praiseworthy enterprises, I will instance again the people of St. Malo and
others, who say that the profit of these discoveries belongs to them, since
Jacques Cartier, who first visited Canada and the islands of New Foundland,
was from their city, as if that city had contributed to the expenses of
these discoveries of Jacques Cartier, who went there by the order and at
the expense of King Francis I, in the years 1534 and 1535 to discover these
territories now called New France. If then Cartier made any discovery at
the expense of His Majesty, all his subjects have the same rights and
liberties in them as the people of St. Malo, who cannot prevent others who
make farther discoveries at their own expense, as is shown in the case of
the discoveries above described, from profiting by them in peace. Hence
they ought not to claim any rights if they themselves make no
contributions, and their reasons for doing so are weak and foolish.

To prove more conclusively that they who maintain this position do so
without any foundation, let us suppose that a Spaniard or other foreigner
had discovered lands and wealth at the expense of the King of France. Could
the Spaniards or other foreigners claim these discoveries and this wealth
on the ground that the discoverer was a Spaniard or foreigner? No! There
would be no sense in doing so, and they would always belong to France.
Hence the people of St. Malo cannot make these claims for the reason which
they give, that Cartier was a citizen of their city; and they can only take
cognizance of the fact that he was a citizen of theirs, and render him
accordingly the praise which is his due.

Besides, Cartier in the voyage which he made never passed the great fall of
St. Louis, and made no discoveries north or south of the river
St. Lawrence. His narratives give no evidence of it, in which he speaks
only of the river Saguenay, the Trois Rivieres and St. Croix, where he
spent the winter in a fort near our settlement. Had he done so, he would