Surveys the early exploration of Canada by Cartier, Champlain, and others.

Provides an account of Cartier's journey to discover a water route between France and China in the 1500s.

"Historians have long engaged in passionate debate about collective memory and the building of national identities. Alan Gordon focuses on one national hero - Jacques Cartier - to explore how notions about the past have been created, passed on through the generations, and used to present particular ideas about the world in English- and French-speaking Canada. He reveals that the cult of celebrity surrounding Cartier by the mid-nineteenth century reflected...

Describes the life and travels of Jacques Cartier, the sixteenth century French navigator who made three voyages to what is today known as Canada, in search of a northwest passage to China.