Jacques Cartier

Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) was a Breton pilot from Saint-Malo who made three voyages into the Saint Lawrence and was the first European to record the name Canada. Commissioned by Francis I to find a western passage to Asia, he reached Newfoundland in 1534 and raised a cross at Gaspé for France.

In 1535 he sailed upriver with two sons of chief Donnacona, passed Stadacona and reached Hochelaga, beside a hill he named Mont Royal. His men wintered at Quebec, where scurvy killed 25 of his 110 men before a local fir-bark cure saved the rest; in spring he carried Donnacona off to France.

On his third voyage (1541–1542), he built a fort and sent home supposed gold and diamonds that proved to be pyrite and quartz. He retired to Saint-Malo, dying in 1557; his voyages, none losing a ship, became the basis of France's claim to New France.