44 I N T R O D U C I N G C A N A D A

THE FIRST EUROPEANS

The Norse sagas of Northern Europe aboard the Matthew, bound for America.
tell how Vikings from Iceland first On June 24, he found a sheltered place
reached the coast of Labrador in AD on Newfoundland. Here he went
986 and made a series of unsuccessful ashore with a small party to claim the
attempts to establish a colony land for England. He then went
here. Leif “the Lucky” Ericsson on to chart the eastern coastline
sailed from Greenland in 988, before sailing home, where he
naming the country he found was greeted as a hero.
in the west Vinland after the In May 1498, Cabot sailed
wild grapes found growing again with five ships and 300
in abundance there. Around men hoping to find the North-
1000 AD Thorfinn Karlsefni west Passage to China. Harsh
tried to establish a Vinland weather drove Cabot to
colony. Thorfinn’s group relinquish his efforts and head
wintered in Vinland but sailed south to Nova Scotia. Cabot
home to Greenland in the Italian navigator and
then found himself sailing
spring, convinced that a explorer John Cabot through a sea littered with
colony was impossible as icebergs. The fleet perished
there were too few colonists and the off the coast of Greenland, and English
skraelings (aboriginals) were hostile. interest in the new land faded.
Remarkably, remains of this early
Viking settlement were discovered in THE FRENCH ARRIVAL
Newfoundland in 1963 (see p71). Originally from the port of St. Malo,
explorer Jacques Cartier (1491–1557)
THE ENGLISH INVASION made his first voyage to Canada in 1534.
In 1497, the Italian navigator John He reached Labrador, Newfoundland,
Cabot (1450–98), on the commission and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence before
of King Henry VII of England, set sail landing on Anticosti Island where he

Map off the

h voyage off Jacques Cartier and
d his
h ffollowers
ll by
b Pierre Descaliers
l c.1534 –1541

TIMELINE
1541 At the mouth of the Cap 1567 Samuel de 1605 Samuel de Champlain
Rouge River, Cartier founds Champlain and the Sieur de Roberval
Charlesbourg-Royal, the first “Father of New found Port Royal, now
French settlement in America France” born Annapolis, Nova Scotia
– it is abandoned in 1543
1525 1550 1575 1600
1535 Cartier sails up 1608 Champlain founds Quebec
the St. Lawrence City, creating the first permanent
River to Stadacona European settlement in Canada
(Quebec City) and
Hochelaga (Montreal) Jacques 1610 Henry Hudson
Cartier explores Hudson Bay
 T H E H I S T O R Y O F C A N A D A 45

realized he was at the mouth

of a great river. A year later,
he returned and sailed up
the St. Lawrence River to the
site of what is now Quebec
City, and then on to a native
encampment at Hochelega,
which he named Montreal.
In 1543, Cartier’s hopes for a
successful colony died when,
after a bitter and barren Champlain, “Father off New France,” fighting
f the Iroquois
winter, he and his dispirited
group returned to France. Seventy from Hudson Bay to New Orleans in
more years would pass before French Louisiana, and from Newfoundland
colonists returned to Canada to stay. almost as far west as the Rockies.
In 1612 Champlain became French
THE FATHER OF NEW FRANCE Canada’s first head of government.
Samuel de Champlain (1567–1635) Champlain’s efforts also helped to
was a man of many parts – navigator, create the religious climate that
soldier, visionary – and first made the enabled orders such as the Jesuits to
journey from France to Canada in establish missions. But his work also
1603. While the ship that carried him laid the seeds of conflict with the
across the Atlantic lay at Tadoussac, English that would last well into
Champlain ascended the St. Lawrence the next century and beyond.
River by canoe to the Lachine Rapids.
In 1605, Champlain’s attempt to
found a colony at Port Royal failed, but THE HUDSON’S
in 1608 the seeds of a first tiny French BAY COMPANY
colony at Quebec City were planted, In 1610, English voy-
with the construction of three two- ager Henry Hudson
landed at the bay that
story houses, a courtyard, and a watch- still bears his name.
tower, surrounded by a wooden wall. The bay’s access to
The economic engine propelling many key waterways
Champlain was the fur trade. In its and trading routes
name he made alliances with the ensured the fortunes
Hudson’s last voyage of the fur trade.
Algonquins and Hurons, fought their Founded in 1670, the
dreaded enemies, the Iroquois, trav- Hudson’s Bay Company won control of
eled to the Huron country that is now the lands that drained into the bay, gaining
central Ontario, and saw the Great a fur-trading monopoly over the area. The
Lakes. Champlain and the other French- company was challenged only by Scottish
merchants who established the North
men who followed him not only estab- West Company in Montreal in 1783. By
lished lasting settlements in the St. 1821, these two companies amalgamated,
Lawrence Valley but also explored half and the Hudson’s Bay Company remains
a continent. They built a “New France” Canada’s largest fur trader to this day.
that, at its zenith, stretched south

1648–49 The Iroquois 1702 French and

disperse the Huron nation British rivalries
and Jesuit father Jean de result in outbreak of
Engraving of
Brébeuf is martyred during Queen Anne’s War
Iroquois
Iroquois raids on Huronia
1625 1650 1675 1700
1629 British 1670 The Hudson’s 1676 population of
adventurer David Bay Company is New France swelled
Kirke captures founded by royal to 8,500 by settlers
Quebec, but it charter and under-
is returned to written by a group of
France in 1632 Raccoon pelt English merchants