millet fields of Brazil. It is possible, indeed, that
not only had he been in Brazil, but that he had carried
a native of that country to France. In a baptismal register
of St Malo is recorded the christening, in 1528, of a
certain 'Catherine of Brezil,' to whom Cartier's wife
stood godmother. We may, in fancy at least, suppose that
this forlorn little savage with the regal title was a
little girl whom the navigator, after the fashion of his
day, had brought home as living evidence of the existence
of the strange lands that he had seen.

Out of this background, then, of uncertainty and conjecture
emerges, in 1534, Jacques Cartier, a master-pilot in the
prime of life, now sworn to the service of His Most
Christian Majesty Francis I of France, and about to
undertake on behalf of his illustrious master a voyage
to the New Land.



CHAPTER II

THE FIRST VOYAGE--NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

It was on April 20, 1534, that Jacques Cartier sailed
out of the port of St Malo on his first voyage in the
service of Francis I. Before leaving their anchorage the
commander, the sailing-masters, and the men took an oath,
administered by Charles de Mouy, vice-admiral of France,
that they would behave themselves truly and faithfully