But it is Cartier's proud place in history to bear the title of discoverer of a country whose annals were later to be illumined by the exploits of a Champlain and a La Salle, and the martyrdom of a Brebeuf; which was to witness, for more than half a century, a conflict in arms between Great Britain and France, and from that conflict to draw the finest pages of its history and the noblest inspiration of its future; a country upon whose soil, majestic in its expanse of river, lake, and forest, was to be reared a commonwealth built upon the union and harmony of the two great races who had fought for its dominion.
Jacques Cartier, as much perhaps as any man of his time, embodied in himself what was highest in the spirit of his age.

He shows us the daring of the adventurer with nothing of the dark cruelty by which such daring was often disfigured.

He brought to his task the simple faith of the Christian whose devout fear of God renders him fearless of the perils of sea and storm.

The darkest hour of his adversity in that grim winter at Stadacona found him still undismayed.

He came to these coasts to find a pathway to the empire of the East.