Account of an Early Settler

Using the website www.americanjourneys.org I found many examples of people who have explored parts of America from the 11^th century to 1844. The one that I chose to use is ‘Third Voyage of Discovery Made By Captaine Jaques Cartier, 1541’ As this account by Captain Jacques Cartier is of his third time exploring America, many of the things that he encounters are less surprising to him than they no doubt would have been on his first encounter. However, there are still several things that do draw his attention and make impression enough for him to write in his journal. These things include mainly the natural resources such as the river and plants. He is unimpressed with the size of the river as it is quite narrow and at ‘low water’ it can be very shallow. This is a problem for possible settlers as it could affect transportation of goods. He does remark on the quality of the trees and land on either side of the river. He is amazed by some of the trees and describes them as ‘the most excellent that I ever saw in my life’. He is also greatly impressed by the variety of trees that the land provides as well as the fruit that grows nearby although not as impressed with the grapes he finds and compares them to a lesser version of those in France. Him and his men stay in this place long enough to test the soil and find out how well they can grow crops there which turns out is very well as they plant cabbages and lettuces and it takes only eight days before they come through the ground. After surveying the land he decides that it is very prosperous and describes it as being ‘as good a countrey to plow and manure as a man should find or desire’.