almost 1,000 miles up the Saint Lawrence until he reached the rapids at the
site of modern Montreal.
Where, Cartier asked every native he met, was the way to Cathay, and
where could he find gold? The Iroquois who lived in the area of Montreal
gave him the answer that had become standard when the southern Indians
were questioned by the Spaniards: “Go west or north or anywhere far away
from here.”
Since the area Cartier reached was south of the latitude of Paris (and
no one then understood the effect on Europe of the Gulf Stream), Cartier
did not prepare for intense cold. Almost half his crew died during the bitter
winter. The hospitable Iroquois tried to help, but living in a subsistence
economy, they had little to spare. By seizing what the Indians could not
give, Cartier’s party turned hospitality into hatred. This early false step was
to color Franco-Indian and Franco-British relations for more than a cen-
tury throughout New England, Canada, and the lands around the Great
Lakes.
War in Europe again distracted France, and it was not until six years
later, in 1541, that Cartier was able to return, this time to establish a strong-
hold near modern Quebec, but founding colonies proved far harder for the
French in the north than for the Spanish in the Caribbean. The French aban-
doned their outpost after just two years. Disappointed by what they had
experienced in America, and distracted by war with England over Brittany
and Normandy and by continued clashes with Spain, France dropped its
efforts in the New World for half a century. But there was more to America
than frozen Canada. The vast wealth of Spain’s treasure fleets had attracted
the attention of French pirates almost as soon as the Spaniards found Aztec
and Inca gold. In 1559 the Franco-Spanish treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis
brought a respite from attacks, but the lure of the treasure flotawas irre-
sistible. In the shifting politics of Europe, new alliances were replacing old,
and, in its hostility with Spain, France occasionally found common cause
with England. One Englishman who led the way against Spain was Francis
Drake.
A passionate Protestant who hated the Spaniards, Drake became one of
the most feared of the English raiders. His raids convinced the Spanish gov-
ernment that its transport of the gold of Mexico and Peru was in grave jeop-
58 THE BIRTH OF AMERICA