Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was born in the year of 1491 in St. Malo, France.  Many historians said that he wanted to become a sailor by the stories he heard from sailors and fishermen.  They said that Jacques Cartier was amazed by the stories.  So amazed that he became a sailor at the age of 13!  That is young.  As many other young sailors, he started out as a cabin boy.  He ran errands for the captain of the ship. 

Then a little later he began to learn how to navigate, to read maps, and astronomy.  Still, being a cabin boy was tough.  He didn’t get a good cabin or good food, while the captain gets really good and healthy food.  Only once in a while the crew gets some good food such as fish. Even though going through this, Jacques Cartier still became a famous sailor.

            Nobody had actually picked Jacques to sail on voyages.  He just wanted to sail.  The most important discovery that he made was the place that we know now as Canada.  That must’ve been the most important voyage too.  He had four voyages to Canada.  All of them had been sponsored by the French Crown.  Also on his first journey he had 2 ships, traveling for 2,000 miles, and going to the North Atlantic.  The French Crown had sponsored       

            Those are the only 2 places where he went.  Still he had made history and had discovered a new country.  He had met some French people there too.  So when he went there he could understand what they said because he was French too.  He had also met some people from the Iroquoian nation.  They interacted very well.  So well that when he was coming back from his voyage he had brought 2 of the kings’ sons.  He was very good friends with the king there.     

            When he came back from his voyages, he was greeted like he was famous.  He was the one that had discovered Canada.  Also he made new friends with the people he met.  Could you believe that he became famous for something that he did a couple of hundred years ago?  Jacques Cartier is a very interesting person to learn about.  At first I thought that it was going to be boring learning about him.  Then I started to read about him and I enjoyed learning about him.