page_title: Donnacona
section_title: Cartier's second voyage
hierarchical_section_title: Donnacona / Cartier's second voyage
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Jacques Cartier's second voyage to North America in 1535-6.
context_page_description: Chief Donnacona was the chief of the village of Stadacona, located at the present site of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. French explorer Jacques Cartier, concluding his second voyage to what is now Canada, returned to France with Donnacona. Donnacona was treated well in France but he died there. Later Cartier would make a third voyage to the same area.
context_section_description: Jacques Cartier's second voyage began 19 May 1535 with Domagaya and Taignoagny, who were useful as guides. They showed Cartier the entrance to the St. Lawrence River, and piloted him upriver to L'Isle-aux-Coudres and on to Donnacona's capital, Stadacona. (Cartier gives Donnacona's title as Agohanna, an Iroquoian word for chief.) Also as part of this voyage, Cartier went further up the St. Lawrence to Hochelega, present-day Montreal, on 2 October 1535, without Domagaya and Taignoagny, who were stopped by the chief from going with him.
  In the year of our Lord 1535, vpon Whitsunday, being the 16. of May, by the commandement of our Captaine Iames Cartier, and with a common accord, in the Cathedrall Church of S. Malo we deuoutly each one confessed a selues, and receiued the Sacrament [...]. The Wednesday following, being the 19. of May, there arose a good gale of wind, and therefore we hoysed sayle with three ships [...]
  [...]beyond the abouesayd hauen about ten leagues, where we found a goodly great gulfe, full of Islands, passages, and entrances toward what wind soeuer you please to bend: for the knowledge of this gulfe there is a great Island that is like to a Cape of lande [...] We named the sayd gulfe Saint Laurence his bay. [...] The next day after being our Ladie day of August the fifteenth of the moneth, hauing passed the Straight, we had notice of certaine lands that wee left toward the South, which landes are full of very great and high hilles, and this Cape wee named The Island of the Assumption [...]
  But for a resolution of the matter Taignoagny and Domagaia tolde our Captaine, that their Lord Donnacona would by no meanes permit that any of them should goe with him to Hochelaga vnlesse he would leaue him some hostage to stay with him: our Captaine answered them, that if they would not goe with him with a good will, they should stay, and that for all them he would not leaue off his iourney thither.
  [...] our Captaine with all his Gentlemen and fiftie Mariners departed with our Pinnesse, and the two boates from Canada to goe to Hochelaga: and also there is described, what was seene by the way vpon the said riuer.
  As recorded in Cartier's journal, the French wintered in Canada. Relations between the St. Lawrence Iroquoian and French deteriorated over the winter. During the winter, twenty-five French sailors died of scurvy. In spring, Cartier intended to take the chief to France, so that he might personally tell the tale of a country further north, called the "Kingdom of Saguenay", said to be full of gold, rubies and other treasures. In May 1536, he kidnapped Chief Donnacona. It was an arduous trip down the St. Lawrence and a three-week Atlantic crossing. Donnacona and nine others from the tribe, including Domagaya and Taignoagny, arrived in Saint-Malo, France on 15 July 1536, concluding Cartier's second voyage.
  Donnacona was treated well in France, and looked after at the king's expense. Cartier promised to bring Donnacona back in 12 moons. Donnacona died in France around 1539. The presence of these First Nations visitors whetted the French appetite for New World exploration with their tales of a golden kingdom called "Saguenay". All but one of the other Iroquoians died, a little girl whose fate is unknown.
  Cartier returned to the new land in May 1541, on his third voyage, without any of those whom he had brought to France. That voyage lasted until his return in May 1542.
  A report of Cartier's second voyage was printed in France in 1545, and is today in the British Museum. Excerpts given here are taken from Burrage, using Richard Hakluyt's English translation published in 1589–1600.
caption: Route of Cartier's second voyage.
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