subtlety, and conciliation, he allured the principal chief Donnacona, and some of his followers into the fort.  There they were seized and carried to the ships, nominally as honored guests, like Montezuma among the followers of Cortez.  Cartier then set sail with his captives, and in July reached St. Malo.  The Indians, as was usually the fate of such captives, pined under a strange sky, and when Cartier sailed again not one was alive.

Four years elapsed before another voyage was undertaken.  In 1540 a fleet of five ships was made ready at the expense of the king, who reserved to himself a third of the profits of the voyage.  Cartier was appointed captain-general, with instructions to establish a settlement and to labor for the conversion of the savages.  With Cartier was associated a man of high birth, the Sieur de Roberval, who was appointed Viceroy and Lieutenant-general of Newfoundland, Labrador, and all the territory explored by Cartier, with the title of Lord of Norumbega.  This division of command seems to have led to no good results.  Another measure which probably contributed to the failure of the expedition was the mode employed for raising the necessary crews.  Cartier, like Frobisher, was empowered to search the prisons for recruits.  Even before the voyage began things took an unfavorable turn.  Roberval’s ammunition was not ready at the stated time, and the departure of the fleet was thereby hindered.

At length, lest further delay should give offense at court, Cartier sailed, leaving Roberval to follow.  The first interview with the savages was a source of some fear, as it was doubtful how they would receive the tidings of Donnacona’s death.  Luckily, the chief to whom the news was first told was Donnacona’s successor, and, as might have been expected, he showed no dissatisfaction at Cartier’s story.  The French then settled themselves in their old quarters at Quebec.  Two of the four ships were sent home to France to report safe arrival of the expedition, while Cartier himself, with two boats, set out to explore the river above Hochelaga.  After his departure the relations between the settlers and the Indians became unfriendly, a change probably due in part to the loss of Donnacona and his companions.  Whatever the cause, the danger seemed so serious that Cartier on his return decided to abandon the colony and to make for France.  From later events it would seem as if Cartier had no friendly feeling toward Roberval, and jealousy may have had some share in leading him to forsake the enterprise for which he had endured and risked so much.  On his homeward voyage he put into the harbor of St. John, in Newfoundland.  There he met Roberval with three ships and 200 men.  Their meeting seems to have been friendly, but Cartier, instead of obeying Roberval’s orders and returning with him to Canada, quietly weighed anchor in the night and sailed away to France.