My Favourite ... Cartier, 1534-1934
by Greg Spring (ENY2)
Originally published in the Sheffield Philatelist, 2004.
"Do we ever remember that somewhere above the sky in some child's dream perhaps Jacques Cartier is still sailing, always on his way always about to discover a new Canada?" Miriam Waddington
When I was a child, probably about 5 or 6 years old, my father encouraged me to collect stamps. He understood the impact it would have on me to begin understanding that there was a larger world out there, with many different people, ideas, and lifestyles. My first stamp album was 'The Traveller World Album', and inside the front cover it contains quotes from Roosevelt, King George V, and Eisenhower about the virtues of stamp collecting. My father's plan worked and I was gripped with a passion to learn about the world, more than any other school or teacher has ever instilled in me since.
Many stamps came my way. In those days once 'grown ups' found out that a child was collecting stamps they saved them for you. I was lucky to be born in Canada, in a large city, so we had many friends from all over the world, and my parents would occassionally buy me packets of stamps from places I'd never before heard of when we visited the nearby department store, which had a 'Stamp Counter'. I still see stamps and sets in my album or in catalogues which invoke a memory of the exact time and place I got them. However, despite being spoiled with so much material there is still only one stamp for me that stands out above all the others in the world. The 1934, 400th anniversary of Jaques Cartier's arrival in Canada. To me this one stamp tells a huge story.
Figure 1 - Jacques Cartier, 1534-1934. Issued 1 July 1934 by the British American Bank Note Company, Montreal. Quantity 12 370 000. Designed by George Arthur Gundersen, engraved by Bruce Hay. (Information from the Canadian Postal Archives)
I was about 10 when I first saw this stamp. I selected it from my Canada Specialized catalogue, and set out to buy it from my first ever visit to a stamp market (in the old Toronto City Hall) with my pocket money. I had been learning about the discovery and exploration of the New World at school, and the fact that a stamp had been issued based on this subject made me curious. However, my knowledge of the Native North Americans or the earlier 'fishermen-explorers' was sketchy. As a child I thought that the stamp depicted the incredible excitement of the first sighting of New France. The explorer, in heroic action stance, gazing at the land looming up on the horizon and directing an excited and brave crew (an image fortified by Hollywood re-enactments of Christopher Columbus and the like). To my mind Cartier was travelling into the unknown and the fantastic, even more so than the characters in the novels of Jules Verne or Robert Louise Stevenson had.
After an arduous voyage across an uncharted ocean they had reached their goal. The truth was somewhat different.
Jacques Cartier, Master Pilot, had been navigating for many years when the King of France, François I, assigned to him the mission of:
"Undertaking the voyage of this Kingdom to the New Lands to discover certain islands and lands where it is said there are great quantities of gold and other riches." (Canadian Museum of Civilization)
... and, of course, finding a route to Asia. On 20th April 1534, with 122 men split between two ships, little more than sixty tons each, Cartier set sail from the seaport of St. Malo, France. For nearly 4 months he explored, mapped, and named the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as Gaspé in Newfoundland and Labrador...
"... and after that, upon August 15, being the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, after that we had heard service, we altogether departed from the port of Blanc Sablon, and with a happy and prosperous weather we came into the middle of the sea that is between Newfoundland and Brittany ... and upon the fifth of September, in the said year, we came to the port of St Malo whence we departed." (Hakluyt, 1889)
Cartier returned to Canada twice more. Each time he went further up The St. Lawrence River, made more contacts with the natives (he never underestimated the importance of local knowledge), and established the first European colony in that land. His discoveries and exploration during those voyages opened the great St. Lawrence Seaway to navigation and subsequently led the way to the settlement of the rich lands along the river.
Although Cartier became famous for his travels at home, like so many people who break new ground, he died in some disgrace, albeit in comfort. He never found the riches he was instructed to, nor did he find the route to Cathay, and the first settlement left canada with him after he discovered that some of the colonists had treated the natives with callous brutality.
Sixty-two years after Cartier's death another explorer, Champlain, who had great regard for Cartier, pointed out that ...
"... Cartier in the voyage which he made never passed the great fall of St. Louis, and made no discoveries north or south of the river St. Lawrence. His narratives give no evidence of it, in which he speaks only of the river Saguenay, the Trois Rivières and St. Croix, where he spent the winter in a fort near our settlement. Had he done so, he would not have failed to mention it, any more than what he has mentioned, which shows that he left all the upper part of the St. Lawrence, from Tadoussac to the great fall, being a territory difficult to explore, and that he was unwilling to expose himself or let his barques engage in the venture. So that what he did has borne no fruit until four years ago, when we made our settlement at Quebec ..." (de Champlain, 1619)
In other words Champlain believed that his predecessor could have accomplished more if he had explored beyond the river and the safety of his own ships. This may be true but it also shows intelligence and compassion on the part of Cartier. Unlike others of his time he did not respond to his own ignorance and fear with hostility. Nor did he ever blindly lead his men into the unknown and un-necessarily endanger their lives. Many other explorers after him could have learned a few things from his actions.
Furthermore, the eastern coast of Canada (the Strait of Belle Isle to be exact) was already known to European fishermen at that time. In fact the central portion of the stamp design, engraved from a drawing by a forgotten staff artist at the British American Bank Note Company, Montreal, actually shows the explorer directing the first landing operation (Patrick and Patrick, 1964), possibly at present day Catalina, Newfoundland, and not a first sighting. Also, the face of the man himself was probably based on a portrait (by François Riss) for the Town Hall in St. Malo (Cartier's birthplace) (Leacock, 1915). This picture wasn't painted until about 1839, has since been destroyed by fire......date...... (Library and Archives Canada), and there are no records of any earlier prints or drawings. So the stamp may not show anything of what I spent many years believing it showed!
As a 'grown-up' the knowledge of his approach doesn't diminish the endeavours that the stamp invokes in my mind. I now know that the stamp doesn't depict the dramatic first moment of discovery but a professional doing his job.
Bibliography
Canadian Museum of Civilization.
http://www.civilization.ca
Canadian Postal Archives. Government of Canada, National Library of Canada
http://www.archives.ca
Jacques Cartier: New Land For The French King. Library and Archives Canada. Government of Canada, National Library of Canada.
http://www.collectionscanada.ca
de Champlain, S. (1619). Voyages Of Samuel de Champlain. Vol. III: 1611-1618. Project Gutenberg.
http://gutenberg.net
Hakluyt, R. (1889). The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation. E. and G. Goldsmid. Edinburgh.
Leacock, S. (1915). The Mariner of St Malo: a Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier. Chronicals of Canada. Glasgow, Brook and Co. Toronto.
Patrick, D. and Patrick, M. (1964). Canada's Postage Stamps. McClelland and Stewart Limited. Toronto.
Spring, G.M. (2004). My Favourite... The Sheffield Philatelist. 1: 113-115. Published by The Sheffield Philatelic Society, Sheffield, UK.
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