Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier was the first French explorer to visit and describe the shores of Canada. Born in 1491 in Saint Malo, Brittany, he took possession of Canada in 1534 in the name of the king of France. The following year, he navigated the Saint Lawrence River up to an island that the people of Canada called Hochelaga. He named it Montréal.

Six years later, in 1541, Jacques Cartier returned to Canada, accompanied by François de la Rocque de Roberval, to establish a French colony close to Québec. The project failed and Cartier never returned to America.

It was another 60 years before France again took an interest in what was to become New France.