of Cartier. It has been suggested that Roberval did set
sail at some time in the summer of 1541, and that he
reached Cape Breton island and built a fort there. So,
at least, a tradition ran that was repeated many years
later by Lescarbot in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France.
If this statement is true, it must mean that Roberval
sailed home again at the close of 1541, without having
succeeded in finding Cartier, and that he prepared for
a renewed expedition in the spring of the coming year.
But the evidence for any such voyage is not conclusive.

What we know is that on April 16, 1542, Roberval sailed
out of the port of Rochelle with three tall ships and a
company of two hundred persons, men and women, and that
with him were divers gentlemen of quality. On June 8,
1542, his ships entered the harbour of St John's in
Newfoundland. They found there seventeen fishing vessels,
clear proof that by this time the cod fisheries of the
Newfoundland Banks were well known. They were, indeed,
visited by the French, the Portuguese, and other nations.
Here Roberval paused to refit his ships and to replenish
his stores. While he was still in the harbour, one day,
to his amazement, Cartier sailed in with the five ships
that he was bringing away from his abandoned settlement
at Charlesbourg Royal. Cartier showed to his superior
the 'diamonds' and the gold that he was bringing home
from Canada. He gave to Roberval a glowing account of
the country that he had seen, but, according to the meagre
details that appear in the fragment in Hakluyt's Voyages,
he made clear that he had been compelled to abandon his