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.One member of the party.asserts that six menwere shot in one day and that the situation became badenough to win the sympathy of the savages at Stadacona.20By late spring of 1543, Roberval was engaged in a longboatexpedition up the St.Lawrence, repeating earlier efforts madeby Cartier.He and his people reached the site of modern-dayMontreal, but when one of his longboats capsized, resulting inthe drowning of all on board, Governor Roberval decided toturn back.He packed up his struggling colony and limped backto France that summer, arriving at St.-Malo in September.WithRoberval s return and Cartier s retirement, France s initial effortsat true exploration of Canada, its islands, and the St.Lawrenceended in a whimper, a failure that would not be remedied fortwo generations.It appeared from their New World efforts thatthe region offered no immediate riches in gold or diamonds.(In France, anything that appeared genuine but was actuallyfake became known as a diamond of Canada. )21 36 THE ST.LAWRENCE RIVERThe immediate aftermath of these exploratory failures wasthe effect the French had on the Native Americans in the region.European diseases ran rampant through the Indian villagesthat Cartier, Roberval, and their followers had visited.As manyas 10 epidemics struck various Native American settlements.Sixty years passed before the French mounted any seriouseffort to return to the region scouted by Cartier and attemptcolonization and settlement again.This new generation ofFrench exploiters came to Canada not in search of gold but togain riches from a source previously untapped by the Europeans the fur trade. The Father ofNew France 38 THE ST.LAWRENCE RIVERhen Francis I dispatched explorers to the New WorldWduring the 1530s, he did so with the hope that they wouldfind a route through North America to the fabulous wealth ofthe Orient or discover gold as the Spanish had in their coloniesin Mexico and Central America.Neither hope was realized.What attracted a new generation of French explorers to theregion of the St.Lawrence River was a different sort or riches,the wealth represented in the abundance of fur-bearing animalsin Canada.Cartier had noted the fur potential in reports ofhis voyages, but little had been done to tap those resources.Sixteenth-century Englishmen and Frenchmen who sailed toNorth American waters to engage in the lucrative fishingbusiness sometimes traded New World furs on the side asecond means of making a profit.Adequate supplies of European-produced fur kept the marketsaturated.Some American fur, such as beaver, ermine, otter,raccoon, and especially the pelt of the rare black fox, didbecome highly prized in Europe one black fox skin sold inLondon in 1584 for 100 pounds.However, by 1600 the beaverin Europe had nearly been trapped out and were on the vergeof extinction.This fact alone led the next generation of Frenchexplorers, intent on establishing a significant fur trade withlocal Native Americans, to return to the St.Lawrence region.Infact, the northern climes of Canada were home to beaver withthicker furs than were common in Europe.In the late 1500s, French merchants sailed up the St.LawrenceRiver and began to trade for furs at the Indian trading siteat Tadoussac, near where Cartier had wintered, along theterminus of the Saguenay River.The French traded a widevariety of European manufactured goods, including knives,axes, iron kettles, and clothing.One French trader observedhow willingly the Indians converted their furs into covetedtrade items: The beaver does everything perfectly well.Itmakes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread.In short, it The Father of New France 39The present-day village of Tadoussac, at the head of the St.Lawrence andSaguenay Rivers and northeast of Quebec City, was France s first tradingpost in New France, where traders exchanged a wide variety of Europeanmanufactured goods, including knives, axes, iron kettles, and clothing forIndian furs.makes everything. 22 The competition among Indian tribesfor French trade goods became so intense that they foughtone another for control of the coastal trade.Emerging fromthis important trade extension of France was a merchant-adventurer named Samuel de Champlain.Champlain was born along the south coast of Brittany,served in the French army and fought against the Spanish, 40 THE ST.LAWRENCE RIVERand was decorated for bravery
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