America in the early sixteenth century was an unknown land to the people of Europe. Very few had heard of it at all; and those who had imagined it to be the eastern shore of Asia, or a chain of large islands barring the westward route to China. When Europe began to explore the New World in hopes of finding a passage farther west, they did not dream that in reality this was a vast wilderness, stretching for thousands of miles beyond its rocky coast.
Author of two dozen successful books for children, including Knights and Castles and Feudal Life and The Crusaders, Walter Buehr now turns to the exciting early explorations of America. Among those first explorers—Spanish, French, Dutch and English—none were more adventurous than those who sailed from France to explore and colonize this new continent. The names of the greatest of them are well known. There was Jacques Cartier, who sailed up the St. Lawrence, and who christened the land he found "New France”; Champlain, who developed the new colony at Quebec, and whose explorations involved him frequently with the Indians; La Salle, who traveled thousands of miles south along the Mississippi, and started the colonization of Louisiana; and many others. At the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France surrendered all her Canadian possessions to the British; but the part which the French had played in the exploration and colonization of North America was to leave its mark upon the growth of a new civilization.
By concentrating upon the part which the French played in the history of America, with many lively and accurate illustrations, Mr. Buehr gives an especially clear account of their importance, and a vivid picture of their adventures in this new land. He describes the customs of the Indians, and shows how the French, unlike most of the other early explorers, managed to become friendly with some of them, although they often suffered bloody attacks. We learn of the cruel hardships endured by those brave men in a wild land where few might survive the extreme cold of winter. But we learn also of their excitement as the new continent dramatically revealed itself to them, with a vastness and variety which far exceeded their greatest expectations.
—from the dust jacket
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