ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY OPENING

Abstract

FRENCH AND ENGLISH SEA CAPTAINS in the 16th and 17th centuries sought what is known as a passage—a short navigable route to the fabulous riches of India and China. Their curiosity was aroused by the early discoveries of Columbus and Magellan. Jacques Cartier in 1534 arrived at what seemed a real opening—the Gulf of St. Lawrence. On a second trip, he sailed past the rock of Quebec and later an island which he named Mont Real. With great disappointment he came to a series of rapids and his dream of a northwest passage ended. He named the river for St. Lawrence, because he first sighted it on that saint's feast day, Aug. 10. What Cartier, working for Francis I of France, had found eventually led to boundless riches far greater than all the treasures of the East. However, France did not profit from them very long. For hundreds of years the St. Lawrence River ...