registers of St Malo, Saint Briac, and other places in
some profusion during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The family seems to have died out, although
not many years ago direct descendants of Pierre Cartier,
the uncle of Jacques, were still surviving in France.

It is perhaps no great loss to the world that we have so
little knowledge of the ancestors and relatives of the
famous mariner. It is, however, deeply to be deplored
that, beyond the record of his voyages, we know so little
of Jacques Cartier himself. We may take it for granted
that he early became a sailor. Brought up at such a time
and place, he could hardly have failed to do so. Within
a few years after the great discovery of Columbus, the
Channel ports of St Malo and Dieppe were sending forth
adventurous fishermen to ply their trade among the fogs
of the Great Banks of the New Land. The Breton boy, whom
we may imagine wandering about the crowded wharves of
the little harbour, must have heard strange tales from
the sailors of the new discoveries. Doubtless he grew
up, as did all the seafarers of his generation, with the
expectation that at any time some fortunate adventurer
might find behind the coasts and islands now revealed to
Europe in the western sea the half-fabled empires of
Cipango and Cathay. That, when a boy, he came into actual
contact with sailors who had made the Atlantic voyage is
not to be questioned. We know that in 1507 the Pensee of
Dieppe had crossed to the coast of Newfoundland and that
this adventure was soon followed by the sailing of other
Norman ships for the same goal.