In this essay, I will analyze the poem “Jacques Cartier” by Thomas D’Arcy McGee. Jacques Cartier was an explorer from France, who was the first commander from Europe to make a map of the Canadian gulf after his first voyage in 1534. He set off on many voyages in his lifetime, in search of gold and a new world. On his first exploration, in 1534, Cartier was able to create relationships with the Native Peoples, specifically the Iroquois, by participating in their fur trades, and bribing them when tensions grew. The voyage T.D McGee’s poem is based on is Cartier’s excursion in May of 1535 when he set out to access the Hochelaga in the eastern coast of Canada where he built a monument he called Mount-Royal, mentioned in McGee’s poem in lines 16 and 40. Cartier’s second voyage is where many of the experiences McGee outlines in his poem occur. In my essay I will be argue how in Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s poem “Jacques Cartier,” the…show more content… He displays this through Cartier’s interactions with the Natives of Canada. The “Gospel of St. John” (McGee, 36) is Cartier’s response to help cure the sick Natives. Even though Cartier may intend to assist the Natives, it results in forcing European ideologies onto the Native culture. Furthermore, while their culture as not known to Jacques Cartier, the Natives do have their own belief systems. The Alonquin’s see “every living thing” (McGee, 33) as “A spirit… that claims their [worship]” (McGee, 34). Cartier overrides this when he makes “the Gospel of St. John” (McGee, 36) his focus, rather than stepping back and admiring the Native’s ideologies. In addition to his reliance on the gospel, Cartier also turn to “the cross” (McGee, 16) as he marks the Canadian land as his own. Again, here McGee outlines Cartier’s reliance on European religion as a negative attribute, since it oppresses Native culture, which does not revolve around a “cross” (McGee,