a last shower of presents on the assembled Indians.
Finally, on May 6, the caravels dropped down the river,
and the homeward voyage began.

The voyage passed without incident. The ships were some
time in descending the St Lawrence. At Isle-aux-Coudres
they waited for the swollen tide of the river to abate.
The Indians still flocked about them in canoes, talking
with Donnacona and his men, but powerless to effect a
rescue of the chief. Contrary winds held the vessels
until, at last, on May 21, fair winds set in from the
west that carried them in an easy run to the familiar
coast of Gaspe, past Brion Island, through the passage
between Newfoundland and the Cape Breton shore, and so
outward into the open Atlantic.

'On July 6, 1536,' so ends Cartier's chronicle of this
voyage, 'we reached the harbour of St Malo, by the Grace
of our Creator, whom we pray, making an end of our
navigation, to grant us His Grace, and Paradise at the
end. Amen.'



CHAPTER VIII

THE THIRD VOYAGE

Nearly five years elapsed after Cartier's return to St
Malo before he again set sail for the New World. His