CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST VOYAGE--NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR It was on April 20, 1534, that Jacques Cartier sailed out of the port of St Malo on his first voyage in the service of Francis I.Before leaving their anchorage the commander, the sailing-masters, and the men took an oath, administered by Charles de Mouy, vice-admiral of France, that they would behave themselves truly and faithfully in the service of the Most Christian King.

The company were borne in two ships, each of about sixty tons burden, and numbered in all sixty-one souls.
The passage across the ocean was pleasant.

Fair winds, blowing fresh and strong from the east, carried the clumsy caravels westward on the foaming crests of the Atlantic surges.

Within twenty days of their departure the icebound shores of Newfoundland rose before their eyes.
Straight in front of them was Cape Bonavista, the 'Cape of Happy Vision,' already known and named by the fishermen-explorers, who had welcomed the sight of its projecting headlands after the weary leagues of unbroken sea.

But approach to the shore was impossible.