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A river opens into unknown country, but winter threatens to destroy the expedition that follows it.
Jacques Cartier sails into the St. Lawrence in search of a western passage to Asia and the riches of northern lands. Sent by King Francis the First, the navigator from Saint-Malo records his second voyage in this short, practical account. The river leads inland, toward Indigenous towns and encounters beyond the shores he already knows.
At Stadacona, near the site of present-day Quebec City, Cartier meets Donnacona and his people, Iroquoian speakers who farm and live in fortified villages. His account also takes readers to Hochelaga. As the French prepare to winter beside the river, exploration becomes a struggle against deep snow, ice, and scurvy.
What you’ll discover
- A river beyond expectation Follow Cartier into a river wider than any he knows in France.
- Towns along the banks Encounter Stadacona and Hochelaga through the observations and limits of a visiting European navigator.
- Winter closes around them Feel the stakes rise as ice, deep snow, and scurvy threaten the expedition.
- Dreams of northern riches Trace the hopes that draw Cartier onward, including tales of gold and spices in Saguenay.
- An explorer's revealing perspective Read for both the places Cartier describes and the blind spots his account reveals.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love real voyages, maps and first-hand testimony, and anyone curious about early Canada and the first meetings between French sailors and the Indigenous peoples.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Experience answers the old authorities
- Planning holds the voyage together
- Indigenous guides open the river
- Gifts become grounds for suspicion
- Hochelaga welcomes the arriving strangers
- Observation carries the visitor's judgments
- Survival depends on Indigenous knowledge
- Suspicion shapes the plans for departure
- The log also persuades a king
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Brief Account and Succinct Narration
by Jacques Cartier · 1545
Jacques Cartier sails the St. Lawrence in 1535 and winters at Stadacona, where scurvy and a tree decide who lives.
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“Experience is the teacher of all things”
In short
What happens to a crew of 110 men when the ice closes around their ships and a strange disease starts to rot their gums and swell their legs? In 1535 and 1536 Jacques Cartier of Saint-Malo faced exactly that, deep inside a river no European had yet followed to its upper reaches.
Brief Account and Succinct Narration at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 25 min1 h 55 min fast, 2 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 34,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1545by Jacques Cartier
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Experience, not old books, proves the world
Cartier opens with a letter to King Francis I, and it is an argument. Ancient philosophers divided the earth into five zones and called three of them unfit for human life. Cartier does not mock them. He says they never risked their own lives to test their view.
His reply rests on a saying that experience is the teacher of all things. Following that teaching, ordinary sailors of his day have gone to these places at the king's command, and they have learned that the old opinion is wrong. The land he will describe lies at the same latitudes as France and can be settled.
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Details
- First published
- 1545
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Cartier, Jacques. Brief Account and Succinct Narration. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/brief-account-and-succinct-narration.
Cartier, J. (2026). Brief account and succinct narration. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/brief-account-and-succinct-narration (Original work published 1545)
Cartier, Jacques. Brief Account and Succinct Narration. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/brief-account-and-succinct-narration.
@book{cartier2026brief,
author = {Cartier, Jacques},
title = {Brief Account and Succinct Narration},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/brief-account-and-succinct-narration},
note = {First published 1545}
}
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What is Brief Account and Succinct Narration about?
It is Jacques Cartier's report of his second voyage to Canada in 1535 and 1536. He sails up the Saint Lawrence River, visits Stadacona and Hochelaga, survives a winter of ice and sickness, and returns to Saint-Malo.
Who are Donnacona, Taignoagny and Dom Agaya?
Donnacona is the lord of Canada, whom his people call Agouhanna, and he lives at Stadacona. Taignoagny and Dom Agaya are two men Cartier took to France the year before and who now act as his guides and interpreters.
What was Hochelaga and what is Mount Royal?
Hochelaga was a round, palisaded town of about fifty longhouses beside the river, surrounded by cornfields. Cartier climbed the nearby hill and named it Mount Royal, from which he saw a violent waterfall and the wide river beyond.
The author
Jacques Cartier
1492–1557 · French explorer
Jacques Cartier lived in Saint-Malo, Brittany, and died there in 1557. He led three French voyages to North America between 1534 and 1542. He wrote accounts of his travels. An account of his second voyage, made in 1535–1536, was published in French in 1545.
“Experience is the teacher of all things”
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