Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier, who lived from 31 December 1491 to 1 September 1557, was a French maritime explorer from Brittany and the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River. He named the region Canada, adapting the Iroquoian word for the two large settlements he encountered at Stadacona, the site of present-day Quebec City, and Hochelaga, on the island where Montreal now stands. Cartier, the author of maps and voyage accounts now lost, carried out this work of description and naming at a time when Spain had already established colonies across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America and was beginning its conquest of Peru, making his voyages France's first substantial claim to a stake in the Americas. His charting of the Saint Lawrence opened the river corridor that French explorers, missionaries and traders would follow deep into the North American interior over the following two centuries.