18 ChApTEr 1 | firSt ContaCtS | period one 1491–1607 TopIC^ III^ |^ transatlantic Conquest^19
And the women brought their children in their arms to make them touch the
said captain and others, making a rejoicing which lasted more than half an hour.
And our captain, witnessing their liberality and good will, caused all the women
to be seated and ranged in order, and gave them certain paternosters of tin and
other trifling things, and to a part of the men knives. Then he retired on board the
said boats to sup and pass the night, while these people remained on the shore of
the said river nearest the said boats all night, making fires and dancing, crying all
the time “Aguyaze!” which is their expression of mirth and joy....... [W]e marched farther on, and about a halfleague from there we began
to find the land cultivated, and fair, large fields full of grain of their country,
which is like Brazil millet, as big or bigger than peas, on which they live just as
we do on wheat; and in the midst of these fields is located and seated the town of
Hochelaga, near to and adjoining a mountain, which is cultivated round about it
and highly fertile, from the summit of which one sees a very great distance. We
named the said mountain Mont Royal....
Jacques Cartier, A Memoir of Jacques Cartier, Sieur de Limoilou, His Voyages to the St. Lawrence;
a Bibliography and a Facsimile of the Manuscript of 1534, with Annotations, Etc., ed. and
trans. James Phinney Baxter (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1906), 161–162.prACTICINg historical Thinking
Identify: Identify the details of this encounter that were significant to Cartier.
Analyze: Cartier’s memoir was published soon after his exploration of the St.
Lawrence River. What impressions did Cartier hope to make on his audience
regarding natives and resources in the Western Hemisphere?
Evaluate: Reread the excerpts in this chapter from Christopher Columbus’s journal
(Doc. 1.4) and Cartier’s memoir (Doc. 1.11). To what extent do these documents
present the relationship between natives and Europeans in similar ways?Document 1.12 JOhN SMiTh, The Generall Historie of Virginia
1624Captain John Smith (1580–1631) was commissioned by the British Crown to oversee
“all things abroad.” Here he reflects on an encounter with native peoples in the Virginia
Colony, Great Britain’s earliest successful settlement in North America. This excerpt is
from Smith’s book The Generall Historie of Virginia.The new president and Martin, being little beloved, of weak judgment in dan
gers, and less industry in peace, committed the managing of all things abroad
to Captain Smith: who by his own example, good words, and fair promises,
set some to mow, others to bind thatch, some to build houses, others to thatch02_STA_2012_ch1_001-026.indd 19 26/03/15 10:35 AM