The French and English Search for the Northwest Passage

The British and the French had seen the overwhelmingly large increase in Spanish and Portuguese trade power as they had developed their own empires and even distinct routes to Europe. This led the two countries to begin searching for a route to Asia through the one main landmass that neither Spain nor Portugal had conquered: North America. Dubbed the “Northwest Passage”, they hoped to find this passageway through North America that would lead directly to Asia. Not only would it give them much better access to the coveted goods of Asia but it would also give them control over the newest, and possibly the quickest, route to Europe.

Figure 4.1: An animated representation of the expanding 

American Northeast coastline. 

The English began their explorations under the guide of an Italian explorer named John Cabot. Able to convince the English crown to finance his journey, in 1496, King Henry VII issued patent letters to Cabot and his son. These authorized them to make a voyage of discovery across the North Atlantic and to return with goods for sale on the English market. Though preparation for the journey took longer than expected, Cabot and his crew of 18 men finally sailed out of Bristol on a small ship, the Matthew, in May 1497. Taking the same amount of time as Columbus sailing to the Bahamas, the expedition made landfall in North America on June 24. The exact location is disputed, but many believe it to have been southern Labrador, the island of Newfoundland, or Cape Breton Island. When Cabot went ashore to investigate what he believed to be an island in the Indies, he reportedly saw signs of habitation but no people. After he was fully satisfied with the land he discovered, he took possession of the land for King Henry, but hosted both a British flag as well as a Venetian flag. Afterward, he sailed around the coast, naming his new discoveries and gaining better insight as to what he had truly found. He eventually returned to Bristol in 1497, with highly favorable reports of his new discovery. Later that year, Cabot proposed another expedition to King Henry VII and was granted patronage. This voyage was not as successful and it is presumed that Cabot and the majority of the crew perished during a storm.

Figure 4.2: A portrait of Jacques Cartier 

The first major French exploration came in 1534 with Jacques Cartier. He received a royal commission from King Francis I of France to explore the New World in order to find a passage to China and to find precious metals in the area around Newfoundland. Cartier outfitted two ships and sailed from Saint-Malo on April 20, 1534. After a swift Atlantic crossing, he landed at Newfoundland on May 10, 1534. Cartier spent the next three months thoroughly exploring the St. Lawrence Gulf, and naming a majority of the islands and other geological features in the gulf. During this time, he also met with the Huron tribe and later took two of the natives with him on his return to France. After Cartier’s discovery of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, he sailed for France. His second voyage began on May 19, 1535, after he received a royal commission to explore the St. Lawrence River to find precious minerals and a possible strait to China. This time, however, Cartier actually sailed down the St. Lawrence River until he encountered rapids which forced him to turn around and then set up a temporary settlement at Quebec. There was also a third voyage, but this did not prove as lucrative as the first two.

Another famous French explorer was Samuel de Champlain. Champlain studied the failures of previous attempts at colonization in the New World and received the King’s consent to join a fur-trading expedition to the New World with François Gravé Du Pont. Du Pont taught Champlain about navigation in the New World and advised him on how to deal with the natives, which would help Champlain on his subsequent voyages. On March 15, 1603, Champlain and Du Pont sailed to the New World and Champlain mapped the Saint Lawrence River. He found the areas previously mentioned by Jacques Cartier to be abandoned, but established positive relationships with local tribes before returning to France in September 1603. Over the next twenty years Champlain explored and mapped out the entire region, making even more relationships with natives in the process. Not only is he responsible for helping maintain the settlement of Quebec during harsh winters and native attacks but he also is responsible for charting almost the entire northeastern United Sates and Canada’s eastern coast.

Figure 4.3: A portrait of Henry Hudson

The other main British explorer one might examine is Henry Hudson. Henry Hudson was an explorer that was originally hired by the Dutch East India company to explore trade options in the New World and to search for the Northwest Passage. While exploring the region, he became the first man to sail down the Hudson River. At first, Hudson thought that it was the Northwest Passage, but discovered his beliefs to be false once the river became shallow further inland. In 1610, he was commissioned to search for the Northwest Passage by the British East India Company. In command of the Discovery, he sailed on April 17, 1610. In June of 1610, he entered what is now the Hudson Strait, but strong currents made him stay north of present-day Quebec, Canada. In July he entered what is now called the Hudson Bay, which he thought was the Pacific Ocean. Once he found St. James Bay, he wandered for months until his ships were trapped by the ice. Hudson’s relationship with his crew quickly deteriorated as they grew weary of his leadership until June 1611 when his crew mutinied, leaving Hudson, his son, and a few crewmen in a small boat upon Hudson Bay.