| To put things in context, this apparently run-of-the-mill ordinary voyage is taking place at the same time, within a few days, as the second discovery trip of Jacques Cartier to North America, eleven years after Verrazzano's, three generations before any serious attempt by France or England to do anything permanent in North America. It is worth noting that the captain is Breton and so are many of the crew members. It has been said that Bretons had been fishing and trading on the coast of North America since the XIV century, although I have never read any well documented paper about it. It remains that when somebody was hired as a "pilot" it is because he knew the way to get there, hence he had been there before. |
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For instance from the circumstances surrounding the engagement of Jacques Cartier, a Breton, as "pilot" in 1534, it is clear that Cartier had been to North America before his official discovery voyage and that this was the reason why he was chosen. Meanwhile, another Breton, Guillaume Le Gatz, of Paimpol, was also engaged as the pilot of the "Marguerite-Antoinette" a ship of La Rochelle, with 19 men, leaving for Newfoundland on March 25, 1534, 27 days before Cartier's departure on his first official trip. In the account of his trip, Cartier reports meeting French ships in the Gulf of Saint-Laurent
Similar contracts can be found in the Archives départementales of Charente-Maritime (France), in the various notaries' papers. M. Georges Musset of La Rochelle has published the results of his archives investigations on this subject in
"Les Rochelais à Terre-Neuve 1500-1789" published in 1899.The information on this page is taken from "A collection of documents relating to Jacques Cartier and the Sieur de Roberval"
by H.P.Biggar, chief archivist for Canada in Europe, published in Ottawa by Public Archives of Canada, publication No 14, 1930. Well worth reading, and I hope I won't get sued for reproducing the text below.