Gifts were exchanged, and the French bestowed a last shower of presents on the assembled Indians.
Finally, on May 6, the caravels dropped down the river, and the homeward voyage began.
The voyage passed without incident.

The ships were some time in descending the St Lawrence.

At Isle-aux-Coudres they waited for the swollen tide of the river to abate.

The Indians still flocked about them in canoes, talking with Donnacona and his men, but powerless to effect a rescue of the chief.

Contrary winds held the vessels until, at last, on May 21, fair winds set in from the west that carried them in an easy run to the familiar coast of Gaspe, past Brion Island, through the passage between Newfoundland and the Cape Breton shore, and so outward into the open Atlantic.
'On July 6, 1536,' so ends Cartier's chronicle of this voyage, 'we reached the harbour of St Malo, by the Grace of our Creator, whom we pray, making an end of our navigation, to grant us His Grace, and Paradise at the end.