OCTOBER 3, 1535

JACQUES CARTIER VISITS HOCHELAGA

French explorer and cartographer Jacques Cartier and a small troop of two dozen men approach Hochelaga, a St. Lawrence Iroquoian fortified village. The small town surrounded by corn fields is built atop a hill, near a mountain that Cartier will name Mons Realis (Latin for Mount Royal).

According to the explorer’s estimation, Hochelaga is home to more than a thousand people. After generally cordial exchanges, Cartier returns upstream to Stadacona (which later becomes the site of the village of Québec). At Stadacona, Cartier kidnaps Chief Donnacona and nine other St. Lawrence Iroquois and takes them to France in the spring of 1536, where most of them die. News about the exquisite furs of the New World spreads rapidly on the continent.