Tadoussac

At the mouth of the Saguenay, Tadoussac stands where the deep river meets the broad St Lawrence estuary. Long a gathering and trading place for Indigenous peoples, it drew European ships seeking furs as well as the riches of the sea. Jacques Cartier visited in 1535; by the end of the century the harbour had become a meeting place for Indigenous traders and ships from across the Atlantic.

In 1600 Pierre de Chauvin built a small fur-trading post here. Three years later, across the Saguenay from Tadoussac, the Innu leader Anadabijou hosted a great gathering attended by Samuel de Champlain and François Gravé Du Pont. The encounter established an alliance between the French, the Innu and their Algonquin and Etchemin allies. Tadoussac remained an important post and a place where goods were transferred between French vessels and the routes into the interior. In 1720 the post became part of the King's Domain trading system. Its position continued to draw merchants and missionaries, while the commerce that passed through it depended on the Indigenous hunters and traders of the surrounding country.