques Cartier was a French explorer in the early 1500s. He made three voyages to North America between 1534 and 1542. He sailed far up the St. Lawrence River in Canada. His explorations enabled France to claim land in Canada. North American Indian groups, however, had already lived in Canada for thousands of years. In this journal excerpt, Cartier claims land that belongs to the Haudenosaunee Indians, who lived in a settlement called Stadacona (now Quebec City). This early clash of American Indian and European land claims foretells the long years of conflict ahead.