[MACKENZIE] THE BARONETS OF NOVA SCOTIA 93 
In 1534 King Francis the First of France gave a commission to 
Jacques Cartier, a very adventurous mariner of that Kingdom to sail on 
an expedition of discovery. 
“As respects North America beyond the Gulf of Mexico and the 
country to the north, dense ignorance still prevailed, and though a 
coast line had been followed from Florida to Cape Breton by Cabot, 
Gomez and Verrazano, it was believed either to belong to a part of 
Asia, or to be a mere prolongation of Greenland.” 7 
Cartier, with two small ships each of sixty tons, and a crew of 
sixty-one men, set sail from St. Malo in Brittany on his voyage of 
discovery. “L.I. Anticoste ou l’Assomption et aux Habitans Natisco- 
tec fut decowerte par Jacques Cartier Yan 1534.”* At Cape Gaspé 
Cartier set up a cross thirty feet high bearing the Royal Arms of 
France and inscribed, “ VIVE-LE ROY DE FRANCE.” He then returned 
to France. It was now projected to found a French settlement in 
the country, and with this object Cartier was invested with a new 
commission, and in 1535 set sail with three ships. On this voyage he 
discovered the River St. Lawrence, “il fut nommé Hochelaga par Iac- 
ques Cartier qui le decowrit le premier en 1535? Sailing up this 
river Cartier arrived at the Kingdom of Saguenay, where he set up a 
cross ensigned with the Royal Arms of France, and the inscription 
“ FRANCISCVS PRIMVS DEI GRATIA FRANCORVM Rex REGNAT.” Con- 
tinuing his voyage up the river, Cartier arrived at the present site 
of Quebec, and the next year returned to France taking an Indian 
chief and some other inhabitants of the country with him, whom King 
Francis graciously received and treated with much kindness. In 1541 
Cartier again sailed with an expedition to the new land and fortified 
Cape Breton, but made no further discoveries of any moment. 
Cartier was a great navigator and discoverer; his name must ever 
be honoured, not only by his fellow-countrymen but by men of other 
nations, by all who admire the performance of loyal and patriotic 
services to King and country. 
The next to arrive was Jean Francois de la Roque, Seigneur de 
Roberval, who had been appointed by the King of France as his “ lieu- 
tenant in Canada, Hochelaga, Saguenay, Newfoundland, Belle Isle, 
Carpunt, Labrador, the Great Bay (St. Lawrence), and Baccalaos, as 
well as lord of the mysterious region of Norumbega—an example of 
the lavish use of titles and the assumption of royal dominion in an un- 
known wilderness.” 1° De Roberval sailed from France in 1542 and 
returned the next year, having accomplished little, beyond building a 
strong fort; though Captain Jehan Allefonsce, a pilot, who accom- 
