August 23 – Anniversary of Cartier Founding a Town

nPostednon August 23, 2014

Anlot of early European explorations of the so-called New World werenfocused on finding a passage to the “East Indies” – a placenwith silks and spices to sell – or on finding gold and otherntreasures.

Of course, soon Europeans focused on creatingnsettlements – new towns that would grow to become new cities andncountries – in the New World. n

nThatncertainly could be a tricky proposition. After all, there werenalready people living in the New World. These Native Americans hadnmore know-how about the land and the resourcefulness and, in manyncases, weapons to defend their rights to that land.

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nPerhapsnthat is why Jacques Cartier, a French explorer tasked to found anpermanent settlement in the New World, in what is now Canada, chose not to settle too closento Iroquois Indians. n

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nWhatnis recorded about Cartier’s encounter with the Iroquois is that henbecame worried about their “show of joy.” Also, there were annawful lot of Iroquois. Cartier decided to sail upriver to found antown in an emptier spot.

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nAndnso it was that, on this date in 1541, the fortified settlement callednCharlesbourg-Royal was created. The colonists and cattle aboardnCartier’s ship landed after three months at sea, and they began tonfarm.

Cartierncontinued to explore, to fulfill another of his assigned tasks, tonfind the rich kingdom called “Saguenay.” The Kingdom of Saguenaynwas, according to the Iroquois, a kingdom of blond men, of gold, ofnfurs, of treasure galore. Cartier (and later other French explorers)nsearched and searched for this kingdom, but they never found it;nscholars are not sure if the place was just a legend that the Frenchnmistakenly took literally, or if the Iroquois were deliberately lyingnin order to trick the French.

nHowever,nsome of Cartier’s men were delighted to find diamonds and gold, andnsoon the ship was full of the precious substances!

nWhennCartier gave up the search for the Kingdom of Saguenay, he learnednthat the settlement he had helped to start had fallen on hard times:nthe Iroquois had attacked and killed about 35 French settlers, andnthe rest of the settlers sounded pretty miserable. Cartier knew hendidn’t have enough men to protect the base, so he set sale fornFrance. n

nRemember,nhe was convinced that his ship was laden with precious diamonds andngold.

nItnturned out that, not only had Cartier failed to find thentreasure-filled kingdom, but he had also badly misjudged the mineralsnhis men had collected. Instead of being diamonds, the crystals werenmerely common quartz. Instead of being gold, the sparkling mineralnwas iron pyrite (also called “fool’s gold,” because…yeah). Forncenturies later the French expression “faux comme les diamantsndu Canada” referred to this disappointment: “as false asnCanadian diamonds.”

This photo shows the difference between pyrite (L) and gold (R).

This diagram shows one difference between
diamonds and quartz; light bent within a
quartz crystal often has rainbow colors.

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n(Thankngoodness for the fine jewelry company of Cartier, the commonnexpression didn’t mention Cartier’s name in connection with the fakendiamonds!)

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