WHEN THE WORLD BEGAN... The opening episode of this 17-part documentary ranges across the continent, looking back more than 15,000 years to recount the varied history of the first occupants of the territory that would become Canada. From the rich resource of native oral history and archeology come the stories of the land's first people - how dozens of distinct societies took shape, and how they encountered a strange new people, the Europeans. Among the earliest of these epoch-making encounters is the meeting between Jacques Cartier and Donnacona, the Iroquoian chief whom Cartier first met on the Gaspé shore in 1534 and later kidnapped. Later on the Pacific coast, Nootka chief Maquinna encounters John Jewitt, the English sailor who became his captive and eventually his reluctant friend. ADVENTURERS & MYSTICS: With the search for the Northwest Passage and the expansion of the Grand Banks fishery, the New World soon becomes a destination for permanent European colonies, in Newfoundland and along the St. Lawrence. Samuel de Champlain begins his legendary journeys, and the precarious beginnings of New France are established. It is an era of unprecedented alliances and devastating conflicts with native people, driven by the merchants' search for furs and the Jesuits' quest for souls. After a half-century of struggle, with the colony on the verge of extinction, Louis XIV takes personal control, sending French soldiers to defend the struggling outpost and eligible young women, the "filles du roi", to become their wives.

Teacher's guides available under Additional info tag.

2 episodes on 1 Disc entitled: --When the world began --Adventurers & mystics